Hello, Seattle, it's good to be back.Yes, we made it out of Texas on the original flights we booked -- though for a few moments along the way, it wasn't clear that it was going to work out. More travel drama? But of course. Fortunately, this is the last of it as all our airport-hopping is done (until I return to school in two weeks), and the ending to the story includes a pleasant surprise, so I figure it's worth mentioning.
D and I had a fine week at my parents' place. The weather in the panhandle is pretty capricious (as the locals say, if you don't like it, just wait five minutes), so we enjoyed brisk temperatures and balmy ones all within a few days. When my sister left about 36 hours before we did, it was 75 degrees out. On the morning of our departure, it was just above freezing.
The crew at the airport didn't know it had gotten into the 20s the night before, so the electrical system had to be warmed up, which delayed our flight to Dallas. We had a tight connection to our Seattle flight to begin with, so D and I were more than a little antsy when we landed. Then, our plane had to wait for another to pull out from a neighboring gate -- it never did, but we lost about ten minutes sitting on the tarmac. By the time we got into the terminal, we had less than 15 minutes to get from one concourse to another.
We made a dash for it and got to our connecting gate just as the agent closed the flight in her computer. "It's gone," she said with that all-too-familiar sorry-but-I-can't-help-you look we've seen more and more in the last year of travel snafus. At that moment, though, another agent at the counter spoke up. "We're delayed for mechanical problems," he said. "We've got seats for you."
As it turns out, they were in first-class.
D and I have never flown anything but coach together -- not even for our honeymoon -- so this was a first in more ways than one. We had no idea how our names got put in for upgrades on our original tickets, but after all the craziness in the last two weeks of cancellations, we weren't about to say no. Once the mechanical issue was resolved, we were on our way. And that, if you're still reading, is how we finally made it home.
4 comments:
That travel anxiety when one has a connection to make is a terrible one. How many times did you look at your watch?
Good news about the upgrade. The only time I've flown first class was when we were upgraded on my birthday and we were going from Heathrow to New York. It was fabulous but it really does spoil you for the future.
Glad you are safely back
Thankfully, I had no watch, just a cell phone that had to stay zipped in my coat pocket while we were running through the airport. The only reason we were able to check the time between gates was that we had to take a monorail from one terminal to another, and there were clocks inside the cars.
Flying first-class was lovely indeed. I think D is going to have a harder time going back to coach since he has long legs! He tries to get exit-row seats when he can.
I've got a long-legged man as well :). It must be awful to feel squashed up but, as a shortie, I never have the problem.
OMG that card looks SO beautiful in photooooo!
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