Can We Get a Jet Bridge?

Have you ever sat in your seat and watched the gate agent steer the jet bridge out to the plane? It’s a tedious process that involves a joystick straight out of a video gram control set and also a lot of dinging and beeping. Frequently the jet bridges edges out toward the plane, then left a bit, then backward, now right, forward again, left, right, left, backward, until finally we have contact and it’s safe to deplane without plunging onto the tarmac below. Not this time. The jet bridge would swing forward and then immediately backward, never making any real progress.

Fortunately, we had a tenacious ground crew. They attempted this futile exercise for 30 minutes before declaring the jet bridge broken. I had a 45 minute layover. This left 15 minutes for passengers to restow carry-on luggage and retake their seats, flight crew to ensure we were all safe and sound for the five minute drive to the gate on the opposite side of the terminal, ground crew to secure cargo compartments and unhook the fuel lines, and the plane to leave one gate and arrive at another. Never. Going. To. Happen. I should add that it had been an entirely smooth trip up to this point, with smooth connections in the midst of winter weather. My enterprising colleague reserved us a rental car at that point as, naturally, there were no other flights that day or the next. The drive was only 80 miles. Punctuated by a multi-mile backup caused by a massive RV fire. The gods were having a good time that day, the travelers not so much.