No permanent damage.

Now I'm in Santa Cruz. In this picture, can you guess which one of us had just gotten off a twelve-hour, three-part flight?

Here is what happened with the airline, ATA. Although none of the confirmation emails I got from them said so, I had to switch to Southwest at my layover in Chicago. Also they made me check my bag, even though it wasn't too big. Can you guess how those two things are related?

Actually, the layover in Chicago was fine. It was the secret, second layover in LA that caused problems. They didn't feel like telling me this, but between Chicago and San Jose (the closest airport to Santa Cruz) there was a second layover in LA. I didn't have to change planes and we were only there for fifteen minutes, but that was apparently enough time for an overzealous baggage handler to get my suitcase on the luggage carousel at LAX. Southwest got my bag on another LA-to-San Jose flight coming in right behind my own, so I only lost about an hour to that particular problem. Still, I did NOT want to be entertaining thoughts of a luggage-free trip to China.

My overall impression here is that ATA sucks because they seem to enjoy withholding information from their customers. For example, I didn't know about the switch to Southwest until after they'd wrested my bag away from me and put it on the Conveyor of Doom. Also, I feel like they should've said something in their confirmation emails about the LA stopover. Southwest, however, gets five gold stars and a grape scratch n' sniff sticker. Not because they handled my baggage mishap in a quick and professional way (although they did), but because they gave me Handi-Snacks (TM) in-flight. I haven't had that stuff since I was thirteen years old, but let me tell you: the cheese still tastes exactly the same.

I like being in the same town as my girlfriend, you guys.