The One With the Flight Before Christmas

"Twas the flight before Christmas and all through the plane the passengers were all snug in their seats and no one complained."

Southwest proves time again to be the most creative and enjoyable airline to travel with. After riding the airport emloyee shuttle to the terminal with my uncle and a decent flight to Chicago with barking dogs, this was a first for me, I boarded another plane to Newark. The flight commenced with an entire rendition of Twas the Night Before Christmas. It entailed safety precautions and airline procedures. There was even a time for passenger participation. The flight itself was fine, full but fine. Here is a little something I have learned during this flight. If you know that your Southwest flight is full then opt for a seat other than the window. If you chose a window seat then anyone can choose to sit next to you, especially the creepers. Be the chooser and not the choosee. I have learned this from experience.

I am not yet sure what useful things I have learned from my flight from JFK to Heathrow. Some facts have been reiterated, but nothing new has come to light. Things that have been reiterated: Christmas is a busy time especially for travelers, people as a general public tend to not listen and they also like to sit next to their travel mate on their flight especially if they paid extra for a seat assignment, people get impatient, and yet there is always someone willing to help. Sometimes that helpful person heaves your luggage over a carousel that you are obviously struggling with and sometimes that helpful person shoves your luggage into the overhead bin after people have stowed their coats there first even after advised not to. It is nice to know that there is always that helpful person out there. That thought makes me wonder how often and when I present myself as that helpful person.

Boarding the flight at JKF proved to be rather nightmare-ish. The flight was cancelled the day before we were scheduled to leave, so Steph and I were frantically calling to make new plans and get things in place. Once we got to the airport, late, our boarding passes could not be located and by the time they were found it was almost boarding time. Steph got her bag checked and in the time that took it was supposedly too late to check me in- it was too close to boarding time. The airport personnel did not seem to understand that we had been there waiting and that we were travelling together. All things said and done, I got through. We made it through security, somehow, and then we ran with significant haste to our gate. I heard the Home Alone music in my head the whole time. Our flight was not even boarding when we arrived at our gate.

All things considered the actual flight was not so bad, except for the mini asthma attck I had once I finally sat down and not being seated near my travel mate. Little did we know what nightmare loomed ahead once our plane was to land in London.