Flying as a Passenger

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Okay, so I totally planned that my first post after TBEX would be about the people I met, the things I learned and what to expect for the next year since yesterday was my blogs 1 year birthday. However, the experience of getting home from TBEX is currently trumping the planned blog post.

I arrived at JFK with plenty of time to spare, almost two hours. I bought myself a sandwich for the flight, relaxed and did some people watching and tweeting. Finally, at 3:55pm they announced boarding of my 4:20pm flight. Just at that moment Mike sent me a message saying he noticed my flight was delayed. Mike gave me an American Airlines Award Ticket to travel to and from TBEX because I couldn’t non-rev. Great friend huh? I had told him that as far as I knew I was on time, they hadn’t told us anything yet.

I spoke to soon. I was next in line to board when the flight time changed from 4:20pm to 5pm. But, they said they were going to board anyway. I got on the aircraft, a Super 80, and took my seat. At 4:30pm we were told we were going to sit there until 5pm to push back and then the Captain would update our departure time. Apparently, the weather 150miles away from JFK was messing up departures and they had to space them out by 10 minutes. That was the last time we heard from the pilot until 5:45pm.

At 545pm he told us we had 30-45 more minutes before departure. And that we were number 12 in line. I had an hour and a half connection time in Dallas for my flight to Phoenix which was now non-existent. In fact, I was going to miss my flight. Here I thought flying as a passenger would be less stressful than a nonrev.. but I think it’s almost worse.

Finally at 6:15pm we were told to expect.. 15 more minutes. At 6:30pm we tookoff headed to Dallas.

We landed in Dallas at 8:30pm which also happened to be boarding time for my 9pm flight to Phoenix. Inflight I used a GoGo InFlight Certificate that I got from TBEX to check my connecting gate information.. and my Phoenix flight was only 2 gates away. We made up time in the air and now I saw a glimmer of hope.

As we taxied to the gate, I felt the dreaded “turn,” we were parking. We parked in a remote area, right behind gate C26.. my flight to Phoenix. Even though we were an hour late our gate was still occupied. Here I lost that glimmer of hope. I can see my plane, I have the time to run.. but I can’t get off.

At 8:46pm we pulled into the gate and I made a dash to get as far to the front as I could. I got stuck behind this old man who complained every time I moved because my bag touched his leg. I knew I was going to have to take him down to get to my flight on time. He was going to slow me down. Just as they opened the door they made an announcement for any passengers going to Chile to push their way to the front of the line.. then I thought “what about Phoenix!?”

I walked off the plane.. made run around grandpa screamed “excuse me! excuse me!” 10 times and this other woman didn’t move. I proceeded through the small gap anyway running over her toes with my bag. Oh well, all is fair in the gate run game!

I make it out to the terminal and run for C26. As I’m running I see a guy in an American Airlines uniform walking out to the main walkway of the terminal from behind the gate podium. He screams “Phoenix!?” I yelled back “YES! YES!” He starts running.. and yelling “you’re in 21F.. keep running!! 30 more seconds and you would have been stuck here!”

I run down the jetbridge to 140 sets of eyes looking at me. Of course I was the last one on, and I didn’t care. I went row by row, without help from the crew, to find a bin for my bag. I finally sit down and the woman next to me says “glad you made it!” I laughed, out of breath, “me too!”

I told her I had been sitting on the tarmac in JFK for 2.5 hours and then had to make the run from C28 knowing all along I was only 2 gates away. Just as I said that, darkness. The plane lost power as the jetbridge pulled back. Someone forgot to tell the agents that the S80 I was on didn’t have an APU and needed an airstart. I laughed to the woman next to me “total irony would be if they asked us to deplane and go to gate C28.” That didn’t happen.

Now, I’m InFlight on another GoGo InFlight Pass (can you guys send me one more?!) making my arrangements to BE home tonight.. and not be in Dallas.

Thanks to Mike, Danny and Brad for keeping me updated inflight on my arrival time, status and helping me figure out what I was going to do if I got stuck!

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