United my arse.
We were supposed to fly out from Burbank at 9am, but unfortunately Mark received a text, yeah a fucking text, from United Airlines just before midnight informing him that our flight was cancelled and we were now due to fly to Austin on Thursday instead.
The normally very placid Mark spent the next hour or so screaming down the phone and as a result we were switched to a flight at LAX at 9am which now meant we had to leave at 6.30am in order to beat the traffic as LAX is much more of a pain in the arse and a lot further than Burbank.
We arrived at LAX, checked in and then not long after were informed that our flight was cancelled again due to weather conditions in San Francisco, where we were connecting onto a flight for Austin.
Again we got to abuse a United employee, only this time it wasn't so great. We were given the option to fly to SF and then get a later connecting flight to San Antonio or wait until 6pm that night and be on stand by for a direct flight to Austin. (no thanks)
The band also were having similar problems and were being put on a later direct flight to San Antonio. We looked into renting a car in SA, driving to Austin and picking up the band's van and driving back to SA to pick them up. Unfortunately this plan was also thwarted due to the fact that every car rental in SA had been booked up weeks ago.
Plus by this point we were already in San Francisco waiting for our connecting flight. by the way the horrendous weather conditions that had caused countless cancellations was a bit of rain and some light fog. Or in other words, a typical day in Seattle or Manchester.
At this point I had a bit of a brainwave (it can happen on rare occasions) and remembered that our buddy Derek was already in Austin so I put it to him and Jessica that he could pick up the van, drive to SA and pick up us, (Me, Kellie and Mark) we would hang out for a while and then come back and pick up the band. It was agreed that this was the best, and probably the only option, so it was officially a plan.
We arrived at SA at 7.30pm and were informed that our luggage was still in San Francisco and would (hopefully) be at our hotel by 9am the next morning. While we were processing this information a familiar sight came approaching on the luggage carousel, it was the Wedding Present's guitars. Somebody (not me) had the bright idea of walking out with them and putting them in the van. But I surmised that in the unlikely event we were challenged by airport security, they wouldn't say politely to us
"Hey guys, those instruments don't belong to you, could you please put them back on the carousel?"
It would be more like with guns drawn and trained on us
"Freeze motherfuckers, step away from the guitars, you're under arrest. Hey Cletus, get the rubbers gloves and vaseline, we're having a strip search and probe party"
So we asked the kind lady behind the luggage claim desk to hold them for our friends and she graciously agreed.
We went and had a bite to eat, I had fish and chips with scrapings, we sank a few pitchers of Samuel Adams and then returned to the airport a few hours later.
TWP finally got off their plane at 1.30am, then they had to deal with the baggage claim, filling out various forms just like we had to hours earlier.
Then we finally set off for Austin. Derek was driving with DLG riding shotgun, with me, Kellie, Mark, Pepe, Charlie, Patrick, Sebastian and Jessica crammed into the back.
We finally arrived at the hotel at 3.45am, which made for a 19 hour day of travel.
It really was as bad as it sounds, actually it was much, much worse.
Fuck off United Airlines!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment