Hello, Internet! Hello, my neglected blog! I'm writing this because I'm tired of re-typing the story about why I took off time to go to Poland on vacation... and the ended up not going.
A few months ago, I realized that the 94th "
Universala Kongreso" was about to take place in Poland. I actually had money to go, and a couple weeks of extra vacation time just asking to be spent abroad, so I started planning my trip. Booked a flight, purchased a ticket to the conference, notified people I'd be there.
Then, a few weeks ago, after discussions with the roomie and some consideration of long-term goals, I decided that I'd really be happier moving back to Austin. The lease is up at the end of August, at which point I'll be taking a nice 3-day cross-country drive back to Texas. (Anybody looking for programmers!?) :)
At this point, I was a bit worried about going off on vacation right before leaving a job, but the tickets were already paid for and non-refundable, so I figured I might as well make use of them. I hadn't yet paid for hotel, travel within Poland (Bialystok is about a 3 hour bus ride from Warsaw) or food and other miscellaneous stuff. I was about 50/50 on whether I should go and have fun, or stay and save money. I decided on the prior.
So
around 4:30 I show up to the terminal for my 6:15pm flight, LOT Polish Air #7 to Warsaw. I hang out for a while and board
around 6:00. It was the end of a rainy day, so there were 40 planes in line waiting for takeoff. We get in line.
About
an hour later, the plane is sweltering. People are standing in the aisles fanning themselves. The air conditioner clearly isn't working. The captain make an announcement and we leave the line for takeoff and return to the gate where mechanics are called to
assess the situation. Meanwhile they open up the doors at the front and back of the plane to try to vent some of the heat.
Two hours later, we're still in the plane, but they think they've fixed the issue. They start re-packing the cargo hold. We enter the (now shorter) line for takeoff and (eventually) take flight for Poland.
About 15-20 minutes into the flight it's still pretty unpleasant in the cabin. I can hear them lower the flaps on the wings, and I feel us pitch forward to lose some altitude. I think to myself "great, we're going back." About 15 minutes later, the captain announces that, yes, we're going back to land at JFK.
Then we fly around for 2 more hours. I'm not sure why. They don't tell us. Maybe we were just waiting our turn to land. But when we did finally land
around 1:00am, there were fire trucks lining the runway. I started to wonder if maybe they weren't telling us something. Or maybe it's just standard procedure to call out the firemen for unscheduled landings? But that sounds costly. (i.e.: unlikely.)
It takes another hour for them to get us off of the plane and get luggage unloaded/claimed. The airline arranges hotel rooms for those that aren't locals. They tell me that they'll reimburse me for my cab fare home. They tell us to "keep in touch" regarding flights.
I take a cab and get home
around 3am, around the time that the flight should've been landing in Poland. I
have a bite to eat, since the only thing they gave us for the 7 hours on the plane was water. At that point I've basically decided that I'm not getting on another plane that week. Then I pass out.
Over the next couple days schadenfreude spurs me to keep tabs on the flight. First,
I search for information on how likely it is that I'll get a refund. Answer?
Not likely. "Contrary to popular belief, airlines are not required to compensate passengers whose flights are delayed or canceled."
I call the airline to see if maybe they have a better policy than legally required.
I learn that my flight hasn't been canceled, merely "delayed". The person I speak with has no more information than that. He gives me a number to call for more information. At 5:20pm (and later, at 7pm), the prerecorded message still says that at 3:00pm they will announce the new departure time for the plane.
The next day, I call again. Apparently the flight had taken off at 2am -- 36 hours later than scheduled. Oh well. I enjoyed my "staycation" and saved some money.
In short, if you want to fly to Poland, you may want to avoid LOT. The guy behind me was from Poland and said he flies LOT a lot (ha ha) because it's a direct flight, but he seemed completely unsurprised (though remarkably good-natured) about the technical problems. He had even claimed, the first time we returned to the gate, "They should just let us go. We're not flying anywhere tonight."
