'Til The Cows Come Home

Stir Crazy

I'm going to London tomorrow. So earlier this afternoon, I checked the status of my flight. Because I'm neurotic like that when it comes to travel. I was able to select my seat assignment and scored a nice aisle seat in the middle section.

Full of "I'm Going To London" bliss, I started playing around the British Airways website...looking up stuff like my in-flight movie options (which I'm not allowed to watch because it's an overnight flight and I must sleep), locating the nearest emergency exits on the seat plans (which will not be that useful if I have to jump out of a plane at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic), and checking out the lounge locations at Dubai International (just in case I end up there by mistake and need a cocktail while I wait for my reroute).

That's when I noticed the "Latest Flight News" link. So i clicked it...and promptly learned that my flight was canceled for tomorrow.

After a minute or two of freaking out (an improvement from several minutes of freaking out that I would normally enjoy), I called the airline. A nice woman with an unidentifiable accent said, "No, your flight is scheduled as is, sir." I said, "Can you just double check? Pretty please?"

She put me on hold and after several minutes of an unfortunate rock 'n roll arrangement of "Air On The G String" she came back and said, "Oh you're right...that flight has been canceled. Oops."

She was able to put me on a flight one hour earlier than my original departure time. But I lost my cushy aisle seat to an interior seat fifteen rows farther back. But if that's the trade off for getting to spend a whole extra hour in a new country (or in Customs in a new country), then I'll take it.