2005 flying from AUS to LGA via DFW. I had competed in a triathlon that weekend in Austin. Major delays in Austin due to thunderstorms. We finally take off. My husband and I are looking at our watches as we get closer to DFW. Hubby is the eternal pessimist, or maybe realist. He says we're not going to make our connection. I'm saying we'll see what happens when we get to DFW. WE land and get off the plane. We have 10 minutes before our flight is scheduled to take off. The escalator to the Sky Train is right next to the gate we just arrived on. I go running up the escalator with my poor trying to keep up with me. The train is there and the doors are starting to close. I do my very best "New Yorker trying get on the subway as the doors are closing" move. Thrusting myself in, shoulders first I manage to keep the doors open enough for my husband to get on the train with me. Our departure gate is at the first stop on the train. We still have about 5 minutes. As soon as the doors open I go running out of the train, and down the escalator. Again poor husband is trying to keep up with me. (He is not a triathlete and does not run.) I go sprinting down the concourse running faster than I did in the race. I get to the gate and they're about to shut the door. "Wait! We're here." They let us on the plane. Hubby feels the door hit him in the heel as it's closing behind him. We could see the very disappointed looks on the faces of the people who thought there were going to have two extra seats to spread out on.

Needless to say, our luggage did not make the flight. One of the pieces being my bike case with my triathlon bike in it. My husband was very concerned about what would happen to it and thought we should wait for it at LGA. I said "don't be silly. It may not even necessarily be on the next flight out of DFW." We went home and went to bed. At 5:00 am the next morning our phone rings and it's the courier service saying they're at our front door with our luggage. All three bags, including the bike case were there. Never so happy to be awakened at 5:00 am on a day I planned to sleep in.

These days I would have never made it, because they would have automatically rebooked us on another flight while in transit from Austin. That's what happened to me flying JFK-PHX-HON. Big delay out of JFK due to high winds. I get to PHX about 20 minutes before the flight to Honolulu is scheduled to depart. I do the mad dash from the one gate to the other, and if you've ever made a connection in PHX, you know you're always going to be going from the farthest gate on one end of the horseshoe to farthest gate on the other end of horseshoe. I arrive at the gate and the door is still open. I present my boarding pass. The gate agent says "sorry you've been rebooked on tomorrow's flight." But I'm here, and I don't want to go tomorrow. She apologizes and says "Blame it on USAir." (Merger wasn't complete. GA was American employee who I don't think was thrilled with the merger) Very annoying because I was supposed to go to a banquet in Honolulu that evening. The people were going to meet me at the airport and drive me straight to venue where I'd do a quick change in the ladies room out of my travel clothes into my dress clothes. I didn't want to spend the night in PHX so I went to the rebooking desk and managed to get PHX-LAX-HON. I was able to get an upgrade on the flight to Honolulu, but instead of arriving at 6:00 pm local time, it was more like 11:00 pm local time which made it 5:00 am NY time. Zzzzzz

That Hawaii trip led to another "I can't believe I made that flight" story, but I'll save that for another day.