[dagul]

One time, on my way home from LOS, I missed a connecting flight @ JFK. It was a fairly horrible experience... Allow me to explain.

I was in Hkt and stayed out all night the day before departure day – naturally.
I was out n about all over the place on departure day.
I then caught the last flight out that evening back to Bkk.
I then caught my late night flight from Bkk to ICN.
I then caught the excruciatingly long flight to JFK. (I hate JFK airport)

This is where the fun part happened… Expedia had scheduled me only a 1 hour and 45 minute layover before my last leg home. Well, by the time I had made it through immigration and got my bag, my flight was already on the runway. An airport employee told me to go to another terminal to get another ticket. By this point, I was fairly delirious from being in planes for so long.

I had no familiarity with JFK as I usually connect in other airports. The terminal buildings aren’t connected. I didn’t see a tram and ended up walking along a major road with my bags in tow to get to the other terminal. I was tired, dehydrated, and confused as I wasn’t quite sure where to go. When I got to the terminal, the lines were crazy long, wrapping all the way down the hall. There were hardly any agents around; only long lines of angry people. There were only 2 agents managing the lines. They appeared to be newbie’s who obviously had no idea what they were doing as the lines were a mess. The agents kept making announcements for people who had a flight time of such and such to go to the front of the line so they didn’t miss their upcoming flight. Therefore, the line never seemed to move. I didn’t know what to do as I had no ticket at that point. It didn’t help it was the same week as the whole liquid bomb scare, which only made matters worse.

Two hours later, still in line…

There were no bathrooms, water fountains, or stores around. They were all located past the security checkpoint. I had no water bottle because it was confiscated from me in Seoul. I was about ready to pass out. I couldn’t leave the line as I would lose my spot. I then decided enough was enough and cut the damn line. I could hear people mumbling and a couple shouts, but at that point I had to make something happen. All the agents looked completely drained and angry. I was worried I might not get much help from them, but by the grace of a higher power, a fresh new agent walked in and checked in at one of the computer stations. No way in hell was I going to let someone else claim her before me. Luckily, I managed to make it happen.

I explained my situation to her and she was able to re-route my flight at no extra cost. However, it did add on another 8 hours of travel time with a layover. I didn't care as long as I got out of JFK. Of course, her printer was broken and she had to get another agent to stop what they were doing to print me up a ticket. So all in all, the total traveling time to get back home took me over 40 hours.

I recently purchased another ticket with Delta with plenty of time at all my stops. However, while checking my itinerary online, I noticed they made a change to the last leg of my flight with a connection time of only 1 hour and 20 minutes. There is no way I would be able to deboard a big ass plane, go through immigration, get my bags, re-check my bags, go through security, and find my next gate by boarding time in that little amount of time. I called and had it changed, but the agent argued I could make it and kind of gave me an attitude during the phone call. Whatever... I say 3 hours to be on the safe side if you have to go through immigration and re-check your bags.