My awful Airbus parked at Dulles Airport (IAD)--transporting me on an uncomfortable, crowded 5-hour flight cross country. Two positive aspects: 1. It is paid for as an employee benefit, and 2. We made up enough time in the air to make my originally scheduled connector (I was unable to get a non-revenue stand-by seat on two earlier flights to LAX). I connected in LAX to Inyokern Airport (IYK) out in the desert near China Lake Naval Weapons facility in Ridgecrest, CA, 65 miles south of my destination.