Keeping score: Does ‘good’ on trip cancel ‘bad’?

It was the best of trips. It was the worst of trips. Nah, that’s disingenuous. No business trip that starts in Aspen, Colo., can be the worst of trips, and no trip that lands in Fresno can be the best.

But I did, on this Thursday-through-Sunday adventure, encounter qualities about airline travel to both hate and praise -- things that, in some cases, I had taken for granted. As with so many trips these days, it was a series of small triumphs and assorted frustrations.

You make the call: bad trip or good trip. It’ll tell you whether you’re the kind of person who thinks the glass is half-full or half-empty. Here’s what happened:

Good: The assignment was to cover the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival, sponsored by HBO, in Aspen.

Bad: I couldn’t leave until Thursday night, arriving too late in Denver to catch a flight to Aspen. When I landed at 11:45 p.m., I would have to take a shuttle to the closest hotel, six miles away. The flight to Aspen would take off Friday morning at 8:46. Nevertheless, United Airlines sold this to me as a continuous flight; when I checked my suitcase at LAX, the computer routed the bag to Aspen, as though I planned to spend the intervening eight hours in the Denver airport.

Good: The United curbside check-in staffer caught this problem before I did, led me inside the terminal and within five minutes had somebody undermine the computer instructions. My bag would stop in Denver for the night with me.

Good: The United flight to Denver was on time.

Good: The Fairfield Inn van was cruising the Denver airport and found me three minutes after I phoned for a shuttle and exited the terminal.

Good: Friday morning’s Denver-to-Aspen flight left on time.

Good: By Saturday, it was clear I could come home a night earlier. The story didn’t need as much time as I had thought.

Bad: United charged me $100 to change the ticket.

Bad: My hotel, the Aspen Meadows Resort, tightfistedly refused to give back any money, insisting it had a 14-day cancellation policy. The first three people I told this to said, “Welcome to Aspen,” or words to that effect.

Good: United Airlines’ computer told me my departure from Aspen to L.A. via Denver was on time when I checked it early Sunday. United’s website allowed me to enter my e-mail address and cellphone number in case something went wrong.

Good: When I got to the Aspen airport, the 1:17 p.m. takeoff was still good.

Bad: Around noon, a United gate attendant casually mentioned over the loudspeaker that my flight had been delayed until 2:30. That meant I’d land in Denver about 15 minutes before my connecting flight to L.A. took off. Too close for comfort. I called my travel agency, which informed me a “mechanical problem” was to blame.

Good: A United gate attendant told us the true cause of our problem: A broken fuel pump had delayed our Denver-bound plane from arriving in Aspen, and work was continuing.

Bad: That explanation meant I would not make my connecting flight in Denver.

Bad: There was no room on another Aspen-to-Denver flight that might have enabled me to make my connection.

Good: United sent another plane to Aspen.

Bad: The substitute plane took off about two hours later than expected.

Good: During the flight, with no prodding from me, United rebooked me from Denver to L.A., leaving a mechanized voice message on my cellphone.

Bad: United rerouted me on a 5:20 flight from Denver to L.A. via Fresno, rather than a direct 5 p.m. flight. (Explanation: The earlier flight was overbooked.)

Good: A United gate attendant promised me that my bag had been transferred to this flight and would arrive with me at LAX.

Good: The 5:20 flight to Fresno took off roughly on time.

Bad: My seat was in the last aisle, next to a woman with an infant on her lap and two more small children, one crying loudly, across the aisle.

Good: The Fresno airport bar sold Corona beer and sandwiches.

Good: The flight from Fresno to L.A. took off on time.

Good: The flight attendant in charge of safety announcements was a former Southwest staffer, which meant she had a sense of humor, once getting our attention by telling this fib: “We have found a brown wallet.... “ She eventually received an unsolicited round of applause.

Bad: The flight landed at United’s commuter terminal in the center of LAX, forcing us to take a bus to the main terminal.

Bad: I waited for my bag at United carousel 2, as instructed by a computer screen.

Bad: No bags came down carousel 2 for 30 minutes.

Good: I walked over to the United luggage superintendent. I pulled out my checked-baggage receipt. She ran a scanner over the bar code. “Your bag is at carousel 3. See the attendant there,” she said.

Good: My bag had been taken off the carousel and was waiting for me in a row of luggage in a protected, roped-off area nearby. It was 9:30 p.m. I had been in transit for almost 10 hours.

Good: I passed an In-N-Out Burger two miles from home. I asked if they could grill my cheeseburger’s onions.

Good: They did.