Flying down to Bentonville

BENTONVILLE, Arkansas -- Snow was predicted for McCook last Sunday night and I was so concerned that it might prevent Great Lakes Airline from landing Monday morning that I stayed up watching the weather radar.

The first batch of moisture that came through went south and west of McCook and when it looked like only light precipitation was behind the main area of moisture, I went to bed. I had the alarm set for 4 am since my plane was scheduled to depart McCook at 6:20 a.m. but for some reason, I woke up at 2 a.m.

I looked out the window, saw snow on the ground and jumped out of bed to go out on my deck. Even though the snow had stopped falling by then, there was between 3 and 4 inches on my deck and I knew the worst had happened. I spent the next couple of hours checking emails for an update from Orbitz which I never received and, at the same time, calling the 800 number listed for Great Lakes, only to receive a recording that no one was on duty.

So when I left for the airport at 5:30, I had no idea whether the plane from North Platte was going to land in McCook or not. I went directly to the counter and was told that so far, the flight was still on but that it would be running late. Sure enough, it was an hour late but it did land, much to the relief of five of us who were making connections in Denver. The flight to Denver was like others I had made during winter in years past; loud and cold but the important thing was that I was in the air rather than on the ground.

Since my plane to Bentonville, Arkansas, with a stop in Chicago, wasn't scheduled to leave until 1 p.m., I had over five hours to kill at DIA. Anticipating this, I bought a one-day pass to American Airlines Admiral's Club, a private club for American Airline passengers, and went directly there.

It was a very friendly and accommodating place and much of the food and drink was complimentary. I had some breakfast, took a short nap, and then a couple of cocktails before it was time to head for my gate.

I had made up my mind during my last flight that I would never fly coach again so this time I booked first-class passage to Bentonville and back and I'm glad I did.

First-class passengers are seated first, given a complimentary cocktail as soon as you're seated, and have only one or two seats on each side of the aisle instead of three. We were served ham slides on the flight to Chicago and, except for one hiccup which I thought was life-threatening to all of us at the time, it was a pleasurable experience, something flying coach never is any more.

I was only supposed to have less than an hour to wait for my flight from Chicago to Bentonville and I knew a lot of that time would be taken finding my gate because it was quite a distance from when I departed the Denver flight. I got there with about 20 minutes to spare, only to discover that the flight was delayed. I sat patiently for over an hour while the flight departure was pushed back time and time again.

Finally we were told the plane had just landed but they were missing a flight attendant so the delay would be even longer. I decided to find the Chicago Admiral's Club and, thankfully, it was very close to the gate I was scheduled to leave from. I had another cocktail while I talked to some other American customers and then left, just in time to board the plane. Even though we were finally on board, the vehicle that pushes the plane back away from the gate broke down and it took 30 minutes to get it out of the way and replaced with another one. So, over two hours after the plane was due to leave, we finally took off.

We arrived in Bentonville at 12:30 am, some nineteen hours after I arrived at the airport in McCook. But even though it took me nine hours longer to fly than drive and the cost was significantly higher than it would have been to drive, flying is always a lot more fun than driving and it was on Monday as well.

Other things happened on my flight that I don't have the space to talk about in this week's column so that will have to wait until next week along with my five day stay in Arkansas. As most of you know, my trips are never without some drama and excitement and this one was no different.

I'm writing this on Thursday night at Will's condo in Bentonville and will be heading back to McCook tomorrow (Friday) on American Airlines once again.

I hope the flight back will be much more calm than the flight here.