Tampa to Dulles | United #312 | Seat 5A connecting to Dulles to Albany | United #7472 | Seat 8A on 11/6/09

It was a pleasant surprise that I got out of town in time to get home by dinner. Until the pleasant surprise became a flight delay due to mechanical trouble. Upgraded to first class on the way to Dulles but I have to say, first class sure isn’t what it used to be. The snack up front? The same one in the back – snack mix. I mean, seriously. Can you spare a cookie or something? Anyway, got in, got to my connecting gate, and then sat. At least I cribbed a seat by the charger station and got some work done. We were a little over an hour late but I appreciated United’s very frequent and very accurate updates.

Newark – Tampa | JetBlue #537 | Seat 4A | 11/4/09

Was it really only a week ago that I was ranting about how I’d never travel JetBlue again because they held me hostage for 3.5 hours? Wow does it seem longer ago?

Well, after a flu scare and missing two days from work I had to find a way to get to the office in the morning for several hours of meetings and then to Tampa by dinner. Not such an easy thing to do, especially when you live near Albany. I was REALLY hoping for one of those nice Delta flights out of LaGuardia that have wireless in the air, but noooooo. JFK? Nothing. My only option was JetBlue out of Newark. So, I booked it.

I have to confess, the flight was flawless. We boarded easily, we took off on time, the DirectTV kept me entertained while I plowed through a pile of work and the flight attendant gave me extra orange juice since I wasn’t feeling well. Cesar, the aforementioned flight attendant, was delightful and his excellent service was very much appreciated. It was a good flight. And, when we landed, I walked up to baggage claim just as the bags were coming out. Yeah, that is the idea.

As satisfied as I was, I still think JetBlue has a communications problem. When I wrote in to the website about the issues I faced last week they sent me a lame apology email two days later. Puh-lease! Give me a break. They told me how sorry they were but made no offer of compensation. It was only when I wrote back again and asked if the incident was a Controllable Irregularity or Uncontrollable Irregularity, which of course defines whether there is compensation, that they came clean and offered me a round trip ticket. Listen up JetBlue. You need to communicate with your customers. That was the problem last week – no one was happy we were delayed but it was the lack of information that had people screaming.

Flights like yesterday’s encourage me that there is hope, but I’m not drinking the koolaid just yet.

TPA – IAD | United 795 | #24C connecting to IAD – ALB | United 7462 | #2A

This was an uneventful trip and that is a good thing. I enjoyed friendly banter with the TSA staff in Tampa’s E terminal, had a decent burger at the restaurant beyond security and then treated myself to a triple grande skim mocha at Starbucks to help me power through the work I planned on the flight. Boarded on tiime, my seatmate didn’t annoy me, and landed on time. The people movers at Dulles always entertain me and yay! An upgrade! The connection from Dulles to Albany was perfect, baggage claim was quick and I was whisked off. The only hitch in the trip was that the car service sent a stretch. I think stretch limos are ridiculous, especially when you live on 10 acres and your driveway is essentially a half-mile long dirt road. But, either way, I was home by 12:30am and that was a good thing.

Ft. Lauderdale – Tampa | SW 168 | exit row

Despite my impersonation of a limp noodle while boarding due to the air conditioning being out in the Ft. Lauderdale airport, the flight was awesome. Short, sweet and on-time. Props to Shelby, the Southwest flight attendant who was entertaining in his demonstration of the safety procedures.

Ft. Lauderdale – Tampa | SW 168 | Pre-flight

The opportunities to post here keep on coming. This time at security on my way to get Southwest flight 168 from Ft. Lauderdale. Connie and I were prepping our belongings to go through the security checkpoint and she put her bins on the conveyor belt so she could begin the airport strip tease (you know what I’m talking about – taking off shoes, belts, bras with metal underwires, haha) and running them through the x-ray machine. This woman, let’s call her Alice, comes running by like she is late for a funeral and and jumps the line. Connie and I look at each other and start laughing at her rudeness. Just as she spreads her stuff out EVERYWHERE she realizes that she needs more bins. She runs around us, now to the back of the line, to grab more bins. Connie was quite indignant and grabbed her stuff and jumped Alice in line, regaining her rightful position. I let Alice know that she should at least be prepared if she was cutting the line. Oh yeah, and she almost lost her drivers license which I picked off the floor. The security gods were on our side though as they confiscated her cooler filled with who-knows-what and sent her off for secondary screening. I hope she isn’t going to Tampa.

