Missing Pieces

So American Airlines cacks it, sorry, meant to write cracks it sarcastically, again.

That's right, not only does the Don leave late from MAF which means he lands late in DFW, but he has to sit on his plane for 50 minutes waiting for a gate.  He only manages to make his next connection to ORD because that American plane is also running late.  Except first he finds out that 1. he doesn't actually have a seat on that plane, or the connection to AUH, despite the fact that he checked-in online last night for all three flights and even picked which seats he wanted to sit in, and that he checked his luggage all the way through to AUH in Midland, and 2. that for some odd reason he has to now check in his hand luggage, and pick it up from the belt in ORD.

So as expected he gets to ORD late, though it is in fact so late that even if he didn't have to go down to pick up his hand-luggage he still wouldn't have made the Etihad flight to AUH.  All Qatar, Emirates, BA etc flights have of course either already departed or are full, but he finally manages to find a Turkish Airlines flight via Istanbul, which will arrive in AUH at about 2.30am Wednesday.  Which is about enough time to try and find a hire car in this crazy Abu Dhabi Grand Prix week, drive to our new empty house, take a shower, and then drive back to work to do the crane course which will allow him to teach his next class which is the reason he had to fly back today. Oh, but first he has to locate his two checked-on bags, which could be, well, anywhere it seems.

Question: Am I really willing one last time to trust American Airlines at Christmas to get me, my children, my mum, my six suitcases, two holdalls, two boxes (this is just a guestimate.  I have a fear it may be more!), a blinkin' 3-4ft framed picture (don't ask), five car seats and one buggy from Midland, to Dallas, and then on to our direct DFW-AUH Etihad flight without any problems, delays, lost baggage or missing tickets?!

Question 2: Does everyone have this many problems?  I wouldn't have said the Don or I were particularly unfortunate/unlucky/naive (I may be part of the Clan but I am not one of them when it comes to travel incidents!) when it came to international travel, but honestly.... sometimes you have to wonder...