Jetway Jinx

On our recent flight from Detroit to Las Vegas, Jacob and I had to change planes in Houston. During our layover at IAH, Jim planned to meet up with us and join us on the Houston to Vegas leg of our journey. We were scheduled to leave Detroit at 5:30 p.m., but our departure was delayed when the maintenance crew had to board our aircraft to "fix a seat." Luckily, the workers were pretty speedy and we took off at 6:00 p.m. I was a bit concerned about making our connection in Houston, though, because we only had 40 minutes between flights. When the captain announced the flying time between Michigan and Texas, I did the math and figured that we would have about 22 minutes to deplane and run to our next gate after landing. I was relieved when we finally arrived in Houston and I assured myself that we would be able to make it to our Vegas flight without any trouble. Jacob and I jumped up as soon as our plane was parked at gate C21 and patiently waited for the throngs of other passengers to get the heck out of our way. We waited. And waited. The aircraft aisle was clogged with people, but nobody was moving. After 5 minutes, an announcement was made that the jetway was broken and the maintenance crew was on its way to take a look. We had made it to Houston with minutes to spare, only to be foiled by a jetway. We were stuck on the plane; so close and yet so far away. Long story short - the jetway was eventually fixed and we made it to the Vegas flight as it was in the final boarding process. Jim was waiting for us there, unaware of our quandary and the mad dash that we had to make through the humid halls of IAH's United concourse.

Following our return flight from Las Vegas to Houston, we pulled up to gate E8 to deplane. Lots of folks were catching connecting flights, but we were staying in Texas for a few days so we were in no rush to get off. Everyone hopped up and waited for the door to open. They waited. And waited. The aircraft aisle was clogged with people, but nobody was moving. In a wacky coincidence, an announcement was made that the jetway was broken and the maintenance crew was on its way to take a look. Of the hundreds of flights I had taken prior to these, I had never before come across a damaged jetway. I don't know what that says about United's jetways at Houston Intercontinental, but I found it slightly strange to encounter two broken ones at the same airport within days of each other.