In Spite of Everything, I Still Love Seattle!
I was supposed to fly to San Diego today (Yesterday? I've been up all night and am a bit disorientated) but the weather threw a huge monkey wrench into my plans.
This was my travel experience:
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First, here's what was *supposed* to happen: My flight was scheduled to leave at 5:10. Jeremy was going to pick me up at 3 to take me to the airport. That flight would have taken me to Salt Lake where I would have landed at 8 and then got a connecting flight that left at 9.
But there was a huge snow storm in Seattle ... so here's what happened instead:
I got a call from Jeremy around 2 saying he was completely stuck in the snow and wouldn't be able to pick me up. Luckily he got stuck really close to home, but he still couldn't just leave his car there in the middle of the street, so we'll leave him there stuck in the snow waiting for a tow truck for now while I tell you what happened to me ...
I googled "Seattle airport shuttle," got about 10 hits and started calling. Not one of them was offering service due to the snow. So I looked up some taxi services and got the same thing from the first 5 I called. So I gave up on that for a while and I called the airline and was on hold for about 1 1/2 hours. Then I finally got someone who was in Africa and didn't seem to understand what the problem was (I don't think she was very familiar with snow), so she had to put me on hold for another 1/2 hour so she could talk to her supervisor. It's now 4:00. And the Delta customer service lady said they'd wave the $200 rescheduling fee for me, but I'd still have to pay the difference in price if I got on a flight that was more expensive. Fine -- I asked her to just try to get me to SD before Christmas. I was hoping for a flight the next day (Monday) because the weather forecast said that was the only day it wasn't going to snow until Christmas. But she couldn't find anything with an open seat until Dec 26th. She suggested that I just get to the airport as soon as I can and try to fly standby.
So I started going further down the list of taxi #'s I'd found. There were about 15 companies on the list and I'd only called 5 in addition to the 10 shuttle services. And I actually found one to come pick me up!! But by now it's 4:30 and my flight was supposed to leave at 5:10 which means it would start boarding at 4:40 and it was still showing up as on-time. I got to the airport at 4:50 and rushed to my gate (luckily baggage check and security didn't take long). I got there right around 5:10 and even at the gate the screen was showing it as on-time ... but the plane hadn't even gotten there yet. I was actually relieved. They didn't start boarding until 6:30, but at this point, I was considering the delay lucky.
So we all get on the plane. And then the pilot informs us that there is a plane in front of us in the que to get de-iced. So we may have to wait for a 1/2 hr or so until they're done and then the de-icers will move on to us. About 45 minutes later, he came on again to let us know that the de-icer broke and they were trying to fix it and bringing up another one in the mean time. By the time the second de-icing machine got there, the plane had frozen again and they had to start over. Which ended up being futile anyway since that machine broke too!! Of course with the weather, the people in charge of fixing the machines weren't able to make it in to work. This kept going on for hours machines are fixed and break again -- they have all of their machines out, but none of them stays in working order for long enough to complete a job. Finally, they put on Wall-E for us to watch and kept giving us updates -- the de-icing machine is fixed ... now it's broken again. Wall-E ends and we still haven't moved an inch. Then the pilot tells us they've given up on fixing the de-icing machines and are trying to find one to borrow from another airline. But they're all broken too (at this point only Delta and Southwest are operating out of Seattle because of this among other problems). He says they're going to keep calling other airlines, but if they can't find a machine to borrow, they're going to have to de-board the plane. And then they started another movie -- this one was Fred Clause (I think that was the name -- lame movie).
At this point I called Jeremy to see how he had resolved his ordeal! Turned out he had to sit in his car for several hours waiting for a tow truck. While he was there many other cars got stuck in the same place and when the tow truck finally got there, there was a car stuck in front of him so the tow truck couldn't even get to his car to pull him out. But they finally worked it out, got his car back into his spot and he got to go back to his warm apartment. I feel bad that he got stuck trying to come get me, but glad his troubles weren't worse!
