Travels with Danny
Bob: Your life, as you know it... is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk... and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life.
— Lost in Translation
Two weeks ago in my blog I told you I was going to fly to California and drive up the Pacific Highway with my little sister from Palm Springs to Seattle. https://www.awrcounsel.com/blog/2026/7/2/trump-lost-the-war-and-is-corrupting-our-country. However, I never made it to the starting point of our journey. My Southwest Airline (“SWA”) flight out of DCA was delayed several times until I would have missed any connection to Palm Springs, and no alternate airport connections were available. The fact is that most planes today are flying fully booked and, thus, once something bad happens to you, you are in a “heap of trouble” as they used to say. Instead of being stranded in Denver, I just went back home to Potomac, MD. I suppose if my former colleague had been in town, I wouldn’t have minded visiting him in Denver, but Howard was on the road then enjoying his retirement.
My travel policy is to never take a connecting flight. If you cannot get there non-stop, direct, it is a “no go” for me. But there are no direct flights to Palm Springs, CA in the summer from the Washington, DC airports (for good reason since it is often 110 degrees outside). I made an exception for my sister, but the exception reinforces the rationale of my travel rule.
So, I rebooked a nonstop direct flight to Seattle instead and agreed to meet my sister there. That flight left from BWI. I didn’t want to leave car at the airport for 10 days, so I took the bus to BWI. That flight was also seriously delayed and overbooked. First SWA offered travelers $400 flight credit to volunteer to be bumped. They needed five volunteers. I didn’t take that offer. Then they offered a $2,500 SWA flight credit good for one year. Again, I didn’t immediately take the offer. But I did text my wife, who instructed me to volunteer to be bumped. So, I did as I was told. Only one other couple joined me. Presumably two other passengers were involuntarily bumped.
I live about 40 miles or so from BWI and they offered me a hotel voucher for an airport hotel. I took that room rather than ride the bus home and back. That was a mistake, since the airport hotel was hit by the same thunderstorm that delayed the flight and it knocked out the internet and any premium TV. I spent 21 hours at the airport hotel with little entertainment options. This situation, of course, was self-inflicted since I volunteered to be bumped.
Finally, on the third day of my travels, after what was originally a 3 hour and 45-minute mechanical-caused delay, and having walked every corridor at BWI, SWA swapped out a diverted plane meant for a different flight, and I successfully flew to Seattle. The result of my three-day Odessey was a disorienting loss of touch with exactly what day of the week it was. Somewhere in that journey I lost track and continued to think it was a day earlier. It was like that Bill Murray movie Lost In Translation where he spends his life at the airport. Despite my travel troubles, Seattle was amazing and I had the best time of 2026.
Now I have to figure out what to do with my SWA credits. The last thing I want to do is get on another SWA flight, at least until they work out their scheduling problems. Those credits may be a Trojan Horse of future travel problems. Be careful what you wish for.
Postscript: My Alaska Airline flight home weirdly circled over Maryland for an hour before landing at Reagan National Airport. My wife texted me a flight tracker with our travel route. See the blog picture. Airplane travel is getting very strange.