I’m heading home from an interesting trip to Connecticut for work with a Navy sub training system project BKA is involved with.
Anyway, coming up, I connected in Philly. This airport ALWAYS manages to screw something up. I’m sure there are plenty of stories like this one.
As soon as I get to the Philly airport, the departure boards say my 6:20 pm flight to Providence, Rhode Island is delayed to 7:10pm. So I hang out in the food court in the terminal. Around 6:30 i head towards the gate. Meanwhile the electronic departure boards still say my flight doesn’t leave until 7:10pm. At the gate, there’s nothing showing my flight number. I sit for about 10 minutes, thinking that there’s some time to kill before they start boarding. Then the lady at the counter calls out “hey is there anyone else here for the Providence flight?” I raise my hand, say “Me!”, and walk towards the counter. She says to me “Your flight left at 6:30”.
It left?!?
The lady alleges that the gate folks don’t have access or authorization to change the board info. A British couple that had been waiting around since 3pm (they flew in from Manchester, UK) had the same fate. Luckily she gets me a boarding pass for me for an 8pm flight the same night. A British couple that had been waiting around since 3pm (they flew in from Manchester, UK) had the same fate.
On top of all that, as I walk to the other terminal to catch the later flight, I pass the electronic board again. Which STILL says my flight is leaving at 7:10 even though it isn’t past 7:10 yet AND the plane is airborne.
It at least gave the British couple and I something to commiserate about after we got seated next to each other on the 8pm flight. And it was fun talking about England.
On an unrelated note, this is the most unexpected phrase to hear coming out of the mouth of a Navy submarine captain during our meeting this morning: “Fluffy muffins.”
(It was an example of what kind of goal a commanding officer would set for his subordinates).