Friday, September 25, 2009

10 minutes of attitude!

Thursday, Sept. 24th.

4:00 AM
Alarm goes off! Destination...St. Thomas, USVI via American Airlines flight # 1165 with a connection in Miami to join our good friends, J&J, at their timeshare.

6:10 AM
We make it to JFK in a record 40 minutes...and arrive at the long term parking lot. Jump on the next Airtran (airport monorail system)...destination...terminal #8. Considering the time of day, Airtran is fairly crowded with travelers! As we arrive at terminals #1 through #4...a few passengers get off. We arrive at terminal #5 (jetBlue) and almost 2/3 of the remaining passengers get off! (Is there a party at terminal #5 and we were not invited???)

6:30 AM
Arrive at terminal #8. Once inside, we approach a uniformed AA employee (AAE) and ask for assistance. There are about 50 to 60 passengers in the domestic area (less than the number that got off at terminal #5). We tell AAE our destination and flight time...and AAE immediately points us to the AA queue manager (AAQM) who is at the front of the check-in line (because we can't use the automated kiosk for St. Thomas). We approach AAQM and AAQM yells out "Miami...7:30! waits for an open counter...and then directs us to proceed to counter #21.

Counter 21 - ticket agent (TA) - "Name and identification please"
Me - (handing over requested information and placing two bags on the check-in scale) "we're on flight # 1165 to Miami"
TA - "I know...you're late!"
Me - (politely) "Isn't this a domestic flight (to Miami)? I thought we needed to arrive an hour before flight time."
TA - (without looking up) She looks at her watch. "It's 50 minutes before flight time! You're late and your bags still need to go through x-ray" (Perhaps she got up earlier than 4:00AM?)
Me - I start to wonder if I'll ever see my bags again.
TA - "That'll be $30."
Me - "$30?"
TA - "Yes - $15 per checked bag"

PS. We made it to the departure gate as others were boarding...and our bags actually made it all the way to St. Thomas. I wonder if I would have received a $30 refund if they didn't?

Epilogue:
American Airlines (AMR) closed at $8.02 with a total market capitalization of $2.2 billion. They were formed almost 80 years ago and are the world's largest airline ( in terms of mileage flown). They serve 265 cities with 655 aircraft.

jetBlue (JBLU) closed on Friday at $6.01 per share with a market capitalization of $1.8 billion (just $0.4 billion short of AMR). jetBlue started in 1999 (just 10 years ago) and currently flies to 59 destinations (excluding St. Thomas) in 12 countries. jetBlue doesn't charge anything for checked baggage!

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