I had been in New Jersey for work all week. It had been a difficult and stressful week and I was looking forward to going home. My coworker and I headed for Newark on the afternoon of Friday June 30 to make our way home. She had already checked in for her flight to Greensboro, so we said our goodbyes and she headed for the security line.

Planned flight:
Friday June 30
CO 370 EWR-MSP
Boeing 737
STD 3:20 pm, actual unknown
Seat 3F

I had tried to check in online but could not do so. You see, I was summoned to New Jersey with less than two weeks notice and so had to accept a connecting flight - the price of a direct flight from Seattle to Newark was too expensive. After arguing with the company's travel website for about four hours, I got it to give me a flight via Minneapolis. I recently ended up in the ER (on another trip to New Jersey, no less) for a herniated disc in my back, and the stopover in Minneapolis is just about halfway on the SEA-EWR trip, which would give me a good chance to stretch. However, the best flight through Minneapolis had me flying on Northwest between SEA and MSP and Continental between MSP and EWR - ticketed by Northwest, with Continental codeshare. "No problem", I thought. "This should be seamless." In fact, on the way out to EWR I had managed to get on an earlier Northwest flight from MSP to EWR. And, another thing that tickled me was that on the way home I would be flying in first class - the travel website offered this to me for about $25 more than the closest economy ticket, which was at a worse time anyway.

So I had attempted to check in on Northwest's website, as I had a Northwest ticket. It redirected me to Continental.com, which would not allow me to check in. Once I said goodbye to my coworker, I headed for the CO ticket counters (and the first class line, no less!) to check in. The agent was very helpful and she got me all checked in. I went through the priority line at security and headed for gate C86. I stopped off along the way for my usual stash of trashy gossip mags and a cup of tea. The flight was scheduled to depart at 3:20 pm and I was at the gate around 2:20. There was a flight for a Caribbean destination boarding from my gate, so I figured I'd head over to the board and check on the status of my flight.

CO 370 MINNEAPOLIS DELAYED 9:53 pm

"What the hell?!? Did I read this right?"

CO 370 MINNEAPOLIS DELAYED 9:53 pm

"S***!"

This meant that I would miss my connecting flight in Minneapolis for sure. Crap! Okay, so let's get this straightened out.

I found a gate agent at a nearby gate, whose lounge was pretty empty, and asked her if she could help. She directed me to the Continental customer service center by gate 90. I headed over there. Interestingly, just as I got there, so did three Port Authority police officers with hands on their holsters. I did not see any of the fracas, but a young guy who was there with his teary girlfriend had just been shouting abuse at the agents. The police took him aside to point out to him that this was not acceptable behaviour. I never did figure out if the girl was crying because of the shouting or if she started crying because of some flight situation and then he started yelling. All I know is that he was at the counter for a long time after that - this I know, because I became quite familiar with the Continental service center.

I think I noticed the flight delay just after it had been posted because all hell had not yet broken loose at the service center. The line was not long and I quickly got to speak to an agent. I explained my predicament, gave her my boarding pass, and asked her if there were any other flights I could get on to get me home. I had no checked luggage so this gave me some flexibility. "This is a Northwest ticket, so I can't touch it. You'll have to contact them." That's all fine and dandy, but my best resource to get home was on Continental, so I started to get a bit frustrated. "Are there any flights I can get on?" "We're pretty much sold out today, because of the long weekend. But call Northwest and see what they can do for you." She gave me the number and I exited the line - having to pass between the cops and the angry guy, who were blocking the exit line - and found a quiet corner where I could call Northwest.

I explained my situation to the Northwest agent on the phone. She basically told me that there was nothing she could do for me. Best she could do was to get me a seat on the next flight from MSP to SEA...and the next available flight was on Saturday afternoon around 3 pm...getting me home about 21 hours late. I had no clean clothes, and after a tough week I just wanted to get home. I didn't want to lose 25% of my long weekend, either. "Is there nothing else you can do for me?" I asked her. No, nothing, they're all sold out. With a sigh, I hung up. "S***!" I called Mr. Harlot and left him a message about the situation. I wasn't ready to give up yet, but what to do next? Maybe I can get on standby for a direct flight home to Seattle. After all, I do have a first class ticket, so I should get priority, right? Let's check the departures board. My flight was now scheduled to leave at 8 something, but that still had me screwed in MSP. It was about 3:00 now and there was a direct flight from EWR to SEA at 5:40.

Back to the Continental counter. The angry guy was now at the counter talking to an agent and filling out a form, and the cops were nowhere to be seen. I got the same agent as I had before and asked her if she could get me on the standby list for the direct flight. This was also a problem due to the Northwest ticket flying on CO metal. She had to issue me a standby boarding pass and put a note on it. I asked her if I had any chance of getting on the flight. She told me it was already oversold by 9. So I don't have a good chance? "Well, people could miss their connections. You have a chance." This wasn't sounding too hopeful, but it was a possibility.

