Winter Travel Sucks

I leave New Orleans on Friday around 10:00 AM on US Airways to Charlotte NC. The flight is on time and I get to Charlotte with no problem. There is bad weather, 100 mile an hour winds, at San Francisco Airport. It says my flight is delayed 2 hours which will make me miss my connection to Palmdale. This doesn't matter because I find out next that my flight to Palmdale has been canceled anyway due to the same weather in SFO.

The gate agent for US Airways is very helpful and manages to get me int LAX on a direct flight which lands about 8:30PM so I end up getting home around 11:00PM. Well, it beats spending the night in San Francisco waiting for my next day flight to Palmdale. The problem is my checked bag is still on the same plane, hopefully, as my original flight. I cross my fingers and show up at Palmdale Airport on Saturday morning hoping to see my bag. Luckily the flight arrived, a little late, but I have my luggage. This is good because I have to leave again on Sunday morning out of Palmdale headed toward Colorado Springs.

Sunday morning I head to Palmdale Airport to see that the flight is delayed 2 hours which, of course, causes me to miss my connection to Denver and then Colorado Springs. The gate agent is new, because Palmdale Airport is new so she isn't sure how to re-direct me to LAX if there might be a fare change. She calls United and gets the info and I am now booked on a flight at 7:30PM from LAX to Colorado Springs. She got it done and she was calm and friendly and I was a satisfied customer. Now I get to spend a few more hours at home.

I schedule a 2:00 PM AV Airport Express shuttle to LAX which puts me there 3 hours before my flight but the next shuttle is at 5:00 PM which would be cutting it too close. So I get there 3 hours early and sit in the bar and wait until I find out that this flight is an hour delayed which puts me in Colorado Springs Airport at Midnight (I could have taken the 5:00 PM shuttle now). The National Rental Car counter closes at 11:59PM. I call the local Colorado Springs National Rental Car Counter and the lady says she will wait for me until my plane arrives unless it is after 1:30 AM. Thanks to the nice people at United Airlines and National Rental Car, I arrived in Colorado Springs when I needed to be there so I could be at work the next morning.