oneof.us

I had the opportunity to travel for work today in order to train some of our clients on the solution we had built for them. As a general rule, I always try to get to the airport two hours before the flight leaves, so when I found out my flight left at 1:45p, I made sure I was at the airport by about 12-noon.

I was at the gate by 12:30p, and pulled out my laptop and waited. At about 1pm, an announcement came over the PA: “Attention passengers, our flight’s plane will be delayed a little bit due to an oil leak found on arrival.”

“No big deal,” I thought to myself, “My connecting flight doesn’t leave until 5pm, a few hours after I would have arrived normally.”

A few more minutes passed, and the another PA announcement was made, “Attention passengers, the engineer has determined that the problem may take longer than first estimated, so some delays will occur. If your final destination is to Orlando, please see us at the counter, as you will not make your connecting flight.”

Still, not a huge deal because I still had a lot of time, it was only 1:30p, so I assumed all would be well by 2-2:30p. There-o’clock rolled around, and there was another PA announcement, “Attention passengers, the flight to Cleveland has been canceled due to technical difficulties. Please see a ticket associate to rebook your flight.”

Ugh!

I made my way back through the security gates, and then back to the front desk. I was next in line, but it still took 30mins to get up to an associate. After 15 mins of virtual silence between myself and “Greg”, he tells me I’ll make it to Boston tonight, but, it’ll be really late. Late as in 11:00pm… Oh, well.

I stuck around the airport, and did some reading, and personal programming projects, and then grabbed a bite to eat before heading back through the security gates. Once I got to the x-ray area, the TSA agent asked for my boarding pass, and ID, and she quickly scribbled her yellow highlight over a portion of it. I took off my sandles, emptied my pockets, took my laptop out of my bag, and was ready to go. Just as my totes were going under the x-ray, I was told to step aside, and wait over in the “secured area”. Awesome.

Apparently I’d been flagged for a random security screening. It wasn’t a huge deal, but, it did take a little bit of time. The TSA agent was nice too, he was talkative, and if he took something out of my bags, he placed it back in, just as it was—it was surprising.

Now I’m waiting outside my gate, and I’ve still got another hour of waiting to go. Oh, I was also warned that my “new” flight was overbooked, so there’s a possibility of a bump. More on that, later… Yay?