Changing plane reservation at the U.S. Open

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In 2001, I was given a last-minute assignment to attend a Miami at Penn State football game in State College, Pa., and then the chance to write columns from one of my all-time favorite events, the U.S. Open tennis tournament.

Because of the late arrangements and there being a holiday weekend involved, flights were extremely expensive and I ended up on a routing on American Airlines from Los Angeles through Boston to Islip, N.Y.

The Open ended on Sunday, Sept. 9 that year. On Saturday, an editor called and asked if I could stay an extra day because Roger Clemens was pitching against the Red Sox on Monday night at Yankee Stadium. Of course I said yes. In the process of changing the return reservation from Sept. 10 to Sept. 11, I was briefly booked on American Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles. Here is a story I wrote about the experience of both almost being on the doomed flight and my five-day stay in New York.

I ended up not taking Flight 11 because I am inherently not a morning person and because the precious sticker upgrade that I had gotten on Flight 11 was also available on the later flight.

Just now I finished changing another flight. Because of the rain here at the U.S. Open I had to rebook my Monday flight to Tuesday. I’ll admit, it gave me a chill. I’ll also admit to listening Friday when, at the former site of the Twin Towers, friends and family read the names of everyone killed on that day. And I’ll admit to crying.

-- Diane Pucin