I'm writing this after the fact, but this is the recap of my trip from Mobile to Seattle, to make it to the technical conference that inspired me to start this blog... It wont be pretty, the trip was pretty vile. I'll try to keep things civil, but I promise nothing.
1. Going through security at Mobile, my toothpaste and mouthwash were confiscated. Bottles too large.
2. My flight to Atlanta (connection to Seattle) was delayed 35 minutes.
3. That put me on the ground in Atlanta with less than 15 minutes to get on my flight to Seattle.
4. They pulled my gate checked bag off the plane last, leaving me 5 minutes to get from Concourse D all the way over to Concourse A in the Atlanta Airport. This airport is so large they have a subway train to ferry people between concourses.
5. I got to my Seattle gate, they had already locked the door. Thankfully, the plane hadn't left let and the pleasant lady behind the counter let me on. It seems there was some sort of equipment malfunction with the plane....
6. The part of the plane that was busted? The A/C unit. So, I just ran across the atlanta airport in order to sit on the tarmac in an increasingly hot airplane for 45 minutes while they fixed it.
7. I wasn't the only late passenger.... I was sitting in the isle seat of the bank of 3 seats in the middle of the plane. Another businessman was sitting on the other isle. A middle aged grandmother came in after me, with her 1 year old son, and sat between us, with the boy in her lap the entire time. Joy.
8. The boy proceeded to kick, grab, scream, and spit in my general direction for the next 6 hours. He needed his diaper changed at least twice. He only got it once. He turned the cookies they gave him into crumbs, which got everywhere. He spilled his milk onto my seat. I have to say, I've had better flights.
9. Arrived at Seattle, in one piece. Thank God. Then the fun started...
10. I get to my rental car service. There's no card on file for them to charge the car too. I tried to charge it to my own card, but didn't have sufficient funds to secure the car for the entire week. In the act of trying, my card was locked out of their system for 24 hours. This, effectively, left me stranded in Seattle with no car and no one back home to call (it was 10:00pm back in Mobile).
11. The guys at enterprise call me a 'cab', to take me to my hotel. Wasn't a cab. Was some indian dude who barely spoke English driving a towncar. The guys at enterprise said he took plastic, and he said he took plastic when I got in the car. After got started, he told me it was going to cost me $60 to get to my hotel!
12. We get to the hotel, and guess what... he doesn't take plastic. So we had to drive around for 20 minutes to find an ATM. No tip for him. He finally gets me to an ATM (that works) and I get enough cash to pay him. He takes me back to the hotel.
13. I get into the hotel to check in. Guess what! No card on file there, either!
14. Thankfully, they only needed to charge me for incidentals up front, which was a $60 charge. That much I had, and I got into my room... stranded, without a car and haven't not eaten for almost 12 hours.
15. I got a pizza delivery service menu from the front desk, and called what looked like a good local pizza place.... and of course, the icing on the crap-cake that was my trip out to Seattle... they got my order wrong!
Having said all that, I want to clarify that I've been telling my people for almost a month now that they would have to pre-pay for everything, because I just moved and I had to front the cost of my grad school tution, leaving me broke as hell for the rest of the month. It wasn't my fault that these things weren't taken care of ahead of time. Also, everything was worked out the following morning, and I've been enjoying the hell out of the conference for the past 2 days. This is a good thing.
Crash
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