We Just Flew Out of Newark, You’ll Want To Hear This If You’re Flying Anytime Soon.

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, November the seventh, and thousands of flights were canceled or delayed before you even woke up this morning, and it's only going to get worse. Today is the day mass cancelations across the board begin. And you know where Robot and I decided to spend our morning, Newark International Airport. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Rope. They said this is going to happen. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this is kind of chaos that has ensued at airports across the country today.

00:00:35
Speaker 2: And this is just day one. It's supposed to get worse. Day by day.

00:00:39
Speaker 3: The percentage of cancelations is going to increase by one percentage point.

00:00:44
Speaker 2: So yes, today was four percent.

00:00:47
Speaker 3: And we had a flight where we were boarding at four forty am. So I think this is the earliest flight I've ever taken in my life, and I've digging six am flights plenty. But we got to the airport around four twenty and it was chaos.

00:01:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, We're used to a certain level of chaos at airports in New York, and but at that hour we're not necessarily used to this kind of chaos, and the chaos we were talking about I think what we were referring to, and we talked about it being a weird morning. Things felt different, So the moods felt different. Certainly the TSA workers felt different. We'll talk about that. But it was like nothing was being done. Were it's not just a long line, it's a line that's doing nothing. That were like long lines of standing around, confusion, where do we go? It just bottlenecks, And there were some weird stuff this morning.

00:01:38
Speaker 3: Look, we're all used to and I know there are amazing and thank God for you TSA workers out there by the way, who are working without paychecks, but in the New York area, there tends to be a certain level of apathy among TSA workers. Sometimes they just seem like they're, you know, checking the boxes, which okay, fine, but this was extra life. I don't give a whatever, And I get it, I mean, I understand it emotionally to a certain extent. But it created a very different flying experience at an airport that already has a storied and very notorious history, at least as of late.

00:02:17
Speaker 1: So the at least for the country for the day, you name the airport they had delays Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta, Miami. Newark, of course we're talking about Laguardier JFK. Just about every airport across the country reporting significant delays. Newark delay because of staffing. They're supposed to what you say, until noon, they're supposed to be short staff.

00:02:41
Speaker 3: Yes, we'll see if noon suddenly they won't be short staff. But yes, they specifically said until noon they are short staff.

00:02:47
Speaker 1: Delay specifically at LGA because of staffing, you have forty seven minute on average delays at the Austin Airport. They're about a half hour at Reagan. And this was an interesting thing how it's impacting even Hurts is getting a yes.

00:03:01
Speaker 3: So HERTZ is reporting that they are seeing a twenty percent uptick in reservations from today through the weekend compared to this exact weekend last year. And they say it's already becoming a day for today. Just one way car rentals today is now starting to spike as well. Obviously they don't have the full numbers yet because it's happening as we speak, but we're talking about numbers that are being reported around nine am ten am East Coast time. The West Coast hasn't even really woken up yet, So imagine. I remember I looked at you at the airport and I said, if this is what's happening at four thirty in the morning, I can't imagine what's happening at ten thirty, one, thirty five thirty PM on a Friday.

00:03:43
Speaker 2: It's you know, it's snowballs.

00:03:45
Speaker 3: It If it starts out bad, it usually does not.

00:03:49
Speaker 1: Clear up later the day. So this was not by design necessarily. If we could have avoided traveling right now, we would have. But this has been on the books for months for US. We the American Airlines flight eleven ninety six this morning that left at five twenty am coming to Miami landing and around eight twenty five. Now we you certainly don't like early morning flights, certainly not this crazy early. I'm not sure why this was booked this way for US here for a charity event, blah blahlah blah, but that's why we ended up at the.

00:04:20
Speaker 2: Airport and the time love an early morning flight.

00:04:22
Speaker 3: I'm still suspicious you didn't tell him, Hey, just book the earliest flight you can.

00:04:26
Speaker 1: No with you doing no, no, no, no, I've done this enough with you, but I know you have your Even if I say seven am, you may whoa, whoa, WHOA? Is there?

00:04:32
Speaker 3: A seventh eight thirty am is the perfect morning flight.

