Why, you ask? Don’t I want to see the world, new sights, meet new people, bask in new cultures? No. It just ain’t worth it. (Columnists can say ‘ain’t.")

Going back to early November when I had an important trip to Connecticut: I was looking forward to both the business aspects and seeing my family. I always go United - free First Class. I have the mileage for it, and it has always been such a pleasure. Excellent food, great service and comfortable seating. Uh uh. Not this time. Horrible food and service and the seats seem to have shrunk. Horrible movie, ‘The Perfect Storm.’ Actually, I can’t prove that it was horrible, I just know that none of us could see anything. Picture this: a totally blacked out cabin and a movie colored with only shades of dark gray and black. You know, a storm. I dare you to find George Clooney under blankets of water and swirling waves. And, a camera jumping all over the place. Dumb choice, United.

I just knew my next trip over Christmas was going to be a slam dunk. A trip to Oakland - only just over an hour, never any weather problems. Sunny California, right? Uh uh. Remember the fog at Lindbergh? Didn’t seem to be too much of a problem if we just waited it out. So we did, for an hour. When the plane finally arrived from wherever, Southwest neglected to put its arrival up on the board. Our flight gate was still announcing Phoenix flights. I had a real nice low-numbered boarding pass, and was awaiting the board to announce the Oakland flight. It never did. When I heard "last call for Oakland " I and several other souls made a beeline for the gate and got the last seats on the plane, sitting backwards, knee to knee with three other poor souls. I guess I was lucky that that hadn’t given my seat away to a standby. More on that next.

So, coming home from Oakland, I was in great spirits. Had a great visit with family, and I could hardly wait to pick up my kenneled Beagle hound Amy. This was not to be. I arrived at the airport over an hour and a half early. Got in a curbside baggage check line - never seen one so long, but I figured Southwest would never let a ticketed passenger miss a plane. Boy, was I wrong about that. They could have cared less. I quote " if you miss your plane, just go on standby." What a great service-oriented comment that was. Long story short: they gave MY ticket to a standby, leaving ME on standby for the next three flights. I waited for 7 hours to get a seat. Do I ever want to fly Southworst again? Do I love to travel? Do I ever want to leave RB again? No.