Friday before last, my flight from Key West to Miami was delayed.\u00a0 I wasn’t aware of it for some time.\u00a0 After I cleared security and got into the departure waiting area, there were no signs displaying flight status and no staff to be seen, only an empty tarmac that seemed innocuous at first but grew more ominous as time passed.\u00a0 After a while, overheard two other passengers talking about how my flight would be leaving over an hour behind schedule.<\/p>\n
Under different circumstances, this would have been fine.\u00a0 I didn’t have to be in San Francisco at any set time.\u00a0 However, the delay was going to eat up most if not all of my layover in Miami before catching my connecting flight.<\/p>\n
Time ticked away.\u00a0 Meanwhile, another plane bound for Miami arrived, offloaded, boarded, and left.\u00a0 Those of us with tight itineraries pleaded with the ticket agent to get on the flight, but to no avail.\u00a0 “Everyone has connections,” she said, as if that explained and justified everything.<\/p>\n
By the time my and we were ready for takeoff, it was running close to an hour and a half behind schedule.\u00a0 I remained hopeful that I would somehow be able to make my connection.\u00a0 Maybe the flight to SFO was delayed as well.\u00a0 Maybe the arrival and departure gets were right next to each other.\u00a0 Maybe the propeller aircraft I was on was capable of hitting mach 1.<\/p>\n
No such luck on any front.\u00a0 When I arrived in Miami, it was three minutes before my San Francisco flight was scheduled to leave.\u00a0 To make it in time, I had to get from Concourse D to Concourse E.\u00a0 That sounds adjacent enough but required a quarter-mile dash with carry-on luggage followed by a ride on the airport’s Sky Train.\u00a0 When I got there, I was ten minutes late and the plane had already left.<\/p>\n
The woman at the desk told me there would be no more flights to San Francisco that evening.\u00a0 I was given a boarding pass for the next morning’s flight plus vouchers for meals and a room at a nearby Holiday Inn.\u00a0 It could have been worse.\u00a0 Legally, I don’t think they were required to give me anything.\u00a0 Congress supposedly passed a passenger’s bill of rights but after the airline lobby had its say, the legislation was no doubt transformed into reams of legalese that could be summarized in layman’s terms as simply “tough shit.”<\/p>\n
The room was fine but the ten-dollar meal allowance was a little insulting, as it had not been adjusted for inflation since the release of the movie “Airplane!”\u00a0 If I ordered a burger, the cheapest item on the hotel-restaurant menu, my voucher would cover the cost with five cents to spare if:<\/p>\n
Suffice it to say I was not living large on American Airlines’ dime.\u00a0 After dinner, I went back to my room to watch CNN and get some sleep before my five a.m. wake-up call.\u00a0 This must be the business travelers live, eating bland but adequate food and sleeping in bland but adequate hotel rooms.\u00a0 Just the way employers prefer it, I reckon.\u00a0 No good can come to a company from booking a sales rep into a hotel that doubles as a whorehouse.<\/p>\n
When I got my five a.m. call, I didn’t dawdle.\u00a0 I quickly showered, hopped the shuttle to the airport, and made it through security.\u00a0 There was no way I was going to miss another flight.\u00a0 It didn’t even matter that I was going to have to sit scrunched between two people for the next six hours.\u00a0 I was just glad to be on the move, enjoying the miles that disappeared behind me far more than the ones that lay ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Friday before last, my flight from Key West to Miami was delayed.\u00a0 I wasn’t aware of it for some time.\u00a0 After I cleared security and got into the departure waiting area, there were no signs displaying flight status and no staff to be seen, only an empty tarmac that seemed innocuous at first but grew … Continue reading For Any Inconvenience<\/span>