The lost art of an adventure

So, as a boy, I remember getting on a plane for the first time and waiting for the plane to take off, the thrill of zooming down the runway into the air, the wonder of the clouds as seen from the other side. It was as if you were as important as the astronauts before you because you were seeing a sight unknown to man for most of civilization.

And then came growth, bad management, and well, everyday American greed.

Today I was supposed to fly out with my son from Oklahoma to Chicago to New York City. He's been looking forward to coming back with me for a long time and today was the day. He was excited, anxious and ready to go travel like an adventurer and see the big city. The excitement was squelched a bit when we got through all of the normal security process and saw the insane line of people at our gate. Then the announcement came to tell us this wasn't our line, it was another flight and our flight was delayed. They'd let us know more when they could.

Two hours later they are telling us very little except another hour or two and they might have more news. I tried to talk to someone at the counter but they said they can't do anything for me until the flight had been given a status as to how delayed or canceled. So, we wait some more.

After checking on the internet, two things are discovered without the help of the people behind the counter with access to all sorts of radios and gadgets for gathering information; First, there are no more flights I could connect with to Make New York tonight after missing the Chicago connection today. Second, Southwestern Airlines does not honor that now famous passenger bill of rights contract where they have to find you a flight on another airlines, in fact, beyond getting you on the next available flight, they wont do anything else. Not even get you a hotel room like say in Chicago if you arrive there and no more flights are leaving out. But they don't tell you this until you demand to speak to someone and get just enough irritable to get attention but not to overdo it as to shut down their customer service abilities altogether.

My son's big adventure today was spending almost five hours in the Oklahoma City airport and doing nothing only to have to collect our bags again and head back to the house and try again tomorrow morning as a standby on another flight.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day.