Ok I’m not anymore but…delta, I guess, needed to balance out my travel karma. With such an amazing trip with so few issues it stands to reason that something had to give…and give it did on my way home.
After breezing through Egyptian customs (something I was told would take 3 hours by my expediter) actually took only 20 minutes leaving me 2 ½ hours to sit around. That turned into 3 ½ when the incoming plane from NYC was late prompting us to be one hour late in arriving in NYC.
Once landed everyone was apprehensive – connecting flights abounded and we were all anxious to get through immigration, retrieve our bags, get through customs, and on to our connections.
No such luck with the exception of 35 people all headed for tampa – they held their plane. The rest of us watched time tick by and our luggage carousel remain empty for too long a period.
Delta flight crew in JFK was NOT helpful. Overwhelmingly they seemed resigned to our missed flights and uninterested in even helping us to figure out next steps. At one point, after I received my hotel and meal voucher (my meal voucher was $7…SEVEN…whatever) I asked where I should go to catch the shuttle. I was given some mumbling directions. Upstairs downstairs upstairs again, me and another woman waited around outside in the freezing weather (dressed more appropriately for cairo) before she managed to extricate from someone where we needed to go (there was walking and a train involved).
Once at the shuttle point we were met with a 7 seater shuttle that as making continuous rounds to accommodate all of the stranded passengers. From that line to the line at the hotel for check-in…it was like I was living in some kind of purgatory.
The crappy room and crappier dinner served their purposes and Saturday morning I popped up ready to return to the airport only to find my fellow passengers assembled outside waiting for the same 7 person shuttle. I made friends with a couple from Canada (in worse straits than me) and we grabbed a cab just as a bigger bus rambled its way to the front of the building.
More lines and confusion (they were trying to charge me for my bag) and I finally made it to my gate where we sat for a while waiting for the crew to fill out some kind of paperwork.
The flight itself was fine but upon landing my sneaking suspicions proved true…my luggage didn’t land with me. I was near tears…not for any real reason other than a mere 5 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours…but I held it together and the baggage guy assured me it would be there eventually.
And he was right…they dropped it off at my job before noon. I have no idea if everything is there but then I can’t imagine what I have that anyone would want to steal.
Alas…I encountered about two pleasant delta folks but overall…delta and jfk get no love (and the delta planes were so subpar i can only shake my head and dream a dream of emirates air…now THAT is an airline that knows how to treat you.
But I’m back and in a few days I might actually be able to think straight…pictures to follow.