Unbeknownst to me, 30 minutes before my flight this morning I was playing Spot It with Hayden and Keira in the South Bay, 45 minutes from the airport. I don’t know why I thought my flight was at 10am when it was at 7:30am.
Oops.
Extra points: when I got to the gas station next to the car rental return place, it had closed down (but what difference did it make).
Upside: I learned yet another reason why I love Virgin America: if you get to the airport within 2 hours of the flight you missed, they let you fly standby on the next flight for no additional charge. That’s very nice of them.
Then there was more… and it definitely made for my worst airport performance ever:
I went through the security line to then find out that I didn’t have my boarding pass. I had grabbed the boarding pass for my second leg and not for the first leg. So I went back to the check-in desk and checked in again. Then I survived the security line a second time. As I picked up my bag, I realized my water bottle was full of water, but they didn’t catch it (apparently it was a bad performance day for TSA as well). I was thankful I didn’t have to go through the security line a 3rd time.
Then I counted my items and I counted 4. I was supposed to have 5. I counted again. 4. I didn’t have my keyboard. So I had to go outside security, rescued my keyboard from the check-in agents, and practiced going through the security line a 3rd time, a personal record.
Given this trend, I was worried about missing my flight again… I checked the time about 100 times. I got to the gate very early, and then they asked for volunteers to check-in their bags, which I did, and shortly after I got back to my seat they announced: “someone left a coffee mug at the counter, please pick it up”. Yes, it was my water bottle.
