My Favorite Air Travel Story!

If you have ever traveled once by air then you have at least one favorite air travel story. (Surely Yogi would be proud of my way of looking at things.) I’m thankful that I’ve done very little flying since all the new restrictions came into being but at one time I did fly often. In fact my last real heavy duty commuting by air involved shuttling to Chicago every other week for an eighteen month consulting project.

Even back then I was surprised at how many people did a regular commute up to Chicago early Monday morning, and back late each Friday evening. We actually were like folks riding on a commuter bus only with a three to four hour trip into the office. The service back then was pretty bad with deregulation and competition in full sway but nothing like it is today where anti-terrorism requirements are blamed for everything from rudeness to a total absence of customer service. Sorry, but that’s the way I see it.

Having worked for the federal government I can tell you there’s nothing like a big ole reason to blame everything on. I worked in public affairs at a major army installation and I can tell you some tales about how things really work. I was there during the Vietnam conflict and it really pained me to see training brigades doing without necessities while headquarters groups like ourselves could basically get anything we wanted. This led to all types of trading but anyone with a modicum of intelligence would have known those charged with training kids to go and fight a war should have priority over administrative offices. I dearly loved the sergeant major I worked with for he was a jewel. He was ‘old school’ all the way and his day was made anytime we found or created a really good excuse for not getting our projects in on time or missing deadlines of any kind, so there you have it, it’s part of how the system works. While we know it’s not a game it sure is played like one at times. Can you say: “Somebody stop the guy with TB”?

Now back to my favorite air travel story. My Chicago assignment was out near the airport in an office complex that included a tunnel connected extended stay hotel facility. Therefore, I more or less kept a room for the eighteen months I was doing this project. When I was in town I put in my twelve hour days just like I still do today. But when I finished my week all I had to do was catch the elevator down to the tunnel and walk over to my hotel and catch the next shuttle to the airport. There were plenty of days when I was one of the only people who showed up for work because the other 1,000 plus were either iced or snowed in. Since I reported to an executive committee, I, at times, had access to some of their perks.

Once I was able to secure use of the chairman’s corporate jet to make some field visits to some of their east coast locations. Often, if he was out of town, and the limo was available on Friday afternoon, they would call it up and I would be taxied out to the airport. This was much more convenient than walking back to the hotel and catching a shuttle. After a particularly busy week with what seemed like endless meetings everyone could tell I was pretty well beat. One of the ladies offered to see if I could get an earlier flight that Friday and she secured me a 3 pm schedule.

Man this was going to be great. I called my wife and gave her the details on the time change for her to come pick me up. I was really feeling good about this unexpected blessing and looking forward to getting home early. They arranged for the limo to pick me up and when I arrived downstairs the driver took my satchel and clothes bag and I eased into the back seat. Once settled, I took my briefcase and laid it on my lap and began looking through dozens of pages of notes. The driver called back to me and said” Sir, what airline are we flying today?” Now I had a frequent flyer card with oak leaf clusters with Continental. It was the only airline I had used for the entirety of my forth and back travels, but for some unknown reason, I said, “UNITED please”. Maybe it was the workload, or maybe I was distracted, or maybe I had a premature senior moment, but that’s what I said and that’s exactly where he carried me.

When he stopped at the terminal I sensed something was different about it but I passed it off as me perhaps having not paid attention in the past. I rode the escalator up to the main lobby and looked at one of the screens. Everything was different, the décor, the colors, the whole thing was just odd. I came up to the desk and gave the technician my ticket. The lady said, “Sir, I think there’s some mistake here”. I said, “Are you kidding? Someone from the office called and I am supposed to have a slot on this airplane”. She continued, “But sir I’m not sure you understand.” I interrupted her and informed her that I had a schedule to keep and fully intended to be on the plane which was already boarding”. She finally relented, “Okay sir, if you insist I can take care of your ticket and make the necessary changes”. I said, “Good, thank you very much!”

As I boarded the plane I looked around and everything on the plane was different. I didn’t see any of the flight people or other passengers I had come to expect to see but surely that wasn’t that unusual, especially since I was going home early. As the plane began to taxi down the runway, the flight attendant began giving her little song and dance, and then it hit me. Suddenly, I realized what I had done. I was not only on the wrong airline but I was going to a city that would require a two hour layover to connect to my final destination. Unlike Kevin in Home Alone 2, I was essentially heading in the right direction but 250 miles short of my home base. It took me a while to gather my thoughts but after we became airborne I used to the air telephone to call my wife and tell her what had happened. She was stunned and said of all people she couldn’t believe I could ever make such a mistake.

When I arrived at the city I was not supposed to go to, to add insult to injury or ignorance in this case, I ended up having to buy a ticket to cover the connecting flight. HOWEVER, I knew my sister lived near this city I didn’t intend to fly to, and so I called her and could you believe she just happened to be in the middle of a major crisis and I spent the next hour or more listening, supporting, and encouraging her. It had been a long time since I had talked with her and we did a lot of catching up and I left there knowing in my heart of hearts that this call had something to do with a bigger picture. No, it’s not time to play the theme from the ‘Twilight Zone’. Coincidence? Perhaps, but I choose to thank God for a missed connection when He had something much more important in mind. More later…………