Traveling Through

Yesterday's trip back to Chicago was more eventful than I expected. I hadn't logged as much beach time as I'd expected, so I went swimming in the ocean until about my last opportunity, coming in about an hour and forty minutes before my flight was due to leave. That was during the midday sun, so I'm paying for that on my shoulders to some degree today. I got to the airport after the automatic kiosks had stopped accepting check-ins for my flight, but there weren't a lot of people there, so I had no problem checking in at the desk. The flight was running a bit late anyway, so I didn't end up being in any sort of a rush. We had a prop plane out of Myrtle Beach to Atlanta, and it's been a number of years since I've been on one of those--possible back to even the '70s. The flight to Atlanta was smooth, though, so that wasn't a problem.

Hartsfield in Atlanta, though, was a whole other issue. I don't know if there was some sort of weather event elsewhere in the country, but flights there were backed up, and the terminal--at least the end of it from where my flight was leaving--was jammed. We were late boarding, and we got on to a commuter jet, which surprised me between Hartsfield and Midway. For some reason, the gate was switched. We were supposed to be boarding at Gate D33 (and, indeed, Gate D33 had a monitor that stated the flight to Midway was in the process of boarding there), but only passengers for a flight to Norfolk or somewhere were allowed through the door. The gate attendant sent us away, and it turned out the my flight was boarding at D35 (the monitor at which claimed to be accepting passengers headed to Milwaukee). The plane was supposed to leave 15 minutes late, and the pilot said he thought he could make the delay up and arrive on time at Midway, but then there was another event.

Gate attendants came to take someone off the plane. This person was sitting looked to be sitting in the front row, and I was in the second to last. Even though there were only ten rows on the entire commuter plane, that was far enough away that I couldn't entirely tell what was going on. I thought the woman they were trying to take off might have been drinking, but she hadn't been a roaring drunk by any means, so it was only my supposition. She was arguing with the attendant, and then the flight attendant entered the fray. I could only hear stray phrases, so it still wasn’t clear exactly what was going on. But it wasn't long before the pilot came out of the cockpit to offer an ultimatum (it was of the classic, "We can do this one of two ways" variety). I did overhear something about drinking. The woman finally left the plane of her own accord, and ultimately we pulled out of the gate. My clock is on my cell phone, which was off by this time, so I don't know precisely when we left, but as we were taxiing, the pilot said our projected arrival time was now forty-five minutes late. We'd apparently long since lost the ability to make up our time in flight. (As soon as the pilot notified us of this fact, the woman across the aisle from me whipped out her cell phone to call whoever was waiting for her in Chicago that we'd be late. I guess not everybody has to have their cell phones turned off after the airplane door is closed. Although it did raise the question in my mind about how many people forget to turn their cell phones off on the plane. I don't normally see anyone talking, but I do wonder if there aren't at least a few phones online while they're on the air. And then that raises the question about how dangerous they are in the first place. Are they really interfering with the plane's equipment?) I don't know if this had anything to do with the incident, but when the flight attendant offered drinks, she didn't mention anything about alcohol. No one around me ordered an alcoholic beverage, so I don't know for sure she wasn't selling it, and if she wasn't, I don't know for sure that it was related to their having to escort a drunk woman from the plane. When someone asked, though, the flight attendant did say that it was airline policy to give gate attendants discretion toward letting a drunk person board, and to give flight attendants and pilots discretion about whether to let a drunk person remain on the plane. However, if people at the gate and onboard the plane recognize someone's condition, all personal discretion leaves, and the drunk person must be removed. That's what the flight attendant said happened here. She said that she'd noticed that the woman was somewhat inebriated, but since she didn't seem to be causing a problem, she and the pilot decided they'd let the situation go. (Although, and this is my speculation, this may have been when they decided not to serve alcohol on the flight.) But when they heard an inquiry from the gate attendants about the person, they were no longer empowered to let it be, and the woman had to be removed. So I guess the lesson here is, if you want to drink in an airport or on a flight, make sure you can do it unobtrusively.

Unfortunately, it still wasn't smooth sailing yet. Somewhere--I'd guess it was about Louisville--we flew head on into a thunderstorm. I was reading and thought I saw lightning outside the plane. I looked up, and sure enough, there was more. The storm gave us a number of jolts and ups and downs, but thankfully it didn't last too long. After we made it through that turbulence, we didn't do too badly for the rest of the flight. We finally arrived at the gate at Midway between thirty-five and forty minutes late. Once out of the baggage area, it was my first opportunity to take advantage of the new cell phone lots that the Chicago airports are initiating. I don't know about the lot itself, but curbside pickup seemed a nightmare. There are only two lanes for driving and one for pulling over and parking, and they were pretty much jammed just before 9:00 last night. The whole point of the new system is to cut down on cars cruising around and around the airport until the people they came to meet show up on the curb, and perhaps people haven’t stopped cruising and gone to wait in the cell phone lots for their party to call them. Or, with only ninety spots in the lot, perhaps there's just not enough room to accommodate everybody who's waiting, so the overflow is cruising the airport like normal. The system is just new, and perhaps it will become more efficient, but for the moment, it seems like it's adding to the bedlam.

This post seems like it's gone on long enough, so I'll do a little bit more vacation wrap up in a follow up.