Again, I needed to wake up terribly early to catch a flight. The front desk person threatened me that I had to be in the airport three hours before my flight. Someone else told me that the Mexico City Airport is quite chaotic. Because my flight was 7:04 am, I had to be there by 4:00 am. I woke up at 3:00 am, and got on the taxi which the hotel called for me at 3:20 am. The front desk person told me that it would take 30 minutes to get to the airport, but it was not true. It took only 10 minutes. So, I was in the airport at 3:30 am. After I got to the airport, I found that the check-in counter open at 4:00 am. Damn!
The airport was not chaotic or crowded at all. It was too early to be chaotic or crowded. So, I smoothly reached the gate by 4:30 am. Man, I have two hours and half to kill.
OK, forget the tranquil Mexico City Airport. The trouble came up in San Francisco. My connecting flight delayed 40 minutes in San Francisco, which made me miss another connecting flight in Portland. When I realized that I would miss my next flight, I talked with a ground staff in Portland to reschedule my flights. He simply said, “The next flight after that is 9:00 pm.” “I have to kill a lot of time in Portland. Why don’t you switch my flight to a direct flight to my final destination from here?” “No, they are all full.” “Then, put me in standby.” “Then, you will lose your seat to Portland. If you cannot get on the direct flight, you cannot go anywhere.” OK, this is the normal attitude of United.
Here’s what happened in Portland. My flight from San Francisco finally stopped moving at 4:30, which was just 7 minutes before my next flight would leave the gate. I asked the flight attendant, to who I told my situation when I got on board, if I missed the flight when I got off the plane. He said, “I don’t know. Ask the representative there.” Geez, this is the normal attitude of United. I came to the nearest gate podium, and a ground staff checked my status. Yes, I missed my flight. I was sent to the ticketing counter to reschedule it. Unfortunately, terribly unfortunately, there was no flight until 9:35 pm. So, I ended up killing five hours around the gate, drinking expensive airport beer. Then, I remembered, this happened before, in the last Christmas break. I missed the flight (because of United’s fault), and United put me in a red eye to get to Chicago and finally to Austin. That was worse. This is better. Better?!
