Wow.. all I can say is I didn't wake up at 2 this morning ever expecting a simple 4 hour flight with a quick hour layover, would turn into an entire day wasted, sitting on an airplane, ascending to only land again.. 4 times. As I sit here in the 13th hour on a plane, dealing with the bumps of turbulence I can't help but to want to scream, cry, and maybe even vomit. I HATE to be one to take to social media to complain but then again I hated every hour that passed wasted sitting on a Southwest airplane and had to deal with it, so here we are..
I boarded in Philly at 5:40am. Since I woke up hours before I naturally went to sleep expecting to wake up in Ft. Lauderdale. I'm a very light sleeper so I wake up often. Every time I woke up I saw the same plot of land, we had been circling the area for nearly an hour. Mind you, my flight was a layover. As I anxiously looked at my watch, time continues to pass and so did my boarding time and departure that was supposed to take me to New Orleans at 9:35am. It was storming in Ft. Lauderdale, I get it we couldn't land. I get it airplanes weren't leaving and everyone was stuck so I stayed positive. Our plane ran out of fuel from circling so long so we ended up having to land at the Tampa airport to refuel. Stop #1.
We sit, we wait.. the theme of my day.. and finally take off again around 10:30 to get to Ft. Lauderdale at 11:30. I was told my flight was delayed, "no flights had left". Once I landed in the A gates of FLL, I was told to Look at the screen and find my terminal. I even received a text about my flight being delayed, yet the flight number never came up when I searched online. Thinking that the travel system was organized I trusted them and I did. The only Southwest flights I saw were at 12:20 and 4something. I continued to look at each gate just in case, nothing said New Orleans. I finally grab food, stretch my legs out and get to what I thought was my gate, but surprise.. it wasn't. My original 9:35 flight really did leave, at 9:55. The text I received, that flight had left at 11:55, it was 12:15. To make it more sick, it had left at a gate in the A section even though all announcements and signs gave no indication of a flight to New Orleans.
What were my options? A direct flight at 4 something, 6 something, or the 12:20 flight with a quick layover in Atlanta to get me in New Orleans around 3:30. Little did I know, that flight was delayed, I sat on the plane for an hour before we even started to move towards he runway, we were backed up behind 12-15 airplanes trying to depart. I again, tried to stay positive. Once we finally got in Atlanta at..3:30ish of course, there was another delay. An air conditioning unit broke. So now I was literally hot and bothered, sweating, in the 9th hour of being on a plane and 10th hour of traveling. We sat and waited until the one AC unit left started working, the plane smelled of burning rubber, and we took off with a strange thump. I'm still not sure what any of this was, but ironically this was the fourth time taking off for the fourth stop, and each flight got more turbulent and bumpy.
I have been travelling since I woke up at 2am, left at 3:30am thinking it would be a quick trip getting me to my destination at 10:45. However all day, it's been nothing but delays, no help, and except for that 40 or so minutes I was in the FLL airport, I've been sitting on a plane. The sad part is, it's not just me. I've seen brides, bachelorettes, people going to funerals, and whole flights changing their gates and boarding times at the last minute. Some delayed as many as six hours. I can't help but wonder for each one of those flights changed, there has to be someone like me that somehow was not told anything and one lack of communication led to hours of frustration. I'd rather have been doing ANYTHING today, except wasting my time getting thrown around the sky and sitting on a plane, waiting. I've tried to be positive, keep myself busy, and understand these things happen. Everyone has a traveling horror story right? Well As of this minute, after 4 stops, 12+ hours, and several delays, while I write this at 6:08 I'm finally in the New Orleans airport smh. Sorry this is long, End Rant