Flexibility.
It helps to be flexible.
We were booked on the third flight out in the morning so to increase our chances of getting out I put us on standby for the first flight when I checked us in online the night before. I noticed that the 8 am flight out was already cancelled but the 7 and 9 am were still on.
We got to the airport at 6 am and promptly walked past the mob at the ticket counters. That should have been a clue but I was feeling all smug that I had been so organized.
Not so fast. The first 5 flights of the morning were all cancelled with a likelihood that nothing would get out all day. I called United and we had been rebooked on later flights so the reconfiguring commenced. We could wait for our rebooked flight but it was likely to be cancelled. We could drive to Denver to catch our new flight to Vegas but the roads were probably bad and we might not make in it time. We could simply regroup and try again tomorrow, thereby missing our non-refundable theater and hotel reservations in Vegas.
Or we could drive . . .
Perfect excuse to use my new TomTom GPS.
So we drove. Vegas is 9 hours away from Aspen in good weather. Santa Barbara is 6+ hours away from Vegas in good weather. Just after 9/11, we drove to SB rather than take our booked flights when all was still chaos in the skies. It wasn't so bad.
Of course, this time we did have weather to contend with. The roads were pretty gnarly. We saw multiple cars and SUVs in ditches, one a pick up on its roof after pitchpoling down a gully. The roads first cleared west of Cisco, Utah, 180 + miles from Aspen. We then had intermittent snow storms until we got to I15, 350 + miles from Aspen.
We left Aspen after 7 am, mountain time. We arrived in Vegas before 6 pm, pacific time. We were wiped. But it was worth it. We upgraded our room at Paris Las Vegas to a suite with a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Bellagio fountains. We forced ourselves to rally and get our butts over to the Wynn to see Spamalot. We laughed uproariously. It was quite entertaining, even in our almost comatose states. We walked down the Strip back to our hotel.
And then, at midnight, having been up for 21 hours, I proceeded to book round trip flights from Vegas to Santa Barbara and call Travelocity to arrange for a refund on our original tickets.
So, we're leaving the car in Vegas and flying to Santa Barbara tomorrow. It'll necessitate extending our vacation an extra day but we'll get an additional night in Vegas out of it too.
It helps to be flexible.
We were booked on the third flight out in the morning so to increase our chances of getting out I put us on standby for the first flight when I checked us in online the night before. I noticed that the 8 am flight out was already cancelled but the 7 and 9 am were still on.
We got to the airport at 6 am and promptly walked past the mob at the ticket counters. That should have been a clue but I was feeling all smug that I had been so organized.
Not so fast. The first 5 flights of the morning were all cancelled with a likelihood that nothing would get out all day. I called United and we had been rebooked on later flights so the reconfiguring commenced. We could wait for our rebooked flight but it was likely to be cancelled. We could drive to Denver to catch our new flight to Vegas but the roads were probably bad and we might not make in it time. We could simply regroup and try again tomorrow, thereby missing our non-refundable theater and hotel reservations in Vegas.
Or we could drive . . .
Perfect excuse to use my new TomTom GPS.
So we drove. Vegas is 9 hours away from Aspen in good weather. Santa Barbara is 6+ hours away from Vegas in good weather. Just after 9/11, we drove to SB rather than take our booked flights when all was still chaos in the skies. It wasn't so bad.
Of course, this time we did have weather to contend with. The roads were pretty gnarly. We saw multiple cars and SUVs in ditches, one a pick up on its roof after pitchpoling down a gully. The roads first cleared west of Cisco, Utah, 180 + miles from Aspen. We then had intermittent snow storms until we got to I15, 350 + miles from Aspen.
We left Aspen after 7 am, mountain time. We arrived in Vegas before 6 pm, pacific time. We were wiped. But it was worth it. We upgraded our room at Paris Las Vegas to a suite with a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Bellagio fountains. We forced ourselves to rally and get our butts over to the Wynn to see Spamalot. We laughed uproariously. It was quite entertaining, even in our almost comatose states. We walked down the Strip back to our hotel.
And then, at midnight, having been up for 21 hours, I proceeded to book round trip flights from Vegas to Santa Barbara and call Travelocity to arrange for a refund on our original tickets.
So, we're leaving the car in Vegas and flying to Santa Barbara tomorrow. It'll necessitate extending our vacation an extra day but we'll get an additional night in Vegas out of it too.
1 comment:
Seems flying in the winter is just bound to require flexibility and for leisure travel just drive. Did you te the refund?
FYI - can't get on my email now. Wanted to tell you to check out the Makassar Uncensored blog.
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