Ok so my "last day of air travel" actually ended up being my last TWO days of air travel, and my front row tickets ended up going unused.
I got to the Minneapolis airport in plenty of time, boarded the plane no problem. and sat... annnnd sat. After about 25 minutes, they tell us that the captain can't get his window closed and that they're working on it. (note to self, why does our pilot need a window that opens??)
Eventually, they take off and the flight goes fairly smoothly, although a lot of people (yours truly included) are concerned about missing their connecting flight. The paid liars (excuse me, I mean stewardesses... uhhh... I mean "Flight Attendants") tell us that all the passengers are in the computer system and they know we're in the air and won't leave without us. Uh-huh... riiight.
So we land and the trollish little gate attendant tells me my flight is at gate B-40something... (I'm at B3) so we (about 6 of us) haul ass through Memphis airport to get to our gate. When we get there, we notice two things. The gate attendant is smiling (bad sign) and the door is closed. When we ask her about the flight, she explains that while it hasn't actually taken off yet, they aren't accepting any more passengers. (W.T.F?!?!?) When we ask her about arrangements, she cops an attitude (surprise!) and tells us we should have stayed at the gate we came in... and that THEY would take care of us.
So we cruise back 40odd gates to where we started, and of course there is NOBODY there. SO I ask around and find out where the "oops, sorry we screwed you" gate was, and head over there.
At this point, we find out that there's no flight or connecting flight that ends up in Greenville or Charlotte. So they tell us we can get a hotel and they'll fly us out first thing in the morning... arriving at Greenville at 11:30AM. They hand us a $5 voucher for the hotel. That's not a typo... FIVE DOLLARS. At least American Airlines, in all their infinite suckitude, would have covered the hotel.
so we start asking around, even considering driving from Memphis to Greenville (bad idea... all night drive) and it turns out there is a flight to Atlanta. So we decide to fly there and rent a car (only a two hour drive.) We (Bill Ryan and I) get our tickets changed to Atlanta, he reserves a car and we sit down to wait for the flight.
and of course, it's late... so we wait. Apparently Atlanta is having "air traffic control constraints" which means too many planes or something. I dunno (or care... please don't write me to explain it.) So finally, we board.
The flight was uneventful, and mostly empty (which was a nice change.) We get to Atlanta and sprint to the car rental desk, only nobody is there... hmm... so we catch the shuttle to the rental lot... wait around and eventually get our car.
so we're driving through Atlanta... on our way to Greenville. Traffics not bad, it's just late and we're tired. Eventually we make it back to Greenville, I go home and crash. Next day it's back to the Greenville airport to pick up my luggage, because they couldn't/wouldn't route it to Atlanta. (Just as well, really....)
So much for my last day of travel. I'm just glad to be home.