Friday, May 13, 2005 - Tonight Nassau West President Kelly K. Bartram was shuttled to Tucson International Airport to board a Southwest Airlines flight to Los Angeles, CA, to visit Tokyo Ambassador Kenji "Johnny 7" Nishida.

The President's "good time" started by arriving at the airport about twenty minutes later than he had planned. Problems were compounded when Bartram learned that the flight he was to take was running behind schedule. His 8:00 PM departure actually took off at 8:55 PM. Bartram was not amused.

"Well, this is going to put me into LA at about 10:30 PM. If I wanted to arrive that late, I would have just left tomorrow! This kind of crap really pisses me off. They should offer passengers some kind of compensation for their time," Bartram stated.

At one point, while waiting at a very crowded Gate 23, Southwest Airlines announced that they had overbooked the flight. They next requested volunteers to take the next flight to Los Angeles in the morning. Any passengers accepting the later flight would be compensated $200 (presumably cash), a free travel voucher, and a new ticket for the new flight.

Apparently, they managed to find enough people to take the alternate flight. President Bartram had considered the idea, since his arrival was going to be very late anyway, but eventually opted not to deviate from the schedule any more than necessary.

At this time, it is not known whether or not the President will be able to meet up with "Johnny 7" upon his arrival in LA. When he gets off the plane, he has to go collect his rental car from Budget, and then drive south to Torrance, CA, where "Johnny 7" is.

By the time Bartram completes these tasks, it will probably be near midnight. The Department of State may instead opt to have the President stay at a local hotel in Torrance and meet up with the Ambassador tomorrow.

This article was written aboard Southwest Airlines flight WN1081, 2128/13.