The Bad Beginning
Trip Start
Jun 20, 2009
1
21
Trip End
Aug 01, 2009
New York, New York, United States
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Our connecting flight to JFK Airport (NY) was delayed almost as soon as we arrived at the gate, due to "Low Ceilings." It was only a 1-1/2 hour delay, and our layover was 2-1/2 hours, so we were assured that we would be fine. It was delayed for another 45 minutes. Again, we were "fine." We got on the plane at 6:15 and began taxiing down the runway when we are informed that there is a "ground hold" at JFK airport due to bad weather (apparently extremely common at JFK) and that the [i]earliest[/i] we would leave would be 7pm. We left at 7:20pm.
We arrived at JFK and missed our international flight to London-Heathrow by [b]minutes[/b]
The Room
. We were informed the next flight wasn't until the next day, at 6pm. Apparently, Delta's policy is to not hold flights unless 51% of the plane is missing. So, in a flight of say, 100 people, if 40 don't make it, they'll leave anyways, even if they would only have to hold for 10 minutes (which is all they would have had to wait for us to catch the flight). Apparently, it's way worse for everybody to be 10 minutes late than for a "minority" of passengers to be an entire day late.We had to wait in line for over an hour to find this out. They wouldn't pay for our lodging, food, cab fare, or anything (since it was weather-related). We couldn't book on another airline; we'd be paying outrageous fares. So, we had to just take the next flight, at 6pm the next day. After much deliberation, we got a room at the DoubleTree, which had the slowest shuttle in the world and which of course did not give us a free cookie (nor did it come with a complimentary breakfast; I mean, even Days Inn does that).
And so, I write to you today to implore: don't fly Delta. Or, at least, don't book a connecting flight in JFK for an international flight. Or, at the very least, make sure you always look around to see if Tyler Hansbrough is wherever you are. I'm writing from my $260 hotel room, about to leave in an hour or so for the airport. I haven't eaten since 1pm yesterday (all the airport restaurants closed while we waited in line and I'm not paying $18 for a breakfast buffet).
Lunch at JFK suddenly sounds wonderful.
Tomorrow, Godspeed, I should finally be in England, only about a day late. Once there, I will hopefully have nothing but positive things to write about, so don't cancel your subscription just yet.
Happy Travels!
