A day-long round trip to nowhere
Yes, it's true -- I'm currently on vacation. I should be on the ski slopes in Vermont. Instead I am back in the Philadelphia suburbs after a day spent in airports.
It all started on Monday, December 18 when Kate dropped me off at the Fort Washington train station. I connected to the R1 train to the airport with plenty of time before my flight. I breezed through airport security, and was sitting at my gate with more than 90 minutes before my scheduled departure. Who would have thought that there would be so few people traveling on a Monday morning?
My cell phone rang. The caller ID had familiar toll-free number, though I couldn't place it immediately. It was Delta Airlines' automated system telling me that my connecting flight had been pushed back about 2 hours. No big deal since I'd have more time at JFK airport to relax and read or watch a movie on my laptop.
My outbound flight from Philadelphia to JFK was delayed by about an hour. The obvious reason for the delay was the lack of a plane. Once the plane did arrive at the gate and most of the passengers deplaned, we were told that there was one additional passenger that needed special assistance coming off the plane. Neither the Philadelphia gate agents nor the wheelchair folks had a good plan for how to get a passenger down the steps of a tiny De Havilland Dash 8 to the terminal building. I can't imagine that this was the first limited passenger with mobility to fly this route. Of course, the operator of this flight, Freedom Airlines, doesn't have a stellar record recently. This was the same airline that kicked a woman off a flight in November for breastfeeding on board. Nonetheless, after 20 minutes of contemplation on the tarmac, a white station wagon appeared and the passenger, who had managed to hobble down the aircraft steps, was driven to the terminal. All the while I was thinking to myself that a stair-chair and some baggage handlers could have easily taken care of the situation in a much more expedient manner.
With the plane now empty, we were able to board en masse. The flight to from Philadelphia to JFK was uneventful. The flight attendant, Sarah, was relieved to see that all of her passengers could actually walk onto the plane. While I normally enjoy gazing out the window on flights, I couldn't see much out of the window that appeared to have oil smeared on it, so instead I slept. We arrived at gate 25 at JFK and I went in search of a video monitor to see the latest update on my Burlington flight. While we were in the air from Philadelphia, the departure time had slipped from 2:01pm to 3:46pm. Still not horrible since I would get into Burlington at around dinner, with plenty of time to meet up with my friend, Josh, who was had driven to Burlington from Philadelphia the day before for an interview for a surgical residency program at UVM.The flight from JFK to Burlington was dependent upon an aircraft coming from Baltimore. As the afternoon wore on, the flight's departure time was pushed back several times. This was certainly not a good sign. Even worse, the flight to Burlington after mine had been cancelled.
Finding an electrical outlet in the airport terminal to plug in my laptop was tough, but I finally found one near the kiddie playground in the terminal. Seeing the kids play was amusing, but the shrieking and screaming eventually drove me from the area.
At around 3:45 I came to the realization that the vacation gods were not smiling upon me and it might be a good idea to bag the entire thing and return to Philadelphia. After pleading my case to Delta, they arranged for me to get on a 4:55 flight back to Philadelphia.
The flight back to Philadelphia was uneventful. After spending the afternoon near JFK's gate 25 I was happy to be on a plane going anywhere. As it turned out, I was lucky to have made the plans to return to Philadelphia. My flight to Burlington was eventually cancelled. I'm not sure how the airline accommodated the folks from two Burlington flights, but I'm sure there were some unhappy people.
It all started on Monday, December 18 when Kate dropped me off at the Fort Washington train station. I connected to the R1 train to the airport with plenty of time before my flight. I breezed through airport security, and was sitting at my gate with more than 90 minutes before my scheduled departure. Who would have thought that there would be so few people traveling on a Monday morning?
My cell phone rang. The caller ID had familiar toll-free number, though I couldn't place it immediately. It was Delta Airlines' automated system telling me that my connecting flight had been pushed back about 2 hours. No big deal since I'd have more time at JFK airport to relax and read or watch a movie on my laptop.
My outbound flight from Philadelphia to JFK was delayed by about an hour. The obvious reason for the delay was the lack of a plane. Once the plane did arrive at the gate and most of the passengers deplaned, we were told that there was one additional passenger that needed special assistance coming off the plane. Neither the Philadelphia gate agents nor the wheelchair folks had a good plan for how to get a passenger down the steps of a tiny De Havilland Dash 8 to the terminal building. I can't imagine that this was the first limited passenger with mobility to fly this route. Of course, the operator of this flight, Freedom Airlines, doesn't have a stellar record recently. This was the same airline that kicked a woman off a flight in November for breastfeeding on board. Nonetheless, after 20 minutes of contemplation on the tarmac, a white station wagon appeared and the passenger, who had managed to hobble down the aircraft steps, was driven to the terminal. All the while I was thinking to myself that a stair-chair and some baggage handlers could have easily taken care of the situation in a much more expedient manner.
With the plane now empty, we were able to board en masse. The flight to from Philadelphia to JFK was uneventful. The flight attendant, Sarah, was relieved to see that all of her passengers could actually walk onto the plane. While I normally enjoy gazing out the window on flights, I couldn't see much out of the window that appeared to have oil smeared on it, so instead I slept. We arrived at gate 25 at JFK and I went in search of a video monitor to see the latest update on my Burlington flight. While we were in the air from Philadelphia, the departure time had slipped from 2:01pm to 3:46pm. Still not horrible since I would get into Burlington at around dinner, with plenty of time to meet up with my friend, Josh, who was had driven to Burlington from Philadelphia the day before for an interview for a surgical residency program at UVM.The flight from JFK to Burlington was dependent upon an aircraft coming from Baltimore. As the afternoon wore on, the flight's departure time was pushed back several times. This was certainly not a good sign. Even worse, the flight to Burlington after mine had been cancelled.
Finding an electrical outlet in the airport terminal to plug in my laptop was tough, but I finally found one near the kiddie playground in the terminal. Seeing the kids play was amusing, but the shrieking and screaming eventually drove me from the area.
At around 3:45 I came to the realization that the vacation gods were not smiling upon me and it might be a good idea to bag the entire thing and return to Philadelphia. After pleading my case to Delta, they arranged for me to get on a 4:55 flight back to Philadelphia.
The flight back to Philadelphia was uneventful. After spending the afternoon near JFK's gate 25 I was happy to be on a plane going anywhere. As it turned out, I was lucky to have made the plans to return to Philadelphia. My flight to Burlington was eventually cancelled. I'm not sure how the airline accommodated the folks from two Burlington flights, but I'm sure there were some unhappy people.
On the drive home from the Philadelphia airport, I came to two realizations:
1) In the time I wasted in flights and airports on Monday, I could have driven to Burlington
2) It took me 8 hours to travel a total of less than 200 miles -- something that could have been done in less than half the time in a car.
Labels: Burlington, Delta Airlines, Freedom Airlines, JFK, PHL
posted by Scott C. Savett at
11:15 PM
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