Thankgoodness for flight status notifications

I'm still in Dallas - Irving to be exact.

I always sign up for flight status notifications to be sent to my cell phone. They start 3 hours before my flight. The very first notification had the flight delayed. That is a bad sign.

A couple of minutes later another notification comes. The flight to Minneapolis is now an hour and half delayed. Time to put in plan B. Stay another night and leave in the morning. If the flight schedule is going south that fast, then it is time to bail.

I contacted American Airlines and switched to the first flight out Friday morning. I then got on-line and booked a hotel.

It is now almost 9pm. Another text message came through about an hour ago and the flight tonight is now not supposed to leave until 10:20pm! I am so glad I am not hanging out at the airport. I don't have the temperament nor the energy today to do that.

I highly recommend signing up for notifications if your airline does it and you have a mobile phone with text messaging. Some of them even send voice messages. American is great because they give you all notifications. Northwest only gives you one. If the flight gets delayed, Northwest doesn't tell you. American will tell you delayed departures, delayed arrivals and even gate changes at both ends.