Adelaide, Australia
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Los Angeles, Westin Hotel near the airport
I should have been landing in Sydney just about now. Instead I am in a hotel near the airport in L.A., cooling my heels for 24 hours. Yesterday was filled with stupid airtravel drama: Becky dropped me off at the airport at 2:50 for a 4:20 flight. I got in line at United to be informed that the flight had been cancelled, but that the 1:15 flight was delayed and leaving at 3:40. So I got on that one. A lot of people who checked in later did not. In Chicago my flight to Sydney was scheduled to depart at 7:00. The flight was billed as “Chicago-Sydney with a stop in LA”. Fine, I thought: that means I don’t have to worry about a connection. Unfortunately, the flight was really Chicago-Sydney with a stop and change of equipment in LA. We boarded at 6:30. At 7:00 we were told that there would be a 15 minute delay for some connecting passengers. AT 7:30 we were told that there was a maintenance issue with the cooling system. At 8:00 people were told that they could leave the plane for the boarding area because the plane was getting so warm. At 8:45 we were told that the maintenance problem was solved but that they had to fill out paperwork. At 9:30 we were told that the paperwork was done, but we had to wait until passengers who had left for the boarding area got corralled back on the plane. At 10:00 more or less we pulled back from the gate, taxied for a while, then stopped. Thunder and lightening: now we were told there was a weather delay…
