*waves from Maryland*
Those of you who don't follow me on Twitter are probably going "wait, I thought you were flying to Tennessee today?" right now. And, yes, that was the plan. American Airlines, however, had a difference in opinion.
Long story short: my flight was cancelled.
Long story long:
I left my apartment around 8:30am this morning and made it to the airport a little after 9am. Check-in was surprisingly painless, so I found my gate and headed to a nearby restaurant to get breakfast. And, you know, to settle in for a 2+ hour wait until my flight was scheduled to leave.
Oh, sweet innocent me of this morning.
At 10:12am, there was an alert that the flight had been delayed by an hour-and-a-half. Which was disappointing, but not too bad. Especially since some comments made it sound like the flight in had been diverted because of a medical emergency, so that was why there was a delay.
The problem came about when boarding time came and went with no announcements whatsoever about the flight status. "Wtf?" many of us on the flight began to ask. Especially when the flight was then delayed for another hour. Cut to the next scheduled boarding time coming and going. And the flight being delayed by another hour-and-a-half.
Rinse and repeat. All. Afternoon. Long.
After the second delay, with no updates on what the hell was going on, people started asking about the possibility of the flight being cancelled. "Oh no," said the airport staff, "that won't happen."
Cut to a little after 4pm. Still no update at all on when to actually expect the plane to take off, although we knew the reason by then. (The first delay meant the flight crew couldn't do the flight, because they'd gone over their hours. So they were waiting on a replacement crew. But they couldn't find a first officer. Then they found one who, upon getting off his flight and being told he was flying ours, said loudly in front of a bunch of passengers "No, I'm not flying it" and walked out. So they were back to not having one.) Anyway, at that point, they started giving people the option to change flights.
One of my options was to fly to Chicago, sit at O'Hare for a few hours, fly to Nashville, and have my dad pick me up sometime after midnight. The other was to take a flight tomorrow that would put me in Nashville around 3:30pm.
"Neither of those is an option," I told them. "If this flight is cancelled, I'm not going to Tennessee."
So I settled down to wait with the remnants of my flight, made up of locals like me who had decided just to head home if the flight was cancelled and people who would take flights tomorrow if they couldn't get on the scheduled one.
Eventually, they told us around 6pm that they had one last possible first officer flying in from... gods, I don't even remember. They were trying to get in touch with him, and if he was willing to do the flight then it would still leave. Otherwise, it would be cancelled.
I'll let you guess what he said based on the fact that I'm sitting in my apartment right now. :-/
More later! I'm off to read my Yuletide gift now.
This entry has been crossposted to Dreamwidth, and it currently has
replies there. Comment on whichever site you prefer.
Long story short: my flight was cancelled.
Long story long:
I left my apartment around 8:30am this morning and made it to the airport a little after 9am. Check-in was surprisingly painless, so I found my gate and headed to a nearby restaurant to get breakfast. And, you know, to settle in for a 2+ hour wait until my flight was scheduled to leave.
Oh, sweet innocent me of this morning.
At 10:12am, there was an alert that the flight had been delayed by an hour-and-a-half. Which was disappointing, but not too bad. Especially since some comments made it sound like the flight in had been diverted because of a medical emergency, so that was why there was a delay.
The problem came about when boarding time came and went with no announcements whatsoever about the flight status. "Wtf?" many of us on the flight began to ask. Especially when the flight was then delayed for another hour. Cut to the next scheduled boarding time coming and going. And the flight being delayed by another hour-and-a-half.
Rinse and repeat. All. Afternoon. Long.
After the second delay, with no updates on what the hell was going on, people started asking about the possibility of the flight being cancelled. "Oh no," said the airport staff, "that won't happen."
Cut to a little after 4pm. Still no update at all on when to actually expect the plane to take off, although we knew the reason by then. (The first delay meant the flight crew couldn't do the flight, because they'd gone over their hours. So they were waiting on a replacement crew. But they couldn't find a first officer. Then they found one who, upon getting off his flight and being told he was flying ours, said loudly in front of a bunch of passengers "No, I'm not flying it" and walked out. So they were back to not having one.) Anyway, at that point, they started giving people the option to change flights.
One of my options was to fly to Chicago, sit at O'Hare for a few hours, fly to Nashville, and have my dad pick me up sometime after midnight. The other was to take a flight tomorrow that would put me in Nashville around 3:30pm.
"Neither of those is an option," I told them. "If this flight is cancelled, I'm not going to Tennessee."
So I settled down to wait with the remnants of my flight, made up of locals like me who had decided just to head home if the flight was cancelled and people who would take flights tomorrow if they couldn't get on the scheduled one.
Eventually, they told us around 6pm that they had one last possible first officer flying in from... gods, I don't even remember. They were trying to get in touch with him, and if he was willing to do the flight then it would still leave. Otherwise, it would be cancelled.
I'll let you guess what he said based on the fact that I'm sitting in my apartment right now. :-/
More later! I'm off to read my Yuletide gift now.
This entry has been crossposted to Dreamwidth, and it currently has
replies there. Comment on whichever site you prefer.