An Update on This Year’s Cranky Dorkfest

Cranky Dorkfest

Many of you have asked whether Cranky Dorkfest will still be happening on September 12 or not. Just this week NYCAviation canceled its #SpotLAX2020 that weekend, so I figured the time was right for an update.

Cranky Dorkfest is not canceled… yet.

The way I see it, this event started off as barely an event at all. The point was to just show up, eat In-N-Out burgers, watch airplanes, and talk shop. If Cranky Dorkfest happens this year, it will be just that.

This means that I’m not going to work on airport tours with LAX or special dining events in the terminal. I’m not even going to solicit for raffle items. I just feel weird asking an airline to donate swag a couple weeks before massive layoffs are likely.

If the event happens on September 12, it will be the basics. It is outdoors, which is good, and I would expect people to keep their distance. I would also demand full mask-wearing compliance , or I’ll just ask some flight attendants to come and throw you out of the park.

All this being said, I still can’t tell you if it will happen or not. I just know that we have two months to see how the world unfolds, and with no planning necessary, I can wait to see if anything changes by then.

Even though I don’t need to plan, I’m aware some of you do. Many have asked whether I think they should buy plane tickets or not, but I don’t have a definite answer. If you want to take a chance, you can. Change fees are waived anyway, so worst case you end up with a full future credit. But for a lot of people, there are probably far better places to spend that money right now, especially in this industry where job cuts are looming.

I imagine if Cranky Dorkfest does happen this year, it’s going to be a whole lot smaller. I hope that I’ll be able to see at least a couple of you there, but I won’t make that call for awhile yet.

In the meantime, stay masked, stay distant (when you can), and stay healthy.

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11 comments on “An Update on This Year’s Cranky Dorkfest

  1. Wait, aren’t you the flight attendant and you’ll just call airport security? Or are you the pilot and some other person will call airport security?

    1. Cranky is the CEO, COO, pilot, flight attendant, bouncer & baggage handler. in other words, Cranky’s da man.

  2. Maybe there’s someone or two who knows how to do these things who can set up a virtual event and point a videocam or webcam at the planes for a bit. Doesn’t even need to be live. As much as I’d like to partake of the In-n-Out experience, the possibility of a two-week enforced isolation after coming home makes it not worth the ticket price.

    1. Miss Informed – I dunno, doesn’t sound like much fun to me if you aren’t there in person. There are webcams out there, but also, traffic will probably be a lot more boring in Sept this year anyway, sadly.

  3. I’m on the fence. On one hand I have an expiring $150 credit on United I need to burn by March 2021 and this would pretty much be the only destination I would consider under the circumstances.

    On the other hand, chances are very high that the Star Alliance Lounge at Bradley will remain shut down, robbing me of one of my favorite activities at Dorkfest (and when it does reopen I’ll bet they restrict visitation to those who have flights out of Bradley and cut out *Gold members who just happen to be flying out that day). And, let’s face it, even if it does happen we won’t be witnessing peak LAX or anything close to it. A lot of international flights will not have resumed.

    It’s not a decision I have to make immediately…but I may not do Dorkfest in October. I may go down and do my own in early 2021 when hopefully things will have stabilized a bit more.

  4. Oh dear. —- I bought a ticket jfk to lax. A while back. I had been planning on going regardless!
    I did not have the esp to know NY would place restrictions on ppl returning from covid increasing states, to NY. I have such cabin fever!
    I do know those who have flown and are ok.
    I am hoping I may still fly to lax and stay in the Hilton and eat some in and out and watch some planes and say hi to friends
    Stay healthy and safe

  5. I went last year so I’ve “done” it. I had a trip to Idaho booked in August but DL changed their schedule to the extent that I canceled the whole trip. I count on nothing travel-wise at this point so maybe it’s best to sit this year out, or make it a local thing. Stay safe everyone.

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