Blissdom was wonderful, but there’s no bliss in winter air travel

So, maybe I was a little nuts to jam 5 speaking things in four days across 2 states requiring air travel to/from Providence, Rhode Island and Nashville, Tennessee. In the winter.

But I really wanted to speak at both conferences — Blissdom in Nashville and ETC in Providence. So I said yes, and crossed my fingers for good weather.

And the weather wasn’t too bad at either of my destinations. Unfortunately, the latest snowpocalypse was forecast to hit the Mid-Atlantic on the day I needed to travel back to Providence (that would be today!).

My original Southwest flights, through Baltimore, were canceled Thursday evening, so I rebooked on Continental through Newark. That flight got canceled this afternoon, so the airline moved me to a flight tomorrow night (Saturday). That wouldn’t do much for getting me back in time for a presentation tomorrow morning so I called to speak to an agent who assured me that, no the flight was today, just two hours before the original departure.

So I hauled it for the airport. Only to find when I checked in, that the Continental Airlines phone rep was an absolute idiot. I was booked tomorrow.

BUT the ticket agent at Continental in Nashville was smarter than the phone rep and  managed to get me a seat on a flight leaving in 15 minutes. If I ran, I could make it. I made it with about 5 minutes to spare, thanks to wonderful fellow travelers who let me cut in line.

And when I got to the gate, the gate agent fixed the back half of my reservation so I could get to Providence from Newark.

So here I sit with about another hour to wait (I’ve already been here for about 4) but I’m moving steadily northward.

Many thanks to the Continental Airlines ticket and gate agents in Nashville today for their help.

Bread and water to the reservations system and the dumb ass phone rep I spoke with.

And if you have to kill a chunk of time (and haven’t eaten all day) the Vino Volo in Terminal C at Newark is a lovely place to pass the time. I even found an outlet.