Work
Why do people make up information?
13/08/09 00:30
So, today I was gearing up for heading to JFK. Sometime in the afternoon, a friend called me to inform me to watch my flights since there were storms in the New York City area. Any storms create terrible delays, so when he contacted me, I checked the weather and sure enough, New York was due some bad weather.
He called back a little later and said that JFK was experiencing some heavy hail, and as I was talking with him, he witnessed two planes abort their landings...probably due to the weather. I continued to watch my Northwest flight on their website, and sure enough, it was showing an hour delay...this was approximately 3pm.
As I finally got ready to leave for the airport, I decided to leave as normal since they use a different plane from the inbound, to the outbound. The delay showed that they were waiting for the inbound aircraft. Once I got to the airport, I noticed on the monitor that the inbound was coming from Hartford, CT. At this time, I knew why the delay...weather. Even while walking to the gate, the 3-4 weather monitors that Minneapolis Airport have next to the arrival/departure screens show that there was bad weather, or storms in the NY area.
So, here we all are, sitting at F1 departing lounge, and without notice, the monitor behind the counter changes to a different flight. So, I check NWA/mobile and see that my flight is now leaving out of F3. No agent was at the F1 counter, and the F3 monitor showed a different flight other than our JFK flight. I noticed that the jetbridge pulled back, so it was a flight just leaving.
Quickly, more and more people are showing up to the F3 asking questions about the JFk flight. I tell them that it changed gates, and this will be the new gate. I must say, I’ve never seen so many people berate an agent because no announcement was made at the other gate. (um, aren’t there monitors that can tell you what’s going on?)
Anyway, as we are boarding, this lady in front of me asked the Flight Attendant what gate or terminal we were coming into at JFK, as they needed to tell their driver. The Flight Attendants didn’t know, but the lady saw me and asked me, and I said that we normally arrive in Terminal 4, the International Terminal. She asked about the Delta Terminal if it was the same, but I told her that we always come into T-4. After we get all boarded up and pushed back, surprisingly, we take off immediately. No delay leaving MSP. It was a very smooth flight until we were in our final descent into the NYC area. I watched a very lovely orange moon rise (was trying to keep an eye out for the meteor shower, but no luck) and noticed that we were riding on top of the clouds...then as we descended, it became very turbulent. (hmmm, could this be the weather that I saw?)
As the gear came down for our landing, I could finally see JFK out of my window. The only thing I saw was red blinking lights lined up for the departure runway. This was at 11:30pm. There shouldn’t be a line this huge/long this late at night!!! By seeing this, I knew that there must have been some good delays with the storm that went through earlier, and then some that came through just before we landed.
Now, that lady from earlier was sitting directly behind me. As soon as we touched down, she started nagging her husband what was outside, if he could see the terminal. He said he couldn’t see anything, but she just wouldn’t take it. She kept asking, and asking him. Once we pulled off the runway and onto the taxi-way, we pulled up behind at least 2 planes that I saw, waiting to cross the active take-off runway. Slowly we inched forward, but finally made it across. I could see another line of planes, and it seemed that we pulled right behind them. Now, the lady is raising her voice that we’ve been on the ground for 15 minutes and they can’t find the terminal, (because her husband can’t see the terminal)
The Captain gets on the P.A. and informs us that there is an unusually long line, and we’re behind it, and as soon as things move, we’ll be on our way. The lady behind me perked up and said “Oh great, now we’re going to be even more late”. Finally, we got to a point to pull into the parking area for planes, which leads to the alley for the gates. We stop. Now I can see that a Delta 767 is being tugged out of the alley, and coming towards us, slowly, but it’s moving. This lady behind me is screaming at her husband of what he can see. He says: “Planes”. It just goes back and forth and he finally tells her to just settle down.
After about another 15 minutes, the 767 is passed us, and we move towards our gate, B23 at T-4. Once we get there, we pull up, then stop. After about 15 minutes, the Captain gets on and informs us that there is some construction equipment in the way, and no one is answering the NWA Ops phone that they are calling, but will get some answers as quickly as possible and relay the info to us as soon as he gets it.
You would have thought the floor just caved in! This lady was now beside herself. How could NW send their agents home when they knew we were coming. WTF?!! Come on lady, they aren’t gone, they are probably busy with other delayed flights as well....You aren’t the only one here ya know. Then she starts up again about what terminal are we at...Are we at Delta or Northwest? Her husband says that he saw Delta planes, so now she is bitching at Delta. He then says that he saw a NWA plane and so she starts bitching about NWA.
Finally, we move and we’re now moving outside the alley. I’m now thinking we’re moving to the ramp-stand area. Sure enough, we do. She is beside herself again, that we’ve been on the ground for 1:15minutes and they can’t find a place for us to park. Now she is complaining that they won’t have their bags at baggage claim because everyone went home.
As we were waiting for the ramp stand to come to the door, and busses to come, I could hear the baggage handlers moving the bags like they always do, yet, she keeps going on about how she’s not waiting all night for her bags, the airline will just have to send them directly to the house. Now she is going overboard in telling other people about the Rochester, MN flight that actually did get stranded for 6hrs yet, her story is complete fabricated. I just had to bite my tongue and not correct her in front of everyone because I knew that she would just come back making everything I said a false statement, or a lie and that these are the reasons why there is the passenger bill of rights in congress going on.
I tried to let her get off before me, but ended up standing near her on the bus. Again, she was going off about how ridiculous this was that we had to get off on a ramp stand and it was rainy and slippery. She even yelled at the poor single agent who let us into the terminal.
