A few years ago, my daughter and I had an incident in the Minneapolis airport. We had just landed from our first flight and were facing a daunting five-hour layover. We approached the gate agent to see if there was anything earlier. She told us that there was another flight but that going standby seemed unlikely as it was fully booked and the departure gate was at the complete opposite end of the airport, which, by the way, may actually be the longest airport in the world.
We decided to take our chances anyway and took off running. When we arrived at the other gate (aka the other side of the world), the boarding was almost complete. Amazingly, the gate agent said there was room, took our luggage, and told us to board the plane and take any available seat. We sat down in the only two open seats and began to catch our breath. That was the moment when two additional passengers came on board. There were not enough seats and they stood in the aisle looking very confused.
The flight attendant on the plane was trying to figure out the problem but we knew immediately what had happened. I told my daughter to share my seat and let the other people share theirs.
Then the plane started to back out. Meanwhile the flight attendant was flustered and completely clueless. My daughter and I sat there looking at each other, trying not to attract any attention, glancing over at the flight attendant periodically. After a little while, she apparently figured out the problem, hung up the phone, and stopped the plane. I guess it’s against the policy to take off with people standing in the aisles or sharing seats.
At this point, we knew what was coming. Instead of approaching us, however, the flight attendant announced our names over the loud speaker, asking us to come to the front of the fifty-passenger plane. We accepted defeat and slithered to the front waving goodbye to all our new friends, but that’s not the best part.
We were laughing so hard that we could hardly walk onto the exterior stairs, which several men wearing yellow coveralls were quickly rolling to the plane, providing us with a way to exit. Glad to not just be thrown out the door, we descended onto the tarmac. There we stood with all the signalers and luggage handlers, and jet engines so loud that we couldn’t hear a thing. It was windy and cold and we were standing there screaming at a couple luggage handlers trying to describe our luggage because the plane couldn’t move until it was off.
On the tarmac, I couldn’t help thinking about the post-911security breeches we were committing as we waited for someone to unlock the door to the jet way so we could get back inside the airport.
Luckily, the gate agent felt sorry for us and gave us passes not only for dinner but several drinks as well. We still believe she gave these to us to ease the pain as she informed us that our boarding gate, the one for our originally scheduled flight, was back at the other end of the airport, one gate over from where this escapade began.