00:04:35
Speaker 1: I would not have done a five twenty to you behind your back, I assure you. But this caused us. We had a very early morning run that we posted this morning because we had to get to the airport. We didn't know what to expect. So our plan flights at five twenty. We're gonna leave our house at three forty five am. And we got off to a good.

00:04:54
Speaker 2: Start, we certainly did.

00:04:56
Speaker 3: And then our uber driver somehow couldn't find Terminal A and missed the entire terminal. And when you're at Newark Airport and you missed the first terminal, you now have to go all the way around the whole thing. And he started to leave the airport and go down ninety five to which we then had to start yelling no, stay to the left, and he then was completely frazzled and started driving three miles an hour.

00:05:19
Speaker 1: Yes, so we mentioned this, and I didn't think about it this way until now. Yes, things happen on the way to the airport. We gave ourselves plenty of time normally, but we started to panic. We started to freak out a little bit because of the situation with the shutdown, with what's happening at airports. We didn't know what we were going to greet inside. I'll tell you, so my adrenaline got going when he started missing.

00:05:43
Speaker 3: You were leaned forward and you were very attentive. Let's just say, but look, and this is these are two travelers. We obviously travel a lot. We have for our jobs for many many years. Were tsa pre check. We're already checked in, we already have our boarding passes. So it's like we do everything we can to just walk on the plane as much as possible. But even with all of that in our arsenal, and a lot of folks don't have that in their arsenal, we were still petrified at that point that we were somehow going to and honestly, with everything we went through, we walked to the gate.

00:06:14
Speaker 2: As it was boarding, which is highly unusual for us.

00:06:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, we're usually there hanging out way ahead of time. So we get it. We finally the guy for whatever he's in, it's driving right past our airline once we do get to the terminal. But it's fine, we up out, we get inside. I don't think at first glance, remember us walking in, I didn't think too much was up right.

00:06:36
Speaker 2: It didn't seem yeah, and chaos.

00:06:38
Speaker 1: We started making our way to the security line, the TSA line, and this is where robes I guess. We get into the TSA pre check line, and I thought we were good. I acted, I said, Oh, this is gonna be fine. It wasn't a long line.

00:06:50
Speaker 2: Nope, didn't did no.

00:06:53
Speaker 3: But then even if the line that doesn't look that bad doesn't move at all, suddenly you start getting worried. I mean, and all the folks are the now bottlenecked up to where the screening area is and no one is moving at all.

00:07:08
Speaker 1: So this is where I had my first I had interaction with three TSA workers today, and two were a couple of the worst I've ever had in my life. One of them wasn't directed to me, but it was at me. But it was still ugly. The first lady, and it was my fault. Where you step up and they take your picture, they write, and you're supposed to give your ID or your boarding pass. Every airport seems to be different, do they not? Some just want to take your pictures, some want your ID, some just want the boarding pass, right. I didn't know which one it was, so I stepped up to take a picture and I handed her my boarding pass and she says she needed my ID, and I said, oh, ma'am, I apologize because I knew the line was long. I'm sorry for everybody. She starts going off on me about, uh, how do you know you don't see the sign? I kept saying the same thing. Only words I said to her, I apologize, I apologize. Every time I said I apologized, she doubled down on getting onto me for not reading a sign, which I still don't know where it is. But she actually scolded me there. Now, fine, that was on me. I didn't have it out and I apologized, But I've never had that experience at TSAO.

00:08:18
Speaker 2: She needed.

00:08:19
Speaker 3: You know what, I think, You've got a bunch of workers who are worried about paying their bills. They're annoyed and frustrated and probably pretty dang angry that they're at work without any kind of pay, and so they need some sort of power, some sort of control, some sort of feeling that they have some sort of power over the situation. They're powerless in every other way. So maybe in this small, petty way you're seeing it play out toward you.

