Beyond one's control (aka Airline flights)

Practicing zen, deep breathing, keeping a friendly face and the art of running in flip flops tends to be something I don't have to think about that often while flying. I've been lucky.
I usually arrive at the airport 2-3 hours ahead of time regardless of whether the flight is domestic or international and I try to get direct flights whenever possible. Checking bags is usually dependent on the length and type of trip, the liquids rule typically forces me to check more than I'd like. Gate changes are typically smooth and thus far even when traveling with random luggage (like a bike in a box) things have gone well.

Today, however, was a different story...
While we did arrive at SFO about 2 hours before our flight, we had 1: neglected to notice that the airline I'd bought our tickets through (AirCanada) was not in control of the first leg of our flight, and 2: even though we were first flying through Toronto it was not considered an international flight. So arriving at the Air Canada check-in counter in the international terminal 2 hours ahead of time was pretty much pointless. By the time we figured out that we were supposed to be at the United counter in domestic we were sprinting across the airport in above mentioned flip flops with frame packs.
To be honest the United check-in people were pretty accommodating considering the gate had closed check in. This may have been because we were out of breath and just looked sad, as opposed to the lady next to us who was screaming into her phone, at who I can only assume was her husband, and managed to throw a mini-kicking tantrum. Our only major bummer at that point was we were too late to check our frame packs and they would have to be gate checked. I only hope that the nice lady at United used Herbal Essence shampoo and conditioner and sunscreen. Also, we had to leave behind the jar of homemade lemon syrup we had brought as a small gift to give to Dana's parents. However face wash and toothpaste were a go.
We got escorted express service through security (which was awesome!) and made it onto our first leg.

Toronto proved to be almost as trying with a large line to get through customs (even though we weren't actually staying in Canada) and Ben managed to lose his boarding pass for the next flight. Luckily we had almost 2 hours so were able to get through customs, get his boarding pass, eat and change some money. We were almost the last people to board.

The flight from Toronto to Frankfurt was probably the most turbulent I'd been on but otherwise not bad. The turbulence came right in the middle of the "meal", which led to some fun holding cups of wine and juice. We were greeted in Frankfurt by the news that Lufthansa (the airline that controlled our final leg to Bucharest) crew had gone on strike this morning but they were supposed to start flights again in the afternoon. Of course we needed to get our boarding passes for our flight that will certainly be delayed and make our way through the crowds of people waiting for flights that were cancelled this morning. People are tired, cranky, stressed and starting to smell (and I'm not just talking about ourselves).


Airline Strikes Back. Note: this is the crowd at the gate. The line at the ticket counter was at least 1/2 mile long.

Other than trying to make sure I've figured out the correct airline and pay more attention to terminal numbers, I've decided that it may actually be a little easier to pay a little more for the flight that is controlled by just one airline...

Now we play the waiting game, we have our boarding passes and hope we will get into Bucharest before the rental car office closes. Otherwise it will be a very long flip-flop run to get to our first night's apartment.