(Almost) Home for the Holidays

When flying home for the holidays, I always fly to Houston and take the puddle-jumper connection to Victoria, Texas, 150 miles SW of Houston where my mom lives. 

I flew to Houston on Christmas day and ended up at Houston Intercontinental for the next 26 hours after Continental kept cancelling the 30-minute flights to Victoria due to lack of passengers (they kept citing “maintenance” problems.) 

There were no rental cars available to make the 150-mile drive. 

They cancelled my 3:30 pm flight on Christmas day after having delayed it every hour for five hours. Then, they cancelled the last flight out at 9:30 pm. They put us in a hotel that night and placed me on a flight at 3:30 pm the next day. I found out that there were very few passengers on that flight, so I had little assurance that they wouldn't cancel that one too. Finally, I became so frustrated that I just threw in the towel and asked to be flown back to Chicago, which they did.  

Sleigh Ride was incessantly playing in the background while I waited for my flight-in-defeat back to Chicago.

So, I never made it home for the holidays. I was 150 miles from home, but couldn't get there. I spent Christmas day eating bad Mexican food by myself in Terminal A at George W. Bush Intercontinental. Isn't that THE saddest holiday tale EVER?

I've submitted lots of documentation to Continental, requesting compensation due to me according to their own cancellation policies. I was provided with a voucher for $410 after the first flight was cancelled.  After the following flight was cancelled and having to wait an additional 15 hours, I deserve more.  Much more!

I’m a very nice guy, but being a somewhat-obsessive “people-pleaser” has seldom served me well.  So, whenever I need to assert myself, (especially at a board meeting) I always think of this Joan Crawford scene. This is my "go-to" scene. If anything, it provides me with comic relief and, moreover, reminds me of the mindset in which I need to be.

So, if Continental Airlines doesn’t accommodate me by honoring their own cancellation policy, I will go all “Joan Crawford” on them.