So, Travelling to Vegas via the same route as last year. Gatwick to Dallas and then onwards to Vegas. The final stage is only 2 hours but it’s with America West, which has proven to be eye-opening in the extreme. I did the same journey last year and it all worked fine. The staff at America West were helpful and friendly so I had no concerns in trying to do it again this year, despite Ben swearing he’d never book another flight with them after his experiences this year. How right he was!

I’m travelling on a standby ticket, so being treated like the lowest of the low is fair enough, but the situation today ws incredible to watch. They oversold the flight (not unusual), called for volunteers (again standard practise) then boarded. At this point chaos ensued as they had no idea who they’d boarded and who was waiting! The volunteers seats were assigned, then reassigned, then there was a spare seat where there shouldn’t have been one. Well, you get the idea I’m sure. Once the aircraft left it took them 20 minutes to start to cope with the fallout, but in doing so they displayed some of the poorest customer service I’ve seen since the Westin Chicago (when checking out the woman started processing my bill then answered the phone and started a long conversation – someone else ended up processing me)!

So, I sit here and wait to see if I get on th next one, or it’s a night in DFW’s terminal to look forward to. Ain’t travelling fun?!