Red Eyes
Sometimes it really helps to know your options.
I got to SFO two hours early for my red eye back east. My plans were to complete the loop by returning to Norfolk to pick up my son who I had deposited at his grandparents, and drive back to Raleigh tomorrow.
The first thing I do when I get to a terminal is to check to see if the plane is at the gate. If so, you generally will leave on time. If not, there may be problems. I saw the plane, so I was lulled into a false sense of security.
The problem this time wasn't the plane. It was the pilot. He wouldn't be arriving for three hours. You see, he was busy flying another plane... one that must have been delayed due to weather in some other part of the country and wouldn't make it here for another three hours.
At 12:30 in the morning options are limited. We all lined up to make arrangements as we were all going to miss our connections. And there was only one agent to help us. All of us. A 757 full of missed connections. So I stood in line for an hour.
Options are limited at 12:30 in the morning because all the other flights had left. I would have had more options two hours ago, and they should have been able to figure out that the flight was going to be delayed back then, but if they did, they didn't tell me.
Katie was wonderful. She was working past her shift. Her relief hadn't arrived. She had a long line of problems to deal with. She dealt with each of us cheerfully and knowledgably. The couple in front of me were going to Aruba. They had saved up for a vacation. Now they were going to lose one full day out of the week they had planned. There wasn't much that Katie could do for them. The wife tried to ask for an upgrade. Katie replied that this wasn't an option. They asked for somebody else they could talk to. Katie was polite but firm - she wasn't going to pass the buck. She assured them that if there was any way it could be done, she would have done it. They seemed to believe her. I certainly did.
There are three flights daily from DFW to Norfolk. One that I would miss. The next one was full. I had a chance to make the last flight out. It would mean spending the day in DFW - not something I relished. And getting into Norfolk at close to midnight. I asked what other options I had. She checked the morning flights through other hubs. There didn't seem to be any better alternative.
So I asked what was the latest I could leave SFO to make the flight. She seemed puzzled, but complied. There was a flight at 12:11 pm that I could make. But she didn't understand why that was better.
I asked to be put up in a hotel for the night. It seems that when a flight is missed due to no fault of the passenger and no reasonable alternative exists, the airline will pay for one night at a hotel. I'll take a good night's sleep over a zombie like existance due to sleep deprivation at DFW any day.
Besides, there is generally better access to power sources and the internet at a hotel.
She had to make a phone call to her supervisor. He approved. Suddenly I had more options. The airline was faced with real expense. Another call to the supervisor. Would I accept a flight to Richmond instead and a shuttle ride? I would get to my father in law's house by three.
That beats a hotel room any day.