WWTBAM Bored

An uncomfortable redeye from San Francisco to Newark, last night, squeezed into a middle seat, then an three-hour delay in Newark for the flight back to Ithaca (just about the time we should have started boarding, they announced that our crew was just departing from Rochester).

But that's better than what's been happening to folks stuck in Newark, apparently. When I got breakfast at McDonalds, I was puzzled by so many of the food court tables missing chairs. Then I walked by the United customer service window and saw a long, long line of those chairs filled with people waiting their turn for service. Incredible!

Folks were snapping photos of the line, so somebody must have posted one on some of the social network sites. I could only find this one on Twitter, which is a couple days old--apparently before they desparately grabbed the chairs.

https://twitter.com/MichaelCollier/stat ... 24/photo/1

We were so fortunate. We returned from our Hawaii vacation, flying from San Francisco to Detroit on Saturday afternoon, then barely sneaking in to Evansville before the weather started in Indiana Saturday night. Schools were canceled all over the state (even down here in the southern tip where we didn't get much snow) because of dangerous cold today and tomorrow. The state Superintendent of schools has already announced that waivers will be granted to schools that canceled, so they will not have to make up these two days. And we didn't get it nearly as bad as other places.

MarleysGh0st wrote:An uncomfortable redeye from San Francisco to Newark, last night, squeezed into a middle seat, then an three-hour delay in Newark for the flight back to Ithaca (just about the time we should have started boarding, they announced that our crew was just departing from Rochester).

But that's better than what's been happening to folks stuck in Newark, apparently. When I got breakfast at McDonalds, I was puzzled by so many of the food court tables missing chairs. Then I walked by the United customer service window and saw a long, long line of those chairs filled with people waiting their turn for service. Incredible!

Folks were snapping photos of the line, so somebody must have posted one on some of the social network sites. I could only find this one on Twitter, which is a couple days old--apparently before they desparately grabbed the chairs.

https://twitter.com/MichaelCollier/stat ... 24/photo/1

You're lucky you got back early: They're cancelling flights all over the northeast now.

Bob Juch wrote:You're lucky you got back early: They're cancelling flights all over the northeast now.

Yeah, getting stuck in Newark was exactly the situation I was trying to avoid when I changed my reservation from Thursday evening to Sunday evening.

Dropped #3son and father-in-law at the airport at noon for 1:30 flight. I haven't heard from them, so presumably they left here, headed for Minneapolis, and then CVG, hopefully.

Wow you were lucky to make it back. Did your airline offer lots of goodies for anyone to give up their seat?

Folks were snapping photos of the line, so somebody must have posted one on some of the social network sites. I could only find this one on Twitter, which is a couple days old--apparently before they desparately grabbed the chairs.

When I (along with 8999 other people) auditioned for Deal or no Deal in Chicago at Navy Pier people were grabbing the chairs from the outdoor restaurants because the line was over 9 hours long and dragging them around. The line snaked around the pier and then inside a building I was so mad that the audition consisted of standing around a table with 19 other people and getting 30 seconds (timed with a stopwatch) to talk about myself. There was a second audition for certain people that occurred behind a curtain. So when none of us got told to go to curtain #1, we all realized we wasted all that time. The worst part was that we had to then go thru a room filled with vendors for something in order to exit.

geoffil wrote:Wow you were lucky to make it back. Did your airline offer lots of goodies for anyone to give up their seat?

Not that I heard of. These are all weather-related cancellations, so the airlines don't have to offer compensations like they do when they overbook.

There was a big line of people on the standby list from San Francisco to Newark, last night, but all of the planes were booked solid.

tlynn78 wrote:Dropped #3son and father-in-law at the airport at noon for 1:30 flight. I haven't heard from them, so presumably they left here, headed for Minneapolis, and then CVG, hopefully.

My aunt had no problems flying from John Wayne/O.C./Santa Ana to Minneapolis today.

Estonut wrote:

tlynn78 wrote:Dropped #3son and father-in-law at the airport at noon for 1:30 flight. I haven't heard from them, so presumably they left here, headed for Minneapolis, and then CVG, hopefully.

My aunt had no problems flying from John Wayne/O.C./Santa Ana to Minneapolis today.

The guys got stuck in Minn. Two hour delay, then cancelled - "not weather related." Delta put them up in a motel, then they boarded a flight this morning to DC. Last I heard, they were to depart DC to CVG 'shortly.' First class - so f-i-l much have done some major bitching.