I fly. A lot. Almost 300,000 miles on Delta alone. But yesterday was a first. I was trying to fly from Knoxville to Memphis for a friend’s funeral, and my flight was delayed. For a long time. Nothing unusual there. I’ve probably spent as many hours waiting in airports as I’ve spent in the air.
After a 3 1/2 hour wait, the fine folks at Northwest Airlines called all Memphis passengers. The plane was repaired and ready to go.
I was the only person who stepped forward.
Everyone else had gotten out through Detroit, Northwestern’s other hub
So I got to fly alone on a Canadair 50-seat jet with “Princess,” the flight attendant. Very cool. Better than first class, really. Princess and I talked and drank coffee all the way to Memphis and we had the entire plane to ourselves. Though it was a little odd when she had to go through her “safety/here’s how to buckle a seatbelt” thing for only one passenger.
Just to show that karma kicks and caresses you, the flight home was a nightmare with a screaming kid in the row behind me and a Buffy in the seat next to me. Thank god for my iPod.
7 replies on “Flying the friendly skies”
Is Buffy a generic word for a vampire slayer? If so, I’d love to chat her up at 30,000 feet.
No, I use Buffy as a little society girl who is talking on a cell phone daddy pays for and using a blackberry daddy pays for and flying to Knoxville and San Diego and Florida on daddy’s dime. (I know all this from her cell phone conversation with the “babe magnet” who just got a new Audi, probably from his daddy.) Again, praise the iPod. No telling what horrifying details would have been revealed if I hadn’t retreated behind a wall of music.
we once similarly christened a “buffy” and her boyfriend (i think we dubbed him “chad”) that we encountered on the appalachian trail. they looked great and you could tell they weren’t going to make it more than 5 miles. we had just come off 3 or 4 days of pretty serious hiking in bear country and were waiting for our shuttle ride. we were quite amused by buffy and chad as they coordinated their gear and brand new l.l. bean outfits for their trek into the wilderness.
Oh, OK. So a Buffy is a sorority girl, the sort with $160 highlights in her hair, $500 shoes, a degree in communications from some watered-down state university and a convertible made in a country that does not agree with U.S. foreign policy.
And by the way…. Delta flew a jet with one passenger aboard? No wonder the airlines need a billion-dollar federal bailout. Why couldn’t they just cancel the flight and leave you stranded at a hinterland airport for a half-day or more like America West does?
I don’t think there was anything altruistic involved. They needed to get the plane to Memphis for its next flight to Arkansas. It was going anyway, whether I was on it or not.
It’s not altruism I suspect in that one-passenger flight, but mismanagement.