It’s been an early season of airport delays as I get farther into the NFL season.
On the whole, these waits have been more bothersome than catastrophic, as only one (so far) has been on a connection, and that was on the second leg, so being late only meant being late and not missing another flight.
I’ve already whined about the five-hour, late night affair in Dallas a couple weeks ago.
Two weeks back, it was a two-plus hour wait sitting on the plane in Charlotte waiting for maintenance paperwork to get caught up for the plane.
I was heading to Buffalo, and was routed through Charlotte because of the big storms on the East Coast. That turned into a good move because my original flight through Philly got cancelled on the return trip.
But there I was, on the plane and waiting with a lot of Buffalo Bills fans while American Airlines made our plane legal.
Turns out the machine we were on had been in Dallas just the day before for “routine maintenance” (Captain’s term, not mine).
So, in a literal moment of lost paperwork, the same captain came on the PA and said that we couldn’t go anywhere until those forms were found and logged in, and that could take up to a couple hours.
Not sure how he knew exactly how long it would take, but he was pretty close. Must have been a bunch of forms to type in back in Dallas or something.
But, we eventually got there.
There was another delay leaving Buffalo, back to Charlotte and then to Indy.
IT wasn’t nearly as long, but my connection time in Carolina wasn’t that long either. I managed to get the 15-minute trot completed just as they were calling my group to board.
Good timing is always nice.
Last weekend it was not through, but straight to Philly. The storms in the East had gone away, and we had an early afternoon game instead of the doubleheader game, so there was a bunch of us heading to catch Sunday night flights.
I had plenty of time, so I was not the guy in a hurry, but there were others who booked really tight flights and they were in a hurry to get to the airport.
I assure you, there is no greater chaos than trying to get away from that stadium. Too many folks leaving and too few options out.
We managed to get through the mess, and I got a text on the way that my flight to Indy was delayed by two hours due to hostile weather in the area.
Okay, I thought the bad weather was gone. It was a different system, but caused long delays nonetheless.
So I pulled up a chair near my gate and followed some of the late afternoon games.
Then I started following the Sunday Night game because we just kept getting pushed back.
They finally found a plane, and a crew, and we headed for home.
It was only a three-hour delay, and I got back to town about 1 a.m., so compared to 5 in the morning a couple weeks ago, it was lots better.
This weekend has me heading west, like way west.
Like Seattle.
It’s the first trip back there since the playoffs last season, and I’m lucky to have direct flights both out and back.
The downside of the return is that I get my first red-eye flight of the season (okay, leaving Dallas at 1:30 in the morning can be a technical red-eye, but that was a delayed flight. This weekend is a 10:20 p.m. departure from Seattle, which is 1:20 a.m. here. It’s another arrive in Indy at 5:30 day.
I can get some more “sleeping on a plane” practice.
Enjoy the weekend, and safe travels.
Jeff Nelson is a frequent contributor to the Journal Review and works professionally for Fox Sports working with the Indiana Pacers, Indianapolis Colts and many more professional teams.