Oh yeah, let’s chat about Sally, the insurance saleswoman who is sitting next to me and screaming into her phone at the top of her lungs. Dude, I am pretty sure your customers don’t want you blabbing their names and private information in your phone loud enough for everyone in the terminal for me to hear.

I should mention that I love Southwest. The ticket agent was awesome and helped me with a problem with my ticket and the announcements are abundant. Thanks!

LGA – FLL | JetBlue 375 | 10A – Take Two

In all fairness, the flight itself was fine. I enjoyed the XM Radio, I ate the chocolate chip cookies, and the crew did a gracious job with such an unruly mob. Even baggage claim was better than expected. While it doesn’t excuse the airline’s atrocious behavior and lack of communication ALL DAY LONG, they got me to my destination safely. Will I ever go out of my way to choose JetBlue? I never say never but they sure do have a lot of work to do to get me to give them another try.

The Hits Just Keep Coming! Thanks JetBlue…

Alert the press! JetBlue made an announcement.

The plane coming to rescue us from JFK would be here by 3:15 or so and we’d take off at around 3:45ish. Everything with JetBlue at LGA today is “ish.” The entertaining part is that as they make their rare uninformed announcements, I check their website. As they told us we’d be taking off at 3:45 the website was saying 4:15pm. Regardless, it is 3:35pm and the rescue craft isn’t here so I still have no idea when we are taking off.

Update on Jet Blue Flight #375

Well, more than an hour and a half later, the plane that JetBlue promised from JFK has yet to materialize. It was supposed to be here around 2 and we were supposed to leave at 2:30-3:00. No plane. No announcement. No information. The lack of respect that this airline has for their customers is astonishing.

LGA – FT Lauderdale | Jet Blue 375 |#10A, aka “why i hate jet blue”

I haven’t written here in a while, but sometimes something happens that just spurs you into action. Today was that day for me with this blog. It started innocently enough – I got to the airport on time and boarded my flight. We went out to the runway and then stopped. And sat. And sat. Other planes went on by and took off but we sat. Finally, an announcement that there was a problem with the fuel gauge and we were going back to the gate for maintenance. Ok, fair enough. Better safe than sorry.

We got back to the gate and the captain announced we’d be 15-20 minutes. An hour passed. He announced we’d be another 10-15 minutes. A half hour passed. I asked to get off the plane to get a snack. They said no. I asked for some water. They said they weren’t serving food and beverage until we were in the air. Eventually they announced that “wahlah, the problem was solved and the maintenance crew was finishing final paperwork – we’d be ready to go (for real) in 15 more minutes.”

As you can ptobably assume by now, fifteen minutes passed, and then another, and then came the apology – that after close to 3.5 hours they were taking the plane out of service. So now I am sitting at gate B5 waiting to hear how I will get to my meeting in Ft. Lauderdale. There is no announcement and the gate agents don’t know what is going on. They have no information other than “we are TRYING to get a plane here from JFK but it is raining out…”

Stay tuned.

Miami, FL – Chicago, IL | AA 847 | 5E

I think that I have been under a lot of stress lately for a number of reason, body has been telling me so, have had pressure on chest, arms, etc.  And of course I get even more nervous thinking that it is something that has to do with my heart.  I will get back to the nervousness in a bit.

I usually do not see anyone famous when I travel but today right behind me in the security line was Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida and brother of GWB, – he really is that  tall.

The flight left on time and looks like we will actually be arriving ahead of schedule in O’Hare.  The egg quesadilla was great and the flight was uneventful except for the fact the the pilot all of a sudden dropped the plane a bit – seatbelt sign came on but have not heard anything since.  Some turbulence kept the plane a little bumpy but overall a smooth ride.

While I travel quite a bit, I must admit that I am pretty nervous, any bump gets my heart rate up – now coupled with my stress factor I feel like I am even more sensitive to any move.  Looking forward to the wheels touching down…

So what I usually do is close my eyes, focus on my breathing, and think about freediving…