Guest post by my friend Linda Bradshaw
To be perfectly honest, I never saw the movie “Planes, trains, and automobiles.” I know it was a comedy from 1987, and I guess the reason why I never saw the movie was because I was too busy working full time, taking college courses at night, and raising two young children. But from what I understand, the movie is about a few people that started out as strangers that were thrown together by chance when their plane trip “home” for the holidays went awry. Misadventures and hilarity and cussing ensued.
Personally I have great empathy for people that have been having troubles with their travel plans. One time when I was scheduled to fly on an airline that was called “People’s Express” I had to fly from Washington DC to Newark NJ to catch a connecting flight to Portland ME. When I boarded the plane at Dulles I was assured that the connecting flight in Newark was “on time” so I was confident that all was going well. I had a baby with me, and I did not want to be stranded in Newark with a baby. Lo and behold, when I got to Newark I was informed that the connecting flight had been cancelled and I had to wait for five hours for the next flight. Let me just say that was the last time I ever flew on that People’s Express airline! And from that point on I called that airline “People’s Distress!”
Fortunately, I have had really good luck whenever I have used the US Airways airline company. Although there have been a few times when the flight was delayed for about thirty minutes, the airplane was usually able to make the arrival gate close to “on time.” That has always been important to me because I usually have friends or family waiting for me at the destination airport to pick me up and I don’t want them to have to wait for hours for a delayed flight to land. Especially at airports that are not set up with comfortable waiting areas for customers that are stuck there waiting for the delayed flights to arrive.