Travel- it ain't that easy
A few friends have suggested that I write a travel blog of my adventures in Business Travel.. I thought.. it can't be that exciting.. and here I am .. yeah I guess be careful what you wish for because the universe will smack you upside the head and call you Shirley.
Today was my first day traveling to Baton Rouge for work. Things so far have not gone to plan. I had to leave home a few hours early, because I had a series of conference calls that would cross over that 2 hour before flight mark, and I knew I had to get through security, without being in the middle of a conference call.
So, after call 1 ended, I had 10 mins to get through security and hop on call #2. When I went through the handy new body scanners, the chick at TSA had me drop my ID in the box with my shoes and plastic bags of liquids. After they scanned my hands and my coffee cup for explosives, I was free to head off to call # 2.
I had call #2 and then once that was over, I had 15 mins to hop on call #3, I decided that coffee sounded like a good idea. I got out my Starbucks Gold Card (it has my freakin name on it, of course I am going to mention it by name) I paused and looked for my ID. SHIT.. I could not find it, I checked my wallet a few times, since it tends to be magical and things appear even after I looked 4 times. but nope, I even checked my pockets and no luck.
I walk all the way back - it was a long trek to the security checkpoint and I ask about a missing ID. They say check with the office, I go to the office, they say - all missing items have been picked up, call SeaTac, and they give me a tiny piece of paper with an address and phone number. I call the number and after navigating a very confusing array of prompts a very nice lady picks up the and asks me why I was calling. I explain that I think I left my ID at security 45 mins ago, they told me it was picked up and to call her. She tells me to go to the TSA office and ask them if they have it. I again explain, that I did that and they gave me this little slip of paper and it directed me to call her. She then explains, that the TSA people have not delivered it to her yet, and that they were required to keep a listing of all the items that they have and send to lost and found. I thank her for her time and head back to TSA.
I get to the TSA office and it is closed, but there are around 20 people standing around eyeing me as I wait. I then check my pockets one more time .. and DAMN, my ID is in my pocket, and I am late for call # 3.
I try call #3 and I get a busy signal. I try it again and again and again and then call my boss and tell him it is not working and I will keep trying. I head back to the gate and keep trying and finally get into call #3 and it goes well.
Call 3 hangs up and I have an hour till the flight, I grab a sandwich for the flight and wait patiently. It is a packed flight but everyone seem in a good mood, even with an over abundance of kids on the flight. I am using paperless tickets, so I get the phone out and have my boarding pass ready life it going well.
Fly into Houston. When we land, I try to pull up my next boarding pass and it won't work. I ask the agent what gate I need to head to for Baton Rouge, and she can't find it on the list.. this is NOT going well. I go to a Kiosk to print out a new boarding pass and it says they have re booked me on an 8 am flight. WTF. I then stand in line and wait for someone to tell me what is going on. Apparently, there are thunderstorms in the South east and so all flights to Baton Rouge are canceled. I can fly into Lafayette or New Orleans. Sine Lafayette is closer then New Orleans, I call my boss to explain to him my options.
1. Stay overnight, which defeats the whole reason for me flying this week. Since I will miss the kickoff.
2. Fly to New Orleans - lots of seats, further east and drive the 70 miles to Baton Rouge
3. Fly to Lafyette - not as many seats (on stand by for 7:20 and have a seat for 9:15)
He tells me to do what I want, he does not want me all stressed out or to worry about $$.
I choose option #3. I call my work mate (he was going to pick me up at the airport) and tell him what is going on.
I leave lovely C concourse and head over to B, which is a train ride. I figure the 2 gates are close 75 and 79A, but the way my luck is going, it is not that simple. The Terminal is made of spokes and one spoke is 68-75, and another is 75-79, and to get to the center of the spoke tor the gate.. it about 1/4 of a mile- I am no wanting for exercise today.
I settle in, #2 on standby and .. an announcement is made, due to weather, the 7:20 flight is delayed till 8:20, which cuts it close with my 9:15 since I have basically a mile to walk to make it in time.
I was getting nervous and even considered renting a car in Houston and driving the 4 -5 hours to Baton Rouge. I also had the 9:55 flight to New Orleans that was an option. I just wanted to make forward progress somehow.
Well update time- I started this post way back in Houston, now that I am in my hotel room - kinda.. (I will explain below) here is the rest of the story.
I ended up the last person on the 7:20.. now leaving 8:20 flight, I have no idea how I managed that, but I did. So, off to Layfayette. We land and I head over to get a rental, sounds simple.. yeah not so much - there are NO cars.. none - not Hertz, Budget, Avis, National, Almo.. NO one has any cars - once again .. when I was in the air flying from Seattle, there was a total rush on not only plane seats, but also rental cars.
I head back to the Contentinal ticket counter to see about a flight first thing in the am that might get me to Baton Rouge, all the Contential flights head to Houston first, and I was not feeling inspired to do that, if so, I should have just stayed in Houston, I would have be able to rest a little. I ask the nice clerk at the Contential counter how he would suggest I get to Baton Rouge.. he says.. taxi.. I say how much. Bless his heart, he calls the cab company and it is $126.00 .. you know at that point fine.. I am going to spend that on a hotel room if I stay in Lafayette.
So, I go and wait for the cab. Now at this point, I probably should have considered that I am getting into a cab, without a meter, in a foreign city, and heading out 50 miles from the pick up site, too many years of Criminal Minds, kinda settle around me and I get a little nervous, then we take an 18 mile bridge over swamp land, and I think .. great place to hide a body... anywho.. so it is cash upfront, no using the company card here, we go to an ATM and I get out the cash, and get a receipt.
Off into the dark we head. By now it is 9 pm CDT, I left my apt at 8 am PDT and I am feeling the fatigue. Yet.. somehow the fun was not over. It takes about an hour to get to the hotel. I go to check in..
and you thought this would be easy.
I go to check in.. and they have no reservation. I pull out the laptop and bring up my confirmation #. It looks like, even though my workmate and I both sent in separate requests, only one reservation was made. ... they have a room ( a very nice room, it is bigger then my apt), but only for tonight. They are oversold tomorrow night, I have already sent an e-mail asking for this to be resolved, and so I will pack up tomorrow with no idea where I will stay tomorrow night...
It is now 11:30 pm CDT and so to bed for me, need to get up early and embrace a very busy day and what is to be a crazy week.
I will add.. that everyone I encountered (minus this one gate agent in Houston) has been super nice and have tried to be as helpful as possible.
Wish me luck
Today was my first day traveling to Baton Rouge for work. Things so far have not gone to plan. I had to leave home a few hours early, because I had a series of conference calls that would cross over that 2 hour before flight mark, and I knew I had to get through security, without being in the middle of a conference call.
So, after call 1 ended, I had 10 mins to get through security and hop on call #2. When I went through the handy new body scanners, the chick at TSA had me drop my ID in the box with my shoes and plastic bags of liquids. After they scanned my hands and my coffee cup for explosives, I was free to head off to call # 2.
I had call #2 and then once that was over, I had 15 mins to hop on call #3, I decided that coffee sounded like a good idea. I got out my Starbucks Gold Card (it has my freakin name on it, of course I am going to mention it by name) I paused and looked for my ID. SHIT.. I could not find it, I checked my wallet a few times, since it tends to be magical and things appear even after I looked 4 times. but nope, I even checked my pockets and no luck.
I walk all the way back - it was a long trek to the security checkpoint and I ask about a missing ID. They say check with the office, I go to the office, they say - all missing items have been picked up, call SeaTac, and they give me a tiny piece of paper with an address and phone number. I call the number and after navigating a very confusing array of prompts a very nice lady picks up the and asks me why I was calling. I explain that I think I left my ID at security 45 mins ago, they told me it was picked up and to call her. She tells me to go to the TSA office and ask them if they have it. I again explain, that I did that and they gave me this little slip of paper and it directed me to call her. She then explains, that the TSA people have not delivered it to her yet, and that they were required to keep a listing of all the items that they have and send to lost and found. I thank her for her time and head back to TSA.
I get to the TSA office and it is closed, but there are around 20 people standing around eyeing me as I wait. I then check my pockets one more time .. and DAMN, my ID is in my pocket, and I am late for call # 3.
I try call #3 and I get a busy signal. I try it again and again and again and then call my boss and tell him it is not working and I will keep trying. I head back to the gate and keep trying and finally get into call #3 and it goes well.