Back to me on the runway ... We waited about an hour longer and they couldn't find a machine to borrow. So he started taxing back to the gate and people stood up and got ready to get off. Then the pilot came on the intercom again to say that United had a working de-icing machine that the were sending over and we wouldn't be de-planing after all. People re-stowed their luggage and settled back into their seats. So it starts on the plane in front of us and we wait another hour. The second movie of the night ends and we're still sitting on a plane on the runway. It's now been at least 5 hours. Another 1 1/2 hours go by. FINALLY the de-icing machine makes it's way to us and takes about an hour to de-ice our plane. It's now about 1 am and we've all been sitting on this plane since 6:30! It took a while to taxi over to the run-way with all the snow. The plane finally took off at 2 am!! I actually feel lucky though -- that was one of a very small number of planes to get out of Seattle today and it sounds like most airlines there will be grounded until after Christmas because the weather isn't going to let up there! Phew!
The plane landed around 3:30 am (taking into account the 1 hr. time change). They put me on a flight to San Diego that leaves Salt Lake at 9:30. I got a couple winks of sleep here and there on the plane, but for the most part I haven't slept. The plane left Salt Lake a bit late (around 10:15, and I *finally* made it to San Diego around noon. Phew!
__________________________________________________________________
And here's what this whole ordeal has made me realize. I love Seattle! Granted we don't have any clue how to handle snow up there. Any sane city would plow the and salt the roads and have enough working de-icing machines and the personnel to fix them (and with the plowed salted roads, they wouldn't be so understaffed). The weather isn't much better in Salt Lake, but everything is operating like clockwork here.
So we can't handle snow. But we make up for it in other ways. When I got to the airport, there were many other people in a rush to catch their flights, and people were noticing and asking fellow travelers when their flight was and letting frantic people go to the front of the baggage check and security lines (which is how I made it to my gate on time).
Once I got to the gate and was waiting for my delayed flight to board, I started chatting with a group of people also waiting. A lot of people had been there since early that morning. There was a young couple there with a 1 year old. They'd been there since 6 am and had been bumping around on standby after their flight was cancelled. And all three of them (including the baby) were in pretty good spirits. I mean, sure they were frustrated, but they were pleasant enough. There were some other passengers around me too -- a middle aged women trying to get to Orange County who had been on two previously cancelled flights. And a woman around my age going to visit her parents in Salt Lake for Christmas. We ended up forming this little group with the common goal of getting this family back home to Texas. It was so funny -- by the end of the couple hours we spent waiting, The baby was thrust into my open arms so the mom could run to another gate to check the standby status there and dad was busy talking to people at the gate we were waiting at. The middle aged woman was ready to give up her flight to get the family home. And the other woman my age helped them carry all their baby gear (car seat ect) over to the line to board). They finally made it on that flight and then I settled into a conversation with the woman my age. She was crocheting and she ended up teaching me how and even gave me one of her crocheting needles! A lot of people complain that about the supposed "Seattle Freeze" and how people from seattle aren't friendly. That may be true, but friendly is over-rated. I'd choose kindness of friendly any day and I think people in Seattle have that in spades.
When I finally got on the plane I noticed there here were a lot of very young children on the plane as expected during this time of year. I let out a little sigh of foreboding -- lots of young kids when paired with long delays and stressed out parents usually makes for fussy babies who make the flight that much more unpleasant for the rest of us. I was so impressed with how well behaved everyone was during such a frustrating time. People were giving each other their personal water bottles and sharing snacks. Not one of the kids got fussy -- even the very young ones. In general, people were just very kind with each other in spite of the visible frustration. Sure we joked around about our situation, but there was no yelling or meanness directed at anyone. Even the pilot commented on how patient we were. When I finally got to Salt Lake, I talked to a few people who were coming here from other places and they observed all kinds of bad behavior from just general rudeness toward other passengers to outright yelling, screaming, and cussing at airport personnel (as if they had control over the weather!). I know it's very possible that I just got lucky and was on a flight with a bunch of easy-going people. Surely the babies couldn't have behaved better just because they're from Seattle! Though I imagine they could have been taking behavior cues from their well behaved parents and siblings. Anyway, I can't help but think there is something about my fellow Seattleites (Seattletons? Seattleites?) that just makes us nicer, more easy-going, and better equipped to handle life's little frustrations.
