Up in the air

Or at least I wish I was. Is it just me or has air travel in the US becoming more difficult and unpleasant? I am back here doing the usual 10 cities in 10 days bit. So I have the pleasure of experiencing the worst. Thought I would share some of my misery with you.

I was on my way from Raleigh to West Palm Beach via Charlotte. When I arrived into Charlotte, I discovered that the flight from Charlotte to West Palm Beach has been cancelled. The next flight is oversold and so is the one after that - which happens to be the last flight of the day. The US Airways agent suggested that I fly into Fort Lauderdale and take a train to West Palm. It was unlikely that my luggage was going to follow me - but that was ok. I reached Ft. Lauderdale to find out that the last train for the day had already left for West Palm. So I now needed to rent a car ($100+) and drive an hour. Usually this would not be an issue but after you have flown over 24 hours and are still recovering from jet lag, it is not a cool thing.

As expected, my bag did not make it and I asked the airline to deliver it to the hotel, which predictably they did not. I checked out of the hotel in the morning and called the baggage handling call center to request that the bag be sent to the West Palm airport where I would pick it up in the afternoon as I was leaving for Nashville. I arrived at the airport and go to the baggage office. My bag was sitting there but none of the staff was available. I could not track anybody down for 10 minutes and my flight was scheduled to leave in 35 minutes. I simply walked out of the office with my bag and NOBODY STOPPED ME! That should give us a lot of confidence in the security system at our airports.

Of course, my travel blues did not end there. I am now sitting at the Nashville airport where my flight to Atlanta has now been delayed twice. Oh .. how I wish I was up in the air.