Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 102, Waitlisted for a Flight.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 102.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
In this podcast, we will be talking about taking an airplane flight and being put on a wait list.
Let's get started.
I can't believe I made it into San Francisco at long last.
This morning, I went to the airport to catch my 10am flight.
I got there early to go through security.
The folks at the TSA can really slow things down sometimes.
Since I had an electronic ticket, I didn't have to wait at the ticket counter to check in, but instead used a kiosk.
I then went straight to the gate.
But when I got there, I couldn't believe my eyes.
The flight was delayed for two hours.
I decided to look at the flight monitors to see if there was an earlier flight to San Francisco.
I thought maybe I could either switch to that flight or get waitlisted.
I saw that there was another flight leaving in 40 minutes, so I bolted for the gate.
When I got there, I got into the back of the long line.
When I got to the front of the line I asked the gate agent if I could get on that flight instead, and she said I would be waitlisted.
She said that I needed to stay in the gate area and wait for my name to be called.
If they have a seat available,
So I waited and waited and waited.
The gate agent again began calling names over the PA system, and guess what?
The last name called was mine.
What a relief!
The last seat left on the plane was a middle seat, and I usually prefer an aisle or a window.
But I was just happy to get on board.
I didn't want my vacation to get delayed because of a late flight.
When the plane landed, I went out to the curb to catch a taxi to my hotel.
I only had carry-on bags so I didn't need to wait in baggage claim.
I was out of the airport and off on my vacation.
We're traveling in today's podcast.
I began my story by saying that I couldn't believe I made it to San Francisco at long last.
The expression at long last means finally, after a long time.
I said that this morning I went to the airport to catch my 10 a.m. flight.
To catch a flight means to take an airplane ride, an airplane flight.
But we usually say I'm going to catch a flight to Cleveland or I'm going to catch a flight to San Francisco.
Either catch or take is possible.
I said I got there early to go through security.
Security, of course, is the guards that Make sure you don't have any bombs or anything dangerous.
In the United States now, since 9-11, the airports all have a federal agency, a US government agency organization that checks for security.
It's called the Transportation Safety Administration, the TSA, and people just call it the TSA.
I said that since I had an electronic ticket, I didn't have to wait at the ticket counter to check in electronic ticket.
Most tickets now are electronic.
You sign up on the internet and they send you an email and you don't have a physical ticket.
You just have sort of a receipt if you print out your email.
If you have a problem with your ticket, you may have to go to the ticket counter, and the ticket counter is the desk in a airport where you buy tickets.
Or sometimes, if you have a paper ticket, you check in at the ticket counter.
To check in means to tell them that you're there.
It's kind of like registering, and they give you what's called a boarding pass.
And a boarding pass is your, your slip, usually a piece of paper that allows you to get on the airplane.
I didn't have to do that.
I used an electronic kiosk.
And here a kiosk.
K-I-O-S-K is a machine that you can put your credit card in and it recognizes who you are and you get your boarding pass from the electronic kiosk.
I then went straight to the gate, and the gate the G-A-T-E.
In an airport, a gate is where the plane pulls up to the building and where you get on the plane and off the plane.
Getting on the plane is called boarding the plane, and getting off the plane, we say deboarding.
So I went to the gate and usually, for example at Los Angeles International Airport, there are several different terminals and each terminal has several gates.
A terminal is like a wing or a section of an airport.
So I went to the gate, but when I got there, I discovered that my flight was delayed.
To be delayed.
D-E-L-A-Y-E-D is a verb, which means that it's late, that my flight wasn't going to leave on time at the time it was scheduled, but two hours later.
I then decided to look at the flight monitors to see if there was an earlier flight to San Francisco.
The flight monitors are the TV screens or television screens in an airport that show you what time the plane is either arriving, coming to the airport or departing, leaving the airport, and in most American airports you'll see one set of monitors for arrivals and then, usually below it or on the other side, there is a set of flight monitors for departures.
I was hoping that I could get wait listed.
The verb waitlisted W-A-I-T-L-I-S-T-E-D.
