Terminal – IRL December 10, 2009 at 12:23 am
If you’ve not seen Terminal with Tom Hanks, it a movie about a guy trapped in an airport terminal due to circumstances beyond his control. I forget how long he was trapped for, but I am starting to know what he felt like.
I finished up the work for the clients and got to Boston’s Logan Airport around 2:30, could have been earlier, might have been somewhat later. It’s now 12:30am and I am still here trapped in the shoddy Air Canada lounge waiting for the plane to be fixed. Maybe them it will take off, but at this point I am not holding out much hope.
The days adventures started when I got to the airport to find that Delta had changed my reservation, offering to fly me direct to Toronto. This sounded good, I prefer direct flights and why spend more time in the air during bad weather than I have to? And right now the weather is bad almost across the continent. From the Midwest to the east coast, rain, wind and snow have played havoc with all forms of transportation.
So this flight change was to change from leaving at 5:00pm for JFK to 8:30 direct. Since the arrival time was only a half hour later, it seemed like a good deal.
So why am I still in purgatory, also known as the AC lounge? Well, the plane was delayed coming from Toronto due to weather. OK, I can accept that, it happens. The plane finally arrives and we all board like the good little sheeple we are, the plane taxis from the gate towards the runway at which point the pilot declared a mechanical issue with the brakes. Those need to be checked, which seems prudent as I sure don’t want to fly in a busted plane. Don’t think any one else does either.
The small brake issue has turned into an hour and half repair job which means the plane can’t leave until 1:00 AM at the earliest, if they get it fixed.
As cynical as I am, I don’t see the plane leaving tonight. Toronto is getting hammered with high winds. But Air Canada isn’t telling us that. What I see is that around 2AM they will pull the plug for the night and leave us all hanging. That means it’s not worth getting a hotel room for the next 2-3 hours ( that would be an expensive nap! ) and getting back here for 4 or 5AM to line up for the next flight out.
Well, there is no food other than some tiny airline packages of pretzels and only a water fountain for something to drink. I suppose I could drink the duty-free vodka, but I would have to drive home in the event the plane actually takes off, so I can’t do that.
Well and truly f@&ked at this point. I love air travel!!!!
[update]A little late (like a week) but the plane did finally leave around 2:00AM, landed in Toronto around 4:30AM and I made it in the door at 6:00AM on the nose. Definitely the most fun I’ve had in a while. On the other hand, I did get to watch District 9 again. What a great flick![/update]
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