Sunday, September 12, 2010

"Don't worry, be happy!"

Originally I was flying out on Friday and had a 3 hour layover in Chicago. I changed my ticket to Sunday and it wasn't until late Saturday that I realized I have only a 35 minute layover in Chicago. Given the size of O'hare, this is not good. There's a decent chance I won't make my flight and I'll bet money my luggage doesn't make it.

When I asked for an earlier flight American Airlines first told me, "This is a legally acceptable connection time." The term "legally acceptable" was used several times.

My panic state reached a 9.5. I was close to a full-blown panic attack.

After talking with 3 friends and a much nicer rep for AA, I decided to go with the flow. Once I check in at the Eastern Iowa Airport it is the responsibility of American Airlines to get me to Dubai. If I miss my connection because I don't have time to get to the gate it is not my problem. If I'm extremely delayed it's not like I'll miss any classes (they start next Sunday.) So just chill, Steve.

I'm not very good at doing that.

Anyhow, here's the trip:
3:30 PM Depart Cedar Rapids on flight 5075 American Airlines. Land in Chicago at 4:35.

5:10 PM Depart Chicago on flight 86 American Airlines. Land in London at 6:50 AM (12:50 AM CDT).

8:40 AM Depart London on flight 8 Emirates Airlines. Land in Dubai at 6:30 PM (8:30 AM Monday CST).

I found a website that is able to track international flights. By typing in the airline code AA for American and EK for Emirates you can see the departure and arrival times. They even have areal-time flight tracker showing the plane on a map.

A friend tried to use the internet at my place last week and it wasn't working. So I'm not sure when I'll be able to post again.

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