Last weekend, Keith and I made a trip up to Rochester, NY to celebrate my grandfather's 80th birthday! His children (my mom and her siblings) planned a surprise party at one of his favorite restaurants and we were all excited to celebrate the life of a wonderful man. It was great to see a lot of extended family members that we don't get to see that often, although it was a whirlwind weekend that went by way too fast!
Keith and I had decided awhile ago that we were going to fly up to Rochester since we both had to work on Friday and needed to back to work on Monday. Keith actually had a conference he was presenting at in Williamsburg on Friday so that added to the mix.
All was going well when we boarded our flight in Richmond at 7:30pm headed to NYC's Laguardia airport. Like all flights, we pulled away from the gate, taxied to the runway and stopped....assuming that we were "next in line" to depart. Unfortunately, when the pilot came on the overhead speaker, instead of hearing the usual "Ladies & Gentlemen, we have been approved for departure....blah, blah, blah", we heard "Ladies & Gentlemen, unfortunately there has been a stoppage of inbound flights into Laguardia due to flight traffic. We are being told that the stoppage will be lifted at 8:30pm, so we have to sit here (on the tarmac) for the next 45 minutes. I am sorry for the delay and will now turn off the fasten seat belt sign for your comfort". GREAT!! Just what we wanted to do...sit on a plane on the runway for 45 minutes!! It was a good thing I bought a magazine in the airport before we got on the plane (since I had left my book at home by accident!).
After sitting on the runway for almost an hour, we finally took off around 8:45pm. We knew almost certainly that we were not going to make our connection out of Laguardia into Rochester which was leaving at 9:45pm. I was still trying to hold out hope that the plane would wait for us or that there would be another flight leaving later that we could get on, but I was not feeling very confident.
As I suspected, when we arrived in Laguardia, the plane headed to Rochester had already left and there were no other options for us that night. We stood in line at the "Special Services" counter and waited to be told what our options were for a flight out in the morning. A man in front of us, who was not very happy, was talking on the phone to someone saying that the earliest flight out wouldn't get him in to Rochester until Saturday afternoon! I was a little scared to see what the agent was going to tell us. The birthday party started at 11:30am so we needed to get there as soon as we could!
Thankfully, we were told that we could take a flight out at 6am that would allow us to arrive in Rochester at 9:30am. The agent booked the flight for us and our next question was, "Do we get a voucher for a free hotel room?" The answer was no. She said that they do not normally issue vouchers for air traffic or weather issues, only if there is a mechanical issue with a plane. She said we could try to speak to her supervisor (who was at the end of the counter) but that she didn't think she would be able to do anything for us. I was willing to just walk away, but Keith (being the resourceful person that he is) said that we should try to talk to the supervisor. He said that the worst that she could say was no, but there was no harm in asking. Smart man!!
I am not sure what we did or what we said, but about 20 minutes later, we were walking away from the Special Services counter with a voucher for a free hotel room. There were five or six other people who were in the same predicament as we were and they only got a $25 credit towards a hotel room. I told Keith that I think it was the fact that we were very nice to the agent....trying to be understanding and not angry, like some of the other people were. Anyways, whatever we did or didn't do, we saved ourselves about $200 in hotel room charges! And, we left the airport not completely hating USAirways!
By the time we waited for the shuttle and actually got to the hotel (which, thankfully, was only about 5 minutes from the airport), it was almost 11:00pm. When the desk clerk asked if we needed a wake up call, we reluctantly said "3:30am please" (we had to be back to the airport by 5am to catch the 6am flight out). Needless to say, we only got about 3 1/2 hours of sleep that night!
Thankfully our flights from Laguardia to Philly and from Philly to Rochester on Saturday morning were uneventful. We arrived on time in Rochester and were able to spend some quality time (although short!) with my extended family!
We turned around and flew back to Richmond on Sunday afternoon - with no glitches, thank goodness. It was definitely a long trip, but worth it to celebrate Papa's birthday and see so many wonderful relatives!!
9 Months of Hudson Bradley
7 years ago