i started another blog a while back. mostly about what i'm doing in and around chicago during my temporary unemployment. looky here:
free days and matinees.
21 February 2007
18 February 2007
jetBlew
for christmas, the boy got me tickets to the westminster dog show in new york — i know, amazing, right? (there will be a post on that later.) the bestgiftever even came with plane tickets on jetBlue, which is finally serving chicago. i was eager to check it out after all the raves.
flight there: totally awesome.
the forty-channels-of-TV in your seat beat out my bookclub book for in-flight entertainment, while the unlimited snacks were a shock to the system after flying The Majors, with their $10 snackpack, for so long. our selection included chocolate chip cookies, doritos mix, biscotti, and the jetBlue signature blue chips. between the two of us, we had one of each.
flight home: total hell, with snacks.
it was wednesday, valentine's day, the day the snow hit new york city. luckily, we were not among those who spent upwards of nine hours trapped in the plane on the runway. our flight was just flat-out canceled that day. after diligent status checks online, we went back to JFK the next day under the impression that our 9:50am flight would indeed take off.
and take off it eventually did..... 13 hours later.
i understand that there is nothing you can do in the face of a snow storm, and that flights are among the first things to get effed up. however you can do something to communicate problems to your passengers. in the event that you could actually reach a customer service agent on the phone — the automated message told you they were experiencing heavy call volume, then promptly hung up on you — they would tell you to check the website, which indicated that your flight actually took off ten minutes ago. of course, the rumors were running rampant about what the problem might actually be. (all the planes are frozen to the runway, only one runway for the entire airport, no crew members, etc.)
flights were being canceled left and right, except for ours, of course. dangling that thread of hope. we were the one and only flight to chicago still on the board. the departures board lit up every few minutes to tell us we were leaving at 10:25. then 11:50. then 12:05. then 1:20. then 4:50. on and on ad naseum. we were kind of hoping they would just cancel the damn thing so we could make alternate plans. (which at one point involved a 12-hour bus ride, a border crossing, and a spontaneous visit to my hometown.)
to their credit, the jetBlue folks we actually spoke to (including airplane techs wrangled in to help with damage control) were very patient and earnest, and the snacks and drinks never stopped flowing.
above all, i'm just shocked that an airline is taking this long to bounce back from what, in all honesty and i'm not just saying this because i'm from buffalo, was not that bad of a storm. what is going on??
jetBlue, those first two hours were fun, but i just don't think this is going to work.
also, on a different note, i've resigned myself to the fact that i will probably not finish updating the antarctica trip. just know that, oddly enough, the ice sparked a fire for life in me that i hope stays burning, and i can't wait to go back.
flight there: totally awesome.
the forty-channels-of-TV in your seat beat out my bookclub book for in-flight entertainment, while the unlimited snacks were a shock to the system after flying The Majors, with their $10 snackpack, for so long. our selection included chocolate chip cookies, doritos mix, biscotti, and the jetBlue signature blue chips. between the two of us, we had one of each.
flight home: total hell, with snacks.
it was wednesday, valentine's day, the day the snow hit new york city. luckily, we were not among those who spent upwards of nine hours trapped in the plane on the runway. our flight was just flat-out canceled that day. after diligent status checks online, we went back to JFK the next day under the impression that our 9:50am flight would indeed take off.
and take off it eventually did..... 13 hours later.
i understand that there is nothing you can do in the face of a snow storm, and that flights are among the first things to get effed up. however you can do something to communicate problems to your passengers. in the event that you could actually reach a customer service agent on the phone — the automated message told you they were experiencing heavy call volume, then promptly hung up on you — they would tell you to check the website, which indicated that your flight actually took off ten minutes ago. of course, the rumors were running rampant about what the problem might actually be. (all the planes are frozen to the runway, only one runway for the entire airport, no crew members, etc.)
flights were being canceled left and right, except for ours, of course. dangling that thread of hope. we were the one and only flight to chicago still on the board. the departures board lit up every few minutes to tell us we were leaving at 10:25. then 11:50. then 12:05. then 1:20. then 4:50. on and on ad naseum. we were kind of hoping they would just cancel the damn thing so we could make alternate plans. (which at one point involved a 12-hour bus ride, a border crossing, and a spontaneous visit to my hometown.)
to their credit, the jetBlue folks we actually spoke to (including airplane techs wrangled in to help with damage control) were very patient and earnest, and the snacks and drinks never stopped flowing.
above all, i'm just shocked that an airline is taking this long to bounce back from what, in all honesty and i'm not just saying this because i'm from buffalo, was not that bad of a storm. what is going on??
jetBlue, those first two hours were fun, but i just don't think this is going to work.
also, on a different note, i've resigned myself to the fact that i will probably not finish updating the antarctica trip. just know that, oddly enough, the ice sparked a fire for life in me that i hope stays burning, and i can't wait to go back.
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