Amateurs

 It was a shit show at the airport tonight. We arrived early enough for our JFK flight that we were put on the delayed earlier flight. It was a good thing since our original flight was going to be late and we were happy to try and get to JFK as fast as we could. The only issue was the flight we were put on was already an hour late and it was full of people trying to make connections to European flights.

We were the last ones on the flight and as we sat down I felt the anger from the passengers around us, as if we were holding up the plane. Then we sat there. The old men sitting behind me kept yelling out, “Let’s get going.” For all the thousands of flights I have flown I am yet to know a pilot who decides to depart because someone told him to go, then again I have never been on hijacked flight.
We sat, and sat and finally were told that there was an air conditioning value that was stuck open and we were waiting to get it fixed. The old men, screamed, “we can live with a cold plane.” Again, no one listened to them. The wife of one of the old men kept asking the flight attendant to “Call New York and have them hold my plane to Prague.” These people really never fly much.
I know it is frustrating to miss your connection, especially for a valve problem, but screaming out from your seat never helps. The family in front of us was going to London and also had a lot of choice bits of advice for the flying professionals.
Seems to me that old people should not try and go to Europe during the height of summer vacation. The planes are more full, the flights get more delayed and they don’t have any patience for snafus. Old people have the luxury to go in the low season. As for the family, they probably have to travel during summer break, but maybe they should have planned a longer layover at JFK just in case of delay.
We finally took off and flew like a bat out of you know where to NYC in time for everyone to make their connections, but then when we landed there was another plane in our gate and we sat and sat and sat. The screaming continued and they were really choice words.
People jumped up from their seats well before we were at the gate and the flight attendants didn’t say a word. At this point they just wanted them off the plane. We stayed seated, letting the tight connectors off first. I just wanted to put as much distance between me and the screamers as possible.
Now we are safely on our Barcelona flight where everyone is in a party mood. My only problem is I forgot my eye covering mask, but no worries, I have NyQuil.