Vacation Flying

Well, I got back ok, but my luggage didn't.

Actually, travelling was fairly painless this year (excepting the whole luggage thing). I left early on Wednesday and returned on early Saturday. The traffic in the airports was fairly normal. It was about what I've experienced when travelling for business during the week. Plus, having Platinum status on my tickets meant I could go through the expedited security line and board the plane first.

The Raleigh (RDU) airport was disappointing. They could not get the plane ready on time. They fired it up late, so boarding was delayed by 35 mins. Then we had to have the wings de-iced. All in all we took off about 45 mins late. This was of a concern, since I had only allowed 50 mins when I switched planes in DC. I got to DC with 10 mins to spare and made my final leg. I think the delay in Raleigh was why my luggage did not arrive in Chicago when I did. They just did not have the time to transfer it to the second flight.

American Airlines was pretty responsive and I was able to fill out a report in a minimum of time. My luggage is supposed to be delivered sometime today, so we'll see. Fortunately, the only thing I *need* is my electric toothbrush. I bought a regular toothbrush, so no fuzzy-teeth today...

All in all, flying over Thanksgiving was not as painful as some of the doomsayers in my life were prophesying.