Johnny Rotten Once Said, "Ever Get the Feeling You've Been Cheated?"

Well, my buddies at good ol' 'Merican Airlines have grounded another 20% of their fleet today, and guess whose plane was AGAIN within the grounded portion? That's right, yours truly. So, finally, my traveling compadre, Derek, and I were able to work with our department's admin assistant to get a flight booked out of here on Southwest this afternoon, and we'll finally be home at 11PM tonight. That, of course, assumes we get on the plane here, make it all the way up to Chicago first, then get through the last leg to Indy. At this point, if they get me anywhere within a 500 mile radius of Indy, I'll rent a car and drive the remainder. That's what they make Monster Energy drinks, for, I guess.

This has been stressful, no doubt, but thankfully Laura's kept a level head, which has allowed me to keep a much more rational approach in dealing with the chaos. Last night, I'd set up email notification through AA.com so that I'd be notified of the flight status if any changes occurred, or I'd have a status update at least 2 hours before the flight. The cancellation notice came through around 3:45 this morning, and when I awoke at 4:15 and checked my BlackBerry, I felt the gut punch that felt all too familiar to the one I felt yesterday afternoon.

I immediately got on the phone to the re-scheduling line this morning, and endured their hold music, and continual automated apologies for the delay in fielding my call, for over an hour. When I was finally connected to a representative, I remained calm and overly-cordial, even as she insisted there were no flights available on their "ticketing partners'" schedules. Her only recourse was to book us again on an American flight that left tomorrow morning at 9AM. We jumped at that opportunity, because she kept counting down the number of seats available on that plane as the conversation progressed.

Shortly after that transpired, Laura had informed me that Northwest and Southwest both had flights available (Northwest is a ticketing partner with American; however, Derek and I have surmised there are likely contractual limitations on the number of seats they'll leave available in situations like this, particularly when they can likely fully profit off the former American customers who've reached the limits of their patience with the merry-go-round of plane groundings and cancellations), so that's what set into motion the alternative carrier plan. I was a bit panicked because neither the admin assistant nor my boss was responding to my emails or phone calls in which I was pleading for them to book us regardless of the potential cancellation "losses" we'd face with an outright cancellation of our American bookings. Thankfully, though, we all coordinated our efforts, and I finally had a moment of satisfaction in which I quoted Hannibal from the A-Team, saying, "I love it when a plan comes together."

So, to reiterate, I hope that 'Merican goes into Chapter 666 bankruptcy proceedings starting tomorrow, and their executives are hunted down mob-justice style and made to feel some of the same discomforts me, and thousands of other 'Merican customers have felt these past couple of days.

Again, I'm thankful that we were brought to LA by our fellow conventioneers yesterday; I cannot thank those kind folks enough for bringing us out here to an airport where our options for alternative carriers are ten-fold the number of options we had available in Palm Springs. Keep me in your thoughts around 2:30PM Pacific time this afternoon, and send positive vibes to us as we try our hand at the return trip one more (and, hopefully, final) time.

(K)