Another trip from Hell

Yet another installment of “trips from Hell.”

I was supposed to go to Boston yesterday so I could visit a client there today.  My flight was scheduled to leave Austin at 1:30 pm, stop in Houston, and then head to Boston, arriving at about 8:30.  Thunderstorms in Houston and a mechanical problem with the airplane left us sitting on the ramp in Austin without air conditioning for over two hours.  When I finally got to Houston on a different flight, there was only one more flight to Boston and it was oversold.  And when standby didn’t work out it was too late to get a flight back to Austin.  So I got to spend the night at a shitty little Quality Inn by the Houston airport (do not stay there–the place is a dump) and caught a flight back to Austin this morning.    I’m scheduled to try the Boston trip again on August 6.  I wonder what can go wrong this time.

Of the dozen or so trips I’ve taken in the last year, I’ve experienced significant delays or cancellations with at least half of them.  I don’t know how frequent travelers do it.  With a 50% delay rate, I’d go nuts if I had to travel more often than I do.