Tight Connections

The tour of delayed flights continue. So instead of leaving Myrtle Beach at 7:20 AM, we left at 11 AM. We had a leisurely layover in Charlotte where we had lunch at the delicious barbecue joint in the concourse and got a Starbucks. With the free wifi, we had an hour or so that we could fart around online. However, we boarded late apparently because of some security concerns about some unexpected object on the plane. Because we had a 45 minute cushion in Phoenix, leaving Charlotte 30 minutes late was a pretty big nail-biter for us.

When we landed in Phoenix, we had 22 minutes to get from B concourse to A. This involved doing the combination racewalk/half-assed jog all the way through the airport. We got there right as they were about to shut the door and squeaked in. I’m quite certain this is the tightest connection that I’ve ever actually made. I’ve had tighter connections that I missed but this is the first time I’ve had the Indiana Jones grab-the-hat plane boarding.

Luckily for us, this is a pretty empty flight so we were able to commandeer a row for ourselves. This is the best part of the experience so far. God damn it all, it sure sucks that for so many itineraries US Airways is the only game out of Myrtle Beach. I’ll give them a pass on the cancellation of the first flight as fog too thick to land a plane is out of their control. The late departure of the 2nd flight, the complete lack of helpfulness for the tight connections (no connecting gates read off, no notice that they are informing our connections to wait on us) and the general lack of service is what I have come to expect from US Airways.

To put the topper on it, though, is the relentless pimping of things like the Bank of America credit card (sign up on the flight, get extra miles!) I paid you good cash to get me to San Francisco and back, so don’t treat me like a captive audience for these freaking sales pitches. It just infuriates me. I was already pissed about that when on the third flight I lowered my tray and saw the ads for Sony noise canceling headphones on all of them. Screw you. It’s time to Cluetrain up and realize that trying this hard to milk us doesn’t create new opportunities for you as much as it gives me one more reason on top of many reasons to not fly US Airways. I’m thinking that on trips they are the only option might be trips I don’t take. I might also be more willing to drive to Columbia for flights if that means not having to fly them. This is serious shit folks. I am willing to take extreme measures to avoid being your customer. You should pay attention to that.

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Dave Slusher is a blogger, podcaster, computer programmer, author, science fiction fan and father. Member of the Podcast Hall of Fame class of 2022.