Jet Blue...

Oh the fun of traveling by plane now a days. The start of the trip was different, we get to the Tampa Airport two (2) hours before our flight as told to, and guess what the Jet Blue desk does not open up until 4:30am, well that's an hour and half before our flight which was set to leave at 6am. After that the flight up to Syracuse via JFK was great, not problems and the crew on both flights where great.

Now, the flights from Syracuse back to Tampa was a completely different story. The day starts out raining, which I have to drive in to Syracuse from Potsdam, NY. By the time we get to the Syracuse the rain is gone, we return the rental car and head in to check in, we are there three (3) hours earily, but since it's around 8am, that should not be a problem, WRONG, the Jet Blue desk is not staffed until 1 hour before the schedule departer time, this was told to us by a US Airways rep. So, we sit down and wait, well Kurt came out and he checked us in without issue.

We get up to the gate and the flight is schedule to leave at 11:51 for JFK and we had a flight to Tampa at 1:25pm getting to Tampa around 3:30 or 4pm. Well, about 11:45am a Jet Blue crew member comes out and informs us that the plane is late because of weather and that they will be moving people around on the plane to make sure the Tampa people could get off quick and make the next flight.

Well, about 15 minutes later, she comes back and tells us that all planes in JFK have been delayed becuase of weather and that people going to Tampa has to reschedule their flights. So, we go down (8 of us - a ground of 3 and a group of 5) and tried to get a flight to Tampa at a later time. Well, no such luck.

So, we go and try to get the direct flight into Orlando, but they only had four seats, and the group of three did not want to do that, so Kurt (Jet Blue Crew Member - which was great by the way) started to look for 8 seats, which he found for Ft. Myers, so we booked it. Right after that I book a rental car in Ft. Myers that will hold 8 people to drive to the Tampa airport to pickup our cars.

We go back up and we sit and sit and sit and sit waiting for the plane to come in, it did and we got off the ground which was a little ruff, but not to bad. We get to JFK Airport and when we get off the plane I ask if the Tampa flight had left yet, it did 15 minutes before we got there. Like they could not hold the plane for 15 minutes.

So, I ask if there are other flights to Tampa, and I was informed there are two and that I need to go to the 'Just Ask' desk to change flights. We get to the 'Jusk Ask' desk and there is a 7:30pm flight and a 9:30 flight. There are 3 seats on the 7:30 and 27 seats on the 9:30, again we ask the party of three if they wanted to go on the 7:30 and they say no. So we change all 8 of us to the 9:30 flight. I ask the Jet Blue Crew member (Duke) if our bags will switch, he informed me they would and he was taking care of it.

I did not think a thing about it because we had 6 hours before our plane was leaving. I go and cacnel the rental car and then we sit down for a nice dinner.

We head over to the gate after dinner to sit for about a two hours before we board our plane, which is listed for 9pm at gate 2. We get down there and find some seats and about 30 minutes later they change the gate to gate 6, so we move to gate 6 and find some seats. About 8:30 I'm looking at a gate with no plane, so I go up and ask were the plane is becuase the board still shows 'On Time'. I was informed that the plane is late and we will not be boarding until 9:30 or 10pm.

Ok, what's one more hour right, well right after that they say that it will now be 11:15pm. We are all trying to keep our cool, but it's easier said than done.

Then out of nowhere, they say that we are going to start boarding the plane. We get on the plane and the pliot starts to address us all, he informs us that the reason he had us board the plane is becuase there is an hour and half back on the tarmac and he would like us to be on the plane and ready to go. He informed us that he would give us an update in 15 minutes.

15 minutes almost to the minute he informs us that they openned up a 2nd runway and we are the first plane in line and away we go. I'm thinking that things are starting to look up.

We land in Tampa around 2:30 or 3am and we go down to get our bags, and guess what NO bags. So, now we have to submit a claim to find lost bags. We do that and get back to my folks house around 3:30am.

We get up after a few hours of sleep and we check the online page of the status of our claim and it says open. We were informed that we would get a call around 11:00 or 11:30am to give us a status update.

Well 11:30am comes and goes so my father calls Jet Blue, at first they were unable to find the claim and then they did and said they would call us back in 15 minutes, becuase she had to call the Ft. Myers Airport, becuase based on her records the bags just got there.

She calls back in 15 minutes and says they will have the bags to us in a few hours, they are going to have the shipped up to us and she would give us a call when they left Ft. Myers. Great, I said we'll leave for Tallahassee around 3pm, giving time for the bags to travel 87 miles and then me to drive up the 4 hours.

After about an hour, and no call, my father calls again and she checks, guess what Ft. Myers forgot about them and had not processed the bags to be shipped to us. After that call, I said the hell with it and I'm heading home to Tallahassee.

We make the 4 hours trip to Tallahassee, get home and have a night rest in our own bed. I talk to my folks in the morning and they got the bags at 11pm that night.

So, now I have to make a trip south to get our bags.

I then checked to make sure all the charges on my AmEx was correct and I found the charge for the canelled rental car, so I had to work with them to get that fix also.

WOW, what a trip...

I just had to write all this down.

Donate to Arizona’s Legal Defense Fund

Donate to Arizona’s Legal Defense Fund

On Friday, Rick made a donation today to Arizona’s Border Security and Immigration Legal Defense Fund and encouraged his supporters to do the same. This comes after U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s immigration law which simply protects Arizona citizens from illegal immigration.

“I urge people across Florida to join me in supporting Arizona’s defense of their immigration law,” Scott said. “Gov. Brewer is simply trying to do the job that the federal government refuses to do, securing the border and taking a firm stand on illegal immigration.”

Weather Channel...

Hey Weather Channel, I know you have a partnership with NBC now, but why don't you stay with the weather and let all the other NEWS stations take care of the news thats not the weather.

I'm just say, I like to go to the weather channel and get the weather, not what the President is doing.