Saturday, December 17, 2005

Jet blues

I traveled from Long Beach to Dulles on Jet Blue yesterday. What started as a bad trip, ended even worse. I was the last person on the plane, because security insisted on field stripping my carryon luggage. I ran to the plan to find that there was no room for my bag. Since it held my computer, Nikon, and lenses, I was not about to let it out of my sight. I stuck it under the seat ahead of me and squeezed into my window seat. For one miserable hour I tried to be a small as possible; it did not work. The man sitting next to me took pity. He found another seat and moved. Things were looking up. The next hour passed with no incidents. At the halfway point, the pilot came on and asked if there was a doctor on board. A young lady was having a seizure. We eventually landed in Saint Louis. We were on the ground for almost 1.5 hours. We lifted off when I had expected to be at my hotel. By now, I was really hungry. I had not picked up any food because had been detained in security. The food on Jet Blue is not really food, they are snacks. After a pack of almonds and a some cheese and crackers – I was ready to eat a water buffalo.

The flight crew was great. The pilot even walked the cabin offering his cell phone to people who needed to make calls. He engaged the passengers in conversation and even gave us a run down on how the whole emergency decision making process worked. The one thing that stands out about the whole mess is how inconsiderate people can be. The flight crew made if very clear that we needed to remain seated so that the paramedics can board and remove the sick young girl. Of course, the minute we landed a man a few seat behind the sick young girl jumped up and grabbed a book and some water from the overhead. People can be so stupid – all he needed to do was wait another five minutes.

I finally got to my hotel room, after walking what seemed like two miles at Dulles only to find my meal options Taco Bell or Wendy’s. Burgers and Chili - yum.

I shot this picture from my seat while grounded in Saint Louis.

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1 comment:

Johnny C said...

sometimes flights just suck like that. At least the crew was nice.