• THE Lowly Peon
  8/05 @ 7:25am
  in Texas
• THE Lowly Peon
  8/01 @ 9:10pm
  absinthe
• Poppy
  8/01 @ 3:23am
  Eep! Good luck retrospectively, kate! Hope it went well!!

• Avalantern.com! (4)
  8/08 @ 6:19pm
• never pay for what should be free (3)
  8/01 @ 2:51am
• why I may never want to leave this lifestyle (4)
  7/31 @ 3:38am

• Current Albums
  3/23 @ 4:11am
  Will
• Musicals
  3/21 @ 1:45pm
  Benji!
• Coolest Guys Ever
  11/21 @ 5:56pm
  Benji!

back in san fran, courtesy of united airlines

do not fly united.

i repeat: do not fly united.

i have taken two trips in the last two weeks with united, and both of them have resulted in an overnight delay. fortunately, each time was in san francisco, where nellie currently resides, so i was not left stranded, paying some exorbitant amount of money for a hotel. thanks, nellie!

what happened this time around:

i spent last night finishing up packing and saying goodbye to a few buddies. since i'm battling a bit of a cold (which i now believe to be a sinus infection), i went to sleep super early. woke up at 4:27am and waited in the cold rain for my late cab. got to the airport a solid two hours in advance (thanks, Paul, for making me a true compernolle!). the plane was ten minutes late; no big deal. got on the plane and was giddy as hell when i noticed that there was no one next to me. i spread out and got comfortable, watching buffy until they told us to turn off our electronics. and then i realized i watched nearly three episodes. i knew it was late, but three episodes is 3 42 = 2:06. whaaa? the pilot had been making announcements, but every time i heard "as of now we don't know how much longer it will be, so we will update you in 15 minutes," i shut it off and watched more buffy (it was the season two finale!)

turns out there were two issues. first, the plane was delayed a bit because a flight last night was delayed, and the crew legally has to rest for a certain amount of time. that's why it was late at first. this, my friends, is an issue of being understaffed. united is growing a reputation for this.

then, someone broke a water valve (ironic?) on the underside of the plane. after a half hour of trying to fix it, they decided only to use bottled water so we wouldn't be late. but then they realized they couldn't fly with it open, even if there was no water to leak out. so they spent the next eternity trying to close it. they finally did, but it was too late. i knew i'd miss my connecting flight, but figured there'd be another.

the flight took forever, but what else is new. a four-plus hour flight doesn't blow by when you've run out of buffy episodes on your iPod.

as we landed, i learned all too well that my cold has turned into a sinus infection.

when i got off the plane, they told me to book it to gate 92, in the international terminal. i've come to know this airport well, so book it i did. they looked at my ticket (they needed to assign me a seat) for a good 5 minutes, clicking away on their keyboard like they do in the movies, before saying "um... i can't put you on this flight." "why not? you're putting other people on the flight." "sorry, there's no room." "but those people just got on. and those people are going now." "sorry." bitch.

so i had to leave the "secured" area and talk to the imbeciles at the desk. after 30 minutes in one line, they, naturally, moved me to another. 30 more minutes and they told me to go to air china. i told them i refuse. they called them and confirmed me on a flight. the kind woman even walked me over there to assure i didn't need to wait longer. air china was gonna charge me $140. no way am i paying more money because united can't do their job.

so, they put me on a flight out tomorrow at noon. there goes my glorious plan to eat sushi in tokyo, relax and go for a swim. there goes my nice off day in hangzhou before getting to work (now i get in late and have to go to work the next morning. before i got in at noon and had all day to rest).

on the bright side, i'm going out for a super fancy dinner withnellie on the company's dollar. i've deserved it, haven't i?

January 19, 2008 @ 8:24pm . 88 views . 3 comments