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| And speaking of the Xmas train at GCT (851906) | |||
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And speaking of the Xmas train at GCT |
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Posted by Dave on Tue Nov 3 09:39:45 2009 My wife and I saw it at 30th St. Station last Tuesday evening.Getting to LI for my mother's funeral was a true case of "trains, planes, and automobiles." We had booked seats DFW-PHL-ISP on US Air. Didn't know until I made reservations that airlines no longer offer bereavement fares...ouch! The weather was fine here Tuesday morning but we sat on the ramp after departure for an hour because of weather related traffic delays up east. I'm assuming ATC issued a gate hold so why US Air pulled away from the gate is beyond me. I'm guessing the hold was issued after gate departure. So we arrive in PHL 45 minutes late at 3:45 p.m. No problem because we had a two-hour layover with a 5:50 p.m. departure. We deplane and ask the gate agent for our next gate; she informs us that due to weather problems, the flight was canceled. We are booked standby on the 8:45. I explain that won't work because I'm traveling to my mother's funeral. If seats don't open on the flight, what happens? I'm told they made a reservation for us on Wednesday morning's flight. I ask what time and am told 10:00 a.m. I explain that's the time the funeral is supposed to begin so if we're bumped, I'm screwed. The agent spends 10 minutes on the computer and tells us she bumped two other passengers to standby and we now have confirmed seats. I thank her than ask, what happens if the 8:45 is canceled? You're on tomorrow's flight, she tells me. No good, I tell her. My cell rings and it's my brother. I tell him our flight was canceled and he tells me he knows; Amtrak has a 7:02 out of 30th St for NYP, arriving 8:38, where I can grab the 9:15 LIRR to RNK. Thank G-d I had refundable airline tickets. I asked the agent to cancel our PHL-ISP seats and she calls Amtrak for us and makes our reservations. It's now 4:30. We mosey on down to the SEPTA tracks at the airport and 10 minutes later hop on the train to 30th St. With plenty of time to spare I pick up our tickets and we sit down at Bridgwater's Pub where I catch my breath with a Pinkus Pils while my wife enjoys an ice tea. As we get on the train at 30th St., we see the Disney Xmas Carol train on the next track. We pull out and after a few minutes my wife starts to laugh. I ask what's so funny and she tells me I have a big grin on my face. "It's your mother's last way of telling you she loves you: you get to take three trains to her funeral." Who's to say my wife wasn't correct? Total refund from US Air is $370. Total train fare for SEPTA/AMTK/LIRR is $125.50. |
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