Travel Hell Light

[gerisullivan]

I've had a long day of Travel Hell Light, getting from Toad Woods to Smofcon in Portland, OR. The worst bit came at the beginning, when I double-checked my reservations at 2:45 am, a last thought as I was going up for a one-hour nap before the hour-long drive to the airport. My 7:10 am flight direct to the connection in Salt Lake City no longer existed, and they'd rebooked me on a 5:45 am flight to Cincinnati to catch a plan to Utah to connect with my original flight from there to PDX. Instead of having time for a one-hour nap, I was a half-hour late in leaving for the airport. The morning's adventures continued in a similar vein, especially the part where they could print boarding passes for the last of the three flights, but not the first two. Three counter agents and 25 minutes later, and I had boarding passes for all three flights.

The first one was all but empty. Much as I was hoping it had something to do with flying a bankrupt airline (though not the one that's both bankrupt and on strike), later flights were jam-packed, so I'd say it was that 5:45 am departure time.

All of the planes took off on time, both of the connections worked exactly as scheduled, and people were friendly every step of the way -- airline employees and fellow passengers alike. But the sardine effect is appalling, especially 6.25 hours of flights turn into 8, with an extra load-unload step thrown in for good measure. Arrgh.

The good news is that when I made the award travel reservation, I gave 'em an extra 10,000 miles to fly back home in First Class.

As for today, the people were good, but there are broken bits at the core of the system. 'Cause the ticketing problem wasn't just my using miles from one program to fly on one of their partners. I met a family at the off-site parking facility who bought their tickets via Travelocity, and had known about the schedule change since late October, and the airline had the exact same problem printing their bording passes. We were on the same flights to Salt Lake, then they headed to Jackson Hole, WY. We're all on the same return flight Monday, and ended up all seated in the same row from Cincy to Salt Lake. It was beginning to feel like the Twilight Zone....

So, Travel Hell Light. It had all of the markers to rival my Travel Hell trip to Calgary last summer, but turned out to be merely long, cramped, and tiresome. And it was going to be that anyway, just not to that extent.

Onward.

Comments

Yes

[markiv1111.livejournal.com]

Read with interest. Sometimes I'm glad I can only afford an occasional airline trip -- the more I fly, the greater my risk of something like this Trip from Hell occurring. In any event, please keep us posted. (Will you be sending through a con report? Or, as I believe is true of some SMoFfing, is too much of the trip going to be stuff not available for public consumption?)

Nate

Re: Yes

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Well, the Smofcon program is available for public consumption. While the Smofcon book is usually distributed just to the members of the convention, that's more a matter of interest and resource allocation rather than secrecy. There's a *lot* of convention running information on the web, and more going up regularly.

Don't know how much of a report I'll write -- I often mean to write all sorts of things and post them here, and all too rarely do. But if anyone wants a PDF of the "Ten Design Tips" flyer I created for the convention flyer design discussion I'm leading, you're welcome to ask me for it.

Yep, Travel Hell is one of those things that happen. It's not confined to airlines, of course. I often think Road Trip Travel Hell has a circle all its own.

Re: Yes

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Thanks to the hotel's wireless internet access, kevin_standlee has been posting a real-time convention report from SMOFcon. There's lots about poker, but also brief comments on various program items and a detailed play-by-play report from the Fannish Inquisition that will give you something of an idea of what's going on here.

I've been busier than I expected to be, and have been having a much better time than I expected. (And I expected to enjoy myself.) This is easily the second best time I've personally had at a SMOFcon, and may well turn out to the best. Film at 11...maybe. Depends on the flight home and how much I sleep during it!

[pameladean]

Urk. I'm glad about the Light part, but urk.

P.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Ugh, three flights. Hope your brain and consciousness arrived with you (and your luggage).

It'd be terribly annoying if it turned out that the schedule change had created some better way of getting to PDX without your having to turn somersaults trying to get to SLC first.

[merlinpole.livejournal.com]

The Stop & Shop that's at the intersection of route 38 & route 128 (ptui on this "I-95" stuff...) in Woburn, west of the remnants of the Middlesex Canal and Baldwin Park (Baldwin's house is on the east side of 38, and contains a Chinese restaurant these days, he was the one who commercialized the Baldwin apple, among other endeavors, such as designing the Middlesex Canal and being an investor in it. It was the first stock corporation in the USA apparently....), has a pair of slightly-larger-that-hobbit-height plastic M&M entities, designed for people to reach in and pull out bags of M&Ms to buy. I have not had the temerity to ask the management there what they are going to do with them when.... I was thinking that they are the sorts of things that Geri (and Smofbabe) collect/corral and use for decor at conventions.