Airline horror story

After writing this post about citizen journalism, it would be hypocritical of me to endure a horror story about air travel and not write about it. However, I'm not going to disclose the name of the airline to protect the guilty because I sincerely have no idea whose fault it was and if it was preventable. Also, I didn't feel that my personal safety was in danger at any point, so this story is quite undramatic compared to Jeremy Hermanns'.

I was traveling with my dad from New York to Key West via Miami yesterday (I'm taking a long weekend off and visiting my brother). We were scheduled to depart JFK at 10am and I got to the gate at 9:30. Citing mechanical difficulties, boarding was postponed and the departure time was pushed back to 11. There was something wrong with a valve in the left engine and the mechanics were confident that they could fix it. However, the departure time got pushed from 11 to 12 and then to 3pm. We had to line up at the service desk at the gate to get onto another flight. Fortunately, I was at the front so I had to wait only about 45 min. on the line. We got our new tickets to Miami with a 12pm scheduled departure and since we would've missed the connecting flight to Key West, got that one moved back to a later flight.

When we got to the gate, there was already a long line of people waiting in front of the desk, presumably from the 10am trying to get onto the 12pm. We got onto the plane and sat down. By 12:30, the plane was showing no signs of leaving the gate, and then they made an announcement. They were having mechanical difficulties with the plane, and although the mechanics were confident that they could fix it, they were pushing the departure time back to 1:30 and passengers were instructed that if they have connecting flights, they should de-board the plane and re-book their connection if they thought they wouldn't be able to make it. I got off the plane and waited on line for about half an hour, when the announcement was made that they in fact would not be able to fix the plane, and that they would be switching planes. I got our connecting flight moved to one at 8:25pm, and my dad had de-boarded the plane with our carry-ons. We went to the new plane, which was filled with people from both the 10am and 12pm flights. This plane managed to depart at around 3:30 despite the 2:30 scheduled departure, and of course had to leave a number of people behind because they were consolidating 2 flights into 1.

We arrived in Miami at around 7. The connecting flight was overbooked, but to my near-dismay, actually left on time. We got to Key West on time, 9:30pm, and my dad's luggage had made it there, but of course mine hadn't. Gosh, I'm glad that day is over.