Authentically Flawed

My word of the month for June was Explore. It seemed fitting then that June was a month of work travel. I was invited to join one of my account teams for a customer roadshow: four customers in three cities over two weeks. In between those two weeks , Jeremy and I had my parents and his father in town for Father’s Day weekend. What could possibly go wrong?

Well I’ll tell you.

First, American Airlines. I have been a loyal defender of American for years, because despite other people’s horror stories, they’ve always been pretty good to me. That goodwill did me no good this past summer. On the first trip, we made it safely to DFW, I had some dinner and marveled at how many trips I’ve taken through that airport. Making the journey from the A Gates to the D Gates was muscle memory and I felt like a college student going back to high school and remembering the glory days. “Ah yes, back when I had Executive Platinum status…I ran things here”.

We boarded our flight with no drama and I texted J a cute selfie to let him know I was safely en route to the East Coast. Put my headphones in, and settled in to take a nap. After about 30 minutes, the flight attendant came on to let us know that a storm was rolling in and we’d be pushing back from the gate momentarily to try to get in the air before the “weather”. Now. I feel I must explain a few things here:

1. Texas has the most violent skies of any state or country I’ve ever been to
2. Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport has one of the busiest runways of any state or country I’ve ever been to
3. June in Texas can only be described as “oppressively hot”

With this context, you’ll understand that as we pushed back from the gate and I looked out the window to see the storm clouds already covering half the sky, my immediate thought was “this isn’t going to go well.” I was not wrong. We taxi’d to the runway and I saw a bunch of planes do the same. From experience, I estimated we were in the teens in line for takeoff. I watched the patch of clear sky getting smaller and smaller, and then, the ground-activity-stopping lightening started. The pilot came on to say that we were going to “try to sneak out through a clear patch but that we were TWENTY-FIFTH TO THIRTIETH in line for takeoff” and that it would be “awhile”. Sweating and swearing, I texted J to let him know we’d be ‘late’ for takeoff. And then we sat. And sat. And then you guessed it, sat. Eventually the pilot came back on to let us know that the FAA had suspended inbound aircraft and grounded outbound aircraft for at least an hour. They let the flight attendants do beverage service while I called J nearly in tears. WHY would they push us back from the gate with a Texas storm overhead and twenty-five to thirty planes on the runway ahead of us?? Long story long, we were on the runway for two and a half hours before we took off into a thunderstorm which I thought for sure was going to be the death of me. It was in that moment that I realized no one has the password to my phone. I need to get on this. I finally arrived at the hotel at 2am.

Following a great customer meeting in Connecticut, we had to drive two hours to Boston for our day two. My friend Alex drove and I sat in the back seat to try to get a nap before the obligatory team dinner that evening. The air conditioning in her car went out so we spent most of the drive with the windows down, and my wondering what I’d done to anger the Travel Gods.

Now, normally when I’m in Boston, I stay with my sister but she had the nerve to be out of town for her first wedding anniversary, so I had to stay at a hotel. Not a Marriott or Hyatt as I was used to; I stayed at a CitizenM which I learned upon arrival was a European themed hotel near the train station. I was too tired to think much about it so I organized my belongings, crawled into bed, and prayed for a good nights’ sleep in the shoebox of a room.

Much to my pleasant surprise, I slept very well and awoke refreshed and in a good mood. I should have known this wouldn’t last long in the Land of Miserable People, but nevertheless, I took my bright and airy attitude out to the street to catch my Uber. As I was standing there, texting my sister to tell remind her of her audacity to be out of town, a gentlemen (older, Caucasian, disheveled), walked in front of me, and made a big show of having to contort his body around my phone to avoid walking into it. He then chastised me for “being in the way”. Um, sir, I wasn’t moving – you, however, were and you could clearly see me so…excuse you and have a great day. This disgruntled gentleman continued to stare me down in classic Boston fashion, and I just smiled while he motioned for me to step back. I told him I was good where I was and said thank you, to which he replied “you talk to much!”, and meandered about his miserable way. WTF is up with Boston? It has to be the weather; I get verbally accosted almost every time I visit.

We had an amazing “Parent’s Weekend” and I was so grateful to spend that time with family which is another blog for another time.

After Father’s Day weekend, I had another work trip, this time to Chicago, also on American. Boarded the flight, got buckled in, and (can you believe it), waited. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to push back from the gate, we got the now dreaded “ding! This is your captain speaking…” He came on to let us know that catering hadn’t been provided for the flight yet. No water, no beverages, no ice. In June. In Texas. This time, we sat on the plane at the gate for 90 minutes. I spent four years traveling almost once a week and never had such infuriating experiences back to back. I wish I could say the return trip was better; it wasn’t. Flight was delayed two hours for “crew rest”. I wish I could say that was the end of my relationship with American Airlines but turns out when you spend over five years building loyalty with an airline, it is very difficult to change – damn you AAdvantage! LOL

Moral of the story fam, explore the world – it’s fun!