Missing Connections, but making it work: a story.

For the vast majority of flights, we choose to fly nonstop and direct.  The stress of making connections and risk of losing luggage are not the most joyful aspects of traveling so avoiding them is worth it, even if it requires a slightly more expensive ticket.  If we have to connect, we pick a city with lots of options or for instance if  I'm flying to Europe, I prefer to connect in Europe (at least you've made it across the pond) then getting stuck in Atlanta or New York, for instance.

But sometimes connections are inevitable.  We had a wedding in Austin and made the decision to fly out  of DCA rather  than taking a nonstop, direct flight from BWI or IAD.  This ended up being a mistake, but we made a bad situation better with some quick thinking, here's the story:

A pleasant surprise duirng our
ORD lay-over: Rick Bayless grub!

We arrived at DCA only to learn the flight to DFW was delayed by TWO HOURS because...a pilot called in sick! A long line snaked from the counter as the airline officials started calling out connections that were going to be missed because of the late arrival in Dallas.  I heard Austin being announced and my heart sank.  We joined the long line and on impulse, I made the decision to call American Airlines while waiting to speak to the person at the desk.  The call was patched through immediately and she informed me if we took the next Dallas flight we could get to Austin by 7:30 p.m., meaning a major lay-over in Dallas (it was only about 8:30 eastern time at this point).  I asked her to see if there other ways of reaching Austin and suggested Chicago perhaps knowing flights to ORD happened quite often, in fact one was boarding as I was talking to her.  She confirmed that if we made the ORD flight that was boarding right then, we could make a 12:30 flight from ORD and get to Austin by mid afternoon.  The problem was the flight closes 15 minutes before it departs so she couldn't access the flight to add us, but she confirmed there was room.  I asked her to stay on the line and charged towards the ORD flight.  They were in the final boarding call and although one official basically told us "screw you," but another official calmly added us and apologized that we wouldn't sit together on this leg.  I was so grateful for the American Airlines official on the phone as well as at the desk for making it all work for us.

We did face about a 3-hour lay-over in Chicago, but it was better than the multiple hours we would have been sitting in DCA and then DFW.  Life got a lot better when we discovered a newly opened Rick Bayless tacqueria at ORD.  We wandered around the airport and discovered a very pleasant indoor garden space.  We also ended up getting seats next to each other on the leg from Chicago to Austin and we arrived by 3, allowing us to go for a walk, take a shower and grab a beer!

The lesson to this story: use every available option.  I ended up having amazing luck calling the American Airlines reservations department.  I also knew the other major hubs for American so I could help guide our choices.  I also had to be a bit pushy.  Maybe some would have heard the final boarding call and said, oh well.  I, on the other hand, thought: we can still make this happen!

2012 Travel Plans

I am a planner.  I can't help it.  Because Kevin has to squeeze out every day of vacation strategically, we take this time of year to chart our travels.  Without the dog, I anticipate we'll explore some weekend places that weren't as dog friendly.  We also have a few big trips on the horizon. Here's what we know so far:

One of the many gorgeous beaches of Cat Island.

1.  Cat Island (late January).  One of Bahamas Out Islands, Cat island has a small population (less than 2,000 according to Wikipedia) and yet is 150 square miles so the sparsely population paradise is a beach lover's dream.  We traveled to Eleuthera another Out Island a few years ago and basically loved every moment.  We're renting this beach house and plan to hike, kayak, read, cook and do a lot of chilling. 

2.  Weddings (April and June).  We have two of them in 2012.  One in Austin, Texas in late April and one in Raleigh, North Carolina in mid June.  We plan on bookending the weddings with a few days to explore both locations and take a beach trip with the family after the North Carolina nuptials.

3.  Anniversary (early June).  This year the Traveling DINKs celebrate TEN YEARS of wedded bliss.  This is crazy stuff, people.  And to celebrate this big event (June 1), we will treat ourselves to a meal at the Inn at Little Washington.  We plan on staying nearby at The Blue Rock Inn and visiting a few vineyards, taking a few proper hikes.  Early June is really one of the few windows of time that is nice in the Washington, DC region so it didn't make sense to travel somewhere too exotic and miss the fine weather.  (Now I have probably jinxed it and it will rain the whole anniversary weekend.)

4.  Boston-Hartford-Providence (late June).  June is going to be jam-packed for us in 2012.  I have a meeting in Boston so we are making a long weekend of it and visiting a relative in Hartford and then swinging over to Providence, Rhode Island for a few days.

5. Lyon and other locations in France/Switzerland TBD (late August).  A meeting takes us to Lyon, France in late August, but we have yet to fully construct a trip around the event.  We are either going to fly into Geneva or Paris and then take some time to visit either Dijon, Loire Valley, or Provence.  Stay tuned.  This is going to be an amazing trip!

6.  San Francisco and the Big Sur (early November).  Another meeting takes us to San Francisco so we plan on wrapping in some time to visit Hearst Castle and probably as far south as San Luis Obispo.  This trip is still so far out that we have not firmed much of it up just yet.

7.  Weekend Jaunts (throughout 2012).  We know we definitely want to visit Richmond (yeah, honestly we've never really explored this city just two hours away), the Northern Neck and probably a beach or bay trip.  A lot of these trips will be more last-minute variety (again the luxury of being dog-free for the moment) and be based on the weather conditions.

8.  Ohio (summer of fall 2012).  I am sure we will find ourselves back in the home state to visit family, friends and maybe take in an Ohio State game. 

I'm sure more travel plans will pop up, but it looks to be a full and fun travel year!