GOT THE BLUES

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MOTTO'S MEAN EVERYTHING

The day before Mother’s Day was a travel date to Burbank California, and I drove to JFK terminal #5 for the occasion of a 5:30 flight. Now if you travel through JFK with it’s twisting roads and confusing signs, you know how stressful it can be before the holidays especially.

The airlines like you to get there early so you can shop at their store and buy needless junk, unnecessary items and be annoyed so that you will be happy to get away from it all and be on the plane and have your limbs permanently seized into a dialectical condition of Riga mortise.

jetBlew pilot

As if the screening is not enough, they would prefer you jump through hoops, stand naked in the scanning chamber and strip along the way, parting with your shoes, your pants and hopefully your dignity. Hey, this is the airline business.

Since I am a good soldier, I report to check-in 2 full hours before takeoff: plop my bag on the scale and hold my breath that it is under 50 pounds. The young lady behind the counter looks at the confirmation and says: “Uh oh. Your flight has been cancelled! You have one of two choices, either a 9:59 flight later this evening or a flight out in the morning.” I stand there stunned: I have only two options when there should have been 3, the third being to blow up the airline, the terminal and the lady behind the counter. We take option #1 and will wait.

"Don't be surprised if you get there, we are!"

Why is the flight cancelled? The flight is cancelled because in the Midwest, there a storm going on, one in which all the other airlines will be flying over, but since the pilot of this particular plane got nosebleeds as a kid, they are skittish. They have in this 9:59 flight landing at LAX instead of beautiful downtown Burbank, meaning #1 son will go a lot out of his way to pick me up. It means too that we will be waiting from 2:30 in the afternoon until 10:00 PM to fly out. We will be wasting hours in an airport! Hours that could have been spent much better. They could have emailed me that the flight was cancelled. They should have done a lot of things they didn’t Weather can’t be blamed on the airline, but their stupidity should. THEY BLEW IT!

Have you ever flown overnight on long trips like to Europe or Asia? You know how uncomfortable it becomes when you are forced to sit there over so many hours? That is bad enough, but when you book a flight and you are not prepared for the lateness, because you wanted an earlier flight, well that is stupid.