Just the same, I'm really surprised you have to go through both Denver and Chicago to get where you're going. Usually all roads lead to O'Hare.
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> ^v^:)^v^
> F"For my Alaska cruise I'm just flying direct to/from Vancouver"B

That's one of the interesting little wrinkles that come with flying space available. Sometimes you see a lot of different airports when flights are full and you have to get creative.

My wife once came home from Atlanta (200 miles south, 30 min. by jet) by flying to New Orleans, then to Memphis and finally to Knoxville with a stop in Nashville. It took all day.

Anytime you fly space available you can expect to spend more time loafing around air terminals than you do actually flying. I missed five straight flights out of Miami once. I was stuck there for about 10 hours. But my all-time record was Kansas City. It took 26 hours and I waved 'bye to seven flights before I finally got on one.

I talked to a lady in Boston who had just gotten off a plane from Germany. She said the pilot pointed out Iceland and Greenland on the way over and she wondered why he flew that far north. I gave her my "great circle" spiel. Isn't NY to Toyko the one that goes right smack over the North Pole? Anyway, I told her that, and she didn't believe that part either.
Howard