Barely Made It

After our family reunion I was gone for a full week in CA. I had 24 hours off before I had to be back to LAX to do a stand-up. On Saturday the 26th I was release from work at 1:00pm. There were no direct flights until 6:00pm so I decided to take a connecting flight through either San Fran or Salt Lake. Both flight looked terrible on both legs. Both connections were really tight (20 minutes or less.) I decided to go for the San Fran flight. When I arrived at the gate I learned that the flight was delayed by 10 minutes. That meant that I would have less than 10 minutes to connect in San Fran. The next flight going out wouldn't be until 8:00pm. At that point I decided to go to Salt Lake.

The flight was leaving in 20 minutes and it was 3 terminals away. I ran all three terminals and arrived at the gate. There was a line of people with 2 gate agents that looked frantic. The flight was totally full. I was just hoping to get the jump seat. One of the gate agents helped me. She didn't seem very competent. Before long she told me that my cockpit access was denied. I told her that I jump seat with Delta all the time and just had the week before. She said that maybe she entered something wrong. Then she passed the buck. The other lady tried to help me but clearly the first lady had screwed something up because she was getting the same message. The first lady, with some degree of attitude, said that the flight was departing in 3 minutes and that she had to take the paper work and close the door. I was about in tears. I hadn't seen my husband for a week and only had 24 hours to be at home. Luckily right then the second lady was able to fix the problem and I ran down to catch the flight.

When we pulled into the gate in Salt Lake it was just after 4pm. I was trying to catch a 4:20 flight 2 terminals away. Again I ran. Did I mention I was in full uniform with my roll aboard and another bag. What a scene. In Salt Lake I caught several people's eyes, mostly crew members, who yelled stuff out to me like "Hurry up! You can make it! Good Luck!" If I wasn't so flustered and determined it would have been funny. I arrived at the customer service desk and there was a line. I was breathing so hard that the people in front of me asked if I was in a hurry and if I wanted to go ahead of them. Everyone let me jump to the front. The lady gave me a pass and I ran to the gate. The agent there told me that he saw me coming and waited to shut the door for me. I just barely made it! What a relief! Oh the things that I do to make it home!