I'm so happy to be going to visit my family and am very much anticipating the added bonus of some California sunshine and Joshua Tree climbing. But I am happy to call Seattle home. Even during a bad snow storm! :)
This was my travel experience:
__________________________________________________________________
First, here's what was *supposed* to happen: My flight was scheduled to leave at 5:10. Jeremy was going to pick me up at 3 to take me to the airport. That flight would have taken me to Salt Lake where I would have landed at 8 and then got a connecting flight that left at 9.
But there was a huge snow storm in Seattle ... so here's what happened instead:
I got a call from Jeremy around 2 saying he was completely stuck in the snow and wouldn't be able to pick me up. Luckily he got stuck really close to home, but he still couldn't just leave his car there in the middle of the street, so we'll leave him there stuck in the snow waiting for a tow truck for now while I tell you what happened to me ...
I googled "Seattle airport shuttle," got about 10 hits and started calling. Not one of them was offering service due to the snow. So I looked up some taxi services and got the same thing from the first 5 I called. So I gave up on that for a while and I called the airline and was on hold for about 1 1/2 hours. Then I finally got someone who was in Africa and didn't seem to understand what the problem was (I don't think she was very familiar with snow), so she had to put me on hold for another 1/2 hour so she could talk to her supervisor. It's now 4:00. And the Delta customer service lady said they'd wave the $200 rescheduling fee for me, but I'd still have to pay the difference in price if I got on a flight that was more expensive. Fine -- I asked her to just try to get me to SD before Christmas. I was hoping for a flight the next day (Monday) because the weather forecast said that was the only day it wasn't going to snow until Christmas. But she couldn't find anything with an open seat until Dec 26th. She suggested that I just get to the airport as soon as I can and try to fly standby.
So I started going further down the list of taxi #'s I'd found. There were about 15 companies on the list and I'd only called 5 in addition to the 10 shuttle services. And I actually found one to come pick me up!! But by now it's 4:30 and my flight was supposed to leave at 5:10 which means it would start boarding at 4:40 and it was still showing up as on-time. I got to the airport at 4:50 and rushed to my gate (luckily baggage check and security didn't take long). I got there right around 5:10 and even at the gate the screen was showing it as on-time ... but the plane hadn't even gotten there yet. I was actually relieved. They didn't start boarding until 6:30, but at this point, I was considering the delay lucky.
So we all get on the plane. And then the pilot informs us that there is a plane in front of us in the que to get de-iced. So we may have to wait for a 1/2 hr or so until they're done and then the de-icers will move on to us. About 45 minutes later, he came on again to let us know that the de-icer broke and they were trying to fix it and bringing up another one in the mean time. By the time the second de-icing machine got there, the plane had frozen again and they had to start over. Which ended up being futile anyway since that machine broke too!! Of course with the weather, the people in charge of fixing the machines weren't able to make it in to work. This kept going on for hours machines are fixed and break again -- they have all of their machines out, but none of them stays in working order for long enough to complete a job. Finally, they put on Wall-E for us to watch and kept giving us updates -- the de-icing machine is fixed ... now it's broken again. Wall-E ends and we still haven't moved an inch. Then the pilot tells us they've given up on fixing the de-icing machines and are trying to find one to borrow from another airline. But they're all broken too (at this point only Delta and Southwest are operating out of Seattle because of this among other problems). He says they're going to keep calling other airlines, but if they can't find a machine to borrow, they're going to have to de-board the plane. And then they started another movie -- this one was Fred Clause (I think that was the name -- lame movie).
At this point I called Jeremy to see how he had resolved his ordeal! Turned out he had to sit in his car for several hours waiting for a tow truck. While he was there many other cars got stuck in the same place and when the tow truck finally got there, there was a car stuck in front of him so the tow truck couldn't even get to his car to pull him out. But they finally worked it out, got his car back into his spot and he got to go back to his warm apartment. I feel bad that he got stuck trying to come get me, but glad his troubles weren't worse!
