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What's the deal with air travel these days?
- Thread starter casa_mugrienta
- Start date
I just went to C.R. a couple weeks ago on Alaska.
Morning flight out of LAX.
Last minute gate change and new aircraft that needed to be fueled.
They boarded us before they fueled and the fueling at that gate had a problem so we had to wait for a tanker truck to come and do it. But, we were about third in line and fueling from a tank truck is a slow process.
We were stuck at the gate for 2 hours. Not an hour and a half. Not an hour and 45.. TWO fvcking hours before they pushed back to get in line to take off before a 6 hour flight and there was very little communication from the cockpit about what the delay was.
I was livid!
Morning flight out of LAX.
Last minute gate change and new aircraft that needed to be fueled.
They boarded us before they fueled and the fueling at that gate had a problem so we had to wait for a tanker truck to come and do it. But, we were about third in line and fueling from a tank truck is a slow process.
We were stuck at the gate for 2 hours. Not an hour and a half. Not an hour and 45.. TWO fvcking hours before they pushed back to get in line to take off before a 6 hour flight and there was very little communication from the cockpit about what the delay was.
I was livid!
Just took a trip for the first time in about 3 years .... Managua to San Salvador to San Pedro Sula (Honduras) to Roatan. What a major pain in the @ss ... biggest pain was going through Honduras customs .... anyone who has flown internationally has at one time or another filled out the form before entering another country. In Honduras ... they have done away with the paper version of the form and expect you to fill it out with your cell phone after you've landed, Having been through customs and airport security in foreign countries on many occasions ... we typically stow away our electronic devices in luggage before going through it. When we got to Honduras ... Mrs. Flyinraptr told the agent she didn't have a cell phone .... the agent acted like she was in shock and repeatedly said "What do you mean you don't have a cell phone?" .. "You don't have a cell phone?" We were there for about a half an hour ... eventually i had to dig my phone out of my carry on luggage .... and try to get a Wifi connection in the Honduras airport to scan a QR code which took you to a website where you had to fill out the exact same form online. Traveling these days sucks ... thought things would be easier now that the Covid requirements have stopped .... not the case.
flawless to Washington, California, Utah, Colorado, Canada until I read this stupid post and air Alaska can’t balance a plane so they are literally removing every bag, reweighing and putting bags back in perfect balanced harmony. Currently at one hour delay but they just opened the jetway - cats are out of the bag.
could be worse things in life tho.
could be worse things in life tho.
Heard a 737 had to do a u turn after a toilet exploded and sh!t spilled into he cabin.
Last time I had travelled before my last September trip was back in 2018.
It was nothing critical, but I was impressed at how full the flight was and it was the first time they asked people to check in their carry on luggage for free for lack of room in a flight I was on. I don't think it was true, more like a prevention. and it seems to be the new norm because it happened on all the connection flights.
But it was considerably more of a sh!t show than I remembered. (American Airlines btw)
It was really stressful and made me want to go back to investing in accumulating miles every way possible so I can at least try to fly business. It's nearly impossible with a kid, because it's an extra business class ticket, lots of miles. But I'll try. 2024 is for saving (who am I kidding, spending more than I earn monthly), but maybe a trip in 2025... unless I get rich somehow, maybe win the lottery... that would be fun. If it happens I'll fly to California and beer and scotch are on me.
It was nothing critical, but I was impressed at how full the flight was and it was the first time they asked people to check in their carry on luggage for free for lack of room in a flight I was on. I don't think it was true, more like a prevention. and it seems to be the new norm because it happened on all the connection flights.
But it was considerably more of a sh!t show than I remembered. (American Airlines btw)
It was really stressful and made me want to go back to investing in accumulating miles every way possible so I can at least try to fly business. It's nearly impossible with a kid, because it's an extra business class ticket, lots of miles. But I'll try. 2024 is for saving (who am I kidding, spending more than I earn monthly), but maybe a trip in 2025... unless I get rich somehow, maybe win the lottery... that would be fun. If it happens I'll fly to California and beer and scotch are on me.
Once they had to repair something before take-off. No other issues.
Volaris, totally hit or miss wrt to everything.
Southwest has been amazing service actually.
Lufthansa solid.
Air Italia hit or miss wrt to service. But I think Air Italia changed their name to...
ITA Airways - hit or miss
Swiss Air - hit or miss.
The latter two/three ratings are based solely how much wine they let me drink. Some flights they leave it out, self-service, after the meal. Others they say "no wine after meal service." Very inconsistent.
Volaris, totally hit or miss wrt to everything.
Southwest has been amazing service actually.
Lufthansa solid.
Air Italia hit or miss wrt to service. But I think Air Italia changed their name to...
ITA Airways - hit or miss
Swiss Air - hit or miss.
The latter two/three ratings are based solely how much wine they let me drink. Some flights they leave it out, self-service, after the meal. Others they say "no wine after meal service." Very inconsistent.
last time i flew TSA groped my nads (!!)...then the flight was delayed 2 hrs....til.... ichitunot....a worker came out and put a piece of duct tape on the wing.....
