Airlines

[pvcoasterguy]

I started this topic because, well, most people can share stories (good or bad) about airlines or talk about them in general. So, I'll start.

 

Route: MLI (Moline/Quad Cities)-TPA (Tampa) w/ connection in Chicago O'Hare

Date: Late June 2005 (can't remember the exact date)

Airline: American Airlines/American Eagle

Incident(s): Going there was fine. We just made our connection and had good seats. Coming back was another story. First off, our airplane made it late to the gate. Two and a half hours late. (Ugh.) We go up to the counter and have the gate agent 'reaccomidate' us because, we're going to miss our connection. The guy was very nice, but found that the next flight (ORD-MLI) was already overbooked by twelve people. (This is on a fifty passenger regional jet.) So, he calls US Airways, they don't answer their phone. United says they can't help us. So, he just gives us tickets for the next flight, and we are guarenteed a seat (because it was American's fault.) Get to Chicago, and get our tickets. We get good seats (two bulkheads, two exit rows.)

 

Then, American Eagle (American's Regional Partner) begins delaying almost all flights, in thirty minutes. The delay would almost be over, but, then they'd tack another thirty minutes onto the departure time. Eventually, we stopped after we hit two hours. During that two hours, they changed our gate over seven times. (Probably to lose people to give their seats to other people.) We finally get into the plane, and find our seats. They let me bring my suitcase on, and, it fit. I was the only person whose suitcase fit. (Amazing on such a tiny jet) But, our plane is delayed another thirty minutes, because of two lost passengers. We finally leave. We got home 4 1/2 + hours after we were supposed to. Ugh. We didn't even get an apology from American, the staff was unfriendly (except for the gate agent that got us tickets.) I'm not inclined to fly American again.

[Canadmos]

Route: Toronto, Canada to London, England

Date: March 2002

Airline: Air Canada

 

In 2002 I went on a trip to Europe for two weeks with the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. This story involved one of the flight attendant and an article of clothing.

For the flight to England we were allowed to wear civies, so I found something comfortable to wear for the six or seven hour (can't remember) flight. I wore a pair of jeans and a Red Star tshirt (nothing more than red tshirt with a black line across the chest with the outline of a helicopter and the logo and name Red Star). Little did I know, but that tshirt would lead to the incident.

We all boarded the plane and about an hour into the flight they started serving us lunch.

Well, as this one flight attendant came closer and closer to me she kept giving me these bad looks. Within a few minutes she had finally reached my seat and I was expecting her to ask me what meal I would like. Instead of asking which meal I would like, she asked me if I was a communist because of my shirt!! She then started to ask me if I supported communist activities and the like. I just say there with a "WTF MATE?!" look on my face. :shock:

Not only did I get called a communist, but the lady never gave me my damn lunch! I had to go to the back of the plane and ask another attendant to give me my lunch.

I was a bit shocked by what she said but its a laughable thing now. I just can't believe some of the crap this lady said, lol!

 

The really funny thing is, two weeks later on our flight back to Canada, by pure luck the same attendant was on that flight! Luckily she didn't recognize me as I was in uniform.

 

I guess that is my only 'incident' with an airline..

[ScOtT k]

I flew over the holiday's with United and it's becoming really evident that their in a sticky situation. I've seen employees huddling in the back of the plane talking about labor rules and going on a strike. Service on the planes has gone down hill, and it seems like the flight attendants don't care. Our flight was delayed 2 hours and we had to switch gates twice. While I was flying I ordered one of those 10$ meal things. 10 minutes went by... I then asked a nearby employee where my food was, she said "We probably gave out too many, let me make an announcment, asking people to give up their meals if they don't want it." Another 5 minutes went by and I hadn't heard an announcment or gotten any food. After another 5 minutes a bag of pretzels got slapped on my table. I decided to talk to a customer service rep! I had paid 8 bucks you know. When I walked into the airport I headed straight to the service desk, and told them about my problem. I was then handed a 10$ food voucher that could only be used at the houston airport. I told them I'd rather get my money back, because I wouldn't be in houston for another 2 years, and the food vouchers expired in a year! The customer service rep said that I had no proof of actually buying anything, and that they couldn't just give me the money. I told them that there was proof right in front of them! ME! The rep said that we'd have to speak to the service crew to see If I had actually bought the food. Now, this was 15 minutes after the flight and the crew had been gone for a while. I got upset and said, "Why the hell would I want some food vouchers for an airport I'll never come back too? I'm just here for a lay-over!" Another rep came over and said that it was their policy and that they couldn't do anything about it. I said that they had lost a good customer, and I walked away... It seems like everything about united has gotten worse. Captains who have been working for years can't retire and many people have lost a TON of their salary. I even heard that if the employees go on strike, United will go bankrupt very, very quickly! This may not be a big deal for some of you on the east coast, but in Denver, United uses 74% of the airport! I just wonder... How much longer will united continue operating?...

