An unplanned overnight stay

I decided to take a trip to Phoenix and visit my dad for his birthday. As long as I was going to Phoenix, why not have a TravBuddy meet-up!! I got in touch with Harriet (africancrab) and she began to organize the meet-up. The roster of attendees began to grow. This was going to be a fairly large meet-up!!!

I was scheduled to leave Honolulu at 1 pm and transfer planes in Los Angeles. It was a beautiful day in Honolulu so I didn't expect any delays. Shortly before my ride arrived, I logged onto United's website and checked the flight status. WHAAAT!!!!! My plane was going to be delayed 2.5 hours. This meant I would miss my connecting flight in Los Angeles. I called United so I could book a new connecting flight. The next available flight was 9am the next day. Looks like I'll have to spend the night in Los Angeles :( I asked the United agent if United was going to get me a hotel for the night. She said I should check with the ticket agent at the airport. Just to be safe, I went online and reserved a room at the Sheraton Hotel. I got a ride to the airport and checked in with the ticket agent. She couldn't tell me if United would be getting me a hotel room. I have a lot of frequent flier miles so I asked the ticket agent if I could use some miles to upgrade to first class. Sure, no problem.

My flight left Honolulu at 3:45pm. Five hours later we landed in Los Angeles. The flight attendant made an announcement for some passengers to see the gate agent when we deplaned. My name was mentioned. I was one of the first people to exit the plane since I was in first class.

Hello gate agent.
Hello aloha_keith. I see you're set to fly out in the morning. We booked you a room at La Quinta Inn.

Well, now I have two hotel rooms. I called the Sheraton to see if I could cancel the hotel room. Nope, I prepaid for the room when I booked it online. Damn. Given a choice between La Quinta Inn and the Sheraton, where do you think I stayed? I grabbed my suitcase and caught the shuttle bus for the Sheraton. The shuttle ride was only a couple of minutes because the hotel is across the street from the airport. Check-in was fast. I went up to my room and tried to get a few hours of sleep