Back to me on the runway ... We waited about an hour longer and they couldn't find a machine to borrow. So he started taxing back to the gate and people stood up and got ready to get off. Then the pilot came on the intercom again to say that United had a working de-icing machine that the were sending over and we wouldn't be de-planing after all. People re-stowed their luggage and settled back into their seats. So it starts on the plane in front of us and we wait another hour. The second movie of the night ends and we're still sitting on a plane on the runway. It's now been at least 5 hours. Another 1 1/2 hours go by. FINALLY the de-icing machine makes it's way to us and takes about an hour to de-ice our plane. It's now about 1 am and we've all been sitting on this plane since 6:30! It took a while to taxi over to the run-way with all the snow. The plane finally took off at 2 am!! I actually feel lucky though -- that was one of a very small number of planes to get out of Seattle today and it sounds like most airlines there will be grounded until after Christmas because the weather isn't going to let up there! Phew!
The plane landed around 3:30 am (taking into account the 1 hr. time change). They put me on a flight to San Diego that leaves Salt Lake at 9:30. I got a couple winks of sleep here and there on the plane, but for the most part I haven't slept. The plane left Salt Lake a bit late (around 10:15, and I *finally* made it to San Diego around noon. Phew!
__________________________________________________________________
And here's what this whole ordeal has made me realize. I love Seattle! Granted we don't have any clue how to handle snow up there. Any sane city would plow the and salt the roads and have enough working de-icing machines and the personnel to fix them (and with the plowed salted roads, they wouldn't be so understaffed). The weather isn't much better in Salt Lake, but everything is operating like clockwork here.
So we can't handle snow. But we make up for it in other ways. When I got to the airport, there were many other people in a rush to catch their flights, and people were noticing and asking fellow travelers when their flight was and letting frantic people go to the front of the baggage check and security lines (which is how I made it to my gate on time).
Once I got to the gate and was waiting for my delayed flight to board, I started chatting with a group of people also waiting. A lot of people had been there since early that morning. There was a young couple there with a 1 year old. They'd been there since 6 am and had been bumping around on standby after their flight was cancelled. And all three of them (including the baby) were in pretty good spirits. I mean, sure they were frustrated, but they were pleasant enough. There were some other passengers around me too -- a middle aged women trying to get to Orange County who had been on two previously cancelled flights. And a woman around my age going to visit her parents in Salt Lake for Christmas. We ended up forming this little group with the common goal of getting this family back home to Texas. It was so funny -- by the end of the couple hours we spent waiting, The baby was thrust into my open arms so the mom could run to another gate to check the standby status there and dad was busy talking to people at the gate we were waiting at. The middle aged woman was ready to give up her flight to get the family home. And the other woman my age helped them carry all their baby gear (car seat ect) over to the line to board). They finally made it on that flight and then I settled into a conversation with the woman my age. She was crocheting and she ended up teaching me how and even gave me one of her crocheting needles! A lot of people complain that about the supposed "Seattle Freeze" and how people from seattle aren't friendly. That may be true, but friendly is over-rated. I'd choose kindness of friendly any day and I think people in Seattle have that in spades.
When I finally got on the plane I noticed there here were a lot of very young children on the plane as expected during this time of year. I let out a little sigh of foreboding -- lots of young kids when paired with long delays and stressed out parents usually makes for fussy babies who make the flight that much more unpleasant for the rest of us. I was so impressed with how well behaved everyone was during such a frustrating time. People were giving each other their personal water bottles and sharing snacks. Not one of the kids got fussy -- even the very young ones. In general, people were just very kind with each other in spite of the visible frustration. Sure we joked around about our situation, but there was no yelling or meanness directed at anyone. Even the pilot commented on how patient we were. When I finally got to Salt Lake, I talked to a few people who were coming here from other places and they observed all kinds of bad behavior from just general rudeness toward other passengers to outright yelling, screaming, and cussing at airport personnel (as if they had control over the weather!). I know it's very possible that I just got lucky and was on a flight with a bunch of easy-going people. Surely the babies couldn't have behaved better just because they're from Seattle! Though I imagine they could have been taking behavior cues from their well behaved parents and siblings. Anyway, I can't help but think there is something about my fellow Seattleites (Seattletons? Seattleites?) that just makes us nicer, more easy-going, and better equipped to handle life's little frustrations.
I'm so happy to be going to visit my family and am very much anticipating the added bonus of some California sunshine and Joshua Tree climbing. But I am happy to call Seattle home. Even during a bad snow storm! :)
posted by Julia at 10:13 AM
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