17-Hour delay?!?!
Last time I flew the people waiting for the flight before mine at my gate had been waiting forever. They were lying around all over the place, clearly annoyed, mothers with children having a rough time of it.
A flight attendant sat next to me at the gate and told nosy me that the reason was a delay in a flight that was bringing two flight attendants to JFK for that flight. She said she had offered to work in their place but it didn’t happen, maybe because they needed two, not one, or because the other two were already in transit and had been promised the flight. She could have used the extra money, said she was “living the dream.”
The delays tend to pile up on one another for this reason, so it is better to fly earlier in the day if you can, says a seasoned traveler I know.