I "heart" US Airlines

Sorry to take so long. I have finally started work and have access easy access to the internet without paying by the hour at a cafe. The following is a brief synopsis of my wonderful trip to Sydney.

So it was finally time for me to leave for Australia. My itinerary was set as:
Depart Arrive
Greensboro - Charlotte 3:55 4:44
Charlotte - San Francisco 6:00 8:17
San Francisco - Sydney 10:55 6:25 am (9/2)

Well that was my "original" itinerary. On arrival at the gate in GBO, I found out my flight was delayed and that they were trying to make "arrangements". These arrangements turned out to be a shuttle to Charlotte since the delay was going to cause most of the flight to miss their connections. That was at 3:00pm.

I thought that should be no problem, it should take 1.5 or 2 hrs in the van with traffic. My personal best to get from Greensboro to Charlotte is substantially quicker. So after retrieving checked luggage and loading the vans, we were on our way, 3:15; after a quick stop for gas, 3:30. On a side note, I managed to take just five bags (3 checked bags, a small carry on and a laptop bag) for my move to Sydney. However, they did way about 160lbs all together.

We had 10 plus the driver in the van. The passengers of note were the Complainer, the Coed, the Henpecked Husband, the Sleeper, the Quiet Guy, Juan y Juan and the "Boys". Our driver seemed to be a recent immigrant from Africa, whose command of the English language was lacking.

The Sleeper, well she slept or pretended to most of the way. The Quiet guy was quiet. And Juan y Juan (eavesdropping I know one of their names was Juan but never caught the other one) basically were quiet except when they decided to curse in Spanish at the driver, at the airline and just in general. Every 10 or 20 minutes the Complainer would ask how far Charlotte was, when would we get there and what the @(*&#^ was taking so long. The driver would stoically reply with silence. The Boys (both in their mid twenties with frosted blonde hair and 1 size too small clothes) would chat and giggle most of the way. The Henpecked Husband was mostly quiet, except for the four or five phone calls from his wife. He proceeded to get more and more irate at the possibility of missing his flight to Key West to meet his wife for the week. The Coed and I exchanged pleasantries but that was about it. The van was permeated with a sense of urgency and annoyance that drove most of us to just sit quietly.

The first hints of trouble started with the three car accidents on I-85. Fortunately they didn't slow us down that much. The driver maintained the fastest speed he could, sometimes against better judgment. I never knew a 10 passenger van with over 360,000 miles would still go over 70mph with just a moderate shudder. Traffic did finally get the better of us and we came to a standstill more than once. (insert Complainer complaining and Mr. Henpeck complaining to his wife that it wasn't his fault and what did she want him to do about it). We finally got to Charlotte and saw signs for the airport close to 5:15. I was pretty much resigned to the fact that I wouldn't make my flight (we all still had to recheck our bags, pass security and get to our gates) and was trying to at least make light of things.

My joking finally caught Ms. Complainer's ire and then we all found out that she was actually just trying to get to her friend's house in Charlotte and not make a connection. Before I could react, Ms. Coed told her that it would be in her best interest to be quiet since the rest of us were trying to start our travels. After a few words, Ms. Complainer ditched her ego and was quiet the rest of the way.

Next thing you know Mr. Henpeck is complaining to his wife again and said "at least I'm not trying to go to China". After which he got annoyed with a few of us trying to laugh this impeding debacle off. He made a comment and I informed him that I WAS trying to move to Australia, whereas it's not quite the same as China, it's a whole lot farther than Key West. He got the hint and joined Ms. Complainer in quiet solitude. All of this was happening while the driver was careening around corners and speeding down a "short cut". A few of us offered tips as to where the airport was but fell on deaf ears. After wandering around Mecklenburg County (including Steele Creek, N Lake Wylie and crisscrossing Highway 77 4 times), the driver decides it is a good idea to ask for directions.

Unfortunately this involves driving on the left-hand side of the road, pulling up to cars at a stop light until someone else rolled down their window. After two or three attempts like this we managed to see the control tower through the trees. However it took our intrepid driver 30+ more minutes to figure out the way to the airport (including stopping at a truck junk yard for directions, cutting off several other drivers and finally driving past and then backing up to the entrance to the airport with traffic behind us and oncoming).

Finally we were at the Charlotte airport. 6:20. Just a little late. The clerks at Charlotte were able to put me on a flight to Phoenix and then to San Francisco. Unfortunately it was an hour too late to catch the flight in Sydney. So I collected my bags and went to the airline appointed hotel to stay the night in San Francisco. After waiting around the San Francisco airport all the next day, I was finally on my flight to Sydney at 10:55 pm 9/1.

Depart Arrive
Greensboro - Charlotte 3:15pm 6:20 (yeah the driver got lost)
Charlotte - Phoenix 7:49 9:00
Phoenix - San Francisco 9:30 11:30 pm (8/31)
San Francisco - Sydney 10:55 pm (9/1) 6:25 am (9/3)
Yes this leg was about 14 hrs. Talk about fun

Since I was a day late getting to Sydney, my transportation from the airport was unable to be changed to accommodate my new schedule. So I cleared immigration, collected my bags, cleared customs and caught a cab to the Sydney office. After picking up the address for my temporary housing and collecting the keys, I was finally officially in Sydney.

I did file a complaint to US Air and they gave me about $300 in a voucher that I have to redeem in person at a US Airways counter to use. That's going to do me a fat lot of good.