Plot
In St. Louis, Jerry and Elaine are flying back to New York. George is picking them up at JFK Airport, to pay off a bet he lost against Jerry: failing to jump high enough to touch an awning. Elaine and Jerry drop off their luggage with a skycap, but Elaine balks at Jerry tipping $5 per bag. Accused by Elaine of ripping them off, the skycap covertly redirects her suitcase to Honolulu.
With their flight canceled, Jerry and Elaine are put on a flight taking off immediately for LaGuardia, with no time to notify George. One of the seats is in first class, and Jerry snaps it up, being too accustomed to downgrade. He unapologetically relegates Elaine to riding in coach, where she is walled in by a cheapskate passenger with many carry-ons. Elaine resists using the bathroom for as long as possible before finally awkwardly clambering past him, then must hold her breath against a powerful stench. The meal cart blocks off her seat until meal service has ended, leaving only a kosher meal for her.
In first class, Jerry sits next to a glamorous model, who recounts her sultry photo shoots, and is charmed by his knowledge "about nothing". They flirtatiously indulge in complimentary face towels, slippers, champagne and wine, potpourri in the bathroom, haute cuisine, chocolate fudge sundaes, comfy pillows, and cookies. Elaine sneaks into first class to sleep in an empty seat, but is evicted despite her pleadings. Woken by the commotion, Jerry is callously dismissive.
George's perfectly timed pickup is derailed when Kramer changes route and gets stuck in traffic. They arrive late, but get a reprieve from the flight change. George gets the last copy of Time magazine, hoping that Jerry namedropped him inside. A convict being transported demands a copy because he is featured on the cover, but, being restrained by police, he has no recourse as George taunts him. On the way to LaGuardia, Kramer fingers a passerby at JFK as John Grossbard, a roommate who stiffed him out of $240 for rent 20 years ago.
When the LaGuardia flight is rerouted back to JFK, Kramer jumps on the chance to collect his debt. Since the passerby has boarded his flight, Kramer plots to buy a ticket just to get onboard, then get a refund. George lends his credit card to buy two tickets for frequent flyer miles, but Kramer is enticed by the cheapest fare, forgetting that it is non-refundable.
On the plane, the passerby does not recognize Kramer, who demands his wallet and is taken away by security. George gets trapped in the plane bathroom with the aggrieved convict as the plane takes off. Kramer shakes off security by running onto the tarmac and going through the baggage carousel. As Elaine waits for her suitcase futilely, Jerry receives the model's phone number as she is mobbed by photographers.
Production
In the scene where Elaine is offered the kosher meal, the voice from across the aisle, claiming he had ordered it, is Larry David's. Larry Charles, the writer of the episode, makes an appearance coming out of a smelly airplane bathroom before Elaine goes in. Deck McKenzie, Jerry Seinfeld's stand-in on the show, appears as the security guard.
When confronted by the shackled prisoner in the airport gift shop, George says, "But you are, Blanche. You are in the shackles!" This is a reference to What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? , where Baby Jane Hudson delivers a similar line to Blanche Hudson, who is using a wheelchair.
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
