Sometimes Everything Goes Wrong

⏱ 20230828

Lubbock to SLC

On Thursday I knew I'd be done the next day at the plant. So I changed my flight to leaving Friday at 1600. Well, before we were supposed to board, the pilot called maintenance. Maintenance never showed up so I missed my connecting flight in Houston. I had United buy me a ticket on American Airlines. I left the secure area of the Lubbock Airport, go my checked luggage, and rechecked in at the American Airlines counter. I had to pay $130 for my checked bags since I do not have status on that airline. I went back through security and waited.

Flew from Lubbock to Dallas. No issues.

The flight from Dallas to Salt Lake was supposed to take off at 2015. However, the pilot called maintenance. They show up and deem the plane unflyable. This was at 2300. Prior to me finding out about this, I had gone to American Airlines Customer Service. I have never been treated like absolute dog shit by an airline before. Holy shit, the attitude on those women. I never raised my voice. I never said anything out of turn to them. There was no reason for the way they spoke to me.

The flight was rescheduled for 0530 the next morning. I was not about to leave the airport for that short amount of time, so I did not get the hotel voucher. I was also not aout to sleep since I had my laptop bag and a backpack along with an inherrant distrust of the public. I stayed up and took a long walk around the outside of DFW airport. At 0330, I went back through security and went to the gate to wait for boarding.

Then the flight was delayed for an hour because the plane was never dragged out of the hanger and back to the gate after being worked on. Then there was a gate change announcement. I take the train to the new gate and finally see the plane pull up to the gate. Well, a plane. They reassigned another plane to us. So we have to wait for another flight to deboard and the aircraft to be cleaned.

Finally we board. On United, I have top tier status. I legit didn't know what the back of a plane looked like. On this flight I was in the last row. It was not bad, I slept the whole flight. I felt pretty good. We landed in SLC. I got my luggage, got a rental car, and hit the road to Wyoming. I arrived home at 1300. 23 hours after getting to the airport, and 31 hours after I woke up for work the prior day. It felt so nice to be home though.

My take away is that it will have to be a cold day in hell before I ever fly on American again.