whining

it is hard not to moan and whinge when i talk about my new least favorite airline, jetblue.
if you don't want to hear it, and why would you, please skip this post...but i must get it out publicly!
after numerous delays, hours on hold when they didn't just hang up on me and cancellations, as well as knowingly stranding me in new york, jetblue added insult to injury by losing my checked baggage. if they had once offered any kind of compensation for the inconvenience, or even a bottle of water at the airport, i may have been mollified. but instead they made excuses.
yes yes, the storm - that was four days ago. come on people.
no, not every airline was operating as poorly as you. i saw several that seemed to know exactly how to treat their customers - hotel rooms, food and even the odd travel voucher good for a trip at a later date.
i finally got to maine, but my box did not. no big deal, please put it on the next flight. i am scheduled to fly to jamaica in two days, and i need that box. assurances that the box would be on the next flight.
the next flight was canceled.
but it wasn't on the flight after that, or the one after that.
excellent.
when i called the ny jetblue baggage office, when they weren't hanging up on me, or putting me on hold for two hours, they were informing me that they didn't know where my box was.
panic started to build. there were a lot of things in that box i needed for the long haul, but there were also things i was leaving with my step dad to hold in case i needed them, so having it sent to me in jamaica wasn't an option, especially since i was only planning on being there for a couple of days.
i threw myself on the mercy of us airways, asked if there was anyway they could rebook my montego bay flight to a later date.
the answer 'we would love to do that as a courtesy'
what? tears welled, and my gratitude knew no bounds! i had three extra days to figure out what to do if the box was well and truly lost.

but the box did finally arrive, eight hours after i was supposed to have left. and when it arrived, this is what it looked like:

they hadn't even bothered to tape up the sides of the box they had destroyed. my spanish phrase book was missing. one of my dvds was shattered. the casing of my back up computer was cracked (because TSA had repacked the thing with the protective foam stacked on top - stellar job, folks).
i won't ever fly jetblue again.
i don't want anyone else to fly them either.
i feel wrathful and wish them ill.

and now i am done whining, because the trip is finally begun...

view from the veranda at cedar ridge hostel, montego bay, jamaica

foiled

los angeles, ca to portland, me
the best laid plans are subject to destruction by bad time management, mother nature and inept airline staff.

i was due to fly to portland, maine on christmas day to visit with my family before the big adventure. the entire day i was a blur as i sped through one task after another, but time was slipping away faster than the items on my to-do list were being checked off. my friend g and her sister showed up to take me to the airport and instead jumped into action, helping me get items off the list. we worked frantically and i shoved everything i needed for my adventure into a box to check and my cold weather gear for maine into my backpack.

rain began to pour out of the sky with a vengeance, and our ride to the airport became a perilous one. the plane took off without me. i was stunned. i'd never missed a flight in my life. i was flying jetblue and they scored big points with me when they offered to rebook me for the following day for $40. they scored bigger points when the agent waived the fee, saying a hearty 'merry christmas'.

my little guy with a big name, ozymandias

my subletter graciously offered me the use of my home for one more night, which meant a little quality time with my little guy.

at midnight my phone rang, jetblue calling to tell me my flight had been canceled by the big storm that was due to hit new york in the morning. i began to suspect that this was why the agent had been so free and easy with the fee waiver. i was rebooked for the next flight that evening.
it was nice to have that extra day to pack a little more carefully and make a stop at the apple store to work out some last minute kinks in the precious new macbook air (seems they don't support CS2, and i had to upgrade. terrific. course the disc is packed away, along with the serial number. if anyone out there has a spare CS2 license they could lend me for an upgrade, i'll hand it back to you, plus the upgrade, in october!)
got another phone call that afternoon, evening flight was canceled. ugh.
now i was feeling well and truly stranded. everyone i could call to pick me up, put me up for the night and drive me to the airport was either otherwise occupied with holiday guests or out of town.
not having a car in los angeles is one of the 10 levels of hell, dante just forgot it.
a $50 cab ride got me to j's house - he graciously extended the use of it to me while they were in boston.
that night i got another call from jetblue, morning flight was canceled. four hours of trying to get through to their customer service netted me nothing. i decided to show up at the airport the next night and hope for the best. they gave me a boarding pass, checked my precious box and off i went to deal with TSA.
i don't give TSA points for intelligence, they had to run my package of dole peaches through the scanner four times, along with swabbing it testing for explosive agents, despite me saying i would be happy to eat them on the spot or throw them away, but they didn't make me go through any particularly humiliating poses, so yay.
i arrived at jfk exhausted from the red eye, having been cramped between two nice but abundant ladies with pointy elbows, only to find that my connecting flight to maine had been canceled. guh!
so close, yet so far!
i spent over an hour waiting to speak to an agent to get rebooked on a flight that night.

double trouble

deciding to make the best of things, i called my friend m, and asked her if she wanted to meet for lunch. i walked over to terminal four, checked my backpack and headed to the Q10 bus. two hours later i was in times square eating pizza and garlic knots (so yummy!) enjoying this spontaneous time with m. it was swell.

double empire

when m went back to work i wandered over to the international center for photography and got to see the 'cuba in revolution' exhibit. then, by beautiful happenstance, my half sister (whom i've only known about for a little over a year) was in nyc, so i headed over to brooklyn to hang out with her. right after i arrived i checked the status of my flight, trying to figure out how much time i would need, and lo and behold, another cancellation!
a leisurely dinner with my sister, then a short subway ride to astoria where i would find a nice bed.

ditmar station 5:20am

at 5am, i hoped my flight was canceled, i was too tired to move, but it was on! so off to the subway i went. i had to trudge from one station to another for time's sake, and dealt with one of the most unpleasant mta employees ever (clerk#12145 - she was satan, and i will be writing a letter, even though, as she assured me, it will have little effect), and eventually made my way back to the Q10 bus and finally the airport. made my way through the hordes of misplaced people, got my boarding pass from a diy kiosk and headed through security (completely eventless).
the plane was delayed, but it did eventually take off, so again, yay!


i got off the plane feeling tired and battered, but delighted to have arrived, only to have my spirits plummet when my checked box went missing.

SNOW

san francisco, ca to searsmont, me.
when i was in yakima (see BOONDOCKS), my mom took the train across the country to visit her sister in maine. she liked it so much she started thinking about moving us there. a couple of years later, we flew to boston, where we walked the freedom trail, and then greyhounded our way up to searsmont to visit my aunt and her husband. the bulk of the travel took place on my eleventh birthday. another big holiday ruined by parent planned travel. i wasn’t overly excited - i was aware of mom’s agenda and i didn’t want to move, i liked the freedom i had in s.f. but i was momentarily distracted by the snow. i'd never seen it and there were piles and piles of it everywhere. it was late march, so there was a lot of mud involved as well, but snow is snow. before i got so cold i couldn’t think straight, i found it to be marvelous stuff. snowballs, sledding, snowmen, great fun. but cold is not my friend, and when asked that old question ‘would you rather be too hot or too cold?’ my answer is always, emphatically, HOT! after a week, i couldn't wait to get home to california where i would finally be able to thaw out.