June 6, 2017 – It’s not any fun if you don’t have a story!!

June 06, 2017

So I’m cruising around, fat, dumb, and happy, thinking the Execu-Car will be rolling in around 4:30 and I’ve got a couple of hours to go! Then I start getting texts that say flight 1948, which was to leave at 3:00 ,will be delayed. We’re not on that flight, so why am I getting this text? I call Marilyn. She didn’t get a text.

When I get the third one with yet another delay, I finally call United. After a lot of searching, Janet in the Chicago office says they have booked us on an earlier flight because the weather is so bad that we wouldn’t be able to make our connecting flight to Aukland! The trick is that we have this car coming and it wouldn’t get us to the airport in time for the earlier flight!! I stay on the phone with Janet while Marilyn calls the car company.

She is able to get the pick-up time advanced and there is a chance we can make it! If not, we’ll just come home and try again tomorrow. United will rebook us for free since it was a weather problem. Of course, if we get to Houston and can’t connect we’ll have to spend the night there at our own expense!

Mad scurrying! Standing in the driveway under the garage overhang, in the rain, waiting for Derrick and Marilyn to appear! He’s a charmer and knows his stuff! He gets us to TPA by 4:15 and we head straight to the United desk where we assume we’re Premier! The wonderful desk attendant assures us we’ll be fine, takes our baggage, and prints all three of our boarding passes.

Upstairs, onto the tram for Airside A, through security (bless TSA-precheck!) and we’re to our gate in time to line up with all the other herd animals! Because they had to move us to this flight, we aren’t sitting together; but we both have window seats and there is no one between me and the guy on the aisle. He’s a retired United employee and tells me that it is always best to book flights early in the morning, because as the day wears on, the inevitable delays occur, and the later flights get backed up further and further. Makes so much sense!!

The landing at Houston is flawless and we’re relaxing in the knowledge that we have three hours before our next flight. That’s when the text comes that says our connecting flight has already departed! We ask at the gate and she sends us to customer service. After a short wait another charming United employee assures us that all is well and the text refers to our original booking. Whew!! My heart can’t take much more of this!

We get directions to the United Club (Oh, thank you Courtenay!!) and are initiated into its wonders! There is a salad and cheese bar and fresh cookies and brownies and fruit-infused water and mixed nuts and bananas and apples and coffee and tea! And Italian Wedding Soup! And there’s a bar, and showers upstairs! So this is how the other half lives! We’re having supper and catching up on mail and this blog! What fun!