I’ve travelled a lot. I’m by no means some George-Clooney-Up-In-The-Air Million-Miler…but, I’ve travelled a lot.
Last night getting back to Jersey was the worst travel flight combination ever. Ever. Ever Ever.
Prelude: When I left for Jersey the first time, I took the 3:30 flight from Lansing. The layover in Detroit was short, and I landed in Jersey at 8 and in hotel by 9 seemed reasonable.
For this trip home though, I chose the last flight out of Lansing, 5:20. I wanted the extra two hours at home, even though it left me with a horrible 3 hour layover in Detroit. Get into Newark about 11:30, hopefully be in the hotel by 12:30 and be at work by 8…
I knew that late flight wouldn’t be fun. And of course, there was this going on….
Suzanne texted this picture to me during the journey…
Went to Cpher’s basketball practice at 1:30; driving home the snow had started and the roads were icing up….decided Suzanne should drive me early before the roads got any worse. The roads in Okemos weren’t the greatest, but, the interstate and the road to the airport were ok.
Act 1: We’ll use my texts with Suzanne to guide our way through this adventure
This part, the Lansing to Detroit part, that wasn’t too bad. The runway just had snow blowing across it, and, the only delay really was because the flight from Detroit was late due to deicing and general Detroit heavy traffic. No big deal.
Being an hour late out of Lansing wasn’t a bad thing…I had plenty of time to kill in Detroit. But we get to Detroit, and there are many many people on the plane trying to catch connections, and we literally sit 30 feet from the gate waiting…and waiting…and waiting…for the ground staff to come over and park the plane.
Act 2: I get dinner, and settle in and wait…and wait…and wait…
I should have taken a picture of the ‘departures’ board, I’d say 1 of every 3 flights was cancelled. We’re sitting there at gate B6 and the flight to Traverse City has to clear out before we can go….finally, around 1035 they say that we are delayed to 1130 at least. Turns out the plane we are taking to EWR has to come from there as well…
That first text from me on the left? Not my first time at this type of rodeo…..I know from past overnights in Detroit that really, in the end, the one thing that is certain to cancel a flight is the crew going over their hours limit.
I was happy when I left home to see that, on the flight to EWR, there were 6 seats available in first class, and I was #1 on the upgrade list. But, in the second crappy Detroit-staff related goofiness, the gate agent didn’t process upgrades, and the reservation staff put all kinds of people on the plane (and into MY SEAT!).
Grrrrr.
It’s now 12:30. We still haven’t left Detroit.
Obviously I didn’t have my phone turned off….but I didn’t see that text from Suzanne until 3 am. We had to de-ice, so, didn’t actually get off the ground until 1 am. And all of this delay meant that of course, we are going to try and land in EWR in the heaviest part of the storm….
We’re in the air and the Captain says we are going to do circles because Newark is closed (and rightly so, look at all that yellow and red over the airport!). But we’re circling, at an elevation that takes through the clouds and not above the clouds. And as we are doing this, I’m thinking “why is he in the clouds, the wings are going to ice up?”….and he comes on the intercom later and says “our wings are icing up, we have to go to our alternate….Baltimore”.
Why Baltimore? I guess I can understand that he chose an alternate far enough away to be out of the storms, but, that time to get there is going to matter…..
the terrible threesome of flight status’ for the night….
We land in BWI, the Captain says the plan is to refuel, deice, and go back to EWR; the crew still have time left on their day. Fine, great.
And then we wait…we wait….we wait longer than we did at Detroit for the ground crew because, apparently, DELTA DIDN’T BOTHER TO TELL ANYBODY AT BALTIMORE THAT WE WERE COMING!
Finally park. Flight attendant starts talking about Amtrak. Natives are getting very restless (imagine your best Jersey-Soprano accent saying, loudly, “what are we doing in Baltimore?'….you couldn’t find an airport closer?")
Wait. Wait. Wait. Finally the fuel truck pulls up. And at 4:25 Captain says well, can’t get our paperwork done, we’re over the crew time limit, this flight is cancelled.
Act 3: So, what now? Delta staff made some noise about what is reimbursable and what isn’t at this point; some people are very upset by this. I know better, whatever cost it takes for me to get to where I need I will take up with Delta later.
So how do I get to Jersey?
By Plane: Delta didn’t have a crew in place to get that plane out of there in any kind of good time. I did call Delta, all of the flights out of Baltimore were sold out AND they weren’t nonstop….they went back through either Detroit or Cincinnati.
In hindsight, I should have pushed them to book me on United; which had a flight leaving at 530. Didn’t think of that.
By Bus: That’s what Delta was trying to arrange. I had no interest in waiting for these numbskulls to line up a bus at almost 5 am…how long would it take for them to arrange that???
By Car: It would be possible to rent a car at BWI, drive it, and then drop it at Newark as I go home next time. But, that’s expensive, and, my call from Hertz made it clear that the rental contract wouldn’t have unlimited miles, which is not good. I could deal with the drop fee, but, not the mileage fee (that’s not being a good steward of the government’s money).
Plus, I have about 1 hour of decent sleep in the last 22 hours at this point. Driving three hours doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Since I can’t take the car, I have to get back to Newark to rent the car. And that means the best solution is….
Amtrak Station, Baltimore Thurgood Marshall International. Circa 5:15 am
Of course, the only train that stops at Newark airport, not Newark Penn Station, leaves at 6:57 am. I have to watch two more trains leave first. I should have taken the train to Newark Penn and then figured out a way back….I blame my drowsy-half-numb state for not thinking of that option.
Get on train. Pretty impressed overall with speed and comfort…..doze, again (I have no memory of passing near or around Philadelphia). Get back to Newark at 9:30, take the tram around the airport to the rental car, get to hotel in Lincroft at 11 am.
Call Suzanne. Tell her I’m going to bed!
