Kaffy Mintcake

People can be really stupid. I heard a story recently about one of the VPs at our company. Apparently he was to fly from London to the US on 9/11. Well - as many know - planes were grounded or sent back to home terminals that day as they were working out exactly what was going on. He had the audacity to call one of our secretaries demanding, "Get me the President of Delta on the phone!" He was furious that he was stuck in London.

Give me an f***ing break. You are NOT that important buddy. No one is.

To this day that secretary refuses to do anything for him. That was it for her.

lapin_windstar

I think most people understand that, but it's the extended delays at places that look like they have fine weather (i.e. downstream disruption) that confuse people.

Also, when you have thousands of people all hanging around at an airport, I think it is definitely the responsibility of the airline and/or airport operator to have somewhere to sit/sleep and something to eat. If that means spreading the cost of that through higher ticket prices - that's fine by me.

lansbury

The only problem with that is that with the advent of cut price airlines the traveling public has clearly demonstrated that as little as $5 difference in price is enough to effect the decision of which ticket people buy.

Now as far as economy tickets go the airlines have the price cut to the bone. It is what the vast majority of travellers want so you get what you pay for as far as service is concerned. None at all. If there are delays outside of the control of the airline learn to fend for yourself

Jmaster911

I agree that when people complain regarding for delays caused by storms, snow, etc its just plain stupid BUT, I have had some very suspicious delays in my time.

I once arrived in the US for a surprise trip to see my then US GF (now wife) and as I stood at the gate for the connection from Philli to DC I noticed that there were only 4 people waiting for the same plane. Low and behold the plane was cancelled due to "Technical Problems" and they merged our flight with the next one 4 hours later which was nearly full. To this day I believe they cancelled the flight to save money and I hear a lot of other stories about this kind of thing going on.

After all that they lost my bags anyway - how hard can it be to transfer one load of bags from one flight to the next !!!

lapin_windstar

...and I'm definitely one of them. So, yes, I would like the moon on a stick, please. But seriously, this is where industry guidelines/legislation ought to kick in.

franc11s

SOrry to hijack the thread - kinda... But has anyone elsed noticed Airlines are less delayed today because of a new tactic.

1. My son was flying back from Conzumel which I knew to be a 1.5 hr flight and yet the flight departure time and arrival time gap was 4 hours (same time zone).
2. I was flying back from Phoenix and again, it was a 4.5 hour flying time.

Even allowing for tail winds and a rocket up me arse, I could calculate we would going to land 1 hour EARLY in both cases - and we DID...

This can be as screwy as anything, especially as people may be making plans to pick you up. We can't win can we. Is this just to get their "on-time" numbers up? Airtran ?

OH, I just remembered, in PHX, TSA made my 85 year old FIL, who was in his wheel chair, take off his shoes, belt, jacket (fair enough) *AND* his sweater - WTF - he was friggen cold and they left him for ages and then patted him down manually anyway. The TSA lady was a notty rude shite. I compalined to the manager on duty and it was like talking to a plank of wood WTF. Bunch of MUPPETS.

lapin_windstar

Yep - JetBlue schedules four (maybe three) hours for NYC to Chicago, but flight time is much less. Even after sitting for an hour we still got their early.

lansbury

That is because the schedule allows for delays and is from when the aircraft pushes off the gate to when it gets back on. Not the actual time in the air. A lot of airlines still do count the arrival time as the wheels down time, not the time at the gate for % on time calculations.

Dan725

That always cracks me up about fat business pricks, especially American ones who take life way too seriously compared with their Euro equivalents. They really do think that they really are that important - sad thing is its not unusual in the US. Flying a lot as I do, its quite astounding the amount of ranting business idiots I've come across in airports nationwide.

Poppy girl

Well I ain't complaining yet lol made it to the UK from San Fran via Minniapolis to Nowich....on time yesterday to the damn minute thats a 1st....only problem the NW flight the new airbus 330 had heating problems in the middle of the aircraft, and yours truly was sitting right there,freezing we had to wear coats gloves and I had a fake fur hat lol, plus they had to give us blankets because the heater would only go so high no idea what it was but I was freezing, well I guess there had to be a down side.

Dan725

Glad to hear you made it - have fun!

Jan Alaska

Just arrived home from a trip to England and Ireland, the regional flight out was delayed due to bad weather at the notorious Chicago O'Hare, when we arrived Chicago was basking in blue skies with no snow in sight.
On the way back no problems until we got to taadaa .. O'Hare waiting for our regional flight out. Flights were coming in but due to a huge amount of delayed flights going out they couldnt get to their gates, one man later said they sat on the tarmack for nearly an hour waiting for a gate. We sat and watched United flights come and go seemingly on schedule so it seems weather wasnt an issue.
Our flight eventually took off nearly 6 hours late, by which time they'd managed to consolidate 2 flights and the cabin still wasnt full.

Next time i'll try a route through Minneapolis or Detroit, O'Hare is a nightmare!

Poppy girl

When I lived in Illinois and used O'Hare not once did I get a flight on time infact once the my ex-hubby and myself were driving to O'Hare for me to take a flight in the winter and they called to say it was cancelled we were only 20mins up the road but it took 2 more days to get me on a flight I sat at home until I was guaranteed that the flight was leaving lol.