Delays Galore!

So, in my last post, I said we would be arriving in Lima late Friday night. Well, let me tell you about our delays...

Delay 1 - First, the plane was overweight. JetBlue was trying to get 6 people to fly out the following day. This would have been tempting if we didn't already have so few days in Peru...or if the same thing had been offered on the way home. We obviously decided to stay on the plane. We boarded and they were still trying to get more people to get off. Several did, but we stayed put.

Delay 2 - After a few people got off the plane, we learned that a sensor had been painted over (Dear FLL airport, how does this happen?), so we had to either get a new plane (fingers crossed) or wait indefinitely. We knew we were delayed a bit more at this point, but we didn't know if it would be 30  minutes or several hours. We were getting hungry, so we decided to go grab dinner. We had met a friend who was sitting in the row with Josh and I - and he decided to go check on our plane while we were waiting on our food. Our plane was boarding in 10 minutes. We finished our food quickly and got our beers to go. 

Delay 3 - We board. We wait. And we wait some more. We think we're about to taxi out and all the power cuts on the plane. I've been in some pretty scary turbulence, but this is the most scared I had ever been on a plane. I just kept thinking, "What if we had been in the air when that happened?!?" Apparently, the pilot signaled to someone to do something and they accidentally cut the power. OK. So it took a bit to get everything back up and running and for the plane to be checked again.

Delay 4 - We've finally made it to the runway and we're about to take off when another passenger realizes they can't find their passport. Back to the gate. The passport is found in the bathroom of the first plane. 

FINALLY we take off. We ended up getting to our room in Lima around 3:00am, so obviously, we didn't go out. We crashed. We were staying in a guest house and we had arranged a cab through them. Luckily, they kept track of our flight and they were there to pick us up 3 hours after they were supposed to. 

In the end, I'm glad we didn't fly with a sensor that wasn't functioning and that our plane didn't crash because there was too much weight or the power went out. I do wish people didn't leave their passports in an airplane bathroom and hold up a couple hundred other people while it is found, but hey, it is what it is.

In the end, JetBlue did a good job of communicating what was going on and we got a $50 travel credit each. I've had 4 hours worth of delays with AirTran with absolutely no explanation and not even an extra bag of pretzels, so I'll take it!

I can't tell you how many times we looked at each other and say, "Maybe we should have taken that deal". The next time we're in a situation where Josh and I can both get a few hundred dollars in travel credit to take a different plane, we may consider it a little more seriously!