I thought my travel day last Thursday would go well. (This may have been my first mistake ;-).) Yes, American Airlines had cancelled flights, but I was flying United...leaving LAX at 8:30 am to go to Denver, and from there to Minneapolis.

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So I got up at 3:30 am to make sure that I got to LAX in time to return my rental car and get to the terminal. (First welcome surprise...United Premier members have their own terminal at LAX! No lines...even a special security entrance.) And, as it usually happens when I have lots of time before my flight, my gate was at the beginning of the terminal. (It's only when I have 10 minutes to get to the gate that it's at the end of the terminal. Figures, huh?)

Except my flight from LAX to Denver got delayed. So I called United to see what was going on, and discovered that there were no seats to Minneapolis from Denver the rest of the day. Because I was scheduled to speak to the STC Twin Cities chapter the next day at lunch, I HAD to get to Minneapolis on Thursday.

After an hour (mostly on hold), I got booked on Delta, flying from LAX to Cincinnati and then on to Minneapolis. Of course, my flight to Cincinnati didn't leave until 12:30 pm. This, it turned out, was A Good Thing(TM), because I had to make sure that United knew to get my suitcase over to Delta. So I went from Terminal 6 (United Premier, where my gate was) to Terminal 7 (Baggage Services).

And then, after I walked from Terminal 7 (United) to Terminal 5 (Delta), we discovered that United hadn't released my ticket. Normally, Delta would just call, but with all that was going on, it was easier for me to walk back. So I went from Terminal 5 back to Terminal 6. Luckily, someone was able to help me...because otherwise I would have had to go back to Terminal 7 to talk to a ticket agent.

It took a few minutes for them to get everything straightened out, but I finally had the release, a receipt, and a full copy of my itinerary, so I headed back to Terminal 5. I got boarding passes and headed to my gate...which, of course, was back in Terminal 6. (I spent two hours taking care of this part.)

If you notice a groove in the sidewalk at LAX between terminals 5, 6, and 7, it's my fault ;-)

The plane for Cincinnati departed on time. I was scheduled to arrive at 8 pm, and then depart for Minneapolis at 9 pm. But between weather problems, traffic problems, and mechanical problems, it was 11 pm before we boarded, and 11:30 pm before we took off. We finally arrived at Minneapolis at 1 am.

I couldn't call for the hotel shuttle until I had my luggage. Normally, I would call while I waited, but I was pretty sure that my suitcase was not in Minneapolis...and I was right. We didn't know where it was, as the computer only said "hand scanned at LAX", but we knew where it wasn't ;-) By the time I was able to call the hotel, the shuttles had stopped running. (Imagine that!)

So I went to take a taxi. Along with approximately 200 other people. I finally got to the hotel at 3 am.

I never expected that my travel day would actually take the better part of 24 hours!

However, apart from the very long travel day, I was very impressed with everyone. And I would like to thank:

• Neil M at United, who spent an hour finding me the flight to Minneapolis.
• Joyce at Delta, who made sure that I got my tickets and even got me exit row seats.
• The woman at Delta baggage services in Minneapolis, who gave me a "night kit" so that I could brush my teeth and wear a clean T-shirt the next day.
• The folks at the taxi line in Minneapolis, who kept the line moving so that we all got out of the airport.

And many thanks to those at the STC Twin Cities chapter, who welcomed their speaker (wearing jeans and a clean Delta T-shirt) with open arms.

I'm now at the Microsoft MVP Summit for the week, and head home on Friday. Cross your fingers that my flights take off on time!