{"id":152,"date":"2010-01-10T00:26:09","date_gmt":"2010-01-10T00:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/bologs\/vng\/airheads\/"},"modified":"2010-01-10T00:26:09","modified_gmt":"2010-01-10T00:26:09","slug":"airheads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/airheads\/","title":{"rendered":"Airheads"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;d been warned that this was the worst time to visit the Uk, what with a combination of record-breakingly low temperatures, extraordinary levels of snow, and Britain&#8217;s staunch refusal to prepare for, or cope with, such conditions, but we&#8217;d booked the tickets and just wanted to GO.<\/p>\n<p>It was all going so well too: we&#8217;d sorted out the bird sitting, booked time off work, put timers on the lights, and engaged in the late stage panic, and then they cancelled the flight. I already hated Gatwick and US Airways, but now I just felt sad. I&#8217;d predicted problems and, unlike with the lottery, my predictions were accurate.<\/p>\n<p>So, I called US Air and settled in for an extended period of annoyance and disappointment. After a lengthy period on hold, I spoke to a Lady who told me that the earliest flight they could put me on was next Tuesday. There was a long, long pause while I assessed each possible outcome and realised it&#8217;s fail value. Eventually I explained that this was no good, and was about to cancel everything when the lady uttered a magic incantation that immedgately cheered my mood.<br \/>\n&#8220;The only other thing I can do is call the other airlines and see if we can get you on one of their flights&#8221;<br \/>\nWhat? You can do that? There must be a catch I thought.<br \/>\n&#8220;But what about our tickets?&#8221; I asked.<br \/>\n&#8220;Oh they&#8217;ll be transferred to the other airline. But I&#8217;ll have to put you on hold, is that ok?&#8221;<br \/>\nWell I didn&#8217;t feel like going on hold so I decided to give up and just write off the tickets and forget about going home.<br \/>\nOnly joking.<br \/>\nTo cut a long story short, this wonderful woman got us a flight on a different (and hopefully better) airline and we&#8217;re now sitting in Newark airport (after a short flight on a Bedford Rascal with wings) and drinking a $9 pint of Guinness in the &#8220;Guinness Irish Pub&#8221; which sells paninis and reubens.<br \/>\nWe&#8217;ve also been to a &#8220;wine bar&#8221; that ripped us off, while it was ripping us off. I hate fucking airports.<\/p>\n<p>So, still time for another cancellation, but at least there&#8217;s Guinness.<br \/>\nApologies for typos\/spelligns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We&#8217;d been warned that this was the worst time to visit the Uk, what with a combination of record-breakingly low temperatures, extraordinary levels of snow, and Britain&#8217;s staunch refusal to prepare for, or cope with, such conditions, but we&#8217;d booked the tickets and just wanted to GO. It was all going so well too: we&#8217;d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}