The Layover

On a recent flight to the West Coast I had a 4 hour layover, which is a result of someone else booking my flight for me. That gave me too much time to get annoyed so I started typing. First I have a request for those who book flights for others. Please do not book a flight for someone else that you wouldn’t take yourself. Would you book yourself on a flight with a 4 hour layover. A layover long enough that despite the first flight being 45 minutes late you have enough time to watch 2 flights to your destination take off before the flight you are on? If not, please don’t do it for others. If so, please don’t do it for other either.

During the typing breaks on my layover I people watched, called Kim, people watched again, talked to Jibreel, texted, people watched some more, called Jameel, and people watched. I’m sure there will be more, but that’s as far as I’ve made it on my layover. By the way, the people watching in Houston isn’t nearly as entertaining as the people watching in Atlanta.

I told myself I was going to forget about this layover, but it’s hard to do while I’m sitting here so let’s talk about communication. Before this flight was booked I was asked if I would mind leaving in the afternoon instead of the evening as initially stated. I replied saying leaving in the afternoon was fine. Then I was sent an itinerary with a 4 hour layover. I replied asking for it to be changed and said I didn’t mind departing in the afternoon, but did mind departing early just to sit in an airport in Houston. I was then told I had to have a layover since I was flying out of a small airport and that was as good as it was going to get.

My next thought at this point was to ask for the flight to be cancelled because I wouldn’t be on it, but since the event was being run by a friend I tried to let it go. I failed because the thought of a 9 hour travel day due to a 4 hour layover wasn’t something I was looking forward to. I became extremely annoyed when I got to the layover airport in time to catch 2 flights that would leave before the flight I was scheduled on. I think I typed that once already, but it’s that annoying.

Let’s move to other annoying topics, the airport carts that drive people from gate to gate. Not actually the carts as much as the drivers because they would constantly yell something about the cart coming through and telling everyone to get out of their way. I’m waiting for the day someone snaps on one of the cart drivers after being told to move one too many times.

Yes, I was a little grouchy as I started this. I’m not a fan of extended layovers and was hungry. I’m still a little grouchy, but not nearly as hungry. Of course I probably will be hungry again before I get on my flight.

I forgot to mention the reason for the delay on the first flight. There were tornados, but despite there being tornados, not having a plane at our gate, and it being past our departure time, the airline never said we were having a delay. The gate screen said we were on time the entire time. The flight was probably reported as an on time departure despite departing and arriving late.

Following the layover we had the snorer. A guy in the row behind me slept and snored almost the entire flight. I could hear him even when I had my headphones on. I could tell the lady in my row that was directly in front of him was annoyed an having trouble napping herself because of the snorer.