From New York after our New Year's Eve trip:
We boarded the plane. On time. We taxied out. We sat. And sat. Then the announcement came. There was a computer glitch. Back to the gate we go. They were getting someone to try to reset the computer. We sat. And we sat some more. Then the announcement came: "Resetting the computer didn't work. We are taking this plane out of service. When you de-plane, you will need to see the gate agent to re-book. Please don't be mean to them, it's not their fault!"
OMGosh! Butch and I were kind of freaking out. Luckily for us, we have tech savvy daughters (I consider myself tech savvy too, but just didn't think in this instance). Before we ever got off the plane, Steph had us booked on another flight. Mindy had done hers and Justin too. We relaxed. A bit later, we found out that Southwest (we love Southwest) was bringing another plane in to service for us. Still, it was going to be a few hours. Not a big deal as Sandy and Greg's flight was delayed. So all the "kids" got to hang out longer before heading home.
We got home---late, but home.
Then not even a week later---from Key West:
We boarded the plane on time. And then we sat there. And sat there. Finally, the pilot made an announcement that there was a problem. Apparently whoever was doing the cleaning service between flights had taken the trash cart. Who knew you couldn't fly without a trash cart? So, they called someone. A guy, some guy--who knows who--probably the head of trash carts, came. He verified, "yep, there's no trash cart. I'll have to go get some tape to tape over the opening." Hmmm. What the h**l did that mean? Plus, why didn't he carry the tape with him? Here's the best part. He had to go to his CAR to get it! Are you kidding me? Who knows where he was parked and how long that would take. Next was the paperwork. OMGosh! There had to be some paperwork signed that stated we did not have a trash cart. Seems like that was pretty obvious.
Now we're really starting to sweat it. The concourse in Miami is really long. Really. Long. When we came, we had little time to get from one end to the other. Butch was certain if we had the same situation we would surely miss our flight.
Anyway, it took 45 minutes to resolve the issue of the missing trashcfart (hey, I just noticed the typo but decided to leave it. Kind of ingenious, actually--wish I'd thought of it). We were on edge the entire flight. Luckily, when we got to Miami, we weren't so far away from our next gate after all.
Sheesh! It's always something. There-in lies the paradox of traveling: we love to travel/we hate to travel!
PS I guess I should have saved the "Mystery of the Trashcfart" (OMGosh---since I left the typo above, my computer autocorrect automatically and inserted it again! I never knew that). Anyway, I could have saved that mystery for Monday. But actually, it was more frustrating than mysterious!
Who would think that such a seemingly little thing could cause such disruption? I can imagine how stressed you were when you had a connecting flight to catch. All's well that ends well though!
ReplyDeleteThat does indeed sound very stressful - travelling is not a relaxing process at the best of times. Hoping it's fading into a distant memory!
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