Call 3 hangs up and I have an hour till the flight, I grab a sandwich for the flight and wait patiently. It is a packed flight but everyone seem in a good mood, even with an over abundance of kids on the flight. I am using paperless tickets, so I get the phone out and have my boarding pass ready life it going well.
Fly into Houston. When we land, I try to pull up my next boarding pass and it won't work. I ask the agent what gate I need to head to for Baton Rouge, and she can't find it on the list.. this is NOT going well. I go to a Kiosk to print out a new boarding pass and it says they have re booked me on an 8 am flight. WTF. I then stand in line and wait for someone to tell me what is going on. Apparently, there are thunderstorms in the South east and so all flights to Baton Rouge are canceled. I can fly into Lafayette or New Orleans. Sine Lafayette is closer then New Orleans, I call my boss to explain to him my options.
1. Stay overnight, which defeats the whole reason for me flying this week. Since I will miss the kickoff.
2. Fly to New Orleans - lots of seats, further east and drive the 70 miles to Baton Rouge
3. Fly to Lafyette - not as many seats (on stand by for 7:20 and have a seat for 9:15)
He tells me to do what I want, he does not want me all stressed out or to worry about $$.
I choose option #3. I call my work mate (he was going to pick me up at the airport) and tell him what is going on.
I leave lovely C concourse and head over to B, which is a train ride. I figure the 2 gates are close 75 and 79A, but the way my luck is going, it is not that simple. The Terminal is made of spokes and one spoke is 68-75, and another is 75-79, and to get to the center of the spoke tor the gate.. it about 1/4 of a mile- I am no wanting for exercise today.
I settle in, #2 on standby and .. an announcement is made, due to weather, the 7:20 flight is delayed till 8:20, which cuts it close with my 9:15 since I have basically a mile to walk to make it in time.
I was getting nervous and even considered renting a car in Houston and driving the 4 -5 hours to Baton Rouge. I also had the 9:55 flight to New Orleans that was an option. I just wanted to make forward progress somehow.
Well update time- I started this post way back in Houston, now that I am in my hotel room - kinda.. (I will explain below) here is the rest of the story.
I ended up the last person on the 7:20.. now leaving 8:20 flight, I have no idea how I managed that, but I did. So, off to Layfayette. We land and I head over to get a rental, sounds simple.. yeah not so much - there are NO cars.. none - not Hertz, Budget, Avis, National, Almo.. NO one has any cars - once again .. when I was in the air flying from Seattle, there was a total rush on not only plane seats, but also rental cars.
I head back to the Contentinal ticket counter to see about a flight first thing in the am that might get me to Baton Rouge, all the Contential flights head to Houston first, and I was not feeling inspired to do that, if so, I should have just stayed in Houston, I would have be able to rest a little. I ask the nice clerk at the Contential counter how he would suggest I get to Baton Rouge.. he says.. taxi.. I say how much. Bless his heart, he calls the cab company and it is $126.00 .. you know at that point fine.. I am going to spend that on a hotel room if I stay in Lafayette.
So, I go and wait for the cab. Now at this point, I probably should have considered that I am getting into a cab, without a meter, in a foreign city, and heading out 50 miles from the pick up site, too many years of Criminal Minds, kinda settle around me and I get a little nervous, then we take an 18 mile bridge over swamp land, and I think .. great place to hide a body... anywho.. so it is cash upfront, no using the company card here, we go to an ATM and I get out the cash, and get a receipt.
Off into the dark we head. By now it is 9 pm CDT, I left my apt at 8 am PDT and I am feeling the fatigue. Yet.. somehow the fun was not over. It takes about an hour to get to the hotel. I go to check in..
and you thought this would be easy.
I go to check in.. and they have no reservation. I pull out the laptop and bring up my confirmation #. It looks like, even though my workmate and I both sent in separate requests, only one reservation was made. ... they have a room ( a very nice room, it is bigger then my apt), but only for tonight. They are oversold tomorrow night, I have already sent an e-mail asking for this to be resolved, and so I will pack up tomorrow with no idea where I will stay tomorrow night...
It is now 11:30 pm CDT and so to bed for me, need to get up early and embrace a very busy day and what is to be a crazy week.
I will add.. that everyone I encountered (minus this one gate agent in Houston) has been super nice and have tried to be as helpful as possible.
Wish me luck
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