Flight & Uber From Hell !!!!!

 Flight and Uber From Hell!!!!!!

Ok, so I figured, I have to get to JFK.  I'd better allow enoough time for unforeseen catastrophies.  Like what?  Oh, well, some examples might be, like some nut activating the brakes on the subway; track maintenance at the worst time possible; or....just a simple every-day train breakdown.

So, I awoke on my own at 4:30am.  "Ok, I might as well stay up."  I was hoping to leave the apartment at 6:30am for an 11am flight.  So, it was minimal packing ("yeah; airlines no longer give me free seats or allow me one carry on and one personal item free.  What the hell!!!  My sister got a free seat and a free carry on with an economy ticket."}  I must be blacklisted.  Somewhere on every airline site there must be an instruction like, "Don't give this person anything free.  Make it as difficult for her to buy a ticket and choose seats.  No carry on either."  

So actually, the flight went very smoothly.  I left my apartment at 6:30am and the flight was great.  Well...actually not 100% great.  The flight was filled with so many passengers, and lots and lots of small children.  It took over 45 minutes to get all of them boarded.  I couldn't believe the stream of passengers getting on.  Now, I love small children.  But on a flight, it can become an issue.

There was a boy seated behind me.  Maybe 4 or 5 years old, but I think maybe the former.  He kicked the back of my chair continuously for the entire 2 + hr flight.  And, when his mom would tell him something, he would have a tantrum which caused heavy kicking on the back of my seat.  Oy veh!!!  And, in front of me was an even younger child (3 years old?  2 years old?) who cried continuously for the entire flight except for the last half hour when she fell asleep.

So, I arrived in Tampa.  I followed the signs for pickup.  And then the task of ordering an Uber.  Should be easy, right?  Wrong!  I could not get the app to work.  No connection, even though I had changed my cell from airplane mode.  Nothing!  I can't imagine how much time was wasted with this operation.  I finally ended up having to turn my phone off two separate times.  Still nothing.  Then I turned on airplane mode back on (also twice), and finally, I got a connection.  Hallelujah!!!  So, I enter Tampa airport and blue express pickup, and the app automatically changes it to American Airlines.  Once again I go through this ridiculous task.  Finally, I'm so frustrated.  I figure I must be incompetent.  I go up three flights to Information.  I ask for help.  She does the same thing I did, and the same thing is happening to her.  Wha??  Finally she has success and TPA Airport comes up on the dropdown and she chooses it.  Happiness for small successes.  I hurry back down the three flights and request the Uber at $110.  The pickup spot on the app switches it to three flights up at baggage.  NO!!!!  I text the driver that I do not have baggage and am down on the bottom level Blue Express, door 103.  He says, "got it."

Ok, the rest of the trip is fine.  It's about a 1.5 hr trip.  But when we get close the driver seems to be driving around and around and passing now streets that are now becoming familiar streets.  Of course, he doesn't say anything to me.  I keep seeing the remaining miles on the GPS getting smaller and smaller.  Then suddenly they are increasing.  I ask "can't you find it?"  He says, "it's ok."  He is latin and I'm not sure if he speaks English well, or at all.  He is very soft spoken.  He's looking at the GPS and wondering and wondering and then he's ready to turn into an unpaved sandy road.  But I tell him, "they live in a very residential area; I don't think this is the way."  So, around and around we go again.  Again, the same thing happens with the GPS (i.e. miles get smaller, then larger).  Somehow, he ends up at the same spot we were at before (the sandy road).  We've wasted around 45 minutes now just driving around and around.  And this time he drives into that road.  Why???  I don't know!!!!  Then he makes a U turn to return to the road he had been at.  Then we stop.  And, very quietly he puts his temple down on his hand and stays like that.  I asked, "are we stuck?"  Yes.

We are deeply seated in sand.  Now he tries and tries to get the car out, but it won't budge.  I finally get out of the car to see if I can assist and see what a mess it is.  There is so much sand.  And, the car is really in deep.  Now he's on his cell talking to someone.  Whomever he's talking to suggests he pour water at the tire.  He does this with an itsy bitsy bottle of water.  Of course, it accomplishes nothing.  He even asks me if I have family there (I intuit that he's hoping my family will come and pull him out).  I say I do, but that I'm going to a memorial and can't call them.

