Every Traveler's Guide to Being Stuck in an Airport

Introduction:

For every one who has ever or will ever use flight as a mode of transportation this is for you! I was inspired to write this guide after I was supposed to visit my husband in Italy, when instead due to airport errors and confusion, ended up spending three days in John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. This guide is a small compilation of not only my experiences, but things that I have learned, as well as things I wish I had known about air travel.

MISSED FLIGHT

It was six o'clock on St. Patrick's Day 2007. I had a connecting flight from Jacksonville, to New York, to Milan, to Catania, Italy. I was then in New York trying to find my way to the correct terminal in the John F. Kennedy Airport. I was traveling with Delta under Alitalia. I finally found my way to the correct terminal by taking the Airtrain from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1. Once I was there, I asked a Delta employee which line I was supposed to be in for check in. He directed me to what appeared to be the correct line; seeing as how the wall behind the front desk said Alitalia, and the TV screen directly above my head had my flight number and destination. However, after about two hours of waiting in line it was nearing time for my flights departure, and when I finally reached the desk I was told, I was in the wrong line, and that I was supposed to be in the Air France line, which made no sense to me. I went anyways and I was, told that I missed my flight, and would have to reschedule for the next day. So, I rescheduled, and was then told that I would have to sleep and in essence spend the next 24 hours in Terminal 4. The next day when I went to check in to for my new flight I was told, I would have to pay $750.00 dollars to book a new flight and that I had an hour to go to a ticketing counter and do this. Once I got to a ticketing counter and had to wait in a 30-minute line, they told me I would have to pay $3000.00 because they would have to book my entire flight, and since I had gone through Expedia my flight was invalid. However, due to my crying, the gentleman behind the counter found a way to cheat the system and only charged me $200.00, which is the typical penalty fee for rescheduling a missed flight.