[Twister II]

^?

 

United using 74% of the airport????? Where did you hear that? You must have your facts mixed up, cause Frontier uses about that much, sence Frontier is Denver's airline.

 

But, Ive never really had one.

 

But on Continental going to Orlando.

 

They make you check in with computers, cool huh? But sence this is America, no one knows how to use them, and lines take to long.

 

And, ummm, the planes had TV's, so yeah, that was cool.

[Space Freak]

So today I am flying from Seattle to Long Beach California on an Alaska Airlines MD-80 airplane. The last time I took this flight (back in July) the plane was coming from Spokane and was over an hour late. I hope that doesnt happen again tonight. But I get to finally leave the Pacific Northwest to start going home (even though I wont be home until October).

 

Next tuesday I will be flying to Phoenix on a Leer Jet on Steroids type of airplane and then from Phoenix I will be flying to Cleveland on an Airbus A319. Both operated by Southwest. I had the opourtunity to fly on a Boeing 767 to Cleveland, but I prefer single aisle aircraft to twin aisle. I need to be close to a window and my luck I would get stuck in the center seat. Not to mention that it takes longer to board and unboard.

 

So, thats my story about my travels within the next few days. 3000 miles in 3 different airplanes. Woot!

 

Rob "Doesnt Work For Boeing anymore" Doughty

[AllisonY2K]

I told them that there was proof right in front of them! ME!

 

Um..most companies need a little more proof than that.

[pvcoasterguy]

^^ But Frontier makes you pay $5 to have your TV service activated.

 

Okay... since I only have a small airport by me, I'll kind of talk about that whole story.

 

MLI (Moline/Quad-City International) is a very nice airport. It was recently redone. Now it's a beautiful airport, although it is a little small. It has arching ceilings and a ton of windows- definatly a modern airport.

http://www.qcairport.com/

 

We have a fair number of routes, at least for a regional airport. But, they're all to connecting airports (Chicago, Atlanta, Minneapolis, etc.) While we have United Express, NWAirlink (Northwest Airlink), it's confusing how many small airlines we really have.

 

For United Express: Mesa, Chattaqua, Air Wisconsin, and, on occasion, a few others.

 

For Delta Connection: Comair

 

For Northwest Airlink: Pinnacle, Mesaba

 

For American Airlines: American Eagle

 

The only airline that operates its own flights: Airtran!

 

And, we don't really have many types of aircraft here. Usually less comfortable, smaller, but they're jets (other than one flight per day), so they're fast.

 

Planes that come here: EMB-145/40/35 (Embraer, 50/45/40 seats)

CRJ/CR7 (Canadair, 50/70 seats, very uncomfortable)

Avro RJ-85 (Avro, about 70 seats)

Boeing 717 (Boeing, 120 seats)

 

Our airport can actually handle big aircraft. Air Force One landed here.

[WillMontu]

Route: Orlando, Fl to Charlotte, NC, to LGW (London Gatwick), return trip

Date: August 2004

Airline: US Airways, 757 out of Orlando, Airbus A330 out of Charlotte, standard coach class

Incidents: Checking was a disaster. A computer glitch delayed all flights out of Orlando, but my flight was only delayed by an hour or so.

In Charlotte, I boarded the plane without too much difficulty

On the return trip, the laptop power port in my seat was broken, and one of the flight attendants was somewhat rude.

