RRC Archives

My buddy from DC got delayed for seven hours on his flight to Louisville. So naturally he went to the bar. Then, when he finally get on the plane after sitting at the bar for 7 hours they kick him off for being drunk. It was absolutely ridiculous, almost made us late for bonnaroo.

wow, what a bunch of pessimists...rhunt, how mant times have you flown in the last eyar?

I have flown three different trips, each with a layover/plane change. Not a one has been delayed..take that you cynics.

I only have two complaints...when boarding, why does everyone stand up like cattle and huddle around the gate?

two, when unloading, why does everyone stand up in the aisle and smother the guy in front of them..have some courtesy, sit in your seat until it is your turn..and for god's sake, let the guy in front of you get out first, you rude sob's....

excellent points pigsteak- couldn't agree more with your two complaints- are you related to Rush? you seem have an eye for the issues that I can only relate to the big man himself.

pigsteak wrote:when boarding, why does everyone stand up like cattle and huddle around the gate?

two, when unloading, why does everyone stand up in the aisle and smother the guy in front of them..have some courtesy, sit in your seat until it is your turn..and for god's sake, let the guy in front of you get out first, you rude sob's....

Amen, Piggie. Anymore, I just sit and wait until all sections are boarded, then I stroll onto the plane, and I've never missed out on overhead space, which is what I think everyone's terrified of.

I agree with your unloading comment, too - I get stressed out for other people when I hear them talking about how they're about to miss their connecting flight, and nobody seems to care enough to just step out of the aisle for a minute.

This happened to my wife and I one time. We arrived at our gate a little early to discover that the flight had been delayed an hour, so we go and get food. We come back to discover that they undelayed it and left with out us. What the hell is up with that. We even checked the big board thing and it said nothing about it leaving on time.

Here's a choice selection from "Ask the Pilot":
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/200 ... index.html
(open it in a new tab and give it a minute or two to cycle through the opening ad..)

Basically, he's saying that a big part of the problem is the large number of 'regional jet' flights - the small connector/commuter flights that generate a lot of takeoffs/landings and gate occupancies for fairly few passengers. In additon to overbooking (grrrr!), with all these little flights, whenever anything goes wrong the ripples screw up the whole system creating delays and cancelations.

Unfortunately, he doesn't bring up one excellent solution to the problem (at least in CA and east of the Mississippi) - regional high speed rail networks with stations right in the airport. O'Hare gets a lot of blame for traffic/weather delays, but a set of high speed rail lines running to Milwaukee/Min.-St. Paul, St. Louis, Cin and Detroit would eliminate zillions of the little regional jet flights in and out of ORD, which would ease congestion on the national air system. Sure it would cost billions, but it costs billions to expand existing airports and build new ones, plus all the money that is lost due to people sitting around airports for hours!

"Ask the Pilot" a really great column written by a commercial airline pilot who debunks a lot of the crap you get in mainstream/commercial media coverage of airlines and esp. air crashes.

piggy, Wren(my roommate) travels every week by plane and gets stranded in some random city often. I have had to help him get important equipment to his co-workers in Cbus so they can do his job for him while his stranded in some random city. So no I have not traveled by plane yet this year but I still get impacted by how much it sucks to travel by plane these days. Oh and Debbie has been in Berlin Germany for 5 days now with only the clothes on her back because the airline lost her luggage....I bet she paid close to $1500.00 to have her luggage lost.

she should buy a cheaper suitcase next time.

pigsteak wrote:she should buy a cheaper suitcase next time.

Brilliant!