I just spent the last 24 hours trying to get into Houston for the holidays. I was supposed to fly out standby 8:15 Saturday night out of Newark with a buddy of mine. When we got to Newark, we ran into another friend of ours who had been waiting standby since Seven Saturday Morning. He laughed at the idea me getting on that plane. Nevertheless, we all get bumped, but at least we were with good friends all trying to get home. We camped out in Newark terminals, rode the monorails, got a drink at The Marriot and played some pool. No sleep. This morning, we go to the gate for a 5:45 flight to H-Town. Overbooked. bumped. 8:25 - overbooked, bumped. 9:00- by this point, all flights out of Newark to Houston are overbooked, they tell us we are not going home if we stay in Newark. Soooooooooo, we fly to Washington D.C. at 9 AM to catch an 11:00 to Houston...... overbooked, bumped. 1:25- overbooked, bumped 3:25- overbooked, bumped we were about to either fly to Cleveland or get a hotel and see the sites in DC when exactly three seats became available for the 5:25 out of DC, we gfinally fly in to Houston at 7:44 PM Sunday, and here I am posting from my parents computer.... Happy Holidays!!!! gotta any stories to share?
I sat in the Atlanta airport all day once for about 18 hours. I was 19 at the time and made friends with some people. We kept going to the customer service people getting meal vouchers all day and using them on drinks. It was a pretty fun time actually.
Funny. I'll be flying out of IAH to Newark this weekend. Glad I'm not trying to get a standby flight. Welcome home.
"Attention passengers. Due to our airline policy of overbooking flights, this flight has been overbooked."
In 1990, I spent a day and a half camped out in LaGuardia airport in NYC trying to get back to Los Angeles. Winter weather delays were the culprit.
Great! Something to look forward too! The wife and I fly out of LaGuardia on Christmas eve. We've got a 10AM flight on the 24th. Now I've got to calm the wife and her family, and my family about the terrorist alert, deal with presents at security, deal with the holiday crush. All for a few days' home! If I'm sitting at my mother-in-laws' house by Christmas eve I'll be a happy man! But it looks like it's going to be an adventure!
here we go again. after spending the most relaxing two weeks of my vacation down South (saw the Rockets play Indy, I took a road trip to Austin between Christmas and New Years, spent New Years with my friends in H-town, then took a road trip with my parents to New Orleans), I attempted to fly back to Newark from New Orleans this morning. Welcome to Holiday travel Hell part 2. not only were all flights out of New Orleans overbooked today, but tomorrow as well (its Sugar Bowl weekend), so get this, I ride BACK to Houston with ma famille to an overbooked night flight to Newark. No flights to Newark or New York today or tomorrow out of Houston. so what next? I am flying at 7 A.M. tomorrow to Fayate-F-ing-ville ARKANSAS to connect to a flight to Newark. regardless, I am missing work tomorrow and I lost two days on the journey here. I feel like Frodo on his journey to Mount Doom. remind me never to fly standby again, no matter what time of the year it is. this was the worst experience ever, it was not worth the cheap airfare, I ended up paying my Continental friend $150, but I could have booked a seat way in advance for a little over $200. my sig has never rung more true, thanks for the lyric mr. Dylan. wish me luck y'all, go Rockets.
