permutations and combinations: February 4, 2007

How many ways can US Air route me between Dallas and Portland? Let's see. In December, I went through Reagan. Going up it was a single flight with one stop (but we changed aircraft . . . that's a whole other story). Coming back it was 2 flights. On January 8, I went from Dallas to Reagan to LaGuardia to Dallas. My delayed suitcase got to go Dallas to Reagan to Portland. On February 1, I went Portland to LaGuardia to Charlotte to Dallas. February 4 I was scheduled to go Dallas to Reagan to LaGuardia to Portland but my Dallas to Reagan was delayed and the very nice gate attendant re-routed me Dallas to Philadelphia to Portland. I was scheduled to arrive within 6 minutes of the original plan, but it gave me a nice layover in Philly where I shouldn't have to RUN to my next gate and I only have to do 1 flight change instead of 2. There are actually more combinations available, I saw some inefficient ones when I booked my flight, but those are the ones I've tried so far.

My luggage was delayed on 100% of my flights on the first three (On January 8, I had 2 bags and one made it but one didn't). Add to that: on my first trip on US Air from Dallas to New York a year ago, my luggage was delayed on both legs of that round trip. Fortunately, my suitcase made it on the wild run through Charlotte (2 flight changes) on Feb. 1. Good thing, since otherwise I would've had to go camping without any gear and probably picked the suitcase up at the airport on my way back out of town. ;-) I packed one suitcase inside another plus all my gear because I had a very long list of things to pick up while in Dallas. So I checked 2 bags on Feb. 4. Guess what. They didn't make it. So 4 out of 5 trips between Dallas and Portland and 6 out of 7 trips on USAir, my luggage hasn't arrived on the same flight as me. At least it always arrives! US Air delivered it to the side porch of my house, as requested sometime after 11:30pm Feb. 4 and before 7:00am Feb. 5. And they even wrapped them in very nice plastic bags (to keep the snow off?). I was impressed.

And I have to say, everyone I've ever dealt with at US Air has been incredibly nice. The people at that airline almost make up for the baggage service (or lack thereof).