All I have to say is… Fuck, fuckety, fucking, fuck. Continental Airlines. We missed our connection because we got delayed in Buffalo. After a valiant effort on our part and the part of a few of the better Continental employees, we still didn’t make it. So, we are stuck in the armpit that is Newark, NJ until… Drumroll… The next direct flight to Dublin which is a full 24 hours after the one we supposed to be on. FUCK.
This mishap is pretty much Continental’s fault. The delay was due to afternoon air congestion over the NYC metro area. Not that they can control that. When we got to the airport this afternoon, the check-in agent said “Too bad you weren’t here 10 min ago, I’d have put you on an earlier flight.” She didn’t mention it was likely (due to time of day, we later found out) that we’d be delayed. We found that out when we got to the gate.
The gate agent said that because this is a regularly occurring situation that sometimes Continental calls passengers with an international connection to get them out earlier and that she (and others) have been bugging the airline for a long time to disallow bookings for THIS flight in conjunction with a Europe destination.
We finally took off but missed our connection by 10 minutes. Supposedly, we’d been rerouted on a flight to London but somehow missed that one by 10 minutes too. Didn’t quite get how that was supposed to have worked, probably why it didn’t.
I’d booked the flights on Continental’s website. How the hell was I supposed to know that 75 minutes between flights was insufficient? I wanted to slap the nice foreign lady who gave us a voucher for this shitty HoJo’s we’re stuck at for intimating this was MY fault. Regardless… I sure have learned a lesson.
To top it off, our bags could not be “retrieved” because the department that does that closed while the customer service lady reviewed all the vouchers she was giving us for the third time. We missed getting our bags by 10 minutes.
We then waited over half an hour for a shuttle bus that was supposed to arrive in 10 minutes.
Imagine our disappointment to learn that HoJo’s has no bar.
That sucks. So does HoJos… especially with NO BAR??!!
I hope you make your flight[s] today. And have a terrific time. And don’t worry — Karen and I will take care of your blog while you’re gone. Heh heh…
Bird I told you not to try to smuggle all that hash in your luggage. The delayed flight BS was a good fake but we all know you got delayed until you could bribe the customs dyke not to call the cops.
Bon eventual voyage, ladies.
good lord…sounds nasty..no freaking bar? i know way too many people that are having nitemare flights lately..is it a ploy by the airlines to get us to eat and shop in the damn airport? god i hope not..i hate eating and shopping in airports..i would rather get a tooth pulled without novacaine.