00:08:45
Speaker 1: Oh, I just saw it is frustration. I wasn't mad at her for it, but she reacted in a way that I haven't seen them react before. And that was completely That was nothing else to be said. I did not have my ID ready period point land, nothing else there. But I was taken aback just by Wow. That really set her off. Yeah, in a way that she didn't just ugh or slam something. She reacted and came at me over that, and that is not something I've experienced. So I get to the conveyor. We you and I got separated. Yes, we're right next to each other, and all of a sudden, I'm five deep behind you because nobody knew what to do and how to merge, I'm behind you. I end up in another line and I'm five behind you. I end up ten ahead.

00:09:31
Speaker 3: Right because my conveyor belt just stopped moving. You know, you picked the wrong wane. I always do, and so yes, it just everything was slower. Everything was It almost felt like it was deliberately in slow motion. And I know, look we again, we get it. Things back up, they see things. There are certain workers that are quicker or are faster than others, but this seemed bizarre at the conveyor belt.

00:09:58
Speaker 1: This wasn't directed at me, but I'm standing you all seen this before. You have to get your bin, you put your stuff in it, but you have to push it forward. Right. You're not supposed to move into your stuff. Right goes up. It is confusing. Who knows absolutely I push or should I push?

00:10:12
Speaker 3: Now?

00:10:12
Speaker 1: It doesn't do automatically. So sure enough, the guy next to me shoving his stuff. The woman is coming from She is yelling at him from afar. Didn't I tell you not to do that? You can't do this, you're supposed to She's chastising him right there. I know he messed up. But those are two experiences. We fly a lot, and I'm telling you've never seen that in all the fly. No, that was we've never experienced.

00:10:38
Speaker 3: There was a lot of anger and a lot of just it didn't take much to set someone off, that's it.

00:10:44
Speaker 2: And then your bag got pulleder like really again?

00:10:49
Speaker 3: And you know we know not to put water or liquids above three point five ounces.

00:10:54
Speaker 1: I get that, but they pulled my bag and I see another lady hovering over my bag. They're about to examine it at TSA. The woman is standing right over. I know I'm looking at my bag. She thinks it's hers. The TSA agent is asking everybody whose bag is this? The woman he raises her hand. I just stand there quietly. The TSA agent doesn't even examine the bag. She just looks at that. Lady looks at the bag. He says, ah, you're good, and then I come up and I take the bag.

00:11:24
Speaker 2: And she's like, wait what Yes, that was just a.

00:11:28
Speaker 1: Weird little nothing. It's still it still happened. Now we got on the plane. I think the boarding process was about normal.

00:11:35
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, crazy, yeah, except for that they now have all the electronic It's so funny as now we have more technology, it slows the line down even more because people don't know how to have their boarding pass read by the technology that then opens the door to allow you into. But I do like that it does keep people in the right line.

00:11:57
Speaker 1: Most people just figured out how to do the regular pate, how to do with themselves with the paper ticket. Right, this is a whole news So we were laughing. Anyway, that was fun and fine. But on the it took forever to board. I don't know if that what that has to do with anything, but this was a boarding process like quite frankly that we're used to them being slow.

00:12:16
Speaker 2: Yes, this one's different.

00:12:17
Speaker 3: It felt like, for whatever reason, every single person decided to put their second smaller personal item up in the overhead so that there was no overhead for the people who actually had rolling bags they needed to go up there.

00:12:30
Speaker 2: And so I know, but for whatever reason, it was the theme.

00:12:33
Speaker 3: And how many times did the flight attendants get on and say the same thing over and over and over again. So yes, for whatever reason, but it could have been worse. We were not delayed, and I would say that it's probably because we had a five to twenty am flight.

00:12:48
Speaker 2: We probably had the best shot.

00:12:50
Speaker 3: At not having our flight delayed by getting literally the first flight out of the morning.

00:12:55
Speaker 1: Okay, And the one comment we were still roback and I are going back and forth. We don't know exactly what she meant. But once everybody did get on board, kind of the gate agent, you know, there's always one person who was at the gay who's going back and forth in and out of the plane making sure everybody's on, it's that lady, and she came on and pretty intense, trying to get things done. But as she was walking out, she made a comment Robes that I don't know what it means, but it didn't sound good. We don't know what she was talking about, but they were stressed about the flight, and this was a tough one and getting everybody on board has been difficult, and none of that and all this, and as she was walking away, she made a comment, Robes, I still don't know what it means. She said, we ain't gonna beat this one.

