Rome Departure Jitters

So the day had come for my departure. You would think I would be excited. But instead I was nervous and worried thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong. What else is new, KChie?

The plan was to get to the airport two hours before the flight departure. Ha! At 12:30pm (with a scheduled 2:30pm departure) I was frantically trying to find a taxi to take me to the airport as it was now too late to take public transportation. The usual cab company I use gave me a 45 minute wait (the hell? on a Sunday?) so I ended up picking a service from the Yellow Pages. It was an unmarked and unmetered car that got me to the airport on time, but the driver charged me $30, double what I was expecting especially given that there was no traffic whatsoever. Needless to say, he did not get a tip.

My Air One flight details through Travelocity instructed me to check-in with United Airlines. I had not been able to check in on-line, and at the airport I couldn’t use the self check-in counter either. Of course, this got me worried. At the counter, the representative told me that I was not in the system. The thought did cross my mind to call it a day, say I tried, and head back home. After all, I was having doubts about the trip already. But I remained strong and insisted I had a reservation. Another agent was able to help me and print out boarding passes while I wondered to myself if Air One was a scam airline after all.

The boarding pass must have printed out as if I had just bought the ticket. I say this because when I went through security, the guard yelled “We’ve got a live one!” Okay maybe she said “We’ve got a full search” but really, what is the difference?

I made it to Washington DC, where I was to connect to Rome. So why was the Rome flight not showing up on the monitors? Goodness! I swear if nothing else, this trip is either going to give me migraine headaches, palpitations, an ulcer, hypertension or something along those lines, or really teach me to R-E-L-A-X and not worry so much. Luckily, the agent at customer service confirmed that there was indeed a flight to Rome.

Whew!