I sure hope she sleeps well tonight....with her bags that were waiting for her in baggage claim.
He called back a little later and said that JFK was experiencing some heavy hail, and as I was talking with him, he witnessed two planes abort their landings...probably due to the weather. I continued to watch my Northwest flight on their website, and sure enough, it was showing an hour delay...this was approximately 3pm.
As I finally got ready to leave for the airport, I decided to leave as normal since they use a different plane from the inbound, to the outbound. The delay showed that they were waiting for the inbound aircraft. Once I got to the airport, I noticed on the monitor that the inbound was coming from Hartford, CT. At this time, I knew why the delay...weather. Even while walking to the gate, the 3-4 weather monitors that Minneapolis Airport have next to the arrival/departure screens show that there was bad weather, or storms in the NY area.
So, here we all are, sitting at F1 departing lounge, and without notice, the monitor behind the counter changes to a different flight. So, I check NWA/mobile and see that my flight is now leaving out of F3. No agent was at the F1 counter, and the F3 monitor showed a different flight other than our JFK flight. I noticed that the jetbridge pulled back, so it was a flight just leaving.
Quickly, more and more people are showing up to the F3 asking questions about the JFk flight. I tell them that it changed gates, and this will be the new gate. I must say, I’ve never seen so many people berate an agent because no announcement was made at the other gate. (um, aren’t there monitors that can tell you what’s going on?)
Anyway, as we are boarding, this lady in front of me asked the Flight Attendant what gate or terminal we were coming into at JFK, as they needed to tell their driver. The Flight Attendants didn’t know, but the lady saw me and asked me, and I said that we normally arrive in Terminal 4, the International Terminal. She asked about the Delta Terminal if it was the same, but I told her that we always come into T-4. After we get all boarded up and pushed back, surprisingly, we take off immediately. No delay leaving MSP. It was a very smooth flight until we were in our final descent into the NYC area. I watched a very lovely orange moon rise (was trying to keep an eye out for the meteor shower, but no luck) and noticed that we were riding on top of the clouds...then as we descended, it became very turbulent. (hmmm, could this be the weather that I saw?)
As the gear came down for our landing, I could finally see JFK out of my window. The only thing I saw was red blinking lights lined up for the departure runway. This was at 11:30pm. There shouldn’t be a line this huge/long this late at night!!! By seeing this, I knew that there must have been some good delays with the storm that went through earlier, and then some that came through just before we landed.
Now, that lady from earlier was sitting directly behind me. As soon as we touched down, she started nagging her husband what was outside, if he could see the terminal. He said he couldn’t see anything, but she just wouldn’t take it. She kept asking, and asking him. Once we pulled off the runway and onto the taxi-way, we pulled up behind at least 2 planes that I saw, waiting to cross the active take-off runway. Slowly we inched forward, but finally made it across. I could see another line of planes, and it seemed that we pulled right behind them. Now, the lady is raising her voice that we’ve been on the ground for 15 minutes and they can’t find the terminal, (because her husband can’t see the terminal)
The Captain gets on the P.A. and informs us that there is an unusually long line, and we’re behind it, and as soon as things move, we’ll be on our way. The lady behind me perked up and said “Oh great, now we’re going to be even more late”. Finally, we got to a point to pull into the parking area for planes, which leads to the alley for the gates. We stop. Now I can see that a Delta 767 is being tugged out of the alley, and coming towards us, slowly, but it’s moving. This lady behind me is screaming at her husband of what he can see. He says: “Planes”. It just goes back and forth and he finally tells her to just settle down.
After about another 15 minutes, the 767 is passed us, and we move towards our gate, B23 at T-4. Once we get there, we pull up, then stop. After about 15 minutes, the Captain gets on and informs us that there is some construction equipment in the way, and no one is answering the NWA Ops phone that they are calling, but will get some answers as quickly as possible and relay the info to us as soon as he gets it.
You would have thought the floor just caved in! This lady was now beside herself. How could NW send their agents home when they knew we were coming. WTF?!! Come on lady, they aren’t gone, they are probably busy with other delayed flights as well....You aren’t the only one here ya know. Then she starts up again about what terminal are we at...Are we at Delta or Northwest? Her husband says that he saw Delta planes, so now she is bitching at Delta. He then says that he saw a NWA plane and so she starts bitching about NWA.
Finally, we move and we’re now moving outside the alley. I’m now thinking we’re moving to the ramp-stand area. Sure enough, we do. She is beside herself again, that we’ve been on the ground for 1:15minutes and they can’t find a place for us to park. Now she is complaining that they won’t have their bags at baggage claim because everyone went home.
As we were waiting for the ramp stand to come to the door, and busses to come, I could hear the baggage handlers moving the bags like they always do, yet, she keeps going on about how she’s not waiting all night for her bags, the airline will just have to send them directly to the house. Now she is going overboard in telling other people about the Rochester, MN flight that actually did get stranded for 6hrs yet, her story is complete fabricated. I just had to bite my tongue and not correct her in front of everyone because I knew that she would just come back making everything I said a false statement, or a lie and that these are the reasons why there is the passenger bill of rights in congress going on.
I tried to let her get off before me, but ended up standing near her on the bus. Again, she was going off about how ridiculous this was that we had to get off on a ramp stand and it was rainy and slippery. She even yelled at the poor single agent who let us into the terminal.
I sure hope she sleeps well tonight....with her bags that were waiting for her in baggage claim.