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Feb. 15th, 2007
Survivor, New York!
Feb. 15th, 2007 10:23 amWell, the SMS posts I sent yesterday while sitting on the plane at JFK apparently went into the bit-bucket, so let me see if I can summarize yesterday's adventure.
Everything started out very smoothly. I got to Hobby in plenty of time to go through security, and the JetBlue attendant at the gate even announced that the pilot was intent on taking off 10 minutes early! The flight went smoothly; I even caught about an hour or so of sleep between Alabama and Delaware. Our problems began upon landing at JFK.
We landed about 40 minutes early, at about 10:50 am. Shortly after landing, JFK closed down because the rain through which we had descended turned into icy rain. This meant no takeoffs. At JetBlue, this translated into: no planes moving from gates. With no empty gates, this meant that our plane was stuck out on a taxiway somewhere, or in a holding area.
And we basically stayed that way until 6:30 pm. We were sitting out there so long, the pilot shut down one of our engines to make sure we didn't run out of fuel. We were out there so long, the captain told us the company would reimburse us our fare and provide us with a free round-trip voucher.
The terminal and baggage claim area were crowded. Luggage was piled all over the place, most apparently from planes that had not taken off. I finally got my bag at 7:15 pm and went running for the AirTrain to get to the LIRR platform in Jamaica. I arrived at Jamaica by about 7:35, with 20 minutes or so to spare for the next train to Oyster Bay.
While I waited, I used my BlackBerry to find the number of a taxi service in Glen Cove and gave them a call. "Listen," I said upon confirming this was the right number, " I'll be arriving at the Glen Cove station in about..."
"Call us when you get here," interrupted the dispatcher.
"Okay," I said, with the kind of hesitation that betrayed a disruption in the flow of conversation. I then asked how much it would cost to go where I was going. He told me and hung up.
Once I got to Glen Cove, I got off the train and called the taxi company. Same guy answers. I ask him to get a cab to pick me up.
"Okay..., well...," he stumbles, "it'll be a while before I can get someone out there. Maybe 40 minutes."
"I guess I'll have to wait," I reply. "Please have someone pick me up as soon as possible, okay? It's cold!"
Forty minutes later, I call again.
"I've assigned the fare," says the dispatcher. "It'll be maybe another 15 or 20 minutes."
By this time, it's nearly 10 pm. I've been up since 4 am, cooped on a plane for 10 hours, haven't had anything pass my lips past a couple of cups of coffee and some salted cashews, and exposed various body parts to freezing temperatures for the better part of an hour.
I am not in a good mood.
Eventually, however, the taxi shows up and I end up at my old man's.
I suppose I'll call JetBlue to find out what hoops I need to jump through to claim my reimbursement and round trip. But as a first-time flyer with the airline, I have to say, so far, I am not impressed (especially as the buzz among the more type-A crowd aboard the plane, who were frantically phoning associates to find out what was going on - as our pilot was very spare with information - was that somehow JetBlue was the only airline so affected yesterday).
Cheers...
Everything started out very smoothly. I got to Hobby in plenty of time to go through security, and the JetBlue attendant at the gate even announced that the pilot was intent on taking off 10 minutes early! The flight went smoothly; I even caught about an hour or so of sleep between Alabama and Delaware. Our problems began upon landing at JFK.
We landed about 40 minutes early, at about 10:50 am. Shortly after landing, JFK closed down because the rain through which we had descended turned into icy rain. This meant no takeoffs. At JetBlue, this translated into: no planes moving from gates. With no empty gates, this meant that our plane was stuck out on a taxiway somewhere, or in a holding area.
And we basically stayed that way until 6:30 pm. We were sitting out there so long, the pilot shut down one of our engines to make sure we didn't run out of fuel. We were out there so long, the captain told us the company would reimburse us our fare and provide us with a free round-trip voucher.
The terminal and baggage claim area were crowded. Luggage was piled all over the place, most apparently from planes that had not taken off. I finally got my bag at 7:15 pm and went running for the AirTrain to get to the LIRR platform in Jamaica. I arrived at Jamaica by about 7:35, with 20 minutes or so to spare for the next train to Oyster Bay.
While I waited, I used my BlackBerry to find the number of a taxi service in Glen Cove and gave them a call. "Listen," I said upon confirming this was the right number, " I'll be arriving at the Glen Cove station in about..."
"Call us when you get here," interrupted the dispatcher.
"Okay," I said, with the kind of hesitation that betrayed a disruption in the flow of conversation. I then asked how much it would cost to go where I was going. He told me and hung up.
Once I got to Glen Cove, I got off the train and called the taxi company. Same guy answers. I ask him to get a cab to pick me up.
"Okay..., well...," he stumbles, "it'll be a while before I can get someone out there. Maybe 40 minutes."
"I guess I'll have to wait," I reply. "Please have someone pick me up as soon as possible, okay? It's cold!"
Forty minutes later, I call again.
"I've assigned the fare," says the dispatcher. "It'll be maybe another 15 or 20 minutes."
By this time, it's nearly 10 pm. I've been up since 4 am, cooped on a plane for 10 hours, haven't had anything pass my lips past a couple of cups of coffee and some salted cashews, and exposed various body parts to freezing temperatures for the better part of an hour.
I am not in a good mood.
Eventually, however, the taxi shows up and I end up at my old man's.
I suppose I'll call JetBlue to find out what hoops I need to jump through to claim my reimbursement and round trip. But as a first-time flyer with the airline, I have to say, so far, I am not impressed (especially as the buzz among the more type-A crowd aboard the plane, who were frantically phoning associates to find out what was going on - as our pilot was very spare with information - was that somehow JetBlue was the only airline so affected yesterday).
Cheers...