Steve's Travel Blog: Great To Good To Bad

<p>Thunder reporter Steve McGehee blogs about his struggles at the airport as he makes his way home from OKC's three-game road trip.&nbsp;</p>

Sunday, March 20th 2016, 8:53 pm

By: News 9


I told myself this was a good trip, no it was a great trip, but my mistake, the trip wasn't over when I had that thought. The road was perfect for the Oklahoma City Thunder winning all three games. For me? I spoke too soon, my trip turned from good to bad when I arrived in Indianapolis on Saturday.

I was all set up to stay two blocks from the Bankers Life Fieldhouse at the Omni. I checked in but they already checked me out, saying I canceled my room. Now why would I do that?  No explanations from them, but I wasn't in a mood to argue the point just get me a room somewhere. They gave me a number to the Sheraton about 15 miles north of town so off I go in my rental. For some reason I decided to rent on this stop, good thing I did, Uber would've gotten pricey while I took a tour of Indy.

My flight home on Sunday wasn't until 3:00 p.m. on United. I decided to fly to Wichita to visit my dad and then drive a rental back to Oklahoma City on Monday morning.  My well executed plan was spoiled. My flight to Chicago was delayed about 45 minutes due to plane issues, and 45 minutes was about the same amount of time I had to make my connection to Wichita. 

Yep, I missed my flight to Wichita and so the fun begins. The United counter said they will put me on standby for a flight to Wichita at 7:00 p.m., they tried the surrounding areas but no luck. "Would Sioux Falls work?" said the lady behind the customer service counter, "Fayetteville?"

After I rolled my eyes, she give me a standby ticket for Wichita (slim chance getting on that flight). My travel agent in Oklahoma City saved the day and found me a flight to Dallas that left around 5:00 p.m., sounds good to me, so I went back to the customer service counter and hashed out the details making sure my bags didn't end up in South Dakota or Arkansas.

The joys of traveling over spring break continued. I received an email from United stating my flight to Dallas was delayed until 7:30 p.m. which would put me in Dallas around 9:45.  Ok, 9:45 it is, so I walked down to Chili's to watch the end of the OU basketball game and then returned back to the gate.  When I arrived at the gate I received an email stating my flight has switched to Gate B16.  Another eye roll from me, because I just left the B16 area which was located next to Chili's.

The toughest part of all was calling my dad to say that I will not see him this time. I could hear the disappointment in his voice. Oklahoma City has a trip to Toronto and Detroit coming up, so I hope to fly into Wichita after the Thunder game against the Pistons and surprise him.  I sure hope my wife leaves the porch light on, it will be a late arrival in Yukon.

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