The Annoyances with Flying

Flying... Don't you just hate it!

Let's just say that our trip to Vegas didn't exactly start out as planned. The morning started with me pulling my butt out of bed at 3:00AM in order to meet my parents by 4:00AM so we could get to the airport. We got through security and everything just fine, but our plane (which had been sitting there all night) was running low on oxygen, and they had to get a mechanic to fix it. Well... the mechanic was thirty minutes away, but we were assured by the airport attendant that it would be a quick fix once he got there. My family and I weren't too worried, because we had a two hour layover in Denver. So instead of waiting there, we would wait here in the airport. No biggie. However there was another family (who I think was going some place tropical) who was furious! There was yelling from both the family and the airport attendant who was in charge of our flight. It was not pretty! I missed a little of the action, because I had popped a Dramamine and was out, but I heard from my family that it was some pretty great stuff!

Finally, the mechanic got there. And it took him longer than "a quick fix" to fix our plane. Grant it, we didn't want to run out of oxygen mid-flight, but couldn't they have checked this out at 3:00AM when I was getting up so I wouldn't be late for the flight. If we are required to be early, they should have to be too. And don't you think a mechanic should be on staff at all times when the airport is open. I mean really. Eventually, we loaded and took off and landed in Denver, just as our connecting flight was leaving. Excuse me, but when does a flight ever leave from Denver on time!? Anyone ever experience it?

So now it was my family's time to get a little rowdy! Our options: Option 1: We had a small chance to make a flight at one o'clock, but it was completely booked, so we had to hope that connecting flights didn't make it in on time or people didn't show up. Unfortunately, we had six people, and there was probably not a very good chance that six people would not show up to claim their seats. Option 2: We could catch a flight that didn't leave until 8pm that night from Denver. Or option 3: There was room on a flight to Los Angeles, in which we could then jump on a flight leaving from there to Las Vegas and be in Vegas by 8pm. I remind you that all of these options were completely ridiculous, considering we were supposed to be in Las Vegas already!

We tried to get on the one o'clock flight and didn't. Go figure. So needless to say, I visited Los Angeles for the first time in my life, but never left the airport. And we didn't get into Las Vegas until 8:30PM. Which means I was up and pretty much in an airport or on a plane for 17 hours straight!! AND late for some Vegas fun I might add!

Well we tried to look on the bright side. Maybe the flight we were supposed to be on was going down and this was God's way of saving us. Or maybe this bad experience would save us from a future plane crash, because we will probably never fly UNITED again!

That could be the case... who knows really... but my sister's boyfriend's mother was a little upset when she was told, and she is now trying to get us all free flights. Gotta love them moms!

P.S. We flew American on the way home. And had absolutely no problems! Left Vegas at 7:30AM, connected in Dallas, and arrived in Des Moines by two o'clock. That's with the time differences. So fly American!