Flight home

My flight home was scheduled for Dec 21st, but when I arrived at the airport I was told that the flight was cancelled. I was given an 800 number to schedule a new flight, which took 15 minutes to get through. My original flight was a direct flight, but my new flight, which was the next day, had a connection though Dallas. I dislike connections since they take up so much extra time. I'm usually willing to pay up to $40 more for a direct flight.
The next day when I checked online, I didn't actually have a seat on the Dallas-Chicago flight. I was a bit worried that I wasn't going to be able to get a seat on the flight. When I did my electronic check-in at the airport, I was given a priority seating pass instead of a ticket for the Dallas-Chicago leg of the flight. The pass said to bring it to the gate (in Dallas). When I arrived in Dallas, I went to the gate and they exchanged the pass for the ticket. I'm assuming they would eventually find a volunteer to give up his seet in exchange for a travel voucher.
My flight in Dallas ended up being delayed for 2 hours. It's a good thing my flight wasn't any later, since the later flights to Chicago was cancelled that day. By the time I reached my final destination (my brother's house), I had been traveling for 11 hours, not including the day I lost due to the cancelled flight! My total travel time is usually less than half of that.