Philadelphia story

My flight back to Miami from Boston stops in Philadelphia, even though it is the same flight number. Theoretically, I could opt to stay on the plane the entire way and wait for the next group of Flight 763, bound for Miami, arrives. So we arrive at the Philadelphia International Airport on time (a miracle), and I stay put in my 7D seat while everyone else deplanes. Then came the announcement that the plane is now heading to San Francisco, and everyone bound for Miami on Flight 763 would need it leave. So the three or so of us left.

I took the hour-long layover to eat a Philly cheesesteak (only half the bread because I'm on a low-carb, no soda, no high-fructose syrup diet). I mean, how can you NOT go to Philly and eat a Philly cheesesteak? I have to say, though, that it was the worst cheesesteak I've had, probably ever. At gate C31, we were told by the gate agents that if we haven't checked in with the counter in the last hour, please do it to make sure our seats are still held for you because they oversold the plane by 25 seats, which means that the agents are also looking for volunteers to give up their seats, or they will involuntarily bump people off. So there was, of course, a mad rush for the counter, but luckily my seat was still there. But why be bumped off when I can score free roundtrip tickets to Los Angeles for the USC homecoming? I totally jumped at the chance to get the seats for a 12:15 p.m. departure for a 3 p.m. arrival in Miami. No biggie. Simple.

To cut a long story short, I arrived at my new gate to nap because my flight from Boston left at 6:30 a.m. Very little sleep. By the way, PHL … the most comfortable seats ever. Mid-nap, I hear an announcement (very effective PA system, PHL) that the flight is delayed until 1 p.m. because the plane we were waiting for doesn't actually arrive until 12:25 p.m. … that's right … AFTER our departure time. WTF? Who planned this thing? It didn't make any sense at all, and the cuss-filled grumblings of my seatmate didn't help. I continued my sleep, and as chaotic as the delay was, I had to say that the gate agents did keep up well-informed of the plane's progress (it's here, they're deplaning, they're cleaning and restocking, etc.) … something that my seatmate was definitely not appreciating enough.

Around 12:45, the plane is ready to board, but not before the agents checked off every kid on the list and put them together with the parents, something that could've delayed us on the plane. Good plan to do it while we're all waiting for the plane. The people with babies (at least three, one of whom didn't have the luck of having a mom who understood her need to play with a blankie) got on and so on. We finish boarding around 1:25 … so we're very late. But we got to Miami around 3:45, which was the plan anyway, so all is well. Overall, a mixed reaction of PHL, and I didn't even tell you about the process of getting me on that later flight out of PHL. THAT was a disaster.