December 9, 2011
Friday

Who: Gene
Linda
DB Scott
DSIL Donna
DN Sam

As I write this, it’s about a quarter to 8 in the morning and we’ve just taken off from Logan Airport aboard our Jet Blue flight to Orlando. We will be joining my brother and his family who flew in yesterday and spent last evening at Wilderness Lodge. Today, we’ll be checking into a 2 bedroom unit at Old Key West.

A couple of weeks ago, I had checked on my flights and discovered that our seats for the flight to Orlando had disappeared. When I went to select seats, only 3 or four were available and were scattered throughout the back part of the plane so I called Jet Blue directly. They admitted they had not carried my seat assignment forward when they had rebooked my flight after I called to get money into our travel bank following a reduction in fare. However, I was told there was nothing that could be done and I would have to check with the desk when I arrived at the airport. I said that was not acceptable and asked to speak with a supervisor. The person I was talking with said he had just spoken with the supervisor and was told nothing more could be done. I again asked to speak with the supervisor and this time was put through. The supervisor gave me the same story and said I could purchase the more expensive more legroom seats (another $60 for the two of us) or could check with the desk when I got to the airport and they “might” upgrade me into the more expensive seats for no extra charge. I asked if I could use money in our travel banks to pay for the more expensive seats and was told that was not possible. He said I would have to check at the desk when I arrived. Given how full the flight was already looking, I stated it appeared that no seats might be available when I arrived at the airport and asked him how we were going to resolve this. He came back and said he could assign us seats 6e and 6f. I stated those seats did not appear to be available but he said he could assign them to us and he did. I don’t know what he did with the folks who may have had those seats but, as indicated, those seat assignments appeared on my reservation and that is exactly where we are seated! The seats are, in fact directly in front of the two seats I had originally chosen when I made my flight reservations.

For us, yesterday was spent packing and organizing. I was pretty tired by the end of the day and was falling asleep with the tv on so settled in to sleep which went well until around 2 this morning when sleep would come no more. We needed to be up by a quarter to 4 anyway. Gene got out of bed at 3:30 and, since I was already awake I got myself out of bed as well. We got ourselves on the road to the off-site parking lot right at 4:30 a.m. The car was dropped and we got the shuttle over to Jet Blue. The other passengers on the shuttle has an infant, a car seat, a stroller etc. etc and our shuttle driver got permission to drop us on the right level for departures due to the amount of luggage they had. We used the curbside checkin for our checked bags which went smoothly.

Security, however, was another matter. When we got there, Gene offered to allow the man behind us in line to go on through but he declined. Big mistake on his part and big apologies on mine to anyone else who ended up stuck behind us. One of my bags was pulled for a hand search. The agent then decided to run it through again. In the interim, another carryon was selected to run through the machine a second time. The bag that was hand searched went through a second time and they still didn’t like something in it. They finally determined the offending item was the stand for my GPS system (I don’t usually take my GPs but we happen to be renting a car this time). Finally, that bag was returned to us. In the interim, they put the other carry through a third time and then asked what we had in there that was a long stick like sort of thing. That’s Gene’s camera monopod – an item he left at home on our last couple of trips. Finally, all of our luggage was returned to us and we were free to head to the gate.

After all of this, we arrived at our gate about 25 minutes before boarding began. They first boarded the extra leg room seats but not many folks stepped forward (Some folks may have been at the wrong gate as they initially listed our flight as leaving from gate 33 but moved it to gate 30. ) They then boarded babies and those needing extra assistance but only 1 person with a baby came forward though someone in a wheelchair arrived after they began boarding rows 20 and back. Still not lots of folks entered the plane. Then suddenly, they announced boarding for all passengers so we were aboard much earlier than I expected we would be. It seemed to take us a while to move back from the gate but we finally did and had a smooth takeoff. Currently, we are cruising just off the coast. I can see sand and beachfront communities out the window of the plane. From the map, it looks like we are just south of New York about now. They’ve just served drinks so I have my cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and am waiting for them to come through with the snacks. Gene is already disappointed that they are not serving chocolate chip cookies on this flight!!

More to come……