I haven't had a connecting flight canceled on my trips west -- YET -- but I have trouble with rental cars. The last time I flew into my home town (which requires a stop over in Phoenix) the plane was so late that there were no cars left. We arrived around midnight, all of the car rental places were closed, except ours, and they had no cars left because of some convention going on. We had to call my sister in law and beg to borrow her truck for a day until we got a car.
On the next trip we decided to fly directly to San Francisco, rent a car, and drive 200 miles south to the Valley. That time, our reserved car was also missing. Even though the "web" had said that the rental agency was in the airport, it was not. The shuttle was in the airport, and then you had to catch a bus to a remote lot 10 miles away. Naturally, there were no other car agencies in the vicinity, so we had to upgrade the car choice which doubled the price. Then they double charged us, and it was another cycle before we got our money back.
We are flying directly into our home town this time. Travel certainly isn't what it used to be!
Agent: I’m sorry, we have no mid-size available at the moment.
Jerry: I don’t understand, I made a reservation, do you have my reservation?
Agent: Yes, we do, unfortunately we ran out of cars.
Jerry: But the reservation keeps the car here. That’s why you have the reservation.
Agent: I know why we have reservations.
Jerry: I don’t think you do. If you did, I’d have a car. See, you know how to take the reservation, you just don’t know how to *hold* the reservation and that’s really the most important part of the reservation, the holding. Anybody
can just take them.