Misfire on embarkation day

I was supposed to be most of the way to China by now. Didn’t happen.

I got up at 4AM to be sure I made it to the airport with with a good time margin. That worked out exactly as planned. Passage through security took a few minutes (maybe fifteen total; Susan had ordered a gift candle for Mei-li, and it showed up in my baggage as a bottle, which they had to inspect, only there was a man ahead of me who needed two bags checked) … not really a problem. I had plenty-plenty-plenty of time to spare. In fact, my layover in San Francisco would be three hours, and Susan and I would meet there and board the Hong Kong flight together.

Except the flight crew for the leg TO San Francisco wasn’t available. They were in Chicago, stuck there since the previous night. I’m nowhere near Chicago and it still found a way to mess me up. They eventually arrived, and we eventually got into the air … three and a half hours behind schedule.

By the time we landed, ‘my’ plane was ready to take off. I was able to exchange a few messages with Susan, but the flight was already closed to boarding, and I was nowhere near the right gate even if that hadn’t been the case.

And there seems to be only one flight per day to Hong Kong from this airport. So I’ll be on the same flight, same time, just tomorrow instead of today. United Airlines gave me a hotel voucher and three meal vouchers (though the meal vouchers are only good inside the airport). I’ll get a fair night’s sleep in a better bed than I have at home, take a shuttle to the airport with plenty-plenty-plenty of time to spare. Uh-huh. (Seriously, it should be a lot simpler from this side of things.) It’s just that somebody will have to come pick me up in Hong Kong, after having already made a similar trip to get Susan.

An annoyance, rather than a real problem. But, yes, it is annoying.