Text 30814, 92 rader
Skriven 2012-11-05 11:16:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: toward Japan trip 510
=============================
1009 UA6159 BWI ORD 2118 2223 ER4 12C
was                 1930 2035
was  AA3936 BWI ORD 1805 1920 ER4
and  AA2078 ORD SAN 2015 2220 738
was  UA 152 BWI ORD 1657 1801 738
and  UA 651 ORD SAN 2024 2230 752
was  UA 453 BWI DEN 1611 1803 752 2F
and  UA1694 DEN SAN 1903 2027 739 2F

Lilli's birthday dinner.

So I got to the airport two hours before my flight the way
they say to; really, an hour is plenty, but I usually allow
two just in case the bus breaks down or something.

Anyhow, the bus didn't break down, but security did - the
lines were crawling; half the machines weren't being used.
Some guy at the end of the line whined he'd never seen it so
bad; I didn't have the heart to tell him that it was kind of
annoying, but nothing like, for example, Christmas eve.

An hour to my flight, and I was kind of thirsty and very
sleepy, so McDonald's with its medium (the smallest it
serves) Coke beckoned, and when I got there, my stomach
decided that a Big Mac was just the ticket: whatever.

I really do like Cokes, having been brought up on them long
before it was figured out that children really should not be
given large doses of caffeine. The Big Mac, well, I examined
it in as unprejudiced a way as I could. Okay. It's medium in
size, two small patties, 3 sesame bun sections, a handful of
shredded lettuce, Americanoid cheezoid, and special sauce.
The taste is not bad (there was some Latin guy in back
making them to order) - it's well balanced, the slightly too
sweet bun counteracting the slightly too greasy meat, the
cheese unobtrusive but adding both salt and creaminess, the
sauce a little aggressively relishy (it appears to be mayo
and relish; I seem to recall it used to have a substantial
ketchup component) and with that odd tendency that such
pickled things do to stench up one's breath and one's hands
way out of proportion to their aroma and taste the first
time round. Oh, yes, there were three half lengthwise slices
of dill pickle in there, too.

For 30c more I could have gotten a dipper of fries, but I
thought that with dinner coming up on two separate flights
I should be moderate in my intake. Little did I know.

I showed up at the gate just around preboard time and found
that something was amiss - the gate agents were conversing
in hushed tones and pacing about in an uneasy way. About
departure time it was announced that there was a maintenance
issue, and the flight was "on decision" with further news
within 30 minutes. As 30 minutes would make my connection
difficult, I immediately called the premier line (there is
no longer a dedicated line for the fancy flyers; we're just
put at the head of the regular queue, or so they tell us)
and was rebooked on a Chicago connection leaving in about
an hour, all I had to do was stroll to the other gate, get
my boarding passes (all in first class), easy peasy. Off to
the other gate, where the agent was having a meltdown over
the first of two or three customers. It took at least 10
minutes to handle the first person in line, so I went to
another gate, where an agent typed away for a while,
frowned, and said that the previous agent at the previous
gate had closed the flight, and only she could put people
on it, so back I went. I was now about #10 in line. It took
45 minutes to get through the first five, which meant that
this flight was going to be late, which flustered the person
even more, which meant that reissuing boarding passes came
to a complete halt, and people were getting admitted on the
flight no matter what kind of paper they had in their hands,
just so it was paper. The agent we had been waiting for left
the dirty work to someone else and hid behind the next
counter - when one of the guys behind me went over and
confronted her, she apparently hissed "don't talk to me" and
turned her back on him. A supervisor was requested. Of
course it turned out that she was the supervisor. So I and
two people in front of me and maybe a dozen behind me, all
with confirmed reservations, didn't get on the plane.
Apparently the plane left with empty seats, too.

I slunk back to the other gate, where a willing but
exceedingly slow agent typed for a good five minutes before
opining that nothing could be done for me. I suggested an
alternative flight to Chicago on American, which he said he
couldn't do. I shrugged and, trying to be polite, thanked
him and so back to the phone.

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