LV to LA to MN

We started from the Hoover dam at around 2:30 pm, a good 10.5 hours before the scheduled departure of our flight from LA. LV to LA is supposed to be a 6 hour ride. We had all the time in the world with us.... or so we thought.

The return journey was fine till we reached the outskirts of LA. One of the friends had to be dropped at his home near the Universal studios. The guy took the wheels and I had no idea that he was going to miss the directions. The poor guy, to his defense, had moved to LA only 2 weeks back. I, of all people, cannot blame him given my own directional sense. This guy missed the route, and circled around for a considerable amount of time. After enquiring at a shop, he was finally able to make it to his house. By this time, the tension had built up.

The guy who took the driver's seat next raced to his home. We had to pickup his car from his place, drop the rented car at the airport, and rush to another airport for our flight. In all the tension, the guy took I-5S instead of I-5N, and we were lost for the second time in an hour. When we finally got the right route and reached the airport, the rental office had closed. The instructions there said that we had to park the car and drop of the details in the envelope provided. Two issues - 1) There was no envelope provided and 2) the details asked for included the parking slot number and there were no numbers in the parking slots. We ended up doing some alter arrangements and rushed out of the place (a day later we found that we penalized a day's rent for returning the car late).

We reached the LAX airport at 12:40 am believing that we were well on time for the 1:00 am flight. But then, the airline rules had it that we were supposed to be there 45 mins before the flight departure. We were not being allowed to check-in and we had company on that count. The other guy and the girl who were in a similar spot were doing the fighting while yours truly was trying to figure out alternate strategies. As it turned out, a) there was no way to get into the flight, b) the best the airline could do was to put us in "standby" for the next day's flight, c) Standby meant that we would get our seats the next day if the flight had free seats, d) Airline staff do not reveal if there would be seats available in the next day's flight, e) a new ticket for the next day would make us pay an additional $180. We left the airport with the thought of having our bank balances reduce by the said amount.

I called up the airline reservation number as soon as the clock struck 3:30 am PST and told my story to the nice lady at the other end. When I told her that I wanted to book a new ticket to avoid the issue of not getting a new ticket the next day, she said "No need to, you are excellent'. I asked "Does that mean that there are many free seats in tomorrow's flight". The lady replied, "I can't say that but you are excellent". I remembered my services marketing class where I learnt that the good nature of one person changes the impression of the client on a company. My impression on the airlines just got a lot better.

This blog is getting too big. So I would just end saying that I finally reached home, just a day late, without paying a penny extra, and not feeling tired since I slept the whole extra day I had in LA. Happy ending!