Air Travel is Better - Apparently Unless You Are Flying Southwest (And I Was Not)

In the airport, 

luggage-laden people rush hither and yon 

through endless corridors, 

like souls to each of whom the devil has furnished a different, inaccurate map 

of the escape route from hell. 

~ Ursula K. Le Guin, Changing Planes 

2022 turned out to be the year for travel. Who knew?

One spring trip was canceled and the other was a nightmare of delays and rerouting and lost luggage. 

Two fall trips were easy. Each was made easier by careful scheduling of direct (or almost direct) flights and refusal to check luggage. I stuck with my commitment to NEVER check another bag.

And then came Christmas. The whole family was to gather where the grandchild lives. It was Christmas. grand babies need presents. They need presents of odd shapes and noisy nature. It's hard to mail such gifts especially when grandmothers are procrastinators. 

<SIGH> So I checked two bags. 

Don't make that face. I knew it was a risk. But the flight over was direct so the chance of lost luggage was minimal. After the bags were emptied of every age-appropriate noisy toy I could find * (all of which were a hit BTW.) the smaller case fit neatly in the larger and my clothes fit in the empty spaces. I did have to abandon three really great cardboard boxes in the airport hotel. Space and weight. If I might have to run through an airport I was going to do it with the least hassle possible.

Yes. Three - maybe 4 really good cardboard boxes were abandoned in the airport hotel.

Then the first leg of my trip home was delayed. I had started with about a 2 hour layover in O'Hare.** The delay grew from about 15 minutes to about 45 minutes. It was going to be a tight turnaround in O'Hare.

I knew my gates and looked at the airport map to discover I would be going from Terminal 5 to Terminal1. Okay, I ripped the map out of the airline magazine. Whatever. The point is if the planets aligned I should be able to make it.

Yes. I am one of those people who tears the airport map page out of the magazine. The arrows show my arrival gate M20 and departure gate C20. 

When we landed I made it through Security and Customs (GET GLOBAL ENTRY! It makes a huge difference.) and then had to reclaim my checked bag (which had allegedly been checked through to my destination) and RECHECK it. 

The bag showed up - recognizable because of the shoestrings I'd tied on the handle after the green luggage tag had been ripped off on an earlier flight. Then I saw the recheck line. It was impossible - easily a 45 minute wait. I had less than 30 minutes to check the bag and hustle across the airport to my next gate.

I looked at the young luggage handler at the end of the line and he said, "just take it to the gate! You'll never make it otherwise." 

Luckily I discovered a "Quick Baggage Check" desk in the next through the first set of doors. I almost threw the bag at the poor woman, explained it was checked through to Houston, and turned to run when she said yes. She called me back to show her my passport and I was on the run again. 

It seems like there were a ridiculous number of stairs throughout these two full days of travel. I think there were stairs to the tramway. But the tram was fast and I arrived at the final blessed gate before my group was called to board.

I sat in my seat and watched for a young couple I'd met in an earlier line. Finally I saw them come through the door and we waved and cheered each other. Woohoo!

Houston was easy after all that. My suitcase appeared on carousel 12 near the doors marked "Uber and Lyft waiting area." 

The Lyft driver arrived and got me to my car in the suburbs.** And after tea and conversation with my dear niece and nephew, I hit the road home.

So now I know I can do this trip mostly on my own. I am recommitted to "carry-on only" travel. And I am ready to repeat that trip as well as maybe, just maybe see Ireland in 2023.

On the first leg they wouldn't let us through to our gate until just before boarding - a little disconcerting. 

There we were - Gate C20

This was a joke. There was no such thing as social distancing (and very few people were masking).

NOTES:

* I did get one GREAT NOISY thing that is in the top of my closet for NEXT year.

**On my first flight ever (in 1973) I had to change planes in O'Hare. My mother was SO worried. At the time it was the largest airport at least in the U.S.

A room full of lost luggage in Munich. 

This was a feature of every baggage area I saw.