It Snowed in Newark

Dear Shawn,

 

Well, that was a long day. Woke up in Philly, flew to Chicago, worked to Newark and had a two-hour sit. Boarded a plane for Florida, but it was snowing, so the in-bound plane was delayed. Next, we had a delay to push back due to traffic behind us. Had another delay waiting for other planes to be de-iced. Delay was the name of the game. 

 

We never left the gate. Over four hours later, and an hour after we had gone illegal, the captain finally had the jet bridge return so the door could be opened. He had opened the door earlier, but before we had gone illegal. I don't think he was trying to be very helpful. I am pretty sure that when we closed the door, and he knew that we would go illegal in half an hour, that he knew that by the time we landed, we would be well over having gone illegal. I think he just wanted to get down to West Palm Beach.

The saving grace was that our passengers were very friendly and patient. We were practically out of water, had given out half of the snacks, all of the extended delay cookies, answered numerous questions, all while trying to keep to ourselves our issue of going over our duty day hours, so as not to create a panic and keep up the optimism. It was sad to hear how the weather was cutting into some people's vacation. Yet, there was another man who was sort of happy to have a few hours less with his in-laws!

They got a new crew and we were released to go to a hotel for rest when the door opened the second time. For us, it was a 15-hour day! Today, I see that our plane eventually left over six hours late, at 2:15am, and landed just before 5am. That's seven hours late! All I hope is that the captain wound up with a short layover in a dirty hotel room with loud neighbors. Karma is a bitch!