Double Connections

To avoid Continental, I had to travel on a double connection on American from San Diego to Los Angeles to Chicago to Indianapolis. Unfortunately, when you have a couple of extra variables in the mix, there are a few more things that can go wrong with the trip. My flight in Los Angeles was delayed by a few hours, which would cause a misconnect in Chicago, where there was some weather issue. Well, I decided to catch the earlier flight out of Los Angeles, and had my luggage moved to the earlier flight. Well, when you are in the middle of LAX with multiple flights that are delayed, the chances of having you and your luggage arriving at the same time are not very good. By some miracle of American Airlines, my luggage actually made it to Indianapolis that night, and so did I. The moral of the story -- Boycott Continental. It actually works out in the end.

Boycott Continental! Yes, I do mean it.

Later.

Bringing Chaos Back To Order

I'll have a side of fries with that. Just kidding. It's been a trying day. I've got to stop traveling on Sundays, but I keep getting sucked into these Monday deals across the country. You shouldn't have to cross three time zones, and go back one in order to get to your destination. That just isn't right. It all started at LAX early this morning. It's taking a LOT longer to get through check in, because they have just complicated the process by adding more blockades. First, you go into the line for check-in, which usually takes 30-90 minutes in and of itself, even for elite members in a frequent flyer program. You'd think they would let you check your luggage in there also, but no -- you have to go to another line for that. Unfortunately, since there is only one person working that line, it takes 60-90 minutes to go through. After you get to the front of the line, you're not finished. They were just teasing you. You have to go to yet another line to actually verify that your bag got through. If it did, that's great, but then you've missed your flight, because you've already been waiting for two hours, and your plane took off. Then it's back to the original line, and then you have to go back into the luggage lines again. Once you finally get a flight, you get to go through to the "get yourself frisked" line, because you changed flights today. Obviously, that makes you highly suspect that you are a terrorist or something. It apparently has absolutely no bearing on the fact that the whole luggage procedure with up to 5 different lines is retarded. Now, once you get frisked, you have to get to your plane, which has probably left, because the wonderful TSA has to make sure that you aren't carrying some sort of weapon in your underwear. I still don't get why they want everyone to undo their pants, or is it just me? Anyway, after finally getting to Atlanta, my connection was delayed, and I still had serious concerns that my luggage would wind up in Delhi, India, since I was heading for Indianapolis. For some reason, even I am not exempt from the stupidity of all of the chaos that our own wonderful air travel industry has created with government intervention. You'd think that elite status on four different airlines, most of them at the top-tier, would count for something. Wow, this post is turning into an editorial-length feature. I'd better save some of this for my October editorial page. Bedtime for me. I'm tired. Later.

Ahead Of The Storm

A storm is raging in the Atlantic Ocean, and my friends in North Carolina and the rest of the east coast are currently bracing for the impact tomorrow. I'm heading into Durham next week for the aftermath. However, I just got back from rural New York. It's been a long week, and it's only Wednesday! Well, the TSA is getting a bit worse these days. After locking me out of my luggage countless times, and sending me through the security mess that requires you to take all of your things out of your bag, put them back in, and then take them out again for a random search. I'm grounded until Sunday, so I'll let you know about the aftermath when I get to Durham (with a quick side trip to Indianapolis). Later.