Oh What an Experience -- Flying to Charleston

Oh… What an experience…

So there I was… looking to book a flight to South Carolina for a short 3.5 day work trip.

I did a search of flights and was surprised to see a $1000 price differential between a Saturday versus Sunday night flight so I booked the cheaper, but longer time away trip in April.

A warm August Saturday rolled around and I packed my carry on bag and was ready to walk out the door when I got an email informing me that my flight was cancelled.

To add insult to injury, they rebooked me on a flight at 5:00 pm on Monday.

I made the appropriate phone calls to get myself rebooked on a plane just 24 hours after I was supposed to leave, but would still put me in to South Carolina at an appropriate time.

The upside is that I wasn’t going to be charged the extra $1000 for leaving when I truly wanted to, but I didn’t get the free day in Charleston, SC that I wanted.

So… now it’s Sunday and I get to the airport two hours early, make it through security in 20 minutes, pee, and settle to read until my flight starts to board in 45 minutes.

That’s the precise time they delayed the 88 minute flight by two hours.

Fine… it’s annoying, but it’s a way of life for an afternoon flight from EWR.

I eventually boarded and we waited for 15 minutes after pulling away. (something else obnoxious happened in front of me on the plane, but I won’t discuss it.)

That’s when the pilot finally addressed us and said. “Sorry to be delayed folks, but air traffic control has just informed me that we are 36th in line for take off.”

I am not shitting you.

That was frustrating at best and I finished a whole book before we landed.