this is so typical of me
So you guys didn't hear about my life lesson adventure on the way home from Oakland.
As the cut text says, I missed my original flight home. Like a boss.
Basically, I got to the airport at like 8 AM, had breakfast, called my dad and told him I was there, etc., and all was well. For a time. I went to sit at the plug table for laptops and stuff right near my gate. Didn't put my headphones on so I could hear the calls for boarding and such. No problem, right?
LOL, NOPE.
My fatal mistake? Sitting with my back turned to the gate I was supposed to board at. You see where this is going, right?
So yeah, I get absorbed in what I was doing and lose track of time. When I next look at the clock on my laptop, it is 10 AM. Which is when my plane is supposed to take off. And I am like, "...shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit". The funny part was, even though I didn't have my headphones on at all, I still didn't hear the calls for boarding, nor both times when the crew called me up by name. I have no idea why; maybe I was just too distracted to hear them. I can't really explain it.
I go up to the desk and I'm like, "uhh, the Baltimore flight left, didn't it..." and they go, "yeah, you're Janet ________, aren't you?" And I just nod dumbly, and the guy goes, "yeah, I called you up like twice, yanno", at which point I start APOLOGIZING PROFUSELY to them, and asking if I can get a different flight to Baltimore to catch my connecting flight to Boston. Apparently, it wasn't possible to make it there in time for the connection or to go straight to Boston, so I call my dad, explain to him the situation -- which I am very surprised when he doesn't get mad or anything, and he is surprised I'm not flipping out like I might've years ago -- and he tells me to try and get a flight to Manchester, the second-closest airport at 45 minutes away. So I ask about it, and they say they can get me on a flight that goes Ontario -> Phoenix -> Manchester. I tell them that will work and ask to get a ticket for it.
Luckily, I was flying Southwest. Which is good because if I had been on Delta or American Airlines or anything like that, they would've just gone "nope, your ticket's gone, you gotta buy a new one". But Southwest just transferred the funds of my original flight ticket to the new flight, and hell, I had seven dollars excess. How cool is that?
Anyway, they warned me that if either of the flights were too full, I would be booted off since I was technically on the standby list. I didn't have to transfer, but I had to stop in Ontario and Phoenix regardless. So, it takes about an hour and a half for Ontario and an hour to Phoenix after that. The Phoenix flight made me nervous, since they did say it would be a full flight, but they didn't come pull me off, so I really lucked out there. Five and a half hours later, I'm in Manchester.
But wait! That's not the end of the story, because my suitcase is in Boston, while I am in Manchester. Lucky for me, my dad thought ahead and called Southwest luggage services at Logan and told them the situation, and they said they would pull my bag and hold onto it until I could come claim it. So originally we were going to wait until tomorrow, but since tailwinds were a-blowing from west to east, we got in ten minutes early. Dad called the luggage services again and asked if we had time to make it to Logan before they closed up for the night, and the guy was like "definitely", so we head over there. I grab my suitcase at last, get home, eat a goddamn sandwich because I had only eaten ten-ish hours earlier, logged on to let everyone on Plurk know I made it home okay.
And then I pass the fuck out at... 1 AM EST, I think it was.
Lesson of the day? Never sit with your back to the gate and get distracted by anything, up to and including laptop, games, or music.
So, TL;DR: missed my plane with the power of sheer fucking talent, but made it home with my bag. Happy ending, get!
(Though, if worse came to worse, I would've just had to grab a night at a nearby hotel in whatever city I ended up in and pay it with my shiny new credit card. Which wouldn't have been a problem, but it was nice not to have to spend the extra couple hundred for my own stupidity. Plus, I wouldn't have had my clothes and stuff with me, and... yeah, I'd have had to sleep in my clothes at the time.)
As the cut text says, I missed my original flight home. Like a boss.
Basically, I got to the airport at like 8 AM, had breakfast, called my dad and told him I was there, etc., and all was well. For a time. I went to sit at the plug table for laptops and stuff right near my gate. Didn't put my headphones on so I could hear the calls for boarding and such. No problem, right?
LOL, NOPE.
My fatal mistake? Sitting with my back turned to the gate I was supposed to board at. You see where this is going, right?
So yeah, I get absorbed in what I was doing and lose track of time. When I next look at the clock on my laptop, it is 10 AM. Which is when my plane is supposed to take off. And I am like, "...shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit". The funny part was, even though I didn't have my headphones on at all, I still didn't hear the calls for boarding, nor both times when the crew called me up by name. I have no idea why; maybe I was just too distracted to hear them. I can't really explain it.
I go up to the desk and I'm like, "uhh, the Baltimore flight left, didn't it..." and they go, "yeah, you're Janet ________, aren't you?" And I just nod dumbly, and the guy goes, "yeah, I called you up like twice, yanno", at which point I start APOLOGIZING PROFUSELY to them, and asking if I can get a different flight to Baltimore to catch my connecting flight to Boston. Apparently, it wasn't possible to make it there in time for the connection or to go straight to Boston, so I call my dad, explain to him the situation -- which I am very surprised when he doesn't get mad or anything, and he is surprised I'm not flipping out like I might've years ago -- and he tells me to try and get a flight to Manchester, the second-closest airport at 45 minutes away. So I ask about it, and they say they can get me on a flight that goes Ontario -> Phoenix -> Manchester. I tell them that will work and ask to get a ticket for it.
Luckily, I was flying Southwest. Which is good because if I had been on Delta or American Airlines or anything like that, they would've just gone "nope, your ticket's gone, you gotta buy a new one". But Southwest just transferred the funds of my original flight ticket to the new flight, and hell, I had seven dollars excess. How cool is that?
Anyway, they warned me that if either of the flights were too full, I would be booted off since I was technically on the standby list. I didn't have to transfer, but I had to stop in Ontario and Phoenix regardless. So, it takes about an hour and a half for Ontario and an hour to Phoenix after that. The Phoenix flight made me nervous, since they did say it would be a full flight, but they didn't come pull me off, so I really lucked out there. Five and a half hours later, I'm in Manchester.
But wait! That's not the end of the story, because my suitcase is in Boston, while I am in Manchester. Lucky for me, my dad thought ahead and called Southwest luggage services at Logan and told them the situation, and they said they would pull my bag and hold onto it until I could come claim it. So originally we were going to wait until tomorrow, but since tailwinds were a-blowing from west to east, we got in ten minutes early. Dad called the luggage services again and asked if we had time to make it to Logan before they closed up for the night, and the guy was like "definitely", so we head over there. I grab my suitcase at last, get home, eat a goddamn sandwich because I had only eaten ten-ish hours earlier, logged on to let everyone on Plurk know I made it home okay.
And then I pass the fuck out at... 1 AM EST, I think it was.
Lesson of the day? Never sit with your back to the gate and get distracted by anything, up to and including laptop, games, or music.
So, TL;DR: missed my plane with the power of sheer fucking talent, but made it home with my bag. Happy ending, get!
(Though, if worse came to worse, I would've just had to grab a night at a nearby hotel in whatever city I ended up in and pay it with my shiny new credit card. Which wouldn't have been a problem, but it was nice not to have to spend the extra couple hundred for my own stupidity. Plus, I wouldn't have had my clothes and stuff with me, and... yeah, I'd have had to sleep in my clothes at the time.)