116Holiday Travel

It's hard to avoid traveling over the holidays but the experience I had last week really takes the cake.

I flew back to Tucson, Arizona, to be with my wife's family, as we do every Christmas. I got to the airport an hour and a half before my flight, which I thought would be plenty of time. When I got there, though, I saw that the security line was out the door. Because it was the holidays, people were traveling with a lot of extra packages. It took twice as long as it normally would to get to the front of the line. When I finally got to the gate, I found out that my flight had been oversold. The gate agent was looking for people to voluntarily give up their seats for a later flight in exchange for a $100 travel voucher. If she didn't get enough volunteers, she would have to bump people from the flight. Luckily, several people took her up on the offer and the rest of us boarded.

What a hassle! I love the holidays but I don't love holiday travel.