 

US Airways

+ TV's in all the seats, including some of the latest movies

+ Laptop power ports (when they work)

+ Most of my flights arrived on time

+ My baggage wasn't lost

+ Had two empty seats next to me on the Charlotte->LGW portion

 

- Computer glitch delayed all flights out of Orlando (this was BEFORE the hurricane came and destroyed half the airport when I returned)

- Flight attendant was rude

- Not as good as Virgin Atlantic (on VA back in 1999, we had SNES games in every coach seat, along with movies, TV shows, music channels, and even a tracking map that showed where the plane was going AND we got "bumped" up to first class before landing)

[Skier]

Trip- Dayton to Okinawa, Japan via Chicago and Osaka.

 

The first day my flight got cancelled and my flights got pushed back a day, but there was no seats in economy, so auto upgrade to business class. When I got to Osaka, aka sinking airport, I made my connection to ANA, and I will tell you it seems that Japanese pilots don't know how to land airplanes. My flight back was just as fun, United woulden't let me upgrade because my miles from the flight over coulden't be approved. So I got stuck in the back. After landing in Chicago it was storming. Anyone that has landed in O'hare knows that that place is hell on earth with any problem. Not only does my flight get delayed 2 hours, I board, then it got a mechanical. At this time it was 8pm and I havent slept for about 21 hours. The only way me and my dad decided I could get home in the next 3 days is me just fly down to Indy. After boarding that flightat 11:30pm they were adjusting the approches so we had to sit on the taxi way for 45min.

I did get back to Dayton... at 4 in the morning but my baggage didn't get back till 3 days later. I love being able to take that one flight from Chicago strait to Japan, but if I didn't have my miles all in United I would never fly them again. Long live Delta-Comair.

[BelizeIt]

Years ago I was flying to Central America on "TACA" Airlines. Our flight out of Houston had been delayed, so as we approached our desination it was starting to get dark outside.

 

We found out later that this could be a problem because the airport we were flying into was not FAA approved! The reason was because the runway didn't have any nighttime landing lights, in other words we needed to land while there was still daylight visible, otherwise were screwed!

 

Well we landed on the runway just in time! Go TACA!!!

 

It's great traveling to distant lands, it can often be a wild ride, and you never know what to expect!!!

[smells_like_team_disney]

I had the worst experience flying TACA. My studio class and I were flying red-eye to Costa Rica for a student conference on green architecture back in June 2003. When we got to the airport our group was split between those with baggage checks and those with only carry-ons. The carry-ons boarded with no problem, but they took about 2 hours to check our bags. After that, another hour went by before we were issued our boarding passes. Now here's where it gets exciting (sarcasm). Apparently there was a previous flight before ours going to the same location that was canceled. All the passengers from that flight were allowed to board our flight, so by the time we reached the end of the line the plane was full. The thing that really upset me was that they kept pushing our group back, assuring us that they would take care of us seperately. The worst part was the agents were very blase about the whole situation, "you can't board because the plane is full, oh well." At this point, our professor was yelling beyond belief, and that still didn't stir even a twitch among the agents. We had to wait until the next day to meet up with the rest of the group. To top it off, they didn't even want to compensate for a hotel, which was the very least they could do.

[BelizeIt]

^ I had some baggage problems with TACA as well, they lost one of my suitcases. It of course didn't show up the next day, instead it showed up six days later!

 

This really sucked because it contained some of my Scuba gear. There is nothing worse than having to rent Scuba gear, because you never know if its been well maintained. Especially since on this particular trip we were doing deep dives (135ft+) at a great dive spot called the Blue Hole, at Belize.

[smells_like_team_disney]

^Deep diving sounds exciting. Always wanted to go to Belize.

 

But yeah, they also lost our luggage. We were half-way through our week-long trip before we got it back (with no compensation).

[BelizeIt]

^ I would highly recommend a trip to Belize. They have a favorable exchange rate, and it's an English speaking country.

 

I went with a bunch of friends and we had a great time!

 

We spent the first part of our trip inland, in the Rainforest. Then we shot out to Ambergris Caye for our dive trip.

 

Belize has the worlds second largest Barrier Reef, even if you don't Scuba Dive, you can have a great time with just basic snorkel gear.