A Few Thoughts…

Time for my ‘worst airline trip ever’ story:

I came out to Baltimore for a quarterly LTP meeting. Nothing out of the normal, there are daily commuter hops from CVG to BWI which makes the trip shorter than a drive to Columbus. I should have known things were going to be weird when the return direct flights were booked more than 2 weeks out. I didn’t think much of it, and got a connecting flight through ATL with a ~2 hour layover as good padding.

The LTP day went pretty well - some parts were interesting, others not so much - fairly normal. It was an awesome day outside, so we were able to do some of the little group things out in the courtyard which was cool. The weather forecast showed basically no weather across the entire country except for the far northwest, and parts of Texas, Michigan, and Maine. All indicators of smooth sailing on the trip back.

We left the LTP meeting a little early as normal for us all to catch our flights. Chris & Dan have a 1730 flight to ATL, and mine is at 1815 or so. I let them check in first, and when I go the kiosk thing says that I need to go talk to a kiosk assistant. Thinking I might have typed something in wrong, so I try again. No difference. I ask the lady behind the kiosks, and she looks up some information and informs me that my flight is delayed to ATL and I will miss my flight to CVG. The only option is to rebook. To the full-service ticketing line I go.

At this point I REALLY which I was a medallion member - there are 2 or 3 people in that line, as opposed to the 30 or so in mine. I wait, and I make it to the counter, and the guy starts looking for flights. Basically, nothing into or out of ATL will work at this point. Not entirely surprising. I knew there were some other options when I was booking, but I wait to see what he comes up with. He finds a flight through JFK, which makes me a little leery knowing how many problems originate from JFK. The guys says the other flights have been on time today, and the plane to JFK was already at the gate - and the flight doesn’t leave for another 90 minutes.

Knowing the weather and the current circumstances, I take the flight. Now to wait - I make a few calls to update family of the new flights, and read some things on my phone. I think I also played a little brickbreaker too. Anyway, onto the plane, and all is well. I have my radio and I’m trying to listen in on all the ground traffic, more as a curiosity than anything else.

Eventually, we close up (running a little behind because of some weather), and move on to taxi. This is where things really start to go downhill. The time: 1830. I start hearing over the radio our pilot talking to ground control about a later departure time at 2345Z (which would be 1945EDT). While it’s a ways away, the 60-90 minute flight to JFK gets me into the gate around 20-50 minutes before my flight to CVG. (On a side note, the pilot did manage to talk our way onto that 2345Z flight from the scheduled 0120Z flight - which would have been REALLY bad).

Anyway, the guy sitting next to me on this flight is a pilot for JetBlue, and we had a good time talking (and when he realized I was listening to ground control he was asking for new info. We chat about various things, which taught me a little more about the airline industry. And then, we make an unexpected left bank, and stay in it. He called it - holding, though not over JFK, we’re over Atlantic City (don’t know the airport code for that). Not far from JFK - but not JFK yet.

We circle for a while, and eventually descend through the weather with a rather bumpy ride. The pilot tells me that I can probably make my next flight since it’s right next to where we’re pulling into - and if there’s a gate attendant planeside I might not even have to go into the terminal. Well, no one is planeside, so in I go. Into the terminal and I’m 20 feet away from where I need to be. The displays show that the flight is still boarding - so I rush over and walk up to the attendant:

“Am I able to get onto the flight to Cincy?”

“Oh, you’re the last passenger….not you’re too late. Go to gate 24 for rebooking”

Knowing there isn’t a things this lady will be willing to help me with (after all, she’s probably been calling my name for the last 10 minutes), I go to get rebooked. Nothing more available tonight - the next flight out of JFK to CVG is tomorrow (the 19th) at 1330. 1330!?!?! That’s the afternoon! Clearly not acceptable. Time to rely on another airport.

There is a 0600 flight out of LaGuardia (LGA perhaps?), but I have to find transportation there - not a huge deal. I ask about a hotel: “Since the delay was due to weather, we do not cover the hotel.” Frustration+30.

After a few more calls to update family, I call up AMEX travel to add a hotel somewhere and they are swamped. After holding on the line for a while, I decide to go the old fashioned route and just go to a hotel. I get in the cab (which was MUCH better than the cab in San Diego 2 years ago - this one had an LCD touch screen showing a map of where the cab was and the news. Not to mention they took AMEX), and head for a hotel near LaGuardia. First attempt: Holiday Inn, but we couldn’t find it. So I had him drop me off at the Mariott we passed.

I walk in, and stand in line for a few moments (pulling out my Mariott rewards car, as if it will help), and approach the counter when it’s my turn:

“Do you have anything available?”

“No, we’re actually overbooked by about 20 rooms.”

“Oh, okay - do you know of anything else in the area available?”

“Everyone else is booked too - there’s a place in West Chester* which is a ways away”

“Oh, okay - do you have a shuttle to LaGuardia?”

“Yes, but if you’re going to do that, why not just stay here in the lobby. There’s a lounge and restaurant down the hall. We might have something open up after midnight and you’d at least get a few hours of sleep.”

Here was finally someone who was at least helping me out, if only by giving me an alternative which didn’t keep me on the move for a little bit. So I find a quiet seat, call family one last time with an update, and come to eat. Which is where I sit writing this now (the fish was pretty good at least). The time: 2340. I need to be at the airport in ~4.5 hours or so. I will definitely not be putting in a full day of work tomorrow - which means work on Saturday. Now I need to call and/or email my boss and manager to let them know I won’t be in early tomorrow thanks to the modern convenience we call airline travel.

(I wish the guys at the bar were less annoying - but that might just be the being awake for 21 hours talking….)

Update 1: The time now: 0330. Not knowing when the airport opened (and only having a vague idea that they actually closed), I set my alarm on my phone for 0330 to make sure I didn’t miss this flight. And being the usual me, I woke up before the alarm went off. Woke up may be too strong of a choice of words. I don’t think I actually slept for more than 20 minutes at a time max since midnight. The 2 hour flight will be a nice time to sleep.

I certainly hope that my next trip back to New York will be more planned…

Update 2: I made it back around 0800, tired, and ready to be home. I worked for a while, and came home and dozed for a while. I’m still pretty tired, so we’ll see how early I get to sleep!

* The mention of West Chester at this point, while not referring to my place of inhabitance, was enough to make me REALLY miss home at that very moment.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 18:08 and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.