On Way (almost)….

When did air travel get so stressful? As you are more than likely aware, I am commencing my Trip home from Harrisburg Airport. My original booking was:
United Airlines – Harrisburg to Chicago
United Airlines – Chicago to San Francisco
United Airlines – San Francisco to Sydney
Qantas – Sydney to Brisbane

I arrived at Harrisburg at around 1PM for my Scheduled 2:14 flight to Chicago and I am informed that it is delayed but only by 1 hour so my connections would be made easily.

So i make my way through security and to the gate where I pull out my PC and look for a wireless LAN to cruise the net on to pass the time. I find a free open wireless lan and commence my time wasting. I check out United.com and look up the status of my Flight. I am worried to see that my flight is delayed by 2 hours which leaves me < 1 hour to make my connection... a few minutes later I check again and I get this information:

My flight from Chicago to San fran boards at 6:00PM so there is a problem. I exit out through security and wait at the United ticketing. The ticketing is very busy as they are rebooking people like me due to connections they cannot make. I get surved and I say that I am concerned about my connections. He takes my boarding passes and the ‘hmm, shit’ look comes over him.

As he types away at his terminal for a while, I am feeling more and more stressed. All I want to do is go home.

He comes to the conclusion that United Airways cannot jiggle my flights that will get me to my International Flight. To the guys credit though, he did not give up. He went down to the Northwest counter and tried to see if there was a way to get me to San Fran for my flight. He comes back and asks if I had checked luggage. The problem was that they could get me there but there was not enough time for my bags!

He goes to the US Airways counter and tries there. Success. They have room on some flights. I am rebooked on US Airways from Harrisburg to Pittsburg and Pittsburg to San Fran. I arrive in San Fran a bit over 2 hours before my flight to Sydney leaves. After a bit more computer fun, they manage to get my bags retagged right through to Brisbane.

I tell you what, I will NOT be flying through Chicago again. I lost 4 hours there on the way here and I have had to totally skip it to make it back… Hopefully everything it smooth from here I do have an Economy Plus ticket from San Fran to Syd which gives me a little more legroom which is always a plus…