Having just returned from a weeklong, cross-country trip for a cousin's wedding and some sightseeing/vacationing in the area, I can safely say that the travel situation in the U.S. right now is... well, to put it kindly... a bit of a disaster. So this post is my "word to the wise" for those of us who might be contemplating travel but are wondering whether it's worth the hassle this summer. I have to say that, based on my recent experience, it is NOT, but read on if you're interested in the particulars.
First of all, the situation with air travel right now is an unmitigated disaster. Our flight from Atlanta to the west coast was canceled, out of the blue, as we were standing in line to check in for our flight. There were no other flights available (according to the agent), not even flights to nearby airports. And to add insult to injury, they refused to help us find flights on other airlines that were heading to (or close to) our destination, instead only offering us seats on a flight TWO DAYS from our scheduled departure. This was entirely unacceptable, as we would have missed the wedding and all related festivities entirely.
After a full 90 minutes of back and forth, with the agent calling (and being placed on extended hold) and DW and I calling and waiting on a one-hour hold with the airline, we finally got the agent to agree to escalate our dilemma to a top-level customer care rep who secured two seats on a flight to a city 120 miles away. We boarded that flight a full 2½ hours after our originally scheduled departure (that flight was itself delayed), and arrived at our new "nearby" destination at nearly 4:30am. We only laid our heads down to sleep, exhausted and exasperated, after spending an additional $250 to book a hotel room last minute near the new destination airport, and spending $35 for an Uber to take us there (no taxis available at that time of night).
The next morning, we had to get to our original destination city ASAP, but did not have a rental car or other ready means of transportation at our disposal. (Our rental car was waiting for us at the original destination airport). After looking at a few options, we decided to spend $140 to hire an Uber to drive us the 120 miles to our rental car pickup spot. When we got there, we stood in a one hour line to check in to pick up our car, only to be told that THERE WERE NO CARS AVAILABLE.
Apparently, they were very short staffed and returning cars were bring processed (cleaned, prepped, refueled, etc.) by a skeleton crew, leading to 45-60 minute waits for people picking up their cars. So, we waited... and waited... and waited some more. Finally, after about 50 minutes, we got our car and were on our way. We literally felt like we'd won the lottery after driving out of there.
Fortunately, everything else on our trip went pretty smoothly after that, but boy was that first 24 hours a nerve-wracking, aggravating ordeal. My advice to anyone who is on the fence about traveling right now is, DON'T, unless you absolutely have to or you have a very easygoing, calm, happy-go-lucky attitude about delays, cancellations, and snags of all sorts you're very likely to encounter. Otherwise, probably best to wait until the summer travel crush is over and the airlines and rental car companies have regained their footing.
