New York City, New York

There was only one awful route that I had resigned myself to taking this month: Denver to San Diego...via New York. In Denver, the flight was delayed, and I expressed concern that I would miss my fifty minute connection in JFK. I was told to check back in before boarding, which I did. At the time, the attendant didn't even look at my connection, and said that I would be fine - despite the fact that we were now leaving 45 minutes later than scheduled. Lo and behold, I didn't even come close to making the connection, and missed the last flight to Southern California.

Here is what I believe happened: All You Can Jet tickets are booked individually (for example, the kiosk in Denver could not find my ticket when I said I was going to San Diego, but did when entered New York). Because of this, I wasn't on "the list" of connections that the attendant had consulted to make sure everyone would be on time. I knew I should have pressed him harder.

In JFK, basically I was told I was out of luck. I tried working with the customer rep to get my ticket switched to somewhere in the Los Angeles area, since my plan was to head there early afternoon the next day anyway (though if I had planned ahead further with my friends, I would have flown into LA in the first place, but it was too late to switch without being charged $100). So I was "lucky" to be put on the 9am flight to San Diego the next morning (when I "should have been on standby")...because changing my ticket to another city would incur the $100 penalty.

The worst part is that if they had realized I would miss my connection, I probably could have canceled the ticket without being charged, then booked an $89 flight direct from Denver to Los Angeles the next morning.

To make a long story even longer, I called JetBlue myself and gave the sob story in my sweetest voice possible - and my new hero, who we'll call Shanna (because that's her real name) was able to switch me to a morning flight headed to Burbank...meaning I'd get to the LA area sooner than expected.

Both my friends in New York are completely busy right now, so I've got some time to wander around on my own. And the train just pulled into Penn Station...I'm off!