A canceled-flight saga of their own

YES, Mary McNamara, airline travel is an increasingly chancy business [“Philadelphia Story: She Laughed, She Cried, She Got Wise,” Kids on Board, Sept. 10].

My family also recently experienced the thrill of a canceled flight. We rose at 4 a.m., left home at 5, arrived curbside at 6, only to have the skycap proclaim, “Oh, they’ve canceled your flight.”

This, I should explain, was the outbound leg of taking our eldest child to college in Miami. My emotions were taut enough without this monkey wrench.

I immediately called the airline on my cellphone and encountered one of the rudest employees possible.

The desk agent, on the other hand, graciously checked every possibility, and we were able to leave four hours later on another airline.

Not quite the scenario I had in mind when thinking about my first son leaving home.

After sharing my story with friends, I learned our experience was not isolated. It seems that there is a new problem with airline travel that has nothing to do with liquids or gels: Canceled flights mean very limited options for rescheduling on the same day.

Oh yes, and we did have a message on our voicemail at home, advising us of the cancellation. It was sent about 10 minutes after we were already at the airport.

GIGI KRAMER

Rancho Palos Verdes