Today I am heading on a 15-day business trip and flying out of Jacksonville, Florida to NYC. Turns out this couldn’t have been a crappier time to head to New York City, considering the government is shutdown and the Statue of Liberty is closed. I know, it sounds trivial.
The good news is that air traffic controllers and TSA are working, through some outlets are reporting that non-essential TSA employees could be sent home and to expect delays.
To be safe I booked a hotel on Hotwire at the airport to get to here early just to give myself plenty of time – but so far, so good!
Arrival
I checked with the hotel shuttle driver when I got into the van and asked if she heard of any issues this morning. “Just another day in paradise,” she said. The hotel shuttle dropped me off at the front of airline counter and I went straight to check-in. There wasn’t any issues or problems getting to check-in counter.
Check-in
Check-in was flawless. I was one of three people checking in for my flight. Now granted, this is Jacksonville and not New York City, but it was still easy. I’ve been at this airport at 7am were they’ve had amusement park-like lines.
Security (TSA)
Believe it or not, I was the only person in the TSA security line this morning. I’ve flown out of Jacksonville over two dozen times over the past couple years and I have never been the only person in line. There was chatter of the TSA people saying they weren’t sure if they were getting paid and they were worried. One said “everyone keeps asking me if we’re working.” I tell them yeah, I’m working, I just don’t know if I’m getting paid.”
Tuesday has always been a slow travel day so I am chalking it up to that.
Take-off
The flight is on time and we are scheduled to take off at 9a. If anything anything out of the ordinary happens I’ll update.
I can’t speak for the other airports around the country but as of now it’s business as usual. I did come out of pocket for the hotel last night but I live about 30-minutes from JAX so it let me sleep a little bit longer this morning.That alone was worth it.
