3

I figured they were ready to start boarding the plane, but they were just letting us know there was another DELAY. And it went on like that for the rest of the day. Apparently, this storm was causing problems everywhere, and the plane we were supposed to fly out on was stuck at some OTHER airport. I was starting to worry that my electronic device was gonna run out of juice while I was on the plane, so I looked for a place to charge it. But I guess everyone else was thinking the same thing.

The only available outlet was in an awkward place. But when your battery is at 15%, you gotta do what you gotta do. Our plane finally arrived at the gate, and all the passengers who were on it got off. But if flying is supposed to be FUN, you'd never know it from the way these people looked.

The gate agent got on the loudspeaker and said we'd be boarding shortly. Then she said our flight was". "overbooked," and they needed a few volunteers to give up their seats. She said that whoever volunteered FIRST would get three hundred dollars and a free night at the airport hotel. I didn't need to hear another word. I got to the desk before she'd even finished with her announcement and said I was her guy. Unfortunately, Mom wouldn't LET me volunteer, and nobody ELSE stepped up, either.

So the gate agent increased the offer to FIVE hundred dollars, and some woman snapped it up right away. I just hope she enjoys spending my money. After that, the agent made ANOTHER announcement. She said the flight crew on our plane had worked too many hours because of all the delays, and we had to wait for a REPLACEMENT crew to come in before we could take off. Now everyone at our gate was MAD, because what was supposed to be an early flight was turning into an OVERNIGHT one.

When the new flight crew finally arrived, they didn't look happy to be there. That's probably because they were expecting to spend Christmas Eve at HOME, so I knew EXACTLY how they felt. After the crew got on board, they started letting passengers on the plane. My family got to go first, because they let people with young kids board before anyone else. But the gate agent stopped me at the door.

She said my carry-on bag was too big to fit in the overhead bin, so it had to go down below with the rest of the luggage. That was fine with ME, because I didn't want to deal with my bag on the plane anyway. When I got on board, I was pretty impressed. The seats were a LOT bigger than I expected, and they were covered in real leather. I asked Mom what row we were in, but she said we needed to keep moving. She said this was the first- class section, and our seats were an CONOMY.