Factor In Those Delays!

When I read that Delta Airlines bumped off a heavy load (probably near full) of paying passengers on the Gainesville-to-Atlanta route to accommodate the 35-persons University of Florida men's hoops team, the eyes rolled far back. What the crap. How could an airline do that? But Delta did anyway.

I know enough of domestic airlines to not want to fly them, but there isn't much of a choice if one wants to travel. I could avoid Delta, but United wouldn't be that much better. We could only bank on luck. Domestic flight delays are par for course anywhere, and I never could trust them to get me anywhere within the day. It's a bonus if they do.

On the flight to Seattle from Los Angeles, we were tickled when Alaska Airlines called our names over the P.A system to board the plane, five minutes after scheduled boarding. Whatever. Well, the plane was full already, and waiting for the last four passengers, so we looked a bit sheepish. But what did we know, we were requested to deplane because Maintenance advised that they were still sorting out a mechanical fault. And there would only be updates in 30 minutes. When 30 minutes were up, they informed that we had to wait for another 30 minutes for further updates.

All passengers were at the boarding area. At least it was spacious. People sprawled out. I was already like... 'zen' from an ultra long flight from Singapore. Many people went up to ask about options. We did too. All flights to Seattle for the day were full. No way to tell if this flight would eventually take off. However, we were lucky that there weren't any pressing reasons for us to be in Seattle by nightfall, so we didn't have to scramble to find another flight. It was a delay, not a cancellation yet.

Ran through the scenarios in my head. Was so zonked that I didn't even react very much to the delay. I was just like...dammit, I would really like to wash my hair. At least they were keeping the announcements coming even though there wasn't any progress. At worst, we'd just camp out and sleep in the airport. HAHAHA. The man wasn't amused. But because I wasn't angered, his annoyance wasn't fuelled further. A delay up to three hours would still be okay at this point, as long as the friggin plane got up in the sky. Had our gadgets and chargers with us, and books. There were power points, toilets, and cafes selling bottled water and brainless food. Just wait lor. We entertained ourselves by observing fellow passengers' reactions. There were more poker faces than true anger. People seemed...resigned or used to such delays. Wah lau.

But 1.5 hours after scheduled departure, we finally flew. Thank goodness.