My driver (click on link)

So, just to give you a sense of my timing.  I landed at about 1:50.  Then the nonsense with the cellphone connection.  And he picked me up at the airport at about 3:05.  It is now nearing 6.  I should have been at my destination at 4:30 or so.

I now start collecting dead and crisp moss from the side of the road and pine cones to put under the tire.  It does nothing.  He continues talking to his friend and getting suggestions from him on how to get out.  I have no idea what those suggestions are.  But nothing is helping.  And now we've wasted another 45 minutes.  

I finally decide to walk down to the paved road and walk to the nearest house and ring a bell.  I do that and a dog starts barking hysterically.  But, eventually an older gentleman answers and I explain that I've just arrived from the airport and my Uber driver got lost and is now stuck in the sand.  I ask if he has anything that might help to get him out. He hands me a shovel and I thank him and walk back to the car.  But the shovel is not really helping because the driver's car is so deep in the sand.  A little while later, the local resident comes by with a long stick and some fabric type of thing.  He sticks that fabric under the wheel.  He's also trying to communicate with the driver in semi Spanish.  He's doing a pretty good job with that.  He says his name is Eduardo.  I ask if he is latin and he says no.  His middle name is Edward and he just Spanglizised (sp?) it.

He and I stand on the side finally while the driver is still talking to his friend and trying different things.  Eduardo asks me where I'm from and we start to chat.  He's a native New Yorker, then moved upstate, and then moved to Florida.  He asks me what the address is that I'm trying to get to.  I give it to him and he looks it up on his phone.  He says, "I could take you there.  It's 3.2 miles away."  I feel bad leaving the poor driver stuck there, but I really want to get to my family.  I walk with Eduardo to his house while he tells his wife he's taking me to my destination.  

So, we take off in his car and he asks for my phone so he can put it on his console while he drives me.  I remind myself to remember to take my phone.  He finds it pretty easily.  I am so relieved when he finally finds the house.  I thank him profusely and go in the house.  

As I'm greeting everyone and trying to get myself settled and connect all my devices I can't find my phone.  I feel my stress building again.  The waves of stress are just rising up my body.  My niece advises me to look in my pockets, etc.  I don't have it.  I always keep my cell phone on vibrate.  But I call my cell number from my sisters phone anyway.  No one answers.  I'm really agitated now.  Everyone is sort of accepting the fact that I have now lost my phone and I'll need to replace it.  But, I'm not accepting this.  I'm really upset.  I have a lot of stuff on that phone, including photos.  I try my cell again.  A woman answers in a sort of confrontational voice and says "This is Wayne's wife!"  Whew!!!  I gush at her in happiness that she has answered and as I'm about to ask about picking it up, my grand niece steps in and takes over the call and says she'll drive to him to pick it up.  But, Eduardo says he will bring it to me.  I ask my grand niece to get his cell number.

And, so, Eduardo (a/k/a Wayne Edward) drove back to me and brought me the phone.

My travels for a 2.5 hour flight has taken me 12 hours.  I am emotionally exhausted.

the next day I received my Uber receipt for $180, instead of the $110 I requested.  So, for the rest of the week I have been corresponding with Uber support to reduce that cost based on the circumstances and the fact that the driver never ended up bringing me to my destination.  That was another headache as you need to do this solely through your app.  And, it's an automated response that you receive that actually doesn't resolve anything.  The automated response kept asking for additional information and I just copied what I had already sent (which included everything) and pasted it.  Over, and over.  They never answered.  On Saturday 5 days after this occurred, I once again started trying to contact them and go through the same process.  Someone from Uber finally called me on my cell, and YES, I actually answered it.  He offered to put the entire $180 on my Uber cash.  I asked if that was like a store credit.  He said yes.  I said no; I don't want that.  "why don't you put the additional cost of $70 for the 1.5 hour ride-around-lost and then stuck in sand time as a refund to my credit card.  And, even though the driver didn't drive me to my destination, I'll pay the $110.  He then said he would put the entire $180 as a refund to my credit card.  Whew!  one more problem taken care of.

You know the flight and fight response symptoms?  That's what I was feeling throughout this entire fiasco.  Once Eduardo brought me my cell phone, and I knew I was at my destination and could now chill, I literally felt a wave of stress pass down my body.  

I began to unwind.....