Another Travel Story
Crazy couple of days – at least travel related. Here is the story.
I was suppose to travel from Boston to NY on Thursday, then work in NY during the day, and fly from NY to Cincinnati Thursday night where I would take a connecting flight to Cedar Rapids, Iowa. From Cedar Rapids, I was to get into my midsize rental car and drive 90 miles south in the freezing cold to a small town where I would spend the nigh tin a Best Western and the following day I would do something with some people for work. Two days ago it was negative 20 in Iowa. Pretty cold but since I am not working on gas wells or utility poles I would be fine. As long as my car didn’t break down. Traveling is part of my job and thus part of my life. Getting home Friday night at 11PM from Iowa is just like getting in late from the office. A necessary reality of my work.
So in downtown Manhattan I got in...
So in downtown Manhattan I got in a car service car at 3PM and one hour later I went 20 blocks. It was incredible. So I thought I was going to miss my 5:30 flight because of a bad driver and terrible traffic. But no worries, I made it to the airport at 5PM lucky me.
When I checked in at the kiosk it told me that I had to see a gate agent and it turned out my flight was delayed. Now, at this point I thought “no big deal” because I could get some dinner and read a little. But the ticket agent pointed out the fact that without a delay I had 45 minutes to make my connecting flight and with every minute it got more dicey. At this point in the story you are probably asking me why I am telling you this. Good question. You are also probably wondering where this story is going. Another good question, you’re on fire. Another comment you might make is that you are sick of my airline stories. Sorry for that. Yet another gripe is that I take too long to get to my point. A bad habit, I know. There is no answer to these questions since none of my stupid stories go anywhere and they have no real meaning. You should know this by now.
Anyway, back to my story. So, without a delay, I had 45 minutes to get to my flight to Cedar Rapids. Which was the last flight of the night to Cedar Rapids. And if I missed my connection, there was no flight to Boston to take me home, and no flight to NY to take me back. And if I spent the night in Cincinnati I would not be able to fly to Cedar Rapids in the morning with enough time to make my meeting. Plus, it was suppose to be one degree Fahrenheit, 1 degree, later that night. But that has nothing to do with my flights.
So I was in a bit of a pickle. The flight was suppose to leave 30 minutes late, which would give me 15 minutes to make my connecting. But there was no guarantee it would not be delayed coming in to Cincinnati. That part of Ohio was getting heavy snow and Cinci had 3 inches already with 8 more projected. So if I missed my flight I would basically spend the night in Cincinnati and then fly home in the morning, or take my meeting via a conference call in a cheap airport hotel in Northern Kentucky and fly home later in the day. Two not so appealing options.
I had a first class ticket because I got upgraded but that would not get me to Cedar Rapids faster. So I made some calls to the client and my colleagues, consulted Delta gate agents, talked it over with a few stranger I was standing next to at the gate, and decided I had a 10% chance of making it to my final destination. Now, with certain things I would be fine with 10% and certain things I would not. If my wife was in labor, I would take the chance and get on the plane. If I was going out to visit the Dry Land Luge Hall of Fame, I would not. So I decided that I could do what I had to do over the phone and asked Delta for a refund, and gave my first class seat to some lucky traveler.
The Delta Shuttle, the one I take to Boston, leaves from LaGuardia airport, the same airport I was at trying to get to Iowa. But the regular Delta flights and the Shuttle leave from two totally different terminals that are pretty far apart. Thursday nights are chaos at the Shuttle and without a ticket I was sure I would be sitting on the last flight out. But the ticket agent who refunded my flight was very nice, and extremely helpful, and a little sarcastic in a witty kind of way, and she got me on the 6:30 (due to my Gold status), waved the 15 dollar fee for not booking online, and printed out my boarding pass.
I was on my way home.
So now I had another dilemma. It was about 15 minutes to 6, and I had a 6:30 flight. I went down to the courtesy buses and looked for the airport bus to take me to a terminal. It was nowhere to be seen. Pay attention because this is where the story gets interesting. I went to the first bus I was saw, an Enterprise car rental bus, and asked the guy to open the door. He was a young African American guy with no passengers. I asked him if he was going to the Shuttle terminal and he said no.
Enterprise guy: (in an accented voice) You should get in a taxi and take it there.
Me: But there is an airport bus, right?
Enterprise guy: They are terrible. You will sit here for half an hour and wait. Take a cab.
Me: (looking over at the cab line, at least 200 people standing in line) Over there?
Enterprise guy: (opens his door all the way and motions for me) Get in, I’ll take you.
I was shocked. No freakin way. So I got in and he drove off. He was a young guy from Haiti. I went to hand him 10 bucks and he refused it. He said to do someone a favor. Earlier in the day I was at a focus group facility that had gourmet food and snacks for those of us behind the one way glass observing the focus group and I took some gourmet chocolates and cookies for the flight. I gave him those and he gladly accepted. I told him that I was going to get to see my kids and wife before they went to bed and it was because of him. He told me he just had his first child, a 1 month old, and he was working two jobs to give him a good life. He said that my appreciation for seeing my kids made him feel good for giving me a ride.
We talked for a little about Haiti, Pappa Doc and Aristide. He drove straight to the terminal with the Delta Shuttle and I made my flight home.
Two good things happened to me this past week. A Delta flight crew held up a flight so I could make it after a connecting flight was delayed. And this rental car bus driver gave me a lift.
I love Christmas time, people seem to be nicer.
Oh, that is one other thing. LaGuardia airport was like some seen out of a movie. There were Christmas decorations everywhere. The place was packed with people. Flights where delayed. It was chaos. Pandemonium. Strangers were talking to other strangers about getting home to put the tree up. It was…almost nice. There is an anticipation of the holidays in the air and a usually cranky and morose setting was less unpleasant.
So there is my meaningless story. Just another in a long string of meaningless stories.
Just thought I’d share.