No One is Immune to the Airline Strife!

Yes, even me! First let me apologize for the week without any new updates....the blog definately took the brunt of my unfortunate delay in Tampa this week. I was in Tampa for the Aetrex International Sales Meeting where they outline all the new shoes for 2008 and their plans for early 2009. Here's a shoe company that gets it! Comfortable, pretty shoes that are good for your feet! Even better....they fit a running orthotic in a casual shoe! They have some great stuff coming out and I am excited to be part of the process! They call themselves the "Foot Geeks"! What better a partner can I have? "Foot Doc" meets "Foot Geek"! A marriage made in heaven (or in a shoe box). They are even developing running shoes that will blow your mind...stay tuned! For now, they have golf orthotics and a lot of great casual shoes that are incredibly comfortable and don't look like old lady shoes!

Back to my airline story! I had a great meeting and gave a great talk on how podiatrists and pedorthists should stick together like Janet and I do at Healthy Steps. Then I got to the airport. My first clue was that my flight was not on the board at all...never said it was cancelled....just disappeared! The lines were incredible and Thank God I have a gold frequent flier card! That line only had about 20 people in it! The agent explained that all flights on MD80's were cancelled due to the FAA and he would be happy to accomodate me on the 6am flight to DFW.....unfortunately there are no rooms available...so sleeping in the airport was a distinct possibility....That idea completely sucked so I hoofed it to the airport Mariott and begged. They found a room on their concierge floor for $300 yes that's $300! Better than sleeping in the airport! Thank God for credit cards! I had a few beers (had to calm down) went to sleep and got up at 4am to find the 6am flight was also cancelled....what to do???? Let's go to Miami! They have big planes there! I begged my way on the 605am flight to Miami (yes, a 737) and then sat in Miami on standby....got out on the 850am and landed in DFW just before noon....the airport looked like a plane graveyard...they were parked everywhere and none were moving....If I hadn't had an epiphany (Thanks Jim) and gone to Miami, I would most likely still be sitting in Tampa!

As I run by the lake in the morning, I will think about the very nice apology American Airlines emailed me tonight....too little...too late...an explanation and a hotel voucher would have been nice on Tuesday...even an "I'm sorry for the inconvenience" instead of just making my flight go away like it never existed at all....Thank God for running...great stress relief....if not, I would have high blood pressure over stufff like this...now...well I'll just have to get over it....And Run Happy!! Life is too short to stress over airline madness!! (But it still pisses me off!)