Life of Wry

An airport story.

Letsee, it starts with my arrival at LAX this sunny mid-afternoon in time to catch my flight back to Davis. Been in LA for 5 days; it will be nice to be home.

Typical Friday afternoon: LAX is a pulsing swarm of people all trying to get someplace else.

I had time for a cup of coffee and a little reading.  I’d decided to forgo computer time, since it was twenty minutes to boarding and that didn’t seem to justify T-Mobile’s $8 day-pass charge.  (Grateful for Sacramento International–my favorite airport–because they provide free wi-fi.)

Our flight was overbooked and when they asked for volunteers who might want to give up their seats, I thought, sure, this is a good time to do that because 1) I’m not in a great hurry, 2) the next flight was to leave just an hour later, and 3) the compensation for giving up my seat on this flight was worth it: a voucher for a future ticket of equal value ($180.70), and $100.  Why not?

So I did that.

But, once my seat had been given away and the jetway doors were closed, the ticket agent realized she’d made a mistake and, in fact, the next flight to Sacramento was also, actually, overbooked.  She put me, and the other two seat giver-uppers, on priority standby status but didn’t guarantee anything.  She offered us $200 for her complete incompetence our being such good sports, plus the equal value flight voucher and a seat on the next flight.

But…..and maybe you expected this, only two out of the three of us made that next flight (and one of us didn’t).  So, I was then booked onto the next flight.  I was again given my equal value future flight voucher, and this time $300. 

Sweet.

So I took off for my new gate with my new boarding pass.  I had a few more hours before the 7:55 to Sacramento.

By this time, the sun was starting to go down and it was feeling very cold in the terminal. I’m wearing like this little skirt and light shirt and sandals, so I had to buy a “Life is Good” sweatshirt at the “Life is Good” store, which is, indeed, good because I only have about 27 million sweatshirts at home, and can always use another.  This one’s fuzzy on the inside and very warm. Better be for the price I paid.

I finally settled down, but realized I was also totally starving so decided to hunt down something worth eating..hmm.. Starbucks or Starbucks?  (Grateful again for Sac’s airport that has Dos Coyotes, Saladworks, Burgers and Brew, Vino Volo..and more.) It turned out to be a good time to vacate my seat because somebody had left an unattended bag (the dreaded unattended bag) next to me and a security officer had called for some sniffer dogs to come and investigate its contents. He recommended I find someplace else to sit.

Settled again with lots of time to kill, I decided to get that T-Mobile day pass after all. First time ever: it didn’t work!  So.. had to call T-Mobile tech support. Fifteen minutes later, I was online with a special courtesy guest pass for my troubles and a credit, hopefully, on my credit card.  Nice.

And that’s the story so far.

I have to write fast because the battery power on my laptop is ratcheting down with every keystroke.  I’d opted to pack away my AC power supply in my checked baggage (along with my warm clothes) since I didn’t anticipate having much computer time in the airport today.  Battery level at this moment: 46%. Typing fast, here!

Not counting on anything, but I hope to be on the flight to Sac in another hour or so.  Should be home by 10pm.

$480.70 ahead.