Lesson 18 – Travel

Last week I had the worst business trip I’ve ever taken. Normally a travel agency takes care of booking my flight (buying a plane ticket) and making my hotel reservation, but this time I decided make the travel arrangements myself. Big mistake!

First of all, the plane was overbooked (there were more passengers than seats available) so I was bumped to a later flight. When they gave me my new boarding pass (the ticket that allows you to enter the airplane), they didn’t ask me if I’d prefer a window seat or an aisle seat (a seat next to the corridor) – and I was stuck in the middle. To top it off, it was a very bumpy flight (a flight with a lot of turbulence).

I then missed my connecting flight and had a ten-hour layover (I had to wait ten hours for my next flight) in Chicago. Unfortunately, my checked luggage (the bags in the airplane’s cargo compartment) had already gone through to my final destination, so all I had was my carry-on bag (the bag you take with you on the plane). I checked into a hotel near the airport just so I could take a nap.

When I finally arrived in Los Angeles, it turns out that I had made a mistake with my hotel reservation, and instead of booking a room at a five-star hotel, I had booked three nights at a seedy hotel (a hotel that is not very safe or comfortable) in the red-light district (an area of the city where there are many sex shops, strip clubs, etc.)! So I was stuck sleeping on an uncomfortable mattress in a dingy room (a dirty and dark room) while my colleagues enjoyed the luxury hotel.

The trip home was uneventful, but when I arrived I discovered that the airline had lost my luggage. All in all it was a miserable experience.