At the mercy of Mother Nature

Yes, believe it or not, once again I am writing to the two people who read this blog that I am back in Kansas City. It seems my unnamed employer once again decided to send me back to K.C. although this trip is not for testing software. This time I'm back in school taking a course on software support. Before your eyes start to glaze over as I try to explain what I'm learning, let's say that I'm learning how to work on the "engine" of our weather display software as opposed to testing how the "car" drives. However, I almost didn't make it.

Most people I visited with said that I should drive from the Panhandle to K.C. so I could have a vehicle to visit the sites and get around town. However, I've got our annual Canadian River Run that starts the day after my class ends. SO...I decided to fly. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal but my unnamed employer switched travel companies on October 1st and I was to be the guinea pig to see how this new agency works. Well, the folks are friendly but I had to fly the unfriendly skies...American Airlines.

In the past, I have had good luck with American but my luck ran out this trip. The plan was simple: leave at 9:30 in the AM and get to K.C. by 3 in the afternoon. A leisurely schedule in my eyes. Things fell apart before I even set foot on the grounds of the airport. My flight out was canceled as mother nature conspired to shut down DFW airport for two hours which pushed the EARLIEST time I could fly out to 4 pm. The travel agency said that EVERY flight out before then on EVERY carrier (except for Southwest as it turns out) was booked and I needed to take whatever flights American could get me on. Well, after some wrangling of schedules, I was going to be making it to K.C. at 8:30 as opposed to 3 pm which isn't bad. Or so I thought.

The flight out left an hour late as American was still trying to get caught up on flights but I made it to DFW with what was supposed to be a 1.5 hour layover. That's when things fell apart. The flight out to K.C. was delayed an hour. Then two hours. And then the plane arrives to take us to K.C. only to be grounded due to mechanical problems. Never once did American give us a straight answer; it was always "Your plane is still at the maintenance hangar and will be here in 15 minutes." Well, to make a long story short: after TWELVE "15 more minutes" (in other words...THREE HOURS), American found a plane, got it to the gate, prepped it for the flight and boarded us, and then took off. When it was all said and done, I didn't arrive to K.C. until 12:45 AM and wasn't asleep until 1:30. Oh, I had to get up for my class at 7 am also.

SO, what lessons have I learned? I'm driving to K.C. in the future even if it means 10 hours on the road. American needs to learn how to use multiple airports as hubs (such as Southwest) as opposed to one BIG hub at one airport. That way if your one BIG airport has weather and is shut down for two hours, you just reroute people around the weather (which Southwest can do to some extent...but they still have problems as well).

But I made it back to K.C. I'm here for a while and will be able to go back to some favorite places and spend an extended time back at I.H.O.P. on Sunday. That is after I get done with homework and a couple of take-home exams for this class I'm attending...