Bravo
Well-Known Member
- Aug 27, 2004
- 5,822
- 15
So I wake up this morning at my hotel across from LaGuardia.
I am thinking that this will be a normal travel day back home.
I am confirmed on an 8:33 non-stop Delta flight from LGA to Birmingham. No brainer.
Get up - eat. Watch the Today Show with interviews of passengers who have spent the night at NYC's airports...how they are "remarkably perky" despite little or no sleep - and unsure how they will make it home.
Then, I go into the Hotel Business center and get on the internet to print my boarding pass. The system says I must do it from the airport. OK.
Get on the hotel shuttle and start talking with the other passengers about the past 12 hours. Cancelled flights,,,how they got a room etc.
One guy was flying in from Tel Aviv. A regular looking sort. They circled LaGuardia for two hours before giving up the ghost and going on to Philadelphia to land before they ran out of gas. Then they spent five hours in the plane on the ground before refueling and taking off for LaGuardia at midnight. He got in at 2:00 and got a room because an incoming flight crew cancelled their room reservations. No planes landed at LaGuardia for several hours due to snow and very high winds.
So I am on the shuttle - no problems....just go over to the terminal and hit the kiosk for my boarding pass and away we go...
Get to the terminal. It is what you see on TV with cancelled flights due to weather.
Thousands of frustrated passengers. Long lines.
No problem for Bravo...just get to a Kiosk for my boarding pass and go through security....Yup - I am getting out of here after spending a nice night in my hotel.
I get to a kiosk - swipe my credit card.
It does not recognize my res. NOT Found.
Around me, I get the sense that other passengers who have received Delta tickets from yesterday are experiencing the same thing. You Cannot Use a Kiosk for a Re-issue Ticket.
You gotta go through the line. The one with thousands of passengers - trying to get on another flight - despite the Fact that you are already Confirmed on a flight out. This line looks 3-4 hours long.
No problem Bravo. Call reservations and get yourself rebooked. I do this while they are doing "final boarding call for Birmingham" on the speaker system. My flight is leaving and I am not on it because Delta did not explain that Re-issue tickets require manual, human check in.
I call Delta reservations while I wait in the very long line.
Busy signal, busy signal, busy signal - for an hour.
So a scenario starts to unfold in my mind...I will get in this four hour line and by the time I reach the counter, I will get a stand by reservation for late in the day. And I will wait for this stand by only to be refused boarding because the flight is full...only to spend another night at a airport hotel- only if I can get a room.
So now it becomes time to say - I am not hedging bets - I am going home.
I call Southwest Airlines - the old reliable. They fly out of Islip NY about 30 miles away.
Yes sir - we have a flight leaving at 1:20 - will get you home at 5:00. Love it and book the hell out of it.
Go downstairs - get $100 from the cash machine. I count total money and observe that I now have $141 in the wallet.
Go to the cab line and grab a cab. Let's go east - 30 miles away..."How much will that cost Mr. Cab Driver...' He looks at an NYC Taxicab Authority Chart and shows me a fare of $149...
I tell him I have only $141. He says, "I can work with you on this".
We get on the road.
Long Island has three parallel expressways. We climb onto the first and drive 4 miles.
Suddenly and without warning, there is a car ablaze on the road ahead. Traffic is completely stopped while firetrucks and emergeny personnel have it blocked.
So we detour through Queens, searching for a route to the second expressway. We get on it, only to find that it is closed ahead because of ice.
Back onto the streets of Queens...Jamaica NY...dodging busses and ice and snow and sludge...trying to get to the Southern Parkway - our last chance to get out to Islip.
We make out there after an hour and are on our way.
At this point, the coffee from the morning is just about to explode through my pants. I have to plead with my cab driver to stop while we are on the equivalent of an interstate/autoroute..."Hey man, I am going to pee in my pants here. Gotta go".
He finally stops and I wade through the slush.
45 minutes later - we hit the Islip Airport. Sanity.
I get out $140 to pay the driver and he notices I am left with $1. He gives me $10 back for my trip home. A great guy from Haiti.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles - and life in New York.
