JFK jet blues
This is my last night in New York and I’m spending it at JFK. I’m not happy.
My flight was scheduled to leave at 925 p.m. but I knew better than to think that we would actually push away from Gate 19 at 925. It’s now 1018. The departure board says our flight is now scheduled to depart at 1140. I’m not holding my breathe!
I knew better than to book a flight with JetBlue… with the
trouble they’ve been having with flights lately I really should’ve listened to my gut and paid the extra $200 to fly United. But I’m greedy. I wanted that $200 to go for something a bit more tangible like a new suit or the silver Tiffany’s locked I’ve been coveting.
So, here I sit.
I had to walk down two gates to find an agent and ask what the deal was with our flight. He said all flights were delayed one hour because of air traffic control. I asked if it could be delayed later than 1030 and he shook his head and said “No.” At that point, I was under the naive assumption that we could be leaving only an hour late. Could be worse…
So I pulled up a seat on the floor next to a power outlet and plugged in all my equipment – cell phone, iPod, laptop – the bare necessities. Then, while in the middle of a conversations with my mom, I overheard another passenger approach a nearby gate and ask if the flight to Nashville was still leaving at 1140. Eh? 1140? What?!
I quickly got off the phone and went over to gate 18 to ask the agent what was going on. I have to admit that I did feel sorry for her. She was being bombarded with people asking questions and her fellow gate agent was apparently telling passengers who were deboarding the plane at gate 18 that it was okay to do something she said they couldn’t do… The agent only said one cuss word – and apologized for it – but then the phone started ringing and – long story short – she started going off to the person on the phone. I felt like maybe her information was tainted, so I started to stroll down to another gate when I noticed that we finally had an agent at gate 19. He was changing the board to 1140. Then, he got on the mic and announced that our flight was delayed. No, really?!
Several disgruntled JetBlue employees were running around saying things like “I wish I was leaving” and “[I wish I] work[ed] for another airline.” Wow.
The worst part for me, tonight, is that I’m not flying directly to Knoxville. Oh no! I’m flying to Nashville, and Jay has to pick me up and then we have to drive back to Knoxville – 2.5 hours. So Jay will be in the car for five hours just to come get me. We won’t even get home until after 530 am… if we’re lucky. So, I’m going to spend Saturday sleeping. Don’t call me. I’m going to be grouch(ier).
The moral of this sad story is kids, don’t be cheap! Pay the extra bucks and fly United!