Getting to the airport (at 4:45 AM), traffic was heavy and suddenly stopped right at the exit ramp, a nice "Holy Cr*p!" moment when you're half-awake.
There was some sort of trouble with the parking lot ticket machine (either machine error or user error) and a nice backup of antsy people had formed and took a while to clear.
At the Alaska/Horizon check-in kiosk, I couldn't check in. Uh-oh. I looked at the monitor, my flight was CANCELLED.
After talking to the (very pleasant) Alaska/Horizon rep, I had three options:
- take the flight that gets to Portland at 1:00 PM (silly, for a day trip)
- spend 3.5+ hours flying through Seattle
- go through hustle and gyrations and reimbursements and hassle to fly on Southwest.
I called HP Travel. While talking to them, I looked at the line for the security check in Terminal B. It was down the stairs and halfway to the outside door. It's never like that at 5:00 AM. I considered my congestion. I still wasn't completely over the sickness that had plagued me for the last month.
I decided it was officially a Bad Travel Day and said "forget it", cancelled my trip through HP Travel and went back home! I'll dial into the meeting instead.
I was very happy while I was driving home. And now, in Sacramento, water is falling from the sky. From The Sky! How very strange...
