This past weekend Kevin and I went back to Harvey Mudd for Alumni Weekend and our five year reunion. The weekend itself was an absolute blast. But getting there and back was an absolute nightmare. It's enough to make me want to avoid air travel for a good, long time. Or maybe just United.
On Friday, we were scheduled on a 7 AM flight to San Francisco, followed by a 3 hour layover and then a quick flight down to LA. On the way to the airport we found out that the 7 AM flight had been canceled and we were moved to an 8 AM flight. The switch meant that we didn't have seats together. Instead, we both had middle seats.
All in all it wasn't the end of the world. But between the flight switch, only getting five hours of sleep, and learning that the restaurant I'd been counting on for breakfast wasn't open I was pretty stressed out. On the plus side we only had to sit in the San Francisco airport for two hours.
Flying home was even worse. The flight we were supposed to take from LA to Denver was stuck in San Francisco because of weather problems there. The Ontario airport is small enough that we there was no possibility of getting switched to a different plane. We just had to wait for the original one to get there.
By the time the flight was two hours late, the lady at the gate made an announcement that some people would be missing their connections. If this happened to us we had the option of staying in California for another night or getting a hotel in Denver and getting on the first flight in the morning. While a night in Denver wouldn't have been the end of the world, I didn't really want to extend our travel time so much.
Luckily the plane finally landed and we arrived in Denver with just enough time to run across the terminal to our second flight. If that plane hadn't been delayed as well, we probably would have missed it, but we got in just under the wire. The flight was even empty enough that Kevin and I had a row all to ourselves.
We finally got home around 2:30 in the morning, and I proceeded to sleep until 10. I can't even remember the last time I slept so late (which is actually a little weird for me). I'm glad I took Monday off from work to have a day to recover from all that stress.
Like I said, the travel was a nightmare, but the weekend itself couldn't have been better. I guess that's a trade off I'm willing to make. Even if I am slightly dreading our next trip to California in August. At least those flights will be on Southwest, which I've had a lot more luck with than United.
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