Well, I made it to New Jersey (and back) this weekend, but it wasn’t easy.

I got to the Santa Barbara airport around 5:30 for my 6:25 flight, checked in, went through security, and sat down. I checked the status of my flight from LA to Newark on my phone, and saw it was delayed an hour and a half from 10:10 to 11:40. No big deal. Not long afterwards, I get a call from Orbitz that my flight to LA is delayed until 7:23. Again, not a big deal, especially since the connection was delayed as well. Around 7, there’s an announcement at the airport that the flight to LA is canceled because the plane that was supposed to take us can’t land in Santa Barbara can’t land because of the fog. It flew here from LA, circled, and then flew back. The next one was delayed until 11, and there was a decent chance it might canceled as well.

I decided the best thing to do was to skip that flight and drive to LA. It was around 7:15 when I left, and while you’d normally think that’s plenty of time to drive 100 miles for an 11:40 flight, you never know what you’ll get driving into LA. I’ve learned to make up time early in the trip when there’s little traffic to plan for taking an hour to go 15 miles on the end. It was some of the best, and most fun, driving I’ve done in a long time. 🙂 I was in the LAX parking lot waiting for the shuttle to the airport at a quarter to 9. As it turned out, I would have made my flight to NJ even if it hadn’t been delayed.

Going through security, they found my $3 Swiss Army Knife from Amazon, which I had no idea was in my bag. I had the choice to either leave it with them, or check a bag. I decided to just leave it. Every airport the size of LAX should be required to have a USPS outside security in every terminal. Or at least a mailbox, and a machine to buy stamps, or something. Santa Barbara security hadn’t noticed it. If they had, I would have just brought it back to my car there, and would still have it. In LA, though, it’s a bus ride back to the car, and while I probably had the time for it, it wasn’t worth it for something I can replace for $23.11 if I decide I really need another.

Anyway, I got on the plane, it took off at 11:40, got in around 8 AM, and both of my brothers met me at the airport. So far, so good. Saturday, I was looking at my itinerary for my return flight Sunday night. My return flight was through San Francisco. My car was in LA.

Oops.

I called United, and they said the earliest they could get me from Newark to LAX was a Monday morning flight at 7am that stopped in Denver and got in at 12:55 Monday. I also had the option of leaving Sunday night out of La Guardia (and my parents could have driven me there from my brother’s place, as they were going to be driving past it on the way home anyway), but then I’d have had to leave sooner than I wanted. I had them book me on the Monday morning flight, and figured that would be it. Then, I tried to book a flight on united.com from EWR to LAX Monday morning, and it came back with an 8:15 AM direct flight that got in at 11:15. I called back, and they said there were no economy seats available, only first class. I asked if I could have that instead, and was told yes. I asked, three times, if there was any extra charge, and was told no.

I was sure something would go wrong, so I called back Sunday to confirm the flight. First problem, I was still booked on both the 7 AM and 8:15 AM flight. Second problem, I owed over $500 for the first class seat. I spoke to a supervisor, who said I couldn’t have the first class seat, but somehow gave me an economy plus seat that wasn’t available the night before. Annoying, but I really just wanted to get home. I also told him to cancel the earlier (but arriving later) flight, because I obviously wouldn’t be flying out of Newark twice on Monday morning.

Monday morning I get to the airport, check in, and find out that I’m actually booked through all the way to Santa Barbara. Not a big deal, as I just don’t use the second boarding pass, but thought it was a little funny. Also, Orbitz had been calling me all morning about all the flights. The flight to Denver was delayed, the flight to LA was on time. The flights from Denver to Santa Barbara, and LA to Santa Barbara, were both on time. I got into LAX at 11:15, got to my car at 10 to noon, and was at work by 2. For 3.5 hours, and then I went bowling, having been awake since around 2:30 AM local time, and having gotten about 4 hours of sleep.

Then I went home, and slept for 12 hours.

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