You'd think I'd know better by now, wouldn't you

After all, it's not like this is the first or even the fifth time I've flown Phoenix to Dallas. As I've noted before[^] you have various options when flying that route. You can pay through the nose for a direct flight to Dallas/Fort Worth or you can save a lot of bucks by making it a two leg flight. It ain't my money but even so there's something galling about paying $700 or so to save 6 hours of time. Highly paid consultants need not respond! :)

So I fronted up at the airport this morning and checked my luggage. Technically I didn't have to do that; I travel very light indeed, but it really pisses me off the way people bring large suitcases onto a flight and slow the boarding process by blocking the aisle while they try and stow it. Half the time it ends up in checked baggage anyway. I can't help feeling that if it annoys me enough to comment on then it behooves me not to be a part of the problem. That's the virtuous reason. The real reason is I hate trundling a suitcase around :)

The first flight was late leaving Phoenix and I was starting to regret having left a mere hours waiting time at El Paso. But they managed to make up time and I arrived at El Paso just in time to duck to the end of the group A boarding line and get onto the next flight. Shortest stay I've ever had in that airport! Having a 'tween planes smoke was out of the question.

Arrived at Dallas and that long awaited smoke. Then back in to the terminal to pick up my luggage. Which was not to be seen. A few minutes passed and then the penny dropped; if I made it just in time to catch the next flight obviously my bag hadn't. So I went to the baggage claim office and explained the situation. Uh huh. Nope, that wasn't the problem!

The problem was that when I checked the bag back in Phoenix I hadn't asked for it to be checked through to Dallas. They're quite happy to do that of course, but the fact that we, the travelling public, are forced to buy two tickets each way from Phoenix to Dallas means we, the travelling public, have to remember to tell the checkin staff what our final destination is.

The bag is, as I write, somewhere between here and El Paso with a promise to deliver it tomorrow. Given that it's my fault for not remembering I really can't find it in myself to be too annoyed.

So here I am in a hotel in Dallas needing a shave and debating whether to braze it out on the customer site tomorrow or venture out into the cold to find a supermarket somewhere. I suspect the shave will win.

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I found a razor, somewhat blunt but useable, in my laptop carry case. Blessed be that carry case! :)
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