Bad Beat stories and airport hijinx

In Poker, everyone has a "bad beat story. It's when someone gets very lucky and beats you, despite having a worst hand. Most of the bad beats occur on the river, or last, card. And the storyteller usually involves a lot of emotion. It's one of the rare times that men or women, who rarely cry or get emotional, do.

Now, I don't have a bad beat story. But I have the real world equivalent...the airline nightmare story. But I'll try and make it quick and painless for you...

I had a shoot in Avon, Colorado on Saturday. The travel coordinator at my job books me on the 6 a.m. flight from LAX to Denver. Then I have a connecting flight at 10:10 from Denver to Aspen. And finally, I drive 2 hours from Aspen to Avon! All to make a 1pm shoot. Well, the first flight from LAX to Denver was delayed 2 hours! Sitting on the plane because of some maintenance/mechanical/fuel issues. Since it's 6 in the morning, I text the segment producer who booked this shoot to let her know what's going on. By the time the airline people know what's going on, we're about to take off so no cell phones. But then the airplane turns back! It didn't fuel up, apparently, and it needed 1000's of gallons of gas! So seeing that I was going to miss my 10:10, I call the airline to see if I can re-book my connecting flight. No one could help me, and then the flight attendant said to just wait until I get to the gate.

Once our plane lands, I head over to customer service. There's a super long line, and I wasn't going anywhere fast! At this point, I also have about 10 text messages from the segment producer and one voicemail from the travel coordinator. I call the travel coordinator back to give her the lowdown. And she's trying to help me from her end, but not getting anywhere. I call again to United airlines, and finally, someone helps me! Hurray! He books me on the 11:17 flight from Denver to Vail...which is only a half hour drive to Avon. And I run! By the time I get to the gate though, the doors are closed and NO one is around to get me on the plane. I ask one United rep who says there wasn't anything she can do. And then I run to another United rep, and I beg her to help me. She makes a phone call, prints out my boarding pass, and swipes me into the door! Major sigh of relief.

I get on the plane, call the segment producer and the travel coordinator (to make sure a rental car was available in Vail). And off we went! In Vail, Hertz did not have my change of reservations, but after a bit of negotiating, they got me a car with GPS. I drive to Avon, and the shoot goes well...but a bit late. It's 5 p.m. by the time everything wraps up, and I have to drive two hours to get to Aspen! My flight in Aspen is supposed to leave at 6:56 p.m. Even if I get to Aspen by 6 p.m., by the time I drop off my rental car, I won't make that plane! So everyone encourages me to just drive to Denver. It's a 2 hour drive, and my flight there doesn't leave until 9 p.m. But someone also warns me to call the airline in case they cancel my flight from Denver to L.A. because I missed my flight from Aspen to Denver. On the way to Denver, I make my calls to United Airlines. One guy told me there was nothing he could do. The next guy took forever, and my phone reception cut out in the mountain pass. The third guy was the charm. He made a note in the system that I wasn't going to be on the Aspen flight but would definitely be flying from Denver.

So...OK this is turning into a very long story. But I needed to vent. I get to the airport at 7 p.m., drop off the rental car, and it's about 8 when I saunter up to the ticket reservation desk and ask if there are any earlier flights. The guy behind the counter said there is, but that flight has been delayed later than my 9:18 flight. So I go through security, have my one and only meal for the day!!, e-mail my shoot report, and finally board. Smooth as pie, we get back home to Los Angeles. Thank goodness.

Monday morning, the segment producer who booked the shoot, calls me to yell at me for not following protocol about who to call when flight delays happen. You would think that after all that...the important thing was...the shoot went fine and without a hitch. But no good deed goes unpunished. I work 20 hours on a Saturday without eating all day. And instead of a thanks and/or good job, I get an earful first thing Monday morning. What's worse...she didn't want to hear what happened to me at all! So no one at work knows what I went through to get the damn shoot. No, I am not bitter.