Can air travel get any worse? : (
What a nightmare it was trying to fly yesterday. I fly A LOT for work so I'm a seasoned traveler but man it's getting worse and worse out there. Customer service is totally non-existant with the airlines and delays are at an all-time high.
Tried to fly up to Manchester, NH from Rochester, NY. Yes, I could have driven but this time of year lake effect snow in our area can be real, real nasty. Well you cannot fly Northwest from ROC to MAnchester so I flew Continential which was a BIG mistake as their main hub (Newark, NJ) is a conjested nightmare. I should have been at my hotel by 5:00pm but after long ground delays in Rochester and in Newark I arrived at the hotel just a few minutes before 1:00am :(
As I sat and sat and sat at the Newark airport I looked over the departing flight screens and here's what I saw
There were 124 outbound flights listed on the boards. ONLY 48 OF THOSE 124 FLIGHTS WERE ON TIME!!! :shock: That's around 38%
Thank goodness my return is via Cleveland and not Newark.
Re: Can air travel get any worse? : (
They are taking after baseball. A hitter that hits 380 would make multimillions.
fortunately on our last trip the flights were on time, but we saw many that were delayed.
Rick
Re: Can air travel get any worse? : (
that is why I have started to nly fly no-stop especially from Minneapolis to Albany NY.. flew once on US Air and it took just over 11 hours to get there witha stop in phillie... never again ..
Tom
Re: Can air travel get any worse? : (
Dr. Fish,
Should be a nice day in Cleveland. 45 and sunny this morning, with clouds moving in later toady. Beats the daylights out of snow, which will be here all too soon. I'm taking my 3wt today to fish a pond before a meeting at 2 to plan a Women's Fly Fishing School for May 2008. Assorted PT's and GRHE's should do the trick.
Have a safe trip, and hope to see you at the Cleveland FF Expo in January.
Joe
Re: Can air travel get any worse? : (
It does get worse. A friend of mine came to join me for a fishing weekend in Rangely Maine. He flew out of Minneapolis with a change in Detroit heading to Manchester, NH . He got to Detroit and was told his connecting flight was cancelled. It took him a switch to fly into Portland, ME to get in the same night. Only about 4 hours later and a different city.
At least when I took a train I totally expected long delays (and also was not disappointed)
jed
Re: Can air travel get any worse? : (
Dr. Fish;
Sorry, that your career requires you to fly. Airlines ARE a true nightmare, anymore, and getting worse. When I flew south, about 3 months ago, I was on a flight from Dallas Texas to Kilgore Texas.
All of us, on that plane, were re-routed on a flight that took us FROM Dallas over to Shreevesport, La., then BACK into Texas, BACK to Dallas, where we sat on the ground for 2 hours, THEN flew to Kilgore, direct!???
We never left our original plane at all that day, until we landed in Kilgore!?!
My older brother, like you, flies for his job all over the world. Anymore, he says, "He plans on one extra, full, day in scheduling his flights anywhere". (That is when, he says, he's flying out of the country and back)
Paul
Re: Can air travel get any worse? : (
If I ever fly again it will have to be the ONLY way to get there.
My last trip was to N'Awlins the winter before Katrina.
When we got to Dallas our connecting flight was cancelled.
After waiting in a line that did not move for at least an hour I finally saw a guy at another counter that would help me.
They booked us on a flight with a different carrier the next day. This time going through Houston. They did put us up in motel for the night...a practice which, I believe, is no longer available.
Next day in Houston we had a 25 min lay over but they detained us for the almost strip search causing us to almost miss the plane...they shut the door just as we ran onboard.
We got to N'Awlins our bags did not, they showed up 2 days later. Meanwhile we had to buy new clothes. I found our bags in a large room at the airport....there were literally thousands of bags there....it took quite a while to find all 4 bags which were scattered amoung the thousands.
The airlines have put trains out of business. I guess because you can get where your going faster. If you've never taken a passenger train on a long trip you have no idea what good service is. The level of customer service was awsome. Airlines treat you like a cow.
Re: Can air travel get any worse? : (
My bride and me are going on a cruise in January with a number of friends. Since the ship departs from San Juan Puerto Rico, we are flying in the day before to make sure we catch the ship. We almost missed the last ship because of the airlines (six hours of delays), so now we always plan an extra day...just in case!
As far as the airports go, when I travel by air I feel like a criminal going thru the TSA screening. I approach the screener and feel guilty that I have not performed on of the ten thousand pre-screening items. If they spent 10% of that effort on the thieving baggage handlers, many of us would not come up missing personal items from our baggage (in spite of using TSA locks which get bypassed when they "break" the zippers on your luggage. Who are the real criminals at the airports?
I digress...
Joe
Re: Can air travel get any worse? : (
Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Valencic
My bride and me are going on a cruise in January with a number of friends. Since the ship departs from San Juan Puerto Rico, we are flying in the day before to make sure we catch the ship. We almost missed the last ship because of the airlines (six hours of delays), so now we always plan an extra day...just in case!
As far as the airports go, when I travel by air I feel like a criminal going thru the TSA screening. I approach the screener and feel guilty that I have not performed on of the ten thousand pre-screening items. If they spent 10% of that effort on the thieving baggage handlers, many of us would not come up missing personal items from our baggage (in spite of using TSA locks which get bypassed when they "break" the zippers on your luggage. Who are the real criminals at the airports?
I digress...
Joe
Don't waste your time with TSA locks as only a select few surpervisors have the keys and at our airport (ROC) they cut the locks off if they need to check the contents instead of opening the bags with a key. Every single TSA/security person I spoke to about TSA locks said "don't waste your $" becuase they just cut them off and you are out the $ paid for those locks.
As for being treated like a crook I agree but heck that happens every day at the gas station where prepay is now mandatory. Nothing like saying "Welcome, please buy gas . . . . oh but you are probably a crook so pay us first."
Yesterday was painful but nothing compared to travel woes I have experienced over the past several years. If I shared them all it would likely scare some from every flying again. Guess I should just be happy my planes didn't crash :shock:
Re: Can air travel get any worse? : (
:( Dr Fish I feel your pain. I take about 80 flights a year and to make matters worse I have to deal with OHare here in Chicago. This summer I
was heading to Maine on a 1pm flight and there was wind in Chicago. The flight was canceled and I had to wait for my gear to take a flight to Portland, and then come back the next day before I could get it back. Incredible. If anything will convince me to retire early it will be the airlines and air travel. Like you I could probably write a book on the rude people I have encountered and inconsiderate airlines.