I am thinking that this will be a normal travel day back home.
I am confirmed on an 8:33 non-stop Delta flight from LGA to Birmingham. No brainer.
Get up - eat. Watch the Today Show with interviews of passengers who have spent the night at NYC's airports...how they are "remarkably perky" despite little or no sleep - and unsure how they will make it home.
Then, I go into the Hotel Business center and get on the internet to print my boarding pass. The system says I must do it from the airport. OK.
Get on the hotel shuttle and start talking with the other passengers about the past 12 hours. Cancelled flights,,,how they got a room etc.
One guy was flying in from Tel Aviv. A regular looking sort. They circled LaGuardia for two hours before giving up the ghost and going on to Philadelphia to land before they ran out of gas. Then they spent five hours in the plane on the ground before refueling and taking off for LaGuardia at midnight. He got in at 2:00 and got a room because an incoming flight crew cancelled their room reservations. No planes landed at LaGuardia for several hours due to snow and very high winds.
So I am on the shuttle - no problems....just go over to the terminal and hit the kiosk for my boarding pass and away we go...
Get to the terminal. It is what you see on TV with cancelled flights due to weather.
Thousands of frustrated passengers. Long lines.
No problem for Bravo...just get to a Kiosk for my boarding pass and go through security....Yup - I am getting out of here after spending a nice night in my hotel.
I get to a kiosk - swipe my credit card.
It does not recognize my res. NOT Found.
Around me, I get the sense that other passengers who have received Delta tickets from yesterday are experiencing the same thing. You Cannot Use a Kiosk for a Re-issue Ticket.
You gotta go through the line. The one with thousands of passengers - trying to get on another flight - despite the Fact that you are already Confirmed on a flight out. This line looks 3-4 hours long.
No problem Bravo. Call reservations and get yourself rebooked. I do this while they are doing "final boarding call for Birmingham" on the speaker system. My flight is leaving and I am not on it because Delta did not explain that Re-issue tickets require manual, human check in.
I call Delta reservations while I wait in the very long line.
Busy signal, busy signal, busy signal - for an hour.
So a scenario starts to unfold in my mind...I will get in this four hour line and by the time I reach the counter, I will get a stand by reservation for late in the day. And I will wait for this stand by only to be refused boarding because the flight is full...only to spend another night at a airport hotel- only if I can get a room.
So now it becomes time to say - I am not hedging bets - I am going home.
I call Southwest Airlines - the old reliable. They fly out of Islip NY about 30 miles away.
Yes sir - we have a flight leaving at 1:20 - will get you home at 5:00. Love it and book the hell out of it.
Go downstairs - get $100 from the cash machine. I count total money and observe that I now have $141 in the wallet.
Go to the cab line and grab a cab. Let's go east - 30 miles away..."How much will that cost Mr. Cab Driver...' He looks at an NYC Taxicab Authority Chart and shows me a fare of $149...
I tell him I have only $141. He says, "I can work with you on this".
We get on the road.
Long Island has three parallel expressways. We climb onto the first and drive 4 miles.
Suddenly and without warning, there is a car ablaze on the road ahead. Traffic is completely stopped while firetrucks and emergeny personnel have it blocked.
So we detour through Queens, searching for a route to the second expressway. We get on it, only to find that it is closed ahead because of ice.
Back onto the streets of Queens...Jamaica NY...dodging busses and ice and snow and sludge...trying to get to the Southern Parkway - our last chance to get out to Islip.
We make out there after an hour and are on our way.
At this point, the coffee from the morning is just about to explode through my pants. I have to plead with my cab driver to stop while we are on the equivalent of an interstate/autoroute..."Hey man, I am going to pee in my pants here. Gotta go".
He finally stops and I wade through the slush.
45 minutes later - we hit the Islip Airport. Sanity.
I get out $140 to pay the driver and he notices I am left with $1. He gives me $10 back for my trip home. A great guy from Haiti.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles - and life in New York.
Canada
