All Because of a Flat Tire--a true story
A vacation in Jamaica...my wife and I were so excited! We packed all we could on Thursday evening and tried to get a bit of sleep before getting up at 4:30 a.m. to catch our 7:10 flight Friday morning. We finally settled down enough to get a few hours sleep, when the phone rang at 4:15 a.m. It was a recorded call from our airline informing us that our flight was delayed for several hours and we were rebooked on the 6:00 a.m. flight to Atlanta. Now, we live 70 miles from the airport, usually an hour and fifteen minutes drive. That left an hour and forty-five minutes to shower, finish packing, get to the airport, park, check luggage, get through security, and catch the plane! We never got ready so fast before! But we threw everything in the car and hit the road, heads full of dreams of Jamaican beaches and palm trees!
We arrived at the airport at 5:45 with fifteen minutes to spare! Believe it or not, we managed to check our luggage, get through security, and get to the gate before 6:00 a.m.! Then we were told that this flight was delayed; the plane had a flat tire. the buzz went around that the service personnel had been working on it since 4:00 a.m. These mechanics would never make it at NASCAR! Finally, they got the flat fixed and we took off about 8:30. We relaxed and hoped for the best. Yeh Mon, we were ready to chill out in Jamaica!
All went well until we landed in Atlanta. Our connecting flight to Jamaica had flew the coop! It was on its way to our tropical paradise without us! Since our airline didn't have any more flights that day, we had the choice of spending the night in Atlanta or being rebooked on another airline. This would require flying to Miami and then from there to Jamaica. Well, we could already taste the spicy Jamaican food, so we made the mistake of choosing this option. We were so anxious! When we got to Miami, a thunderstorm had shut down the train transport system to get from one terminal to another. About a thousand people were packed into the lobby area trying to get to their flights. The airport police were really into mob control mode, not nice at all. While there was no physical brutality, it wasn't pleasant at all! There were no signs to even tell us if we were with the right mob to get to our terminal. Finally, they opened up a narrow escalator (one person wide) and used it to bring in folks from arriving flights, then reversed it, and take us us downstairs a few at a time where we were loaded on buses and transported to our terminal. Relief at last! As they say in Jamaica, 'No Problem!'
Arriving at our terminal, we waited several more hours. It was sometime after 11:00 before we were told that we would be moved to another plane (our flight was supposed to depart about 7:00) We had to walk from E16 to D51, quite a long distance. When everybody finally made their way to D51, we were told that our flight had been canceled. All we could figure was that they wanted to get us away from the other passengers to tell us the bad news. Everyone got into line for reticketing and to get vouchers for a hotel room. I waited in line until after midnight, and then the shift must have ended; the agents packed up and left us. They told us we could get help at D34. So, we had another long walk down the corridor to D34 to a line with about a hundred people in front of us. We waited in line until after 3:00 a.m.. Finally, we were processed, got our vouchers and made it to the hotel a little before four a.m.. After a short sleep time, we got up at eight a.m. to catch the Saturday flight. Ah, finally off to Jamaica!
All went well except our luggage didn't make it. Feeling a bit of anxiety about no luggage, we were still thrilled to be at our beautiful resort! After a few calls, we found out that it had arrived at the airport and would be delivered that night. Sure enough, it was at our hotel Sunday morning! We did chill out and enjoy a great week of sun and fun. From now on I'll do my best to avoid Miami, and stay away from that airline that we switch to to get there. Just think, all this adventure was just because our first plane had a flat tire!
By Marvin Dennis, aka Cheesemaker
By CheeseMaker
© 2009 CheeseMaker
(All rights reserved)
| |
