Glad to be Home

My wife and I have been traveling a lot over the past several months. We spent a week in Hawaii and then followed that up with five weeks on another island a month later. This past weekend we visited my youngest son in Ohio with his family. Last night we returned home and my wife let me know she is done traveling for awhile.

Even when travel goes perfectly, it can be rather arduous. Last night we experienced a number of small disruptions that all added up so that we didn't get home until 2 hours after our scheduled arrival. I'm sure that contributed to my wife's comment about not wanting to go anywhere. I admit it felt like a death by a thousand cuts. There wasn't any one issue that made for a big delay, just a lot of little ones.

We left Columbus, Ohio on time and arrived in Atlanta, Georgia early. Those that know the Atlanta airport know it is huge with 6 different terminals. Naturally we landed at terminal A and had to make our way to terminal F to catch our next flight. As I mentioned, we landed early and had plenty of time to take the train. It still required a lot of walking even with the train. We got to our new gate and found two seats where we patiently awaited for our next flight.

Our plane came in from Athens, Greece and required thorough cleaning. While we had a plane, we started boarding a little late. Then the flight only had 9 empty seats. An Airbus A-330 has a lot of seats and so it took a very long time to load all of those passengers. Our scheduled departure time came and went with people continuing to load the plane. Finally everyone boarded and we pushed back about fifteen minutes late. Soon the pilot came on and explained that the wind shifted and we had to reposition the plane to the opposite end of the runway with all of the other flights preparing to take off. Once in the air, the flight went relatively well but we landed 40 minutes late.

I am a firm believer in two types of luggage: carried on and lost. We carried on all our bags and made a straight line for long-term parking once we landed in Salt Lake City. A lot of flights were landing at the same time and the line to board the shuttle to get to our car was massive. It took about 15 minutes just to board the bus and another 10 minutes to get to our car. Fortunately SLC has an abundance of non-human cashiers at the parking exit and it did not require waiting in line to leave the airport.

By this point, we thought we had experienced all of the delays for the evening until we came across late-night road construction. We had five lanes of traffic merge down to one. That added another delay which compounded on the others as we tried to get home to go to sleep. Eventually we made it, albeit significantly later than we hoped.

Those that travel a lot have come to appreciate being at home. Those that don't travel much but then do a few trips in rapid succession discover how satisfying home can be. My wife falls into that later group. At least we can rest for a month or so before our next trip.

Avoid SFO for the Next 3 Weeks

Monday morning I flew from Salt Lake to San Francisco (SFO) for my weekly commute. As we got ready to board the plane, the captain came out and said we had a 2-hour delay. They unloaded the early boarders and then posted that the flight had been cancelled. My heart sank. Then the gate agent said that we would be heading to Oakland. So in the matter of 2 minutes, the flight went from on-time, to delayed, to cancelled, and then to a new destination. Personally I think the relief of not having the flight cancelled made the new destination much more palatable.

Once we arrived in Oakland, the airline paid for Uber to deliver me to my office. While the distance from Oakland to my office is significantly longer than from SFO, I thought the airline did a great job of taking care of their passengers (it is Alaska for those interested).

San Francisco is repairing one of their runways over the next 3 weeks. Unfortunately the repair cuts through 2 other runways and so they are down to a single runway instead of the usual four. The construction is expected to be completed on the 27th of September and until then air travel in and out of SFO is going to be painful.

Knowing about the construction I have been checking arriving flights from Salt Lake and departing flights in an attempt to guess where my flight this evening would depart. All the flights have left Salt Lake and gone to Oakland so I know that is a constant. Monday night's flight flew out of Oakland. Tuesday's flight made it out of SFO. Then last night's flight departed from San Jose. When I woke up this morning I didn't have a clue where I would be leaving from. I got to the office and got word that my flight was cancelled. I immediately called the airline and was told I could get on a 1pm flight through Portland. While I rebooked the flight, I got an e-mail saying my flight had been changed to San Jose. I got put back on my original flight and then figured out how to get to San Jose. The airline helped significantly and so I can't complain about them at all.

Ultimately the problem is that the runways in San Francisco need to be fixed and they determined now is the best time to make the fix. That has airlines scrambling to accommodate delays and cancellations. So if you can avoid SFO for the next 3 weeks, do yourself a favor and avoid it.