Monday, 14 September 2015

Jet-setting troubles

So\ last week I took a three day trip to DC last week to help college grad move into her new flat.

Oh yes, that was a trip. It's a two hour flight and National airport in DC is very close to the city so it's usually not bad getting from home to destination. Note that I said "usually". This time I had a 1pm flight which ended up being almost 4 hours delayed. Argh. I hate it when the delay is longer than the actual flight. I end up saying ridiculous things like "I could have walked there myself", which, given the 1,000 miles in question, is highly unlikely.

Apparently the weather just outside of DC was bad so they canceled all incoming flights. The first little delay wasn't so bad as the crew said we could get off the plane and get coffee. Despite the fact that I was hungry, the warning that if they got the green light to take off they would do so without the coffee seekers was enough to keep me in my seat. So we moved off to the run way.

We then parked and sat for another 2.5 hours or so and because someone else had nicked (stolen) our gate, we couldn't get off to get victuals. So, there I am without food and starting to feel a wee bit strange. I don't have diabetes but once in a while, if I get hungry, my blood sugar does strange things and there's a chance I might faint. It's embarrassing enough fainting when you're with a loved one but I didn't really fancy fainting when surrounded by complete strangers, so I took preventative  measures - asked for a large glass of orange juice, which did the trick. The crew were very nice to me and over-looked the fact that I was sitting in an exit row (extra leg room) and technically perhaps should have been moved since I was a bit too wobbly to "perform the tasks necessary in an evacuation".

They didn't even charge for the Gin and Tonic I ordered in lieu of an afternoon cup of tea. That might have been because I'd mentioned it was my birthday while I was recovering my composure at the back of the plane.

I would love to say the flight, once it commenced, was great, but it was very bumpy all the way there, which I hate. The Gin and Tonic however, served me well. I was still very worried that we were going to plummet to the earth but I just couldn't be bothered to panic.

Yes, it all sounds very glam this jet-setting around, but I'm very glad I don't have to do it every week. Oh wait, I'm flying to California on Wednesday. OK, fingers crossed.

2 comments:

  1. Plane travel has become so horrific. When I flew home from Houston, I was delayed at the airport for THREE hours and then they put me on a much later connecting flight. By then I was exhausted, and seeing as the connecting airport was only an hour away from home, I skipped the connecting flight and rented a car. I beat that flight home by an hour easily.

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  2. Can they do that? Check people onto a plane, and then let them get off and leave without them? What about their luggage?

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