00:13:39
Speaker 3: So you and I looked at each other and I said, did she just say what I think I heard?

00:13:44
Speaker 2: And you said yes, but what does that mean? And she looked concerned, And that just didn't feel good. I didn't feel good at all to hear that.

00:13:53
Speaker 1: We know she was talking about the flight. We just court admit, because we saw everything she was doing leading up to that.

00:13:59
Speaker 2: Statement, we ain't gonna beat this one.

00:14:01
Speaker 1: I don't know what that means.

00:14:03
Speaker 2: I don't know.

00:14:03
Speaker 3: I was like, was she talking about the shutdown? Was she talking about the man? Was she talking the government? Was she talking about I don't know. Hopefully it wasn't about the plane safety.

00:14:15
Speaker 1: Well, everybody's going through it today. That was our experience. All we went through it. We had a pretty good day, probably compared to a whole bunch of folks, because no matter what happened in the airport, the plane went up on time and it came down on time and safely. And ain't that the only thing to worry about. But folks who are going through this, they do have some recommendations for what you should be doing. What you can do if you have a flight to maybe increase your chances of getting to where you want to go or possibly getting your money back. We'll explain that, and we'll tell you why before we took off today, well we just didn't feel safe. We'll explain here. All right, folks, we'll continue now here on this Friday day. One of the cancelations. I guess flight cancelations start today across the country. Transportation secretary said that needs to be done because of the air traffic controller shortages making the skies unsafe, so they have to cut back on air traffic. I saw robes and this needs to be mentioned. Talking about people calling out sick the head of the transportation, they're their union air traffic controller union pushed back, and I think in a really, really great way that needs to constantly be said. It's as if these folks are just calling in sick to say, Aha, give you a middle finger. You're not paying me, I'm not going to work. He said. No, these folks call in sick and say, I don't have childcare. So do you want me to bring my kid to the tower with me or I have to stay home? So they got people calling say I can't put gas in my car. What would you like me to do?

00:15:56
Speaker 2: That makes sense.

00:15:57
Speaker 1: We need to.

00:15:58
Speaker 3: Remember that you have to be able to pay the daycare center, you have to be able to pay the babysitter, and if you aren't getting paid for your work, how can you possibly pay the person take care of your child. There are also reports of so many federal workers, among them air traffic controllers, that are actually taking on uber jobs to try and pay the bills while they're waiting for their actual paychecks to come. And that makes sense as well. If you're that desperate, you've got to put food on the table. You got to figure something out. You have to find a way to work for a paycheck. And I get that everyone gets that.

00:16:29
Speaker 1: Well, it's good too that he was. He's driving that point home talk about they're calling out sick as if they're just saying, oh, well, what the hell, and that's just not the case. Needs to be remembered. They're telling us robes some options, right if you're trying to travel. If you are traveling right now, you pointed this one out that somebody said you might need to book two different tickets on two different airlines.

00:16:51
Speaker 3: Yes, the head, the CEO of Frontier Airlines, I believe, said, Look, if you're traveling and you've got flexibility, you know you might just you're gonna have to just suck it up, pack your patients. But he mentioned if you have a wedding you have to be at, if you have an important business meeting, if you have a funeral, something where a date cannot be moved. He said, I would recommend buying a refundable backup tech ticket on another airline so you have another option, and then you'll at least have the points or the money to book then for another flight, so you won't have just lost the money. You'll be able to use it again for a future flight. But that's how bad things are.

00:17:27
Speaker 1: That's a pretty good tip. That's actually really good to consider any other thing where this is if you can avoid it, if you don't have to travel right now, they're telling folk just reconsider, and frankly, sweetness, if we were just taking a weekend drip just for giggles, I would have said, let's not yeah, because there are a lot of folks think about this.

00:17:48
Speaker 3: We flew out today, we're supposed to come back and I guess Monday. But that's when I think they do. They jump up to ten percent flight cancelation.

00:17:56
Speaker 1: Yes, starting money back today, four today, five tomorrow, six on Sunday.