To be waitlisted means they put you on a list and you have to wait to see if you can get on that particular flight, if there's room.
So I bolted to the gate that was leaving, where the plane was leaving earlier.
To bolt, B-O-L-T, the past tense is bolted, B-O-L-T-E-D.
To bolt means to go very quickly, to run, usually to run very fast.
Well, when I got to the other gate I asked the gate agent if I could get on that flight, get a seat that is on that flight.
The gate agent, A-G-E-N-T, is the person from the airline company who works for the airline.
The person who helps you at the gate is called the gate agent.
The person who works at the ticket counter is usually called the ticket agent.
So I was waitlisted for the flight and I was told I had to stay in the gate area and wait for my name to be called.
The gate area, of course, is the area, the part of the airport that is near that gate.
Well, the gate agent began calling out names, or announcing names, and she announced them over the PA system.
The PA stands for the public address and that is the speakers that everyone can hear the announcements from.
I then said, guess what?
The expression guess what is something you say to someone when you're going to tell them something surprising or maybe something they don't expect.
I went to the store and guess what?
They didn't have any milk.
I had my name called and I got the last seat on the plane.
It was a middle seat in most American planes, in most planes everywhere.
There often are three seats on either side of a middle aisle.
Aisle is spelled A-I-S-L-E.
That's the walkway where you can walk back and forth on the plane.
And the seats that are right on the aisle are called the aisle seats.
And the ones near the window are logically called the window seats.
And the other seat is called the middle seat.
Sometimes we don't say aisle seat, we just say aisle or window.
So the gate agent might say, do you want an aisle or a window?
They mean an aisle seat or a window seat.
I was happy to get on board.
And we talked about the verb to board means to get on an airplane.
So if you are on board, you are on the airplane.
When I got to San Francisco, I got out of the plane.
The plane landed.
And of course, to land for a plane means to arrive, to touch down on the ground.
The opposite of landing is taking off.
So a plane takes off and it lands.
When I got to the airport in San Francisco, I went to the curb to catch a taxi.
The curb is the edge of the street.
That part of the street right at the very end or edge on each side of the street is called the curb.
So I went to the curb of the street. outside the airport and I caught a taxi.
To catch a taxi means to ride in or to take a taxi cab.
I only had carry-on bags so I didn't need to wait in baggage claim.
There are two kinds of pieces of luggage, types of luggage, and these are called either carry-on bags or check-in bags.
Carry on you take with you on the airplane, put it above you or in the seat in front of you, and to check in your bags or checked baggage means that you put them below the plane and then you have to get them back when you arrive at the airport by going to baggage claim.
And baggage claim is where you pick up your luggage that you had checked.
Now let's listen to the story, this time at a native rate of speech.
I can't believe I made it to San Francisco at long last.
This morning I went to the airport to catch my 10am flight.
I got there early to go through security.
The folks at the TSA can really slow things down sometimes.
Since I had an electronic ticket, I didn't have to wait at the ticket counter to check in, but instead used a kiosk.
I went straight to the gate.
But when I got there...
I couldn't believe my eyes.
The flight was delayed for two hours.
I decided to look at the flight monitors to see if there was an earlier flight to San Francisco.
I thought maybe I could either switch to that flight or get waitlisted.
I saw that there was another flight leaving in 40 minutes, so I bolted for the gate.
When I got there, I got into the back of the long line.
When I got to the front of the line I asked the gate agent if I could get on that flight instead, and she said I would be waitlisted.
She said that I needed to stay in the gate area and wait for my name to be called.
If they have a seat available,
So I waited and waited and waited.
The gate agent began calling out names over the PA system, and guess what?
The last name called was mine.
What a relief.
The last seat left on the plane was a middle seat and I usually prefer an aisle or window, but I was just happy to get on board.
I didn't want my vacation to get delayed because of a late flight.
When the plane landed, I went out to the curb to catch a taxi to my hotel.
I only had carry-on bags, so I didn't need to wait in baggage claim.
I was out of the airport and off on my vacation.
That's all we have time for today.
I'm Jeff McQuillan from Los Angeles, California.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
