The Airport Snafu

The day's plan was a simple one. Wake up, go to Queens, have Filipino food, get Kevin to JFK.

The first part was easy, we woke up... Kevin packed, we got a text from Christine, she picked us up & we were on our way to Queens.

We got to Tito Rad's and had a great feast. Then headed to Johnny Air so Christine could send a package and I grabbed some snacks at Phil-Am. Shortly after, we were on our way to JFK. 

We passed signs for La Guardia and Kevin said, "just to clarify we have to pass LGA to get to JFK, right?" He didn't want to be taken to the wrong airport.

We hit a bit of traffic on the Van Wyck and I started to worry he'd be late. In preparation to have to help him rush. I asked, "which airline are you flying?" He told us American... I had remembered earlier that he said he had 3 flights, which I thought was odd, why would you transfer twice, from JFK to LAX to SBA... I should have known. He then said something like, what was weird was last night it said terminal B but now it says terminal D... Uhhhh, Kev, are you sure you're flying American from JFK, the terminals are numbers at JFK, but letters at La Guardia.

Instant panic set in for all 3 of us. Christine had just been joking about how she'd driven to the wrong airport before... It clicked for me... made much more sense to transfer twice on LGA to DFW to LAX to SBA.

Kevin couldn't find his printed itinerary, and his phone had died, so I handed him my phone and he checked his email for the flight info... Yup... LGA. We flipped around, at the long term parking exit at JFK and went back. We were actually on time, but at the wrong airport!

The whole drive back to LGA, I told Kevin to check in, because they close the ability to check in and check luggage 45 mins before departure. He didn't have his AA advantage number, he had to reset his password, and after all that, the check in screen wasn't working.

He pulled up flight status... Sure enough, 3:50 from LGA, on time, and less than and hour from take off. It said terminal: gate: D1. Are you sure? Terminal D is Delta... 

Sure enough, it was terminal B, gate D1. What a friggin sh!t show! Christine circled around and we went to terminal B... Flight was closed, all other flights were full.

Luckily, it had a happy ending. He was able to get on the 5PM flight to DFW which had a connection at 9:40 to LAX... I'm sure we will hear tomorrow how he got back to Santa Barbara in time for his new employee to start at 8:30 Monday morning!