Isn’t 6 Hours Long Enough For Flight Transfers?

 Apparently not when you’re flying Jet Blue. My 11:15 AM flight from JAX to JFK hadn’t even left the tarmac in JAX by the time it was supposed to land in JFK at 1:15 PM. I thought a 6 hour layover would leave me bored, tired of window shopping, weary of sitting around, sick of the novel I was reading, chewing my cuticles, and babbling incessantly with perfect strangers. Normally it would.  Passengers trapped in their seats around me were getting cranky.  At 2:00 they deplaned us.  At 2:30 I was dialing the concierge service at Allianz insurance to try to get another flight to JFK so I could get my Delta flight to Rome at 7:30 when JetBlue reboarded us

and finally took to the skies.  We landed at JFK, and it took ANOTHER nail biting hour to get my luggage, so I made it to the gate just as they were finishing boarding for Delta #152 to Rome.  I was just a little stressed.  From here on, I fly in the day BEFORE, like I tell my clients to do.

It all ended well, I surprised my nephew Brady on the flight, we flew over together, and met Liam in Civitavecchia.  It’s so good to be traveling with my boys! Let the games begin!

And I’m Off!

There’s always been a certain amount of stress involved with travel, but I’ve always thought that it was part of the fun.  Can I clean all the pressing items off my desk before I go? Organize a good sitter for the dog? Remember to put an “out of office message” on my e-mail inbox?  Turn off the oven? Unplug the iron, get foreign currency in small denominations for tipping?  Remember medications? Passport (yes, I have forgotten that more than once — and I’m supposed to be a professional). 

The amount of additional paperwork and testing added by Covid-19, and by traveling with two twenty- something’s almost did me in this time.  Getting the twenty- something’s to read e- mails marked “URGENT” and “DON’T F*** THIS UP” have proven unsuccessful.  Two days prior to embarkation and I was getting messages asking if they needed booster shots and what kind of Covid testing was necessary, ummmm that info was in the e-mail I sent in March marked “URGENT”.  It’s like trying to nail jello to the wall.  If all three of us get on the ship in Civitvecchia I’ll stop having panic attacks😱.  If not, I’m never attempting this again.