WACO, Texas — It's not every week it takes 56 hours of air travel to get from New England to Texas.
It did this week.
What a nightmare millions of Americans are experiencing right now ahead of the July 4th holiday.
Flight crews are out of place, bad storms struck Philadelphia to New York to Boston a few days ago, FAA staffing shortages...they all seem to be factors.
I got a firsthand taste of the chaos, as well.
On Sunday morning, I was supposed to return to Texas from the Northeast.
First, JetBlue delayed our flight. Four times to be exact.
When we finally were getting ready to board, the crew had timed out. Shocker.
I rebooked the same flight for Monday, but also booked back up, refundable Delta and American tickets sensing things were getting worse.
It did.
Monday, JetBlue delayed the flight again before canceling it outright.
Delta cancelled their flight, too.
I was finally able to get to Philly via AA, and there was a late night flight into DFW that looked good to go.
Some severe storms popped up there earlier in the day, but it cleared out for a bit in the evening.
Then, well, we boarded and you guessed it: NOT TODAY. Time to find a hotel and hunker down.
I was up at 4 a.m. on Tuesday, praying I could standby on some direct DFW American flights. They were, given the circumstances, overbooked with dozens on standby.
Somehow and someway, I got the final, last-row seat and you would've thought I was flying private by myself. That's how relieved I was.
Here's the thing, though, I noticed most during the ongoing debacle. The flight crews, the counter agents, even the TSA security personnel, from top to bottom, were almost ALL so understanding and hardworking.
Yes, they get paid. They aren't doing charity work. But those jobs can be thankless during weeks like this, especially if the factors are largely beyond their control.
If you want to be frustrated, understandably so, take the complaints to their bosses or the FAA, who seem to be blaming one another for some of the issues.
As for the people on the ground trying to get those flights in the air? If he or she looks exhausted, worn out and like they need a vacation, a big 'thanks' can go a long way.
