Tales of a Weary Traveler

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m alone in my apartment in Connecticut. There are a lot of things to blame for this unfortunate situation – the vibrate setting on my phone, traffic, Continental, traffic again… many many things. It’s a good story, really. If you’ve seen planes, trains, and automobiles, this may sound quite familiar to you.

Yesterday, 12/23, I was supposed to catch a 6:15am flight out of Newark to Cleveland. I was going to drive to a friend’s and she was going to drive me the airport. When I didn’t show up, she called me – no answer. So she called another friend to get my roommate’s number. She called my roommate who came and woke me up. O crap, I’m late. I jump in my car within 10 minutes and head straight for the airport. Going along just fine, but then standstill traffic getting over the George Washington Bridge. I make it to the airport at 6:30am, 15 minutes late. OK, so there’s no hope and I need to check in to get moved onto another flight. I ask one Continental rep what line to get in, she tells me go up to the 4^th floor. OK, 4^th floor rep, ‘no, no, you need to go the 2^nd floor door 5. OK, 2^nd floor rep, ‘I don’t know what you are talking about, you are supposed to go up to the 4^th floor’. Awesome – NO ONE knows who to talk to about relocation. I get in a special accommodations line – the one for unaccompanied minors and handicapped. What the hell, right? When I get to the desk, the lady is like why are you here? Thankfully, she helped me anyone – tells me I’m on standby for the 9:45am flight (it’s like 7 now). It sounds hopeful so I’m keeping my composure, but boy, was I wrong.

Waiting for the 9:45am flight, I found out they’ve oversold the flight by ten seats so some people who bought a ticket for this flight in particular may not even make it on. Thank heavens they do and one person on standby gets on the flight. Probably 3 Continental employees walk up casually and take 3 seats that DEFinitely should have gone to standby with such a long list. They announce everyone on stand by has been rolled over to the next flight at 2:10pm.

I waste 4 hours somehow and thank the Lord for such an entertaining book. For this flight, they post the stand by list; it’s about 40 people long now and I’m number 2. That sounds promising, right? So MORE Continental employees walk up and get tickets on the flight, no sweat. I’m furious. Then 2 girls from Venezuela are trying to get home and they walk up the desk. It turns into a ‘You don’t f***ing care that I’m trying to get home for Christmas?’ and the attendant gets pissed about the profanity. But then the girl starts balling and right before my eyes I see standby #1 and 2 go to these 2 girls. Damn, that’s frustrating.

I get in line at Customer Service to see if I can get guaranteed a later flight; someone had already made an announcement that nothing was available until the 26^th. I stand in that line for 2 hours and never actually make it to the desk because a friend decides it would be better if I just try to take a bus instead.

I’m convinced and abandon the losing fight with Continent to catch the 5:15pm bus out of White Plains. I should be able to get there in 2 hours, right? Not at all. Traffic is a DISaster and then I get lost for a good while in Yonkers; I don’t get to White Plains until 7. And on the way, I’ve gone through so many toll booths, I’ve run out of money. So I get the opportunity of getting to the booth and telling the guy I don’t have money. He proceeds to fill out a long-ass form while the build up of cars behind me honk like I’m intentionally holding up the booth. Humiliating.

While I was in the car, I called and found out there was another bus at 11, but I’d have to transfer my ticket at the box office at the station. They neglected to tell me that office closes at 6; they have a TON of buses after 6 – how can they just up and close like that?? At this point, I am DONE but I’ve never been to White Plains before so I haven’t the slightest idea how to get home. Dad helps me figure it out and I head home in tears to forget about the terrible day I can’t believe I just went through. No plane, no bus, and no money for the tolls on the road to places that didn’t get me anywhere.

I’m now booked, as in NOT standby, for a flight Christmas morning at 6:15am. I’ve lost all faith in myself to wake up on time so I’ve added some others to assist in the process and I’m leaving so early I could walk to the airport and make it, I think. If I make it home tomorrow, I’m going to be more thankful to be there than I have ever been in all my life. Merry Christmas!