I'd like to buy U.S. Airways a one-way ticket to you-know-where.

Our story begins in the wee hours of the morning this past Saturday. We arrived at the airport in Bristol, TN, to find our flight had been cancelled. No big deal; we'd built in a two day cushion on purpose. We didn't need to be back until Monday. We went back to my parents' house assured by the U.S. Airways ticketing agent that we had been booked for a similar flight pattern the following morning. Great. Until we arrived at the airport on Sunday morning to find out the idiot had rebooked us on the canceled flight rather than the one for Sunday. Ugh. So we had no reservations what-so-ever. The same ticketing agent who had screwed up the day before took over frantically trying to find a new route for us while we waited in the airport for two hours. He eventually got it straightened out though we wouldn't be arriving in California until almost midnight, and we'd have to settle for Los Angeles with a voucher for a free shuttle ride to our final destination of Palm Springs, CA, from there.

After breakfast with my dad and another free shuttle ride to the Knoxville, TN, airport that our new flight was departing from, we went through security where my ticket was randomly flagged for extra security measures. I was patted down and my things were gone through. After that slight annoyance, we proceeded to spend about three hours bumming around the airport and eventually getting some lunch at a restaurant inside the terminal. As we were settling down at our gate at around 3PM to await boarding we discovered that our flight was late. So late that there was not way for use the make either of our connections to L.A. Yay. So we asked the U.S. Airways agent there to see if there were any other flights we could get instead. She took it upon herself to fix us up with the Northwest agent next door, and we were on a plane to Detroit, MI, with twenty minutes. Well, this new flight pattern meant one less connection and arriving in L.A. two hours earlier than planned. All's well that ends well.

Or not. Upon arriving in Detroit around 6PM we inhaled some dinner in the terminal and proceeded to the gate for our connection to L.A. only to find out that our seats which had been confirmed in Knoxville were now on standby. Which meant we could only board if two other people suddenly decided not to show up. Nice. Ultimately we watched the plane take off without us but with our luggage. We had it out with the Northwest agents who pretty much told us U.S. Airways had screwed up in ways they didn't know were possible and that they couldn't book another flight for us nor pay for any kind of lodging for the night if we couldn't get a flight as they weren't responsible for the mess.

We called U.S. Airways Customer Service for the next two or three hours; I lost track of time after sitting in the airport forever. During this time we had a new flight booked for the next afternoon and argued with the representative about needing lodging. This woman refused to transfer us to her supervisor and had us running around the airport trying to find an agent on site with the authority to do what we needed. Of course everyone had gone home by 9PM. Great. Eventually we gave up, hung up, and used a free hotel shuttle to get to a room that we paid for ourselves which is something we shouldn't have had to do. At some point during all this Ryan was on the phone with his chain of command explaining why he was going to be an entire day late checking back in and breathing a sigh of relief that as long as we kept the paperwork proving the mishaps we should be golden, and he would not be considered U.A. (Unapproved Absence) which can end badly in terms of punishments that we could not afford.

We woke up Monday morning well rested and hoping things would be better from this point on only to spend over an hour causing the Northwest agent at our next check-in to pull her hair out in frustration at U.S. Airways' mess ups. When everything was finally sorted out around 1PM we went through security again to find we were both now flagged for extra security. Body imaging, foot exams, and going through our things piece by piece. At some point during all of this my apartment keys were taken off my carry on. I know they had to be taken off because the entire ring was missing yet the decorative part of the keychain was still intact. Someone in a hurry had failed to mention they'd removed them. But being in the hassled hurry we were in neither of us noticed at the time. We had some lunch and boarded our flight without any further problems.

When we arrived in L.A. we were sure our luck had improved as we received our luggage that had been waiting for us since the day before without any problems beyond a rip in one of the smaller outside pouches. Nothing had fallen out, and I'll live without using it when I fly back home. The friendly shuttle driver was able to take our voucher a full 24 hours late and drove us to Palms Springs. Then the problems started again. Ryan's debit card would not work in any of the ATM's. Knowing my pin number was safely tucked away in the apartment we opted to go ahead and call our cab to 29 Palms and ask them to do a drive by to pick up the pin and drop us off at whatever ATM location we could pay them from with my debit card. We figured we'd get some dinner and walk back to the apartment for a while before Ryan returned to base. No such luck. When we arrived at the apartment we discovered the absence of the apartment keys. Oh joy of joys. We were fortunate to get Ryan's card to work at the 7-11 ATM in order to pay our driver. I got a room at the Motel 6 for the night, and Ryan returned to base to check in and prepare for the week ahead. This was around 11PM.

This morning I checked out of the hotel and met with my landlord who had new keys made up for me free of charge and drove me to the bank, pin number in hand, to withdraw the rent money for her. She also didn't charge me any kind of late fee. She figured I'd had enough problems. I signed my 30 day notice to be out of here at the first of February and finally settled down into the apartment around lunch time. Three entire days later than I should have been able to do so and about $150 poorer between hotels and extra money for the cab trip to 29 Palms that we had intended to use the Saturday bus for. Needless to say I will be pursuing this with U.S. Airways.

I'm off to meet Ryan for a few hours. <3