christmas travel December 2008

Wow, I'm back!

I was recently inspired by the travelblog of a friend of a friend. It reminded me that I had intended to continue my blog after my return stateside. But as often happens I let life take over and I never continued.

I am currently in the air en route to Boston to see Julie's family for Christmas. It wasn't until we were on the plane that I realized this was my first flight since coming back from Senegal in May. How does that happen?

So anyway, it's good to be back in the blogosphere. How have you been?

Winter travel in December 2008 has been interesting to say the least. Our goal was to leave on a red-eye out of Seattle Friday night, transfer in Dallas (DFW) to a Boston bound flight arriving Saturday afternoon. We checked in online as I ran a few final errands (shipping a box to my folks, buying a halibut steak to bring the Keenans, etc.). Now first you have to realize that this was not standard Seattle. Our house was under 6-inches of snow and the city was reeling in winter-storm paralysis.

I know, all of you mid-westerners are saying: "6-inches is nothing! Seattlites are just wimps." But you have to recognize that the city of seattle only owns 15 snowplows, rarely salts, and is a city of hills. Steep hills! I had my chains on and I know how to drive in it thanks to my parents taking me out to a parking lot knee deep in snow and making me practice (thanks mom & dad!). Even in sunny conditions Seattle drivers are world-wide some of the worst so you can bet I was worried about how they would handle the snow.

For example some of you may have seen Seattle prominently displayed in the news due to two charter busses that were not to be deterred by the closure of an arterial route and decided to brave a back street which descended the same hill. They both lost traction and careened down hill, crashed through a retaining wall, and coming to a halt dangling 30 feet above I-5. Yikes!

So what should've been an hour of errands became a three-hour tour of the city.

But we were finally ready and after an uneventful trip to the airport (thanks Nick!) We were happy to see that the lines were short and hopeful for some easy travel.

Alas it was not to be.

The self-checkin kiosk spit out an enigmatic note telling me it couldn't help me and told me to see an agent. I appreciate that our machines still refer us to people when they can't solve something. For now at least they recognize our superiority in some things.

The agent helping us informed us briskly that the flight from DFW to Boston had been cancelled. Now Julie and I were a bit surprised by this news since the snowfall in Boston, though severe, was forecast to end by 3am. We couldn't imagine that Boston couldn't clear their runways in time for us to land at 11:25am. It seemed a bit silly to cancel a flight so early.

But we quickly transitioned into problem-solving mode. We hashed out a myriad of possible solutions: flying into Providence, Manchester, even LaGuardia; delaying in Seattle for a direct Boston flight; splitting up on different flights, etc.

Finally after it seemed as though our agent wasn't going to be able to be very helpful, his eyes lit up and he ran off to a nearby desk phone. After another ten minutes, he came back smiling having secured us ticketed seats to Dallas, then Chicago, then Boston.

As further evidence of how out of practice I am with regards to air travel, I put my bag into the x-ray and only then remembered my liquids which were still lodged in the bag. Then the TSA agent pulled our other bag aside to take a look. I figured it was the ice we had on the fish we were bringing, but instead she focussed on a box of perfumes/lotions that we were re-gifting from last year. We'd never really even opened it. The TSA agent lifted the top, took a look and said, oh yeah that's ok, only 3 ounces. We were later to see that it was more like 8 oz. So our luck seemed good so far.

The flight was uneventful and we collapsed onto the first stretch of clear floor in Dallas upon arrival.

I had some amazing dreams involving my entire extended family hanging out at my house and then woke up like a shot. We made a quick decision to forgo breakfast in favor of trying to fly standby on an earlier Chicago flight.

We found a flight and made our way to the gate. About twenty minutes before boarding time the flight was suddenly cancelled! At least we still had our other flight ticketed.

We boarded without issue and more or less on time, but didn't push back from the jetway. Eventually the pilot came on and said we were waiting for the catering to be loaded. I think I dozed off at this time and woke to a jarring sensation, saw a gate and figured I'd missed the whole flight. Welcome to Chicago!

Alas, I had merely slept through the hour it took to load the catering supplies and we were only now leaving DFW. It was an uneventful flight, but we missed our Boston connection by half an hour.

Here is where things started to break down. We tried to divide and conquer to beat the airlines system of inefficiency. You see they wear you down with their lines and their sleep deprevation, making you docile. By splitting up we double our odds of getting through the system of pitfalls.

I was successful at getting to the front of my line first but at that moment, the agents switched gears into boarding a plane, stranding me on deck. Finally, Julie called me (how did we ever survive without cell phones?) as she got to the front of her line. Unfortuneately the agent she spoke to was unable or unwilling to be useful and deflected us over and over. Finally, we were forced into the 'rebooking center'. This is a long line (150 people) being served by 2 agents. Lovely.

Over the next 90 minutes we slowly advanced in line. Meanwhile, Julie was able to get us ticket the next morning to Boston with a layover in Washington D.C.'s Reagan Airport (again thanks to the cell phone).

At the front of the line we met Eugenia, an American Airlines agent who became our savior. She was able to get us a direct boston flight for the next afternoon, gave us a hotel stay with very little trouble(thankfully our most recent delay was not weather related, just catering related), and a voucher for breakfast and lunch. Yay!

So we departed directly for the hotel where we were met with a hot shower and a comfortable bed. Northern Illinois winters are just as biting cold as always.

The remainder of our travel was more straightforward. We were not able to get through the second security check with our illicit 8oz of lotion, but we made it to Boston, found our luggage waiting, and spent the night with Julie's brother, Pete before heading out to Sutton.

Thus begins my campaign to move Christmas to September or June or some other more civilized time of the year. Maybe it isn't that bad in Israel right now but in North America, December is a terrible time for travel.