Trains are better than planes

On the day after Christmas 2000, I was scheduled to fly nonstop from Tampa to Los Angeles on Delta Airlines flight 1193. However, at the time, many of Delta's pilots were calling in, making fake coughing noises, and claiming they were too sick to fly in order to protest something or other. So Delta canceled flight 1193 and the computer system, apparently without human intervention, decided that the best alternate route from Tampa to Los Angeles involved flying from Tampa to Cincinnati, then from Cincinnati to San Francisco (obviously, the theory being that San Francisco is in the same time zone as Los Angeles), and finally from San Francisco to Los Angeles. And I didn't even realize Delta had flights between San Francisco to Los Angeles. I would have assumed one would have to change planes in Atlanta. Anyway, I got back to L.A. about eight hours later than I'd been originally scheduled to arrive.

The best thing about that fiasco was that I got bumped up into first class from Tampa to Cincinnati, so I got a full breakfast while the people on the other side of the curtain got an underripe banana and six spoonfuls of blueberry yogurt. The worst thing was that my assigned seat from Cincinnati to San Francisco was an aisle seat in the back of the plane right next to the galley, and there were a few turbulence incidents during the flight, and stale airplane cooking odors are not the best odors to be smelling in the event of turbulence, at least with my tender tummy. But I made it to San Francisco with the first-class breakfast still in my digestive system, and I had about two and a half hours to walk around the airport looking at all the art exhibits, as well as all the vacant, partially boarded-up airline check-in desks in one of the terminals (because the new international terminal had just opened).

But that was then, this is now. On the day after Labor Day 2002, I was scheduled to fly nonstop from Tampa to Los Angeles on Delta flight 1193. However, many people are choosing not to fly because they don't want to have random people pawing through their carry-on baggage. So Delta has already canceled flight 1193 for that day and the computer system, apparently without human intervention, has decided that the best alternate route from Tampa to Los Angeles involves...flying from Tampa to Dallas or perhaps Ft. Worth, and then from Ft. Worth or perhaps Dallas to Los Angeles. I'll get to Los Angeles about an hour and a half later than I was scheduled to arrive, but I also leave Tampa about an hour earlier than I was scheduled to depart. Which means I have to wake up an hour earlier. Which means I'm going to be seriously tired when I get back.

This is the price we pay for not having to make this trip on the train, which would take three full days.