CHICAGO, Illinois, Friday, August 12, 2016 - These things happen when tens of thousands of people get on board commercial jetliners each and every day. All of that being said, however, doesn't make the occurrences a happy event when the person it happens to is you. As I noted in my post from Las Vegas, I had to fly west to meet a family member who had taken ill in Las Vegas. It was a hastily planned trip and I left Baltimore on Wednesday evening with only a plane ticket allowing me to fly from BWI Airport in Baltimore to McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. The jet - owned by Southwestern - took off from Baltimore at about 5:30 pm on Wednesday. Some five hours later - give or take - it landed at McCarran. It was a beautiful beautiful flight. Despite buying the ticket at the last minute, I was able to get a window seat. The entire flight, all five hours worth, was in the fading evening sun, which is the most beautiful light on Earth in my humble opinion. We did fly through a thunder storm or three but none of it seemed to matter. Watching the nation change before your eyes is a sight to behold, at least for someone like me who doesn't fly all that often.
Watching the lush green of the East and Mid-eastern United States give way to the farms of Indiana and Illinois, and the larger farms of Iowa and Kansas, is quite incredible, especially at this time of year. Then you notice the Rockies looming up below you and it is all breath-taking. Really, it is.
At any rate, I accomplished what I came to do and headed back to McCarran late last night. Back in Baltimore, another family member purchased two tickets for us at a really good price; both tickets cost the same as my one ticket from Baltimore to Las Vegas. But as soon as I arrived at McCarran, things started to go south - not really but figuratively. The bulletin boards announced that my flight, set to leave Vegas at 12:30 am today, was now delayed and would not leave until just after 2 am. Now I was very concerned. I had a connecting flight here in Chicago that would take me home. When the ticket was purchased, the Chicago layover was some two hours. With the delay in Vegas, I would only have a few minutes to get from one gate to another. And what of my baggage, which, when I learned of the delay, was already checked in.
When we landed at dawn in Chicago, it was grey and threatening. There was a delay on the ground in getting the connecting tunnel saddled up to the side of jet, a necessity for disembarking passengers. I literally ran from the landed jet to the gate of the Baltimore connection. I made it on time by the clock. That is, I made it to the gate with five minutes to spare. But the plane had already left. I did not understand this at all, especially since the captain of the landed jet or a crew member had called ahead to notify the departing jet that his passengers would be cutting it close.
Now I haven't identified the airline, but it wasn't Southwest, which I often fly because it has a large presence in Baltimore and is often the least expensive. This time its competitor was far cheaper, no doubt because of the time of the flight and the scheduled long layover in the middle of the night here in the Windy City. At any rate I got into a short line at the airline desk near the gate where an anxious pilot left early. I was told that I had two choices: take a connecting flight to Los Angeles - are you kidding? - and fly from there to Baltimore, or wait until Saturday for a direct flight. I whined more than a little and the kind woman said wait just one minute, there are two tickets left on a direct flight at 9:30 pm tonight. We grabbed them. That left me some twelve hours to kill here. My dear wife rented a room near the airport for us. Here we sit.
Whether we finally get home or not is still to be determined. Things happen. And there is a post script of sorts: our baggage did not suffer the delay is disembarking that the passengers suffered. It is, supposedly, waiting for us in Baltimore. I hope so.
Late Developments: When the changes were originally made by the airline, the flight to Baltimore was set to take off right around 9:30 pm. On a lark, I decided to check the flight status about 5 pm. There was a change; the flight to Baltimore was pushed back to 11:09 pm and the arrival time in Baltimore was changed from midnight to 2 am. The family in Baltimore is excited about driving to the airport at that hour.
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