Well, it sure started off with a bang.
Or, it all seemed to be going so well. I left a relatively easy day at work with plenty of time to arrive at JFK a full hour before my flight departed at 7:30pm. I did not plan on checking any luggage, so this almost bordered on excessive.
Or so I thought. The normally reliable E train was FUCKED. And it got fucked in Queens, which meant that I had no idea if I could get a car service or taxi if I ventured out of the train. I got above ground at the Air Train stop at 7:02. I initially tried to sign on to Jet Blue.com to check in online, but you have to do that 90 minutes prior to flight, not 27 minutes before. Then I called and tried to see if they could check me in manually via phone. I know, I know, this was stupid to attempt, but I was desperate. I started thinking about what I would do when I missed my flight, coming up with plan b and c.
I arrived at the jet blue terminal at 7:14 pm and ran to the kiosk as the woman on the phone had instructed me to do. Of course, I got the slip of paper telling me to check with the attendant. He straight up told me it was impossible to get on the flight, that it was closed. I burst out in a hysterical crying fit, begging him to help me. I mean, for god’s sake, you would have thought I was escaping genocide in Rwanda, not leaving the city I love for a baby shower. That was on Saturday. Today was Wednesday.
He told me to cut it out, mentioned that I could possibly fly to Ontario, CA and take a taxi to Sacramento. I mean, come on, that was so stupid I nearly dropped the tears and said to him “That would be like saying why don’t you fly to North Carolina and take a taxi to Manhattan. But I didn’t. I hadn’t given up on my Sacramento flight. I mean, it was now 7:20….I had ten minutes to convince them for god’s sake.
Had to go down the desk to the woman to see if I could even be booked on any flight to the west coast. I’m still sobbing and basically immediately started begging her to help me get on the flight.
Impossible?? IMPOSSIBLE??? DON’T TELL ME WHAT’S F-ING IMPOSSIBLE, YOU GEOGRAPHICALLY CHALLENGED NITWIT!
I was on the flight. In an aisle seat, with no one in the center seat. Big legroom section of the plane. My seatmate and I drank for free the entire flight because Catherine and Sam, our stewards, recognized that I had been traumatized and felt that they should turn my jet blue experience around.