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One of the great things about traveling is getting back home. This past week I went down to Dallas for work for a few days. Huge city. Beautiful city. Enormous airport. We got to the airport a full 2 hours before our plane took off, so we had plenty of time to kill. Our flight was at 7:35am at gate B26, so we just hung out at the gate and waited for boarding to begin around 7:05. 7:05 came and went. Then 7:10, 7:15, 7:20. Still no call for boarding. So we went up to the counter to ask if there was a problem with the plane and they told us the flight to Pittsburgh had been moved to gate B5.

B5? B-frickin-5? You guys never said a word. Never posted a message. Nothing. So we took off like fools for gate B5, 21 Gates away and not much time before the plane was to take off. You have to picture me in my best “sprint” trying to keep my backpack on my shoulder with one hand and my pants up with the other. Not a pretty site, but it was effective enough to get me there just before the plane took off.

I hate rushing through an airport. That’s the entire reason I get there 2 hours early. Would it have killed American Airlines to make an announcement that the plane had switched gates? When we got on the plane, one of the flight attendant said she had been there for the last hour and a half and that the plane was always leaving from B5, but our boarding passes definitely said B26, the web site said B26, and the Departure screens all said B26 when we arrived at the airport.

Of course, someone was already in my seat, but there was an empty row close by so I just sat there instead – until a couple got on the plane at the last minute, Guess where their seats were? That’s right, so I collected my backpack, ipod, headphones, and cell phone and headed back towards my original seat when I saw another row completely empty. So I jumped in there and the flight attendant told me I would be fine. Then, as they were about to close the door a guy hopped on the plane and started for his seat, which was the one I was now sitting in. You have to picture that due to the gate incident, someone sitting in my original seat, moving to another seat, and now needing to move my seat again, I was not a happy camper. I think it must have shown because the guy looked at me and told me to stay where I was and he sat in the seat next to me.

Comfortable? Not really, but at least I got home. I was really surprised to see that the weather in Pittsburgh was even nicer than the weather in Dallas for once. Always good to get home. Plus, now I know that I will never own a Ford Taurus – not the best rental car I’ve ever used.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 1st, 2007 at 9:16 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.