So, I find myself currently sitting in my hotel in Omaha, Nebraska. Got here about four hours ago, went out to eat lunch with my other flight attendant and first officer, and now I'm just chillin waiting on the rapture to occur. What better way to wait than to get on my blog and tell a story?! There is no better way.
Picture it, Richmond...Wednesday morning. I have to work Thursday morning. I woke up, mowed my jungle of a lawn, and went out to eat lunch with my friend Jean (which has become a regular occurrence on the days I leave Richmond for work.) I got to the airport around 1:30 planning on catching the 2:45 US Airways flight to LaGuardia. As I'm sitting there, both the 2:45 and the 3:40 flights are delayed by one hour. I continue to wait. At 3:30, both flights cancel. In my mind I begin to say many choice words, but I'm trying to figure out my next step. "Ah-ha! There is a Delta flight that leaves at 3:15 for JFK! But it's currently 3:30...maybe it's delayed!" Turns out, the JFK flight was delayed. So I ran back to the other side of the airport, went through security all over again, and arrived at the Delta gate.
When I arrived, I saw a Delta ERJ-145 sitting on the taxiway. "Dammit," I think to myself..."I missed it!" I go up to a gate agent to ask if I missed the 3:15 departure to JFK. She said no, that was the 1:30pm departure still awaiting takeoff. Yes...you read correctly. The current time is 3:45 and the 1:30 is still awaiting takeoff. Even though I should never be happy about delays, I was excited because this delay was my ticket to work.
The 1:30 departure sat on the taxiway for nearly 2.5 hours then came back to the gate. Of course...the angry passengers came off to be rebooked on missed connections, etc. I was still waiting for the 3:15 plane so I could get to work. Both planes kept getting delayed. 6:00pm rolls around, and they decide to board both planes. "Ladies and gentlemen," I hear, "we are gonna begin the boarding process for both flights to JFK because both planes are going to take off right at the same time." So, we wait in line and finally board the plane. I am on a plane with about 20 other passengers...and the other Delta plane beside of me had 16 passengers. "Yay! We're finally going!" Or, so we all thought.
We sat on the plane for about 40 minutes, watched a rainbow come and go in the thunderstorm, then our captain informs us the other plane (original 1:30 departure that is now 5 hours late) has a mechanical issue. They planned on moving all those passengers onboard our plane so that we could all get to JFK. "That's fine," I thought. We had plenty of seats. I see the ramp guys pull a ladder up to the other plane and fix it. Yay! It's fixed!
Then, the rampers begin unloading our suitcases from our plane. "What is going on?" I thought. I am getting to New York today if I have to swim up the coast of the Atlantic! Our pilots come over the PA and tell us they have just hit the 16 hours of work mark and that we have to deplane and get on the other plane to JFK because they are now illegal to fly. Ok...not a big deal. There are 20 of us, 16 on the other plane...36 total, for a 50 seater plane. We gather our carry-ons and proceed to deplane. I stop to talk to the flight attendant before heading over to the other plane. I walk off of my plane to go get on the other one...and here it comes: the other plane was pushing back from the gate...with the door closed...and with only 16 people. None of the people from my plane was on there.
I am going to give a precursor to the following conversation: I was in my uniform going to work. I understand I am supposed to be respectful to everyone, but I lost it at this point. I was on my 6th hour and watching a plane leave to go to NYC without me and 20 other people who needed to go. This is how is went:
-Gate agent is standing at the bottom of the ramp.
-Zach: (throws carry ons onto the wet ground with an attitude) "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"
-Gate agent: "What?"
-Zach: "you have 20 people trying to get to JFK who were told we were gonna be on that plane and you're letting it push back?"
-Gate agent: "We couldn't help it."
-Zach: "What do you mean you couldn't help it? You've known for 10 minutes this plane is gonna leave because you hooked up the tug and now you're letting it go without all of us. You've got to be fucking kidding me."
-Gate agent: "The pilots closed the door and said they had to go."
-Zach: "I honestly don't know what to say right now. Are we gonna go on the 7:30 flight?"
-Gate agent: "It's cancelled."
At that point, I grabbed my bags and walked away. I had made friends with a United flight attendant named Katherine a few hours earlier and we were both trying to get to NYC. We spent this whole ordeal together. We immediately run inside the airport and hop onto a plane heading to Washington-Dulles. We were happy with anything that would get us closer to NYC.
We land in Dulles around 8:30, with only two options: one plane to JFK and one plane to LaGuardia. Both were oversold. We end up sitting on the taxiway for about 30 minutes because a thunderstorm wouldn't allow the ramp guys to marshal the plane to the gate. We run in the airport and run to the LaGuardia flight that is delayed until 10:50pm. Long story short, people missed their connections and we got on the plane. Landed in LaGuardia at 12:15am.
Yes, it took me 11 hours to get to work on Wednesday. It was a fabulous time. I'm not sure anything could be more fun...other than the impending Rapture. It's about that time.
Until next time, and if we make it through the Rapture, Zach will leave it at that.
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