Burdened by Frequent Waits and Foul Weather

July 14, 2013

in Odds & Ends Stories

I was flying from DC to Frankfurt on May 26th, 2013. My first flight went from DC to JFK. Now the part I was most worried about – I was scheduled to get to JFK at 1850 hours and my flight to Frankfurt was supposed to start boarding at 1855 hours. How the hell was I going to get off this tiny plane where our carry-ons were checked, run across JFK and make it to my long flight in time? Luckily the flight to JFK didn’t take as long and I did end up making it to the big plane.

Relieved that I finally made it on the plane, I noticed that we were supposed to take off already. This is when the pilot makes an announcement that there was some sort of “engine problem” they were currently fixing. Awesome! Seven hour flight with messed up engines.

After about another 45 minutes he does another announcement – the problem is fixed but they are now working on all the paper work. Twenty minutes later an announcement – we were waiting on more luggage from the other terminal because Terminal 4 was new. Another 30 minutes later – there are 18 airplanes ahead of us for takeoff. We made it off the ground about 2 hours after we were supposed to.

Fast forward 7 hours. Safely made it to Frankfurt (and with the awesome selection of movies I did a little Die Hard marathon!). Next objective =  get suitcase.

Waiting… Waiting… Waiting…

Suitcase isn’t here. Awesome!

June 13th – flying from Frankfurt back to JFK. Uneventful until we land in JFK. At this point my boyfriend made me aware of the awful storms coming into the DC/NY area that weekend that could possibly reach derecho levels. I already had a 4 hour layover at JFK, but then we noticed flights keep getting cancelled and delayed due to a storm. I heard it thunder once and I saw lightning once, but wasn’t aware of the bad storm outside. All flights were delayed in the entire area.  Scheduled to leave at 8:40.

At 9:30 an announcement – plane hasn’t arrived yet.

At 10:00 plane has arrived; flight crew is nowhere to be found.

At 10:30 hey let’s start boarding.

At 11:30 maybe we should take off now.

Safely made it back to DC with the worst turbulence ever because of the weather that nearly made everyone in the entire teeny plane sick. I was never so happy to be back on a steady ground, even if delayed by hours.

Thanks, Delta.

 

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Voice of Experience July 15, 2013 at 6:19 am

Only a masochist willing schedules a layover in a US airport for an international flight when a direct flight is available.

Reply

frequent flyer July 15, 2013 at 8:58 am

Only a person who has an over-inflated sense of himself doesn't realize that not everybody has the same flight options he does.

Reply

Robert July 15, 2013 at 11:28 am

Let's get away from being such a wus…..

Reply

Traveler July 15, 2013 at 11:53 am

Poor baby ….. I moan for you (not)

Reply

RedHead0186 July 17, 2013 at 12:12 pm

Why would you schedule back-to-back flights with only a 5-minute layover? Sounds like you got luck the first flight got in early, but you were just setting yourself up for failure there.

Reply

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