I went to Sao Paolo last October and thought the airport was considerably less third-world than a lot of ours now. The big US hubs like O'Hare and Dulles are full of third-worlders milling about and getting in the way as if no one matters but them. Last time I went through O'Hare I bodied one who was on his cell phone speaking some clickety-clack African language while impeding everyone walking to their gate.
I missed a connecting flight in Texas due to a wind storm.
I have to spend the night in the airport and find a flight home.
There were 1000s of people stuck in the airport.
Most people just rode it out.
There would be people screaming at the ticket agent that had to get home.
I said to a guy, "Yeah, no body else needs to get home."
Some people loose their sh!t easy.
I had to grab a flight to LAX and take train home to Oceanside.
Then I had to get my car from SD airport.
I think that was when I quit traveling.
I had trips to Vietnam where I would have three connecting flights, I would make them all no problem.
I have to spend the night in the airport and find a flight home.
There were 1000s of people stuck in the airport.
Most people just rode it out.
There would be people screaming at the ticket agent that had to get home.
I said to a guy, "Yeah, no body else needs to get home."
Some people loose their sh!t easy.
I had to grab a flight to LAX and take train home to Oceanside.
Then I had to get my car from SD airport.
I think that was when I quit traveling.
I had trips to Vietnam where I would have three connecting flights, I would make them all no problem.
I thought O'Hare and Dallas airports were fine. LAX on the other hand is a horrible, horrible airport, quite surprising considering it's one of the most famous airports in the world. GRU in São Paulo (it's in Guarulhos really) is much better. Specially Terminal 3 which is newer... Terminal 2 kinda sucks... not quite as bad as the entirety of LAX, but it does.
It's been a few years but Mrs. Flyinraptr and I were taking the red eye flight out of LAX to Miami and then a connecting flight to Managua,Nicaragua. We were sitting in first class .... somewhere over TX about 3am .... an elderly man sitting across from us gets and goes forward towards the restrooms at the front of the plane .... somehow he trips and falls forward hitting his head on the counter in the galley. He's down ... knocked him out for a couple of minutes ... with a gash on his head. The call goes out "Is there a doctor on board?". A doctor comes forward ... they help the man back to his seat ... doctor looks him over and determines he is ok to continue to Miami. A couple minutes later the pilot comes out and announces they are making a medical detour to Dallas ... we had a couple hour layover in Miami ... so thought we still might have a chance to make our connecting flight. However, as we were coming in for the landing in Dallas ... a bird strike takes out one of the engines and it becomes an emergency landing. On the ground we're told we have to deboard and board a different plane to continue to Miami. After about an hour still haven't reboarded and now we're told that the crew had reached their maximum allotted hours flying and they were going to have to fly a new crew in to fly. We tried to switch airlines and take a different flight but they basically held our luggage hostage. Eight hours later we finally board the new plane. It was one long f*cking day to say the least.
Holy sh!t that's gnarly!
Once I was returning from Lima, Peru. After we boarded the plane, some woman was making a fuss that she checked out some important medication. The process of retrieving her bag from the cargo took forever and eventually they announced that the crew had reached their maximum allotted hours... so a new crew was called in... they were home and still had to drive to the airpot. They made us wait inside the plane, I was fucking pissed but nothing I could do.
I ended up spending 10 hours inside the plane for a 4 hour flight. Fuck everything! Coach too, fuck... on a small plane... fuck x10.
Heads up flying out of SD on the earliest flights. I had a 6AM flight today. TSA Pre-Check was not open. We had to go through the regular line but they gave us a slip to keep our shoes on. Had to pull both work laptops out and put them in those nasty fucking bins. Everyone was agitated. As politely as possible I asked an agent why Pre-Check was closed, and she said it opens later. I said an international airport and a business travel day and its not open? I asked if I should expect this in the future and she said probably but I could ask a supervisor. What the fuck?
Knock on wood, I've never had a horror story with the airlines.
Only hickup over the years was being on a flight that had to land on one engine going into Puerto Rico a couple of years ago. When we on our initial decent about 15 minutes before landing there was a big bang and they shut down the left engine and we landed on one engine. Landing on one engine is nuts. We came in crabbing sideways and then the pilot slammed it down. This was our escort when we got on the ground.
They put these cameras inside the damaged engine while we were still on the runway to check for fire before letting the pilot proceed to the taxiway and terminal.
Only hickup over the years was being on a flight that had to land on one engine going into Puerto Rico a couple of years ago. When we on our initial decent about 15 minutes before landing there was a big bang and they shut down the left engine and we landed on one engine. Landing on one engine is nuts. We came in crabbing sideways and then the pilot slammed it down. This was our escort when we got on the ground.
They put these cameras inside the damaged engine while we were still on the runway to check for fire before letting the pilot proceed to the taxiway and terminal.
Proceeds to tell a horror story with the airlines.
That's gnarly as fuck, you certainly do have a horror story.