Travel Diary

This was another 24-hour trip to Idaho for Christmas. It’s done to allow me to still spend Christmas with the family (I’ve only missed one in my life) but also to avoid the insane airport chaos that occurs around the holiday. For Christmas, it’s not bad flying on Christmas Eve and also Christmas day.

So I headed to the airport in the evening and decided to talk to the train. I had my carry-on since I would need to transport booze back home (or fluids) and the carry on would then be checked upon return.

I had time, plenty of time, or so I thought. You see, Alaska Airlines had started sending my “flight delayed” notices earlier in the day. It was about two hours delayed at some point. Now, I don’t mind these as much if they occur before I leave to the airport. At the airport, it’s very annoying as I have nothing to do, but at home, I can just leave later.

Again, so i thought.

I suppose it’s now ingrained in me that just because a flight gets delayed, that does not mean it will leave at that time at the soonest, meaning they could “undo” the delay. And that is what they did. On the way, on the train ride, they sent another text undoing an hour’s delay. This was bad.

There was now no way I could make my flight time. It would be boarding when I was on the train. I could only just wait and hope they delayed it once again, which was fairly likely as Alaska is lousy with frequent delays.

When I arrived at the airport, I ran to security. My “touchless pass” was useless at that hour, but lines were light. After that, I ran to the gate. It was not boarding yet. Whew!

Or so I once again thought.

I explained the delay issues to the gate agent, who idd not seem to really care, which was incredibly annoying. It’s part of their job.

So I left as boarding wasn’t for an hour still. I was in the middle of writing a bad review for the experience on Alaska’s feedback page when my flight disappeared and the app just switched over to that notice, losing my review. Odd. Very odd. I went back to the gate agent to say my flight was gone and they said I could still board if I had the boarding pass, which I did have in my wallet. But they then asked about my flight number. I gave that to them. They said that that flight actually left a while ago. Ah, there was the problem. Well, dang. Not good. But they were helpful then so I was glad my review got lost.

The agent then worked to get me booked on the flight leaving next. It worked out okay, though I lost my first class seat. No big deal for an hour long flight. The whole experience was just poor. Alaska does these rotten things and makes no attempts to set them right afterwards. Nothing I can do except try to start using other airlines I guess.

But I did board at last, flew to Boise, got picked up by my parents and spent Christmas Eve in Middleton, Idaho. Home for Christmas at last!

Oh, wait. One last thing. When running to the train station (even before knowing the flight issue) my backpack opened a pouch and I lost my sweater and my banana for scale (second time!) I discovered this on the train and was not pleased. But could have been worse. I also had my laptop in a pouch. I decided I needed to order those pouch sealing clips when I returned.