I realized as I exited the line that I had not asked Northwest if they could get me home through another city instead of MSP. What about Memphis or Detroit? So I called them again and asked about this. No, nothing they can do. Now it's looking more and more like I will be getting home on Saturday. I had the idea that maybe CO could get me to Portland instead of Seattle - I saw that they had a direct flight on the departures board. The line at the counter was now huge so I called instead of waiting in line. No, no luck with that either. Damn!

It was about 3:30 when I remembered that my ticket had been booked through my company's travel vendor, American Express Travel Services. Hm, maybe they can help me! Unfortunately, when I printed out my itinerary I had been trying to get it on one piece of paper and had left their phone number off. Maybe my coworker Tony is still at his desk and can get it for me. Crap! The one time Tony goes home early! Well...maybe the main company number can help me. Do I remember the main company number? I think so...let's take a chance. Luckily, I did remember it, and they could give me the number. I found a quiet corner and called Amex. Chris picked up my call.

I explained my situation to him. "I don't care where I fly through...I can fly into Seattle, Portland or Vancouver...I just want to go home. Please be creative!" Chris, my angel, immediately started trying to help. I told him that Seattle was my preference (obviously), then Portland, and Vancouver last because I did not have my passport or green card (proof of American residency) with me...I'm Canadian with permanent resident status in the States. This business of the Northwest ticket was going to be a problem. He started looking for flights for me and almost everything was booked solid. Why did I not realize that it was the Friday of a long weekend when I originally booked my ticket?!? Around 3:50 he found me a seat on a flight on CO, from EWR to Houston and then on to Vancouver! Yes! He was having some trouble pricing it and booking it because of the Northwest ticket, but I didn't have time to wait, so I started making my way over to C125 (or some similar gate). He put me on hold to get the ticket booked and when I was halfway to the gate he came back on - the ticket had JUST sold as he was trying to get it. He was very apologetic. There was no other possibility out of Newark. It was looking more and more like I was going to be spending a long time at EWR and a night at MSP.

"What about leaving from JFK?" Chris asked me. Well - JFK's a long way away, if I go there and it doesn't work out I'm at an unfamiliar airport where neither CO nor NW have a big presence, and I don't know if I can get back to Newark for the 9:53 flight if it doesn't work out. Is there anything else we can do out of Newark? "No, I've checked everything." All of a sudden Chris's voice took on an urgent tone. "I've found you a seat from JFK to Vancouver on Harmony Airways, leaving JFK at 7 pm. Can you make it to JFK by 7?" I found two airport worker guys and asked them what they thought. It was now 4 pm. "Excuse me, can you tell me how long it will take me to get to JFK from here?" They looked at their watches. "At this time, on a long weekend...an hour and a half to two hours." I thanked them and talked to Chris again...4 pm...an hour and a half...that will get me to JFK at 5:30. A bit late for an international flight, but I had no luggage. Chris had the seat on hold for me. I asked Chris to double check the price on the Harmony ticket, thinking it would be really expensive. The Harmony ticket was about $300 instead of the $500 my NW ticket cost, so I knew my company would not mind me changing the flight! As long as I could get to JFK and talk my way onto the plane with no passport, I was going home that night. "Let's do it!" I felt a bit giddy - I was about to have an Adventure! I had never been to JFK, certainly never flown on Harmony, which I only knew of just in passing from A.net, and had barely been into NYC before.

With Chris still on the cell phone, confirming the ticket and getting me all set, I headed out of security and to Ground Transportation. When I explained my need for speed they directed me to the taxi line. I asked the guy managing the line to get me a cab to JFK - and then thank goodness I thought to confirm if I could use a credit card. "Cash only, ma'am!" Crap crap crap...back into the terminal to find an ATM. The taxi rank guys directed me to one, and while I was on my way back in Chris said I was set up and he could let me go. I wrote down the flight details, and he was to call me back when he figured out the refund on my NW/CO ticket. (As soon as I realized that Chris was really into helping me get home, I had made sure to give him my cell phone number so he could call me back in case we got cut off. I didn't want to have to explain the situation to someone else and risk them not caring about it as much as Chris!) I took out some cash and headed back to the taxi line. The taxi guys let me cut back in and quickly got me a taxi. I told the driver I was in a hurry, and could he get me to JFK by 5:30? (It was now 4:30...I was cutting it close!) "Yes ma'am!" he replied enthusiastically. We got my luggage in the cab and set off.

I wanted him to know I was serious about getting to JFK by 5:30 and so told him I had an extra $20 for him if he could get me there by 5:30. He chuckled and said "yes ma'am!" (He really liked that phrase. I think he used it about 30 times during the trip.) We headed for Staten Island...and traffic was moving slllooowwwlllyy. Oh man, this was not looking good. My driver, Joaquim, told me that it should clear up soon. I hoped so! We hit the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and traffic was crawling. We were in the left lane, which Joaquim said would exit onto the Belt Parkway, and which would be crowded with traffic heading for Long Island for the long weekend. I had hoped that my offer of a tip would entice him to do things like hop out of his lane and drive up a faster lane and then edge back into the correct lane, but he wasn't doing anything like that. I figured he was confident that we could get there by 5:30 and didn't really worry about it.