00:18:00
Speaker 2: And the ten ten ten on Monday.

00:18:01
Speaker 3: And so a lot of folks who are leaving today to go wherever have planned returns. Imagine a week from now, or you know, several days from now, and they're saying, I have to be back for a doctor's appointment, I have to be back for an important job, or I have to be back for my child's this. So now you fly out today and it is uncertain how reliable your ability is to get back at a specific time. Now, it's always a little bit uncertain, of course when you're traveling, but this is a whole other level of concern.

00:18:33
Speaker 1: They tell us, what is it? We have to keep in mind as well that ropes. Even if they tell us tomorrow the shutdown is old, doesn't mean all the flights magically are going to start going again. They're going to have to get all those air traffic controllers up and going up to speed paid all the US. This is going to take where what how far are weeks? Yes, probably get back to normal.

00:18:57
Speaker 3: So this, this situation is not going to be fixed the moment the government or Congress finally decides to figure out a way to fund the government for whatever amount of time. But I also appreciate what United Airlines is doing throughout all of this. They have also said to everyone, if you have travel booked through November thirteenth, so when is that? That's next Thursday, right, you can cancel or change for free. So they're offering folks the option to just cancel their flights. They will you will be refunded without any fees if you have something already planned through November thirteenth. I thought that was a really cool way to handle it, because, look, some folks are traveling, you know, imagine there's everything from honeymoons to you know, people flying to weddings and all sorts of planned events that now no one could have foreseen this a few months ago.

00:19:47
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving, we got a kid coming home here in a couple of weeks.

00:19:50
Speaker 3: I've got analyses on a flight two weeks from now, and she's nervous about whether or not she's going to make it home for Thanksgiving.

00:19:56
Speaker 2: I mean, a lot of folks, yes, travel, This is huge, huge t.

00:20:01
Speaker 1: So I guess so we should update that. The Senate, it's supposed to be sticking around and working through the weekend to see if they can figure something out. But at this point we are still in day what is this thirty eight now to all of the shut.

00:20:12
Speaker 2: Down thirty eight, thirty nine, I've lost count.

00:20:14
Speaker 1: We're sorry to lose track, but here we are. And I didn't say this to you on the flight Ropes. I at one point during that flight got so scared you did. I didn't say anything, but I damn had tears in my eyes, had just freaked out because what We've been looking at that image out of Louisville all week. We've been listening to Sean Duffy talk about how dire and dangerous. Things are so dangerous we can't handle it. So we're canceling flights. That's scary, and that's serious. And to think now I'm going through TSA with people who haven't been paid in a month plus, who have bigger frustrations than whether or not I have something in my bag. Probably I'm not putting down TSA, but they have realities. All of that came together for a moment in that flight, and I freaked.

00:21:02
Speaker 2: I mean, when you asked me to open the window, I don't know if that was it.

00:21:05
Speaker 1: No, No, I don't think so. I think you were sleeping. It was happening with Sabine, and I messaged Sabine. I sent her something before we left, like wow, what if that was the last message?

00:21:16
Speaker 3: Always I always send the girls a note before we take off.

00:21:19
Speaker 2: That might be morbid, but I always do.

00:21:21
Speaker 1: But I freaked out. And I know people have to be uncomfortable when they fly, and it's all because the folks we send to Congress won't do the most. I think this is the most basic of their jobs, is it.

00:21:35
Speaker 3: It would be to fund the government to make sure people who are in charge of all of the unbelievably important service industries in this country are compensated for their work, what.

00:21:47
Speaker 2: To get re elected and leverage.

00:21:49
Speaker 1: And yes, now it's too far. Now it's going too far. Not just because I got scared, That's not what I'm saying, but it is.

00:21:56
Speaker 2: It's too far.

00:21:57
Speaker 1: It's up. Sorry, So folks, good luck to you out there. We will keep you posted about our travels, how things go moving forward, But just for now, we want to share our our experience this morning at Newark International Airports robes but now I'm t J. Holmes behalf of my dear traveling partner Amy Robot. We will see y'all soo