Waiting to Go Home
Oct. 12th, 2023 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerLAX Airport. Thu, 12 Oct 2023, 4:30pm.
My little 24-hour trip to Orange County expanded to Los Angeles. After meeting one customer in Irvine this morning, a good meeting even if frustratingly short, we headed north to visit another customer in west LA for a brief afternoon meet. The change came at a cost, though. I had to rebook my departure out of SNA to a slightly later departure via LAX.
When I looked to make this change last night the 2 evening flights on my airline were sold out. "No sweat," I figured, "I'll check again tomorrow morning and see if some seats have opened up." I knew that worst case I'd skip the second meeting and go home on my originally booked flight. Also, we were still negotiating to get a third meeting, on Friday morning in San Diego, so there was a possibility I'd stay another night and fly home via SAN.
This morning the LAX flight I wanted was still sold out. I decided to check again after my morning meeting. I knew I could be flexible enough to keep waiting. Sure enough, when I checked back around 11:30 seats had opened up! I rebooked for no cost. ...No cost of money, that is. The cost would be time. The flight out of LAX was scheduled 75 minutes later. And, 6 hours before departure, it was already delayed.
So now I'm at LAX airport awaiting my flight. I'd be plenty early for it even if it was tracking on time. I'm extra early since it's not. It's frustrating that delaying my travel to meet this second customer cost me not only having dinner with my wife this evening (the first flight would've gotten me home just in time) but now threatens a late enough arrival home that I won't be ready to meld into a full day of work tomorrow.
My little 24-hour trip to Orange County expanded to Los Angeles. After meeting one customer in Irvine this morning, a good meeting even if frustratingly short, we headed north to visit another customer in west LA for a brief afternoon meet. The change came at a cost, though. I had to rebook my departure out of SNA to a slightly later departure via LAX.
When I looked to make this change last night the 2 evening flights on my airline were sold out. "No sweat," I figured, "I'll check again tomorrow morning and see if some seats have opened up." I knew that worst case I'd skip the second meeting and go home on my originally booked flight. Also, we were still negotiating to get a third meeting, on Friday morning in San Diego, so there was a possibility I'd stay another night and fly home via SAN.
This morning the LAX flight I wanted was still sold out. I decided to check again after my morning meeting. I knew I could be flexible enough to keep waiting. Sure enough, when I checked back around 11:30 seats had opened up! I rebooked for no cost. ...No cost of money, that is. The cost would be time. The flight out of LAX was scheduled 75 minutes later. And, 6 hours before departure, it was already delayed.
So now I'm at LAX airport awaiting my flight. I'd be plenty early for it even if it was tracking on time. I'm extra early since it's not. It's frustrating that delaying my travel to meet this second customer cost me not only having dinner with my wife this evening (the first flight would've gotten me home just in time) but now threatens a late enough arrival home that I won't be ready to meld into a full day of work tomorrow.
