Thursday night’s usual 2-hour trip back home turned into a 6 hr affair. Our incoming aircraft from Portland, Oregon was already more than an hour late. But there we were eventually, all settled in, with me in 10C. That’s in Economy Plus. The first six rows are the big Business Class seats. That’s when there was a commotion going on in up there in Row 6, and it was some time that the pilot announced that a passenger got ill and threw up*, and that a cleaning services crew was on the way.
*He has my sympathies, the poor guy. I know what it feels like to be sitting their, in bad shape, just from two weeks ago with my painful ear.
Man! That clean-up took a long time. The original 7.45 to 8.50 pm delayed departure was now approaching 10.00 pm. Some passengers with only carry-on luggage took their stuff out of the overhead bins, and disembarked. (I was surprised that they were allowed to). Apparently the last flight out to Seattle scheduled for 10.00 pm still had seats. This worked for them until the flight attendant announced that that flight is now also full. Alright, anyway, we all thought. What’s happening with us? Good to go? Well, no. Someone (not the pilot) came and inspected the seats and floor and declared that the cleaning crew had to come back and dry the wet areas properly. It was about 10.30 pm when we finally were pushed back from the gate, and everything went without incident from there – which I am always grateful for. We arrived at 11.53 pm Seattle time (12.53 am Denver time). I was so happy to be able to go home! As for the airplane, it had yet another flight scheduled for it – to Alaska, I think. Patiently waiting for us at the gate to clear out, was this group of Alaska-bound passengers.