Whew! That sure was fun. Ok, so this year the Super Jazz cruise left from Puerto Rico. Thank God I left for Puerto Rico a day ahead. I got hung up at the Dallas/Fortworth airport due to the hurricane. What a mess. I was on American Airlines and they are full of CRAP!!!!. they don’t give a damn about their customers – that was my experience at DFW. We pulled in at 10:30 am. It was storming and we were lucky to get on the ground because DFW had grounded all planes from leaving. We sat on the tarmac for an hour because the plan that was in our “parking place” was grounded. After a hour, or so, our pilot politely told us he had to time out and leave because he had been at the wheel for 16 hours and flying regulations do not allow pilots for fly longer than that. So he left us. We sat on the plane, on the tarmac waiting for another pilot. Finally, they had us pulled into a parking space by something that acts like a tug boat (for lack of not knowing what they real name of it was). I hope you get the picture. Anyway, we sat on the plane another hour before we were let off and told to stay within the gate area. Well, about 12 noon the storm went away. It was all Blue skys and great weather. However, we were still on lock down. My connecting flight was at 2:40pm. I have no idea what in the world happened that we could not get out of there at that time. The weather was beautiful. We were told to go to gate A19 for our connecting flight. When we got there they had no idea what we were talking about and sent us back. Then we were told go to another gate. When we got there, there was no plane and no people. We went back to the original gate. Now it’s, 5:30 -6pm and they finally tell us they have cancelled the flight. I have been in this business for 9 years and have never experienced this. More experience travelers went nda found other flights on other airlines. There were still quite a few of us hanGing onto American Airlines by our cell phones trying to get A flight. Boy, was it a mess.
When they told us the flight was cancelled there were only 2 agents at the counter and one of them told me she was not there to help anyone. She pointed to the next counter person and told us she would help us. Now, just imagine, a hundred people all grouped around this one desk at the gate, everyone talking at the same time looking for an alternative flight and BOTH agents walked out and left us. They did not say a word. They just left. Talk about Crazy. That’s why I say American Airlines doesn’t give a crap about thier customers.Tthey weren’t even trying to give us a hotel room for the night, either, saying they didn’t have to because the cancellation was due to weather. Boy, did we scream. The weather was gorgeous from 12 noon until about 6pm. No excuse. Well, somewhere around 10pm they conceded and gave us hotel rooms and food vouchers. The food vouchers are a joke but, they do help. We got a voucher for $7 for breakfast and $14 for dinner. Now, even if you could put those vouchers together – what healthy food can you buy at an airport for $22.00????? That was enough for a hamburger and a coke at the airport and at the hotel. Anyway, I finally got out the next morning at 7:30am to Miami – another layover. I got to Puerto Rico on Saturday evening at 4:30pm, just in time to board the ship. The ship did not pull off until 10pm.
I met some fun people at DFW during our fiasco. ONe young lady is from Sacramento. This was to be her first cruise. She was so frightened. I found her in the bathroom at the airport crying her eye out. she was saying she doesn’t want to go on the cruise anymore. She will never go on a cruise if this is whats happens. she just wanted to go home. Now this young lady alleges she is 42 years old, has 4 children, type A workaholic and has never been anywhere. I took her under my wing and let her know this has NOTHING to so with the cruise. Now if she said she never wanted to fly again, I could understand that but, don’t give up the cruise because of this delay. so, we are friends now. When we got our hotel room, we bunked together. she was funny. We only had our carryons with no change of clothes. She jumped right in the shower and washed out her underwear and hung the up to dry. well, Iknew they would not be dry in the morning. She found that out for herself. So, she had to leave “commando” style. hahahahaha she totally lucked out, though. She and another nice couple that I met < Mary and Martin, left for the airport right after me 95am) and was able to get a non-stop to Puerto Rico. She got there by noon. I didn't get there until after 4pm and I was able to get that reservation the night before. We FINALLY made it to the ship. More later.............
