Luxury air travel?

[GoneFission]

OK, so I was flying direct from Charlotte to LA yesterday afternoon - easy flight - out at 4:30 pm and arrive in LA at 7:00 pm local.  With the storms and all it got a little bumpy, but not that bad.  

So around hour 5 into the flight, the Captain comes on to tell us to fasten our seat belts and for the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for arrival in Albequerque.  HUH?    The Captain came back on and said the plane didn't have enough fuel to make LAX, so we were going make a quick stopover at ABQ to gas up, check the oil, get a wash job, etc...  

So we land at ABQ, pull up to a gate, and out rolls the fuel transfer cart.  Of course, they don't want passengers to offload because it's going to be a quick stop - did I mention one of the lavatories was not working right?  40 minutes later they restart the engines and we are rolling again.  Of course, we've now lost our landing spot in the LAX flow, so we will have to wait at ABQ for clearance into LAX.  So another 30 minutes or so go by and we finally take of for LAX.  We arrive in LAX and, of course, land on the most far-away runway from the terminal, so another 20 minutes or so to the terminal.  It's  now around 10:00 pm local time, 3 hours late, and we had about 20 people on the plane that were connecting to overseas flights - "oops folks, looks like your connections have gone..."    :cry:

Got to my hotel around 1:00 am - and got up to go the client location at 5:30.  Isn't modern travel luxurious?   :tongue:

[gran398]

John, thats horrible. I remember the old days when flying was fun....that went away many years ago.

[Capt. Bob]

because it's going to be a quick stop - did I mention one of the lavatories was not working right?  

Not a problem for you, right CJ?

[seabob4]

So the airline effed up, the plane didn't have enough fuel...and you end up paying for it...

Well, this would be my parting shot...

[GoneFission]

because it's going to be a quick stop - did I mention one of the lavatories was not working right?  

Not a problem for you, right CJ?

Uh Bob, I couldn't find even one blender on that flight!  

[John Jones]

Pretty much like my flight Monday
 and Tuesday  

Travel agent did not bother to tell me Airtran and Continental did not have baggage transfer agreement.  I had 1 hr change time in ATL.  Had to go out to baggage claim, then to ticket counter to check bag to Corpus Christi, then back through security.  Of course, you are not doing that in ATL in 1 hr.  Only 90 minutes until next flight.  Push back, sit on taxiway 2 hrs due to t'storms, then taxi back to gate.  Exit plane.  Reboard an hour later with people that missed another Houston flight.  Get to Houston about 10PM and the freaking place is shut down.  Corpus Christi flight left 2 hrs before. Finally found one CO employee that looked in the system and said I was booked for 8AM.  At least there is a hotel on the property at Houston.  Finally get to Corpus 24 hours after I left home.  Now I have to do the Continental dance back to Atlanta, then Delta home.

[seabob4]

The answer to all this mess?



Work at home...

[RickK]

The Captain came back on and said the plane didn't have enough fuel to make LAX, so we were going make a quick stopover at ABQ to gas up, check the oil, get a wash job, etc...  

That's a first for me - a planned flight and not enough fuel to make the flight.    Good thing you were not on an international flight    Sounds like a US Scare (USAir) flight?
The airlines got you by the short hairs these days - you're a captive audience to whatever they want to do.  They cut the number of flights, overbook EVERY flight and add 30-45 minutes to each flight so they help their "on-time" stats by arriving "early", at least on the morning flights - that extra time still can't help them as the day progresses.  So they arrive early and announce "we're so efficient that we arrived 20 minutes early", unfortunately now they don't have a gate to go to and you have to sit on a runway waiting for a gate to open. :x  :x

[MarshMarlowe196]

Ah.. the miracle of human flight  

... still better than the Oregon Trail  

[fitz73222]

Last trip to China out of Jacksonville through Detroit and across got diverted to Atlanta no connection to the original Detroit leg in time. Got upgraded to first class and flew to China via Tokyo and connected to Hong Kong (original destination). (There is a god!) Coming back; got upgraded to first class from Detroit to Jacksonville; sat next too and got pie eyed with Johnny Van Zant (Lynyrd Skynyrd) Nice guy...Good things can happen in air travel at least once in your life!


Fixed it for ya Fitz. No disrespect meant, just a long time fan.