Off To a Flying Start - Not

You know how the airlines and TSA tell you to get to the airport 2 hours early? 

Don't you believe it! Our flight for Buenos Aires left at 9:45 last night without us on it.

I took Wednesday and Thursday off from work to make sure that we had plenty of time to get everything done before our trip. We left for Dulles on Thursday right after dinner at 6:30 and got there an hour later. Traffic was good and we thought we had it made.

First, we waited in the International Departures Check-in line. There was a couple with several suitcases at the desk when we got in the line. They were opening all their bags and re-packing everything in front of the desk while the line kept getting longer and longer. I guess they were trying to evenly distribute the weight to avoid baggage fees.

Once we got our bags checked we hurried over to the TSA line. This is where a person can really demonstrate that patience is a virtue.  It didn’t look like a very long line.  I’ve seen the line longer when  trying to catch a flight out of Dulles on a Monday morning.  Just as we got into the line, TSA starting closing gates. Soon, we could only see 4 gates open and the line kept getting longer and longer. We finally got through the first line to get our boarding pass checked then moved over to the next line to strip down for the metal detector. We finally got through TSA with only 10 minutes to spare.

We rushed to the shuttle to go to the 'C' concourse. We actually got on a shuttle that was just leaving. We got to the concourse and sprinted for the gate. Of course, it couldn't be a gate close to the shuttle stop. We had to go to the end of the concourse. We got to the gate right after they closed up and they have some silly rule about not opening back up again. The gate agent said that they had been paging us and reminded us that we should arrive at the airport 2 hours early.  

So, we strolled over to get into another line at Customer Service. We weren't the only people to miss a flight last night. The nice lady there booked us on the same flight that leaves today at 9:45 PM. So, instead of arriving 2 hours early like we did last night, today we're going to leave right after lunch and eat dinner on the concourse.