All the awful, part 2.

Did you come back for some more? It gets better and by better I mean worse.

The day arrives for us to set out upon our journey. And we leave at 5 am to get to Los Angeles by 8, so Jenner has the recommended 3 hours before my 11 o clock flight. We arrive at the cargo facility and there are a bunch of other people dropping off pets. All of that goes well enough, the carrier is the right kind, though giant for just Jenner, it gave him room to stretch out. And the counter lady didn't argue with it, she winked and said yeah he is a big cat. Generally they limit how much space an animal can have, minimum and maximum. I say goodbye to fatty and head to the terminal to check myself in. All the while, not praying because I'm not religious, but sending positive vibes that my hearty fat cat makes it through the flight.

I get to the ticket counter and explain the situation, the baggage lady says that she will let me have an extra checked bag because I'm a military dependent, even though the orders are invalid for basically everything else. Cool.

I get up to my flight and ask the gate agent how I am notified that Jenner was placed on the flight and he says, oh they don't do that anymore. And I said whoa, hold the effing phone there buddy boy. I am not taking off on a ten hour flight without some confirmation that my cat....my reason for returning to the states....is safely on the plane. He makes some calls, tells me I can stand and watch for the van until 15 minutes until the departure. I never see the van. He calls again and says that they are on their way and to get on the plane. He will get a message to me. I eyed him, he was a kindly looking older guy...so I said okay.

I got on the plane. The last person on the plane. And I don't hear anything. So I ring my stewardess, a nice lady, tell her my situation. And said I don't want to be that person but I have to know my cat is on this plane. So she asks the captain. He says Jenner is on the manifest, and if he is on the manifest then he is loaded. I don't know crap about FAA rules, but I've watched enough of the news to know that they update manifests right before departures, so that seems plausible.

I sit back and enjoy my ten hour flight and by enjoy I mean watch some movies, worry about Jenner, don't get any sleep, eat some terrible united airline food, watch more movies and worry about Jenner.

1/4 point to united for the cargo lady not giving me shit about the kennel size

1/4 point for the baggage lady giving me a free checked bag

1/4 point for the agent guy making some calls

1/2 point for the stewardess asking the captain about Jenner.

Minus a point for the gate agent being a dirty liar despite his kindly old man look. He never got a message to me.

United 1/4 point

All Nippon 1 point