to mention that my and C were 2 of those people who were caught in all the JFK madness while flying out of nyc. They overbooked our flight and told us the next flight out was the following day. C and I frantically called all the people/airlines we knew trying to find a flight that left the same day. I overheard somebody talking about “gate 11” so thought it would be a good idea to go over there.
Luckily, we did. And luckily, we were put on standby on a flight that left 1.5 hrs later. This one crazy dude wanted to fly us to Atlanta…but no flights were leaving that night from Atlanta…so we got on standby and reserved seats for the following day just in case. As were were doing this, another passenger that was supposed to be on our initial flight, storms the crazy dude’s desk and says, “I just asked them to check the flight roster and it says that I’m on the flight. But how can I be ON the flight when I’m standing RIGHT HERE?! You told me to step aside, so I did, and then the flight left without me? ISN’T THAT A HUGE SECURITY RISK?”
C and I looked at each other and were kind of glad not to be on that original flight. We called it the ghost flight. Fucking scary.
Back in the standby line. The waiting area started to look like an ER/triage room, as desperate looking people were lined up, practically pressed against the counter, waiving their useless tickets. C and I prayed that all the international flights that were supposed to connect, would miss the connection. We read the sign that said it was a partner for Air Korea, Air Italia, El Al (whats that) and some other dubious sounding airline. Then we looked around the waiting room to see if we could pinpoint the corresponding passengers. We were feeling pretty solid.
Naturally, in the last moments before the flight was about to leave, C got on, and even though the sign said I was “all clear,” I was denied at the gate. Fuck. We went back to the desk and talked to the guy and in like 5 minutes he handed me a ticket, making me one of the last, if not the very last, person to get a seat on the plane.
All said, we sorta lucked out. We got travel vouchers for getting involuntarily bumped, got a sweet plane, and we got to fly out that night. Unlike those unlucky bastards over at Jet Blue. Man. 10 and a half hours sitting on a plane thats grounded? No fucking way.
