SouthSuck Airlines

So I walk into the airport this afternoon earlier than originally planned for my 7:30 flight to Seattle, all excited to get situated, put my iPod earbuds in, and just chill for 2.5 hours on the plane home. My phone buzzes in my pocket, and taking it out I find a text message from a friend:

Looks like your flight could be delayed. Check southwest.com.

I groan and head over to the Departures monitor. There's my flight, but it looks like we're scheduled to arrive EARLIER than originally planned, by almost a full hour! Woo hoo! I skip over to the checkin and get my bag checked. Then up the escalator, quick phone call home to let the family know I'll be early, and then through security.

Finally I plop down at Starbucks in the terminal, plug in my laptop, and start surfing our free airport WiFi here at SkyHarbor. Checking email, blogs, news, the whole bit. Eventually I decide, just for kicks and giggles, to check my flight status again. Which is when I discovered the oh-so-not-funny truth of things.

I had read the monitor wrong. The time posted wasn't our arrival time. It was our DEPARTURE time. My flight is delayed. At this point it's barely 4:30. Which means I'm going to be stuck in the airport for another four and a half hours.

Surly sip of coffee. Surly phone call home to inform them I'll be in closer to midnight. Surly surfing of web. Surly working on homework stuff.

All I can say is that when I get on that plane and settle into a seat, the captain had better get on the intercom and inform us that he's going to step on it and fly like a bat outta hell into Seattle, getting us in earlier than we're currently scheduled - or so help me, I just might write another surly blog post about it.

That'll show 'em.