Dad Missed his Plane

My father has been visiting for 2 weeks. This morning I dropped him off at Seatac Airport at 5.50am.... Four hours later I received a call from Dad. He had missed his flight to Washington and thus his South African connecting flight. The next available flight is on Friday so we are happy to have him for 3 more days.

How did he miss the flight? Its a long story...

"What happened is that United had long queues, didn't direct my bags right to begin with, then issued me with a boarding pass in the name of paul adams, that was picked up only at security, delaying me again. Then I had to go to a distant terminal so I just missed the flight. If I had known that i had to go to the other terminal I would have worried that I was late. Indeed i could easily have left my luggage to go to Washington, picked it up there and rerouted it, but at that stage I had 45 minutes before departure. My heart sank when I realised the gate for the flight was closed. "

There were more details in the story. They didn't ticket his bags through to SA originally, made him wait a long time to resolve it and even when Dad arrived at the gate the plane was still there. They told him and another passenger to "just wait here a moment" so they sat down. Dad expected to be let on the flight and watched another passenger go on board (some problem with her dog had delayed her). However, the flight had officially closed. If Dad had realized that they were just keeping him quiet till the flight departed then he would have spoken up - his luggage was on board, they had delayed him, he had an international connection - but he was not aware until it was too late and he was told the flight had left.

We have been to the playground this afternoon and bought supplies for tom yum goon (sp) - mussels, prawns, salmon - tomorrow night. Dad is watering the garden.

However, he has no luggage (rather ominously, he was told that once your luggage leaves on a flight without you "it is no longer your luggage" and travels in "other channels" or category). It is supposed to be delivered to his home. I hope this works out. Other channels and not being his luggage anymore sounds alarming.