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My flights to COS well, let’s say they should have been that serene.
The threat of driving those roads in the rain in the dark after work, I felt compelled to take an additional day off and leave early. Then, the forecast said rain on that day as well, but at least I won’t be driving in the rain and in the dark!
For the most part, the drive was dry, but the drizzle and then heavy downpours with some flooding beginning on the interstate/highway junction in the canyons made me feel like I drove into a river. Fortunately, nobody lost control of their cars for that part. That would have been dreadful at night!
I found out just after checking out of the hotel at ohh-dark-thirty in the rain that my flights were delayed to near lunchtime. But, by the time I got to the check-in at the airport, my flight now due to leave after the 2nd flight in Texas. So, I told them I’m stuck here until an airplane takes me away.
The choice was either to leave later or now and have a long time in Texas for the next flight. It’s a good thing I chose to have the long time to transfer in Texas.
The terminal was wasting a lot of electricity with many, several large LCD screens flashing adverts that nobody cared about. Well hidden in the terminal were only two sets of advertless screens saying my flight had just been mooved
to the other terminal.
This triplet of terminals used to offer a bus shuttle to get to the other without going through security all over again. So, to cut those costs you now walk through a makeshift rectangular tunnel on the road surface. The other terminal had plenty of useful screens and less useless advert screens that nobody cares about. The useful screens all said my flight has been moved to a different gate in the previous terminal. So, I did what any reasonable person would do and walked up to a knowledgable person at a gate and asked! It turned out the 2nd terminal and gate were the currently correct. It also turned out my original flight at oh-dark-thirty was a broken airplane that wouldn’t be flying today anyway.
The boarding of the new flight to the Texas Transfer Junction with a skyline was bumpy. The luggage truck bumped into the airplane. After they delayed to assess the damages, they decided it was still safe to fly, but we missed the slot in the queue. So, we sat there going nowhere for an hour or so. This resulted in many people about to miss their junction connections.
When we landed the flight announcer said that we are all in the seat we paid for, but if you don’t need to meet a connecting flight, let those that do go first. But, that didn’t stop people being rude to the staff. I still had an hour to my flight, when the announcement came, “if your connection is boarding now you missed your flight, and the staff at the gate will help you. But, I will not tolerate you being rude to the flight staff.” A hush fell over the crowd.
The connecting flight’s only dramatrauma was suddenly my seat assignment changed and I ended up being moved 10 rows closer to the exit, which of course means I will get there sooner because the front of the plane gets into COS before the wings and back of the plane.
The rest of this visit of the families has been much more enjoyable.
What a nightmare. I never liked flying at the best of times. No way do I want to do it now, especially during hectic holiday times. People are just too rude and abrasive these days.