Travel Travel Travel

Hi BW readers,

I was away at Babson College for a conference. It is a conference of 43 people who are mainly my direct peers at top b-school libraries, and it was nice to see them again. We discussed all kinds of stuff that might bore the average reader here, so I'll spare you the details.

At 3:15 am yesterday, my roommate at the conference got a phone call from American Airlines. American had canceled the flight we were supposed to be on. They had booked our flight for the next day. We asked if they would pay for a hotel room, and of course, they wanted us to haggle with the sales people over their rules, so we requested other airlines. Once that happened, I was given the last seat on a flight at 4:25p and getting a seat on the connecting flight was not a problem. All went smoothly for me.

My roommate had to leave early for the airport to stand in line, get a flight on another airline, only to be bumped to another flight. The only reason I found out how he was on the airline and what time he was leaving was through a woman I met in a restaurant/bar at the airport. She had been in line with him, trying to get on another flight with AA and they chatted for quite awhile.

Small world.

American though needs to get their act together in doing routine maintenance and to quit inconveniencing customers.