The Joys of Travel - Part 1

Unfortunately, I have to label this one "Part 1" because there will inevitably be sooooo many more of these to follow. (flying in and out of LAX airport is ALWAYS a treat) I know, I know...I chose a job where travel is part of the game, so I can't complain all the time, right? And I need to make sure that I state very clearly that "I love my job. Very much." And no, I'm not just putting that in there because my boss reads my blog :) But travel can certainly be tough...very tough...and stressful, and annoying, and infuriating, and exhausting, yada yada yada. The gosh darn airlines and airports make it incredibly hard not to moan sometimes! I swear they do ridiculous things to me on purpose.

Yesterday's story really isn't even one of my best, but I figured I'd share anyway. My itinerary was one of my (seemingly) easier ones - direct flight from Philadelphia back to Raleigh/Durham. Well, I had to drive first from Reading, PA to Philly - approximate drive time = 1 hour, 30 minutes (and that was with no traffic). Printed boarding pass ahead of time, check. Only carry-on luggage, check. Quick cruise through the "Experienced Traveler" (understatement of the year) security line, check. Walk directly to gate because I was cutting it close on time, check. Oooooohhhhhhhh....US Airways overbooked the flight by 12 people...and halt.

I'm not even exaggerating when I say that somewhere between 15-20% of all my flights end up overbooked. Really, airlines?! You can figure out how to get wireless internet service on a plane that's 35,000 feet in the air, but you can't match the number of seats on the plane to an equal number of bodies? Ugh.

So just short of 1 hour later, there were finally enough volunteers to give up their seats that we could board. Board the plane, pull out of gate, get in line to take-off....currently #2 for departure...and another plane has power failure AS it's trying to take-off (thanks to our pilot for the happy update)....and halt again. Runway is shutdown so that they can take all the passengers off that plane right there. Congratulations flight to Raleigh...you just got bumped from #2 for departure to #23. Get comfy...it's gonna be awhile.