2 Texans Down Under

December 31 — My daughter, Lyn, dropped us off at DFW just after 6 p.m. yesterday, more than 12 hours ago, so we could catch an American Airlines flight to LA and then a Qantas flight to Brisbane, but I just called her and it was a local call.

We’re in a La Quinta motel in Arlington, near Six Flags over Texas, with our trip extended 24 hours courtesy of American. Brake repairs to the plane and a pilot calling in sick combined to produce a delay so long that we knew we’d miss our connection in LA.

Such stories are so common that they don’t merit blogging about, but the experience has produced a couple of conversations worth mentioning.

One was overheard. A crew chief confided in an AA clerk behind the counter while we were getting switched to tonight’s flight that a pilot was on hand to fill in for the sick captain. The brake problem had been fixed. We could have flown then and made our connection.

“Too late,” said the clerk, “we’ve already told people we’re leaving at 10 and they’re all over the airport now.” So, we could be almost home as I’m writing this, but we’re not.

The other conversation is one I had outside the terminal with a very tall man named Robert C. I’ll withhold his last name to protect the angry innocent. As we waited for the La Quinta shuttle to take us here to the motel, he was waiting for another bus and he was quietly raging.

Here’s his story. He and his wife had arrived from Mexico for a flight home to Philadelphia. At customs, he was detained so long that he missed his connection. At his insistence, his wife went on home without him.

At first, he said, the customs authorities wouldn’t even tell him why they’d taken him Read the rest of this entry »