JFK and Delta Is it always a Disaster?

[stonebroke]

This past Tuesday we drove a Spanish girl who had spent the previous three weeks with us to JFK airport. She was flying out of Terminal 2. The drive up took a little longer than expected so we were slightly less than two hours before departure.

When we arrived the line was out the door several hundred feet long. We sent her to the head of the line and I found the end. A woman near us started talking to my wife and she said there was a seperate line on the left for Barcelona. So we left our place and moved forward. About halfway there we met our girl who said they told her she needed to go to the end. We said no and went up and we got in the left line and reasked. He said yes stay there. People kept coming up and getting in the line one man kept trying to push past. The line was obviously for the sooner departing flights but the man keeping us from passing wasn't saying anything. The other longer line wasn't moving at all. After about five minutes our line was admitted partially into the building and waited some more. At this point the outside longer line had yet to move. About five more minutes passed. The same man came up and started our line going. We said Barcelona. This time he said "I already called Barcelona, come with me." I said my goodbyes and my wife and daughter went with her to yet another line.

Outside I stood near the entrance watching. Taxis and limos and private cars were unloading at the front, some tried to squeeze into the main line. It moved once, twice about 15 or 20 persons both times. Some people looked mad, It was a hot day nearly 100 most just looked exausted. The left line ebbed and flowed, no one ever made an announcement for what it was for. People would work their way up and most come out headed for the back of the main line. I saw the man who had tried to squeeze by trying to catch a parking shuttle (I guess he was in the wrong terminal).

Inside my wife said it was very disorganized and a "mess" (the nice thing inside is that it was air conditioned) they went to another line and waited quite awhile. Having missed a flight ourselves onetime because we had missed a supposed announcement my wife asked again about Barcelona. Immediately they were taken to wait behind at the ticket counter. They were second in line but the person in front was having problems and after waiting there they were taken to yet another open window. Finally about 45 minutes before the flight they said goodbye.

Outside shortly before they came out the same man who had been guarding the door walked out into the crowd maybe 15 to 20 feet and in a not very loud voice said Amsterdam (and somewhere else that I couldn't understand). He walked another ten feet forward and said it again twice. I only understood Amerstdam. IT wasn't loud it wasn't forcefull.

The mainline wasn't single file it was 4 or 5 deep in many places. It had grown another 75 feet by the time we left. How many people missed their flight I don't know.

What I saw was an almost total breakdown of the system. I know terminal two is an older one and in fact Delta a couple years ago according to my google search was supposed to be updating it completely...that obviously hasn't happened.

Is it always like this? Do people flying out of JFK all suffer or was it only Delta passengers? I still see those sad resigned faces.

[Laurie]

It's not Delta, it's the airport, which in my experience is either very understaffed or else staffed by a lot of incompetent people. We recently flew thru it returning from an int'l flight (which arrived late) and the incompetence there was causing subsequent missed flights left and right. They couldn't get the baggage from the plane into the terminal to be picked up and rechecked, they couldn't tell anyone where the baggage was coming up (except to keep giving the wrong info), they couldn't help anyone make a connecting flight that wasn't already missed (like ours). Some staff were nice but clueless, others were surly and only seemed fixated on keeping people corralled for an extra hour or 2, with no information, and the only things they could say were reprimands to those asking for help and info - it did seem like a breakdown of a system, it was chaos. No surprise that half our our luggage got lost, between there and home.

[silverfox82]

JFK is my home airport but it is sometimes a challenge. I often used long term parking when they ran buses to the terminals and they were often filled by airport workers rather than passengers so standing was the norm, nice way to start a trip. I printed on line boarding passes when they 1st became available and after standing in the security line for an hour, the ticket checker told me " I don't know what this S*** is, youse gotta go back to the ticket counter" Another time the long term bus was so full the driver would not move it until a few people got off, no one would so we waited until another bus took the overload. I guess it's a new york thing, I just take it in stride now.

[Carolinian]

JFK is an airport I go out of my way to avoid. Multiple connections elsewhere are better than connecting there. I have had too many almost missed flights connecting there. On Delta, I try to connect in Atlanta, but I am mostly flying NW these days, and prefer Memphis or Minneapolis with them.

[camachinist]

It's NYC airports in general... O&D at the co-terminals there mostly sucks. LGA is just as much a zoo at the DL terminal as JFK is.

I usually use the skycap or elite lines so it isn't quite as bad, but still can be frustrating...

Pat

[debraxh]

So where were you guys when I asked which was better, JFK or EWR

Or is EWR just as bad as JFK?

I bought my tickets so I'm stuck with JFK now, but we'll probably have only carry-ons and I'll try to find a place to print our boarding passes ahead of time.

[3kids4me]

After reading this thread, I decided just to visit the Delta website and check on my reservation...which was made and booked months ago for this Christmas. We are flying Delta out of JFK into LAX (two nightmare airports).

Anyway, Delta had changed the flights for us (apparently the one we were on got cancelled) to a different time, and we no longer had seats. I was never notified and never would have known had I not checked on-line.

I called and got seats for us again, and was told that "Delta would be calling us evenutally" to let us know about the change; however, I also noticed that the flight had been changed once before as well...no notification of that either.

Sharon

[dive-in]

D-on't
E-ver
L-eave
T-he
A-irport

[folashade]

Originally Posted by 3kids4me

"Delta would be calling us evenutally" to let us know about the change; however, I also noticed that the flight had been changed once before as well...no notification of that either.
Sharon

I wouldn't hold my breathe on that one. I always check my reservations several times before departure. If you have status it is rare that they will change your seats if you don't they can and will move you.

JFK, and LGA are both 20 min from my house unless I am taking the Delta shuttle I don't fly from either airport I fly from EWR because I hate both of those airports plus I fly continental almost all the time. Monday morning and late fridays are the only time I really see a line at EWR. I get on the elite line at CO and am thru security usually in under 15min. JFK seems to suck the brain cells out of the workers there