Travel Alert

ISP-PHL-ILM
wait... no...
ISP-PHL
PHL-GSO

With bad weather (tornadoes, hail, strong storms) on the east coast and hours of delays springing up, I got to the Islip airport early (let's say three-ish) to change my 6:15pm departure to 4:15pm in hopes that I could still make my 8:55 connection. When I arrived, the monitors showed a boarding time of 7:21pm for the 4:15pm flight and 7:55pm for the 6:15pm flight. I went through with the switch. And the switch was free. And I was glad. I was told not to go far, because the plane might board at any time prior to the posted... time. In the course of the next five hours, the 6:15pm flight got canceled, and the 4:15pm arrived only about an hour late, but ground delays meant nothing would take off before 8:20pm. Many people were scrambling to get information form the gate agent as she was trying to sort out who actually needed assistance and what the statuses of everyone's connecting flights were. She prioritized nicely and after getting the line clear of people demanding to know things, got everything squared away. The plane eventually took to the air and got into PHL. I had scheduled with the gate agent to take a flight the next morning (7:30am - 8:55am)to Greensboro and figure out a car from there onto Wilmington. Any option back to Wilmington would have gotten me in at 10:38pm the next day. So I was stuck in Philadelphia for the night. With the aid of my trusty blackberry I looked up some hotels near the airport and called about availability. All full. I went and had a pretzel with cheese to scope out where I would try to sleep in the airport. I headed back to my gate to stake out a place. I stared out the window and thought: "I don't want to look out this window for the next seven hours." Motivated by the ill prospect of airport sleeping/non-sleeping, I put the internet back to work for me. I found a Quality Inn with shuttle service at a good price and made it happen. When I got to the hotel, it seemed like a good idea to get caught up from the day of work and get a leg up on the next day. Room was nice, all things considered. I ordered some things that needed ordering and got my email squared away. To sleep at 2:00. Up at 5:20. Mind you, I got three hours and twenty minutes more sleep than I expected to get... so I was pleased. I showered, put on dirty clothes and checked out the Quality Inn continental breakfast staged in the attached tex-mex cocina/restaurante. Not a pretty sight. I surveyed the options and got a half glass of orange juice which I was unable to finish. On to the airport. Quick security check and I'm in. Plane is on time. We board. I'm in zone 1 with a front row seat following my previous day's adventure. Sweet. Off we go. Get to the runway, and... we've got some instrument/mechanical problems - two hours to fix, but they were looking for a replacement jet for us. Before we're back to our gate, they announce that they've got a plane for us that should arrive in twenty minutes or so. We get off the plane, grab our gate checked things again and await new gate info. After ten minutes a new plan is in motion. New gate, same terminal. Board at 9:00, get into to Greensboro at 10:20, only an hour and a half off schedule. From there, everything goes as planned.
Why did I make you read all of that? Stay with me...
USAirways Express did all right by me. And from what I saw, did what they could for everyone there, yesterday and today.

On my flight last night from Islip to Philadelphia, the guy next to me said "That's it, I'm never flying this airline again." This guy (clean cut Floridiot) ... ... I did not like this guy.

On my morning flight from Philadelphia to Greensboro, the guy next to me said "So we just get off this plane and get on another one a few gates down, that's sounds good." This guy (long haired headbanger: Slayer T-shirt, tattoos, the whole nine)... ... I liked this guy.

I think if you switched the guys out, they'd have the same attitude in either situation. And that brings to mind a line that my grandfather told my father: "Nothing is so bad that complaining can't make it worse."

So, my flying tip of the the day:
1. Shut up, wait your turn, let the people do their jobs and - I can not stress this enough - shut up.

(My mom prefers "be quiet" to "shut up," but tough times call for tough talk)