Last March I landed early in CDG for my connection to BLR on Air France. I arrived at the gate and cool the plane is there.

Nearing boarding time we hear an announcement the flight is delayed. We get this story that the plane just arrived from Africa and it's being fumigated to kill spiders. Of course we see nothing going around the plane. No sign of such a service happening.

Anyhow a few hours go by and they give us coupons for a meal. We all troop over to get food -- the certs were only good at one place in the terminal so the line was a bit long.

A few hours later AF boards the plane and nothing happens. 30 minutes after boarding is complete we are told the plane had not been refueled! Holy crap... the plane had been sitting there for about 10 hours and refueling had not happened.

We finally leave 2.5 hours after boarding.

Fortunately I had scored an upgrade to premium economy with a visit to AF customer service so waiting 2.5 hours to take off wasn't that painful. I sure felt for everyone in true AF cattle class. We still had an 11 hour flight to go!

Instead of arriving at my hotel with time for 6 hours of R&R I arrive with time for a quick shower and then right to work.

That's life in the travel zone.