I called Mr. Harlot and left him a message about what was going on. He called me back after a while and asked me to call him to confirm that I was on the flight. I told him that I would be cutting it close and that I might not be able to call if I did make the flight, but that I certainly would if I didn't. If he didn't hear from me, he was to be up at Vancouver airport at 10 pm with my passport and green card.

At about 5 pm we were still crawling and I decided to up the ante for Joaquim. I asked him if he thought we could make it by 5:30 and he thought we'd get there maybe 5:30, maybe 5:45 - he had never seen traffic this bad and was sure it would clear up. The taxi fare was $80 plus $14 for tolls, so I said "if you get me to JFK by 5:30, I'll give you $140. By 5:45, $120." He chuckled again and said "yes ma'am!"

But there was nothing he could do. We crawled, and crawled, and crawled. Around 5:45 I asked him how much further we had to go and the answer was 15 miles. 15 miles!! Up to now this had all been kinda fun but now I was really getting worried. I was going to miss my flight and be stuck in JFK and be even worse off than I had been at Newark. At least at Newark I had a ticket home, albeit 20 hours late - now I had NO ticket if I missed this Harmony flight!

Around 6:00 I started to see airplanes taking off and was heartened by this. At 6:05 I asked Joaqium how much further we had to go and the answer was 8 more miles. S***! At this rate I was going to get to the airport at 6:30. There was no way they were going to let me on an international flight with 30 minutes before departure. I was getting ready to turn on the tears if I had to, to convince them to let me on.

But just ahead we could see news helicopters and then another helicopter swooping around. As we got closer we could see that it was a police helicopter. And then we could see that the police had the westbound lanes (not ours!) closed on a bridge and were bringing in a dinghy. I don't know why, but I do know that immediately after this traffic opened up - and Joaquim put the pedal down and we went tearing off! Yeah!!

It wasn't really Joaquim's fault that he could not get me to JFK by 5:45, and I knew he would have to sit in the horrible traffic to get back to Newark, so I gave him the $120 and thanked him heartily before we got to JFK. I warned him that I would have to hop out and run. He had no idea where Harmony went out of - he had never heard of it before - so when I saw the sign for terminal 4 with Harmony on the list of airlines I think I shouted out "there it is! Terminal 4!" "Yes ma'am!" was Joaquim's reply. (He could say more than that...we had a nice chat on the way about his wife and kids, and my cats, and then he asked me if I was born in 1950! I can only hope that he didn't really see me when I got in the taxi, because I'm only 34 years old!   )

We pulled up to the terminal at 6:15. I had to pee, but pushed this thought back and started searching for the Harmony check in counter. I found a monitor that showed flight status and what area of the terminal the desk was in. Harmony was in 1A. 1A...1A...there it is! I headed down as fast as I could, hoping against hope that I could get on and ready to purchase a full fare, refundable ticket back to JFK if they were hesitant to let me on the plane for fear that they'd have to fly me back after I wasn't let in to Canada. I saw a sign pointing down a hall to the right and went tearing around the corner, fearing that the counter would already be closed.

YES!!! The counter was open and there were about ten people ahead of me and all were being helped! I guess with the traffic so bad, several people were as late as me. I was the last one there, and figured I'd just give them my driver's license and not say anything about my passport. They didn't even ask me!! All they were concerned about was whether I was checking my bag or not. When I said no, they figured out who had the last bag being checked and radioed down to the baggage room to let them know how they were going to mark the last bag. I was going home!!

Actual flight:
Harmony 387 JFK - YVR
Boeing 757
STD 7 pm Eastern
STA 10 pm Pacific
Seat 30F

A window seat! In all that hurry, Chris, the dear, had managed to get me a window seat! As soon as I get back to work on Wednesday I fully intend to email Amex Travel and tell them how wonderful Chris is.

I still had to clear security at JFK. I was to be departing out of gate B23. I headed for security and walked through the metal detector barefoot - I hate having to do that. I made it through reasonably quickly and saw that some of the other passengers at the Harmony counter were behind me at security because they were delayed by having to check their bags. I booked it to B23 and went down the escalator to the departure lounge, where I was a bit surprised to see that we were boarding a bus. As I got on the bus I got my first glimpse of the tarmac and was surprised to see a whole bunch of planes at remote stands. I don't know much about JFK, and so this was unexpected. But the variety of airlines was a real treat! At the gate next to our bus was AeroSvit, from Ukraine. I could see Air Jamaica, two El Al planes, Singapore Air, Aer Lingus (which may be the airplane featured in this thread), and a whole bunch more...I forget all the airlines. Certainly more of a variety than we get in SEA.

The bus waited about 15 minutes for all the rest of the passengers - maybe I wasn't the last one to check in - and then we set off for the plane. We drove along by all these gorgeous airplanes. I was a happy camper! We got to our airplane and all flooded off the bus, jostling to climb the stairs. I think it was about 6:50 by this time.

I think we flew on C-GTSN:

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