{Lucas L., I think you especially will appreciate this story.}
We Grimes love simplicity, but sometimes, quite frankly, things get complicated. ...Like the time a few months ago when I {Layne} tried to book our tickets for this trip from Redding to Spokane to Kona to home. Six hours later...I got off my third phone call with a United agent 30% frustrated {working on my kindness level peeps} with Jono + Laynie getting to Kona on separate flights.
Sigh. Despite the inconvenience, we have since accepted the inevitable and hugged each other goodbye at 4:30 this a.m. when Jonathan left to catch his flight.
I went back to sleep for two more hours before I headed to the airport alone. {How did he end up on the 6 a.m. flight and I on the 8:50 a.m. one? Hmmm. Sorry babes!}
...I arrived at my gate about half an hour before we were supposed to take off...only I couldn't actually get to my gate because of the masses of people standing in my way, so I went next door for a coffee instead.
Then they announced they were giving away vouchers for people to fly to Kona tomorrow instead of today. This wasn't an option for me as I'm teaching tomorrow, so I ignored them until they paged me to the podium by name 3 times.
It turns out that right before flight time, the planes got switched and United was suddenly 100 seats short for people who want to get to Hawaii today. Oops.
Before I knew it, I was being handed a first class ticket to Kona for later today.
Settling in for the long haul.
Whaaaa?
My gate 2 minutes before the plane was supposed to take off. Like I said, it was insane.
So to re-cap:
On the downside:
I now have a 8-hour day at the San Francisco airport.
I land in Kona 5 hours later than originally scheduled.
On the upside:
I get to fly to Hawaii first class. (?!) Why hello dinner with wine.
Jonathan and I have a $500 travel voucher to use in the next year. I'm sure we can make this happen.
I have a $15 food voucher to spend on treats today. (I would have asked for more but...well, I'd already bought breakfast anyway.)
I have a day to catch up on my inbox, etc.
I now have a direct flight from San Fran to Kona instead of having a layover in Honolulu.
The airport has free wi-fi.
I have my blanket, laptop and hours of music on my computer.
...I'm pretty sure I came out ahead today.
....8 hours later...I caved and asked for a second food voucher. And then I had to spend the whole $20.
