I'm not sure if it was a blessing or a curse to walk into Oakland Airport on Valentine’s Day without much knowledge about the weather in NYC or many -- any, really -- concerns about getting to JFK without delay. I think my amazing luck getting to and from snowy Denver during my Christmas vacation made me believe I was impervious to major air travel-related issues. But boy, was I wrong.
Everything seemed great at Oakland and in the air -- until about an hour before our scheduled arrival in New York. When the captain's voice came over the PA system, I knew we were in for trouble. But I couldn't believe it when he announced that we were about to begin our initial decent into the ... Atlantic City area. Oy effing vey. Everyone groaned and/or laughed. Especially the vociferous and borderline retarded middle-aged couple sitting directly behind me. Jesus, were they annoying or what? I really wanted to ask them where in the Bay Area they lived so I could avoid the neighborhood at all costs.

At 8 we were told that JFK had cleared JetBlue to send the four AC planes toward New York every 10 minutes, beginning at 8. We were fourth up, so that meant a 40-minute wait. At about 8:30, the annoying captain came on again to tell us that we needed a visit from the de-icing truck, so that could delay us a few minutes. Then, as the truck was doing its thing, we were told that some mofo organization had ordered a no-landing window at JFK for at least half an hour. G to the O to the D damn it!
We finally took off around 9:10, so not too long after we were expected to take off, but at that point I was super bummed (fancy dinner with free bottle of champagne canceled). When we landed at JFK people clapped (so obvious) but a bit prematurely. We had to park and wait a good 30 minutes as JFK tried to shuffle the many fucked flights to and from gates.
You better believe I sent a detailed email as soon as I got to Alli and Lauren's apartment. I received an email response a few days later explaining what had happened (nothing I didn't already know) and basically telling me to suck it -- but nicely, of course. JetBlue is nothing if not chipper and polite. To my surprise, I received another email a couple of days letter saying I'd receive a full refund and a voucher worth the price of the fucked flight.
So JetBue is off my shit list. And all it took was some cash. Surprise, surprise.
(BTW, on my return flight I had to sit next to a woman and her toddler, both of whom were sharing a seat. I was in the aisle so I had to get up approx. 17,562 times. Later, at BART, a stranger came up to me and said I deserved a medal for dealing with it. Also, the CEO of JetBlue came on our flight to apologize for last week's insanity. I appreciated the gesture but he held us up a good three minutes. Time is money, bitches!)
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