call for EDF US Airways boycott (and other airline horror stories)

[MikeyPatriot]

I may have shared this story before, but I don't remember.

Girlfriend and I received vouchers for tickets with AirTran via a Wendy's promotion. We decided to go to Vegas and planned our trip for mid-February. Both trips routed us through Atlanta; flying out of Indy.

Show up and the screen tells us the plane is delayed 20 minutes or so. Standard. We sit down and chill. Twenty minutes changes to two hours. Whatever. Service agent starts announcing different connecting flights for people going to other destinations. We're OK. We just wait in Indy longer instead of waiting for our connecting flight in ATL. Our plane comes in, passengers disembark, luggage removed, crew starts cleaning and loading our luggage. Then people start noticing one of the maintenance guys doing something that indicates this plane isn't going to be taking off.

Awesome.

Service agent informs everyone the plane has some sort of problem and they are trying to get us on a different flight. After some delay, we get put on a plane across from us in the terminal. OK, cool. If things go smoothly, we should make our connecting flight.

We board. Then other people who weren't in our waiting area get on. They're combining the flight originally designated to this plane with ours. No way we make our flight now.

Land in Atlanta, go to gate for our Vegas flight. Yep, it's gone. Explain to the agent our situation. He makes a call which isn't answered. He tries a couple times, no dice. A guy comes up inquiring about standby. Agent tells him that the flight is overbooked by 1, and he may not get on via standby. Great news.

Agent tells us he'll be right back. Girlfriend goes to the bathroom. Agent comes back ~10 minutes later with two tickets. "Is [girlfriend's name] her name?" "Yes." "OK good." Turns out that the Indy desk realized we were gonna miss our flight and had booked us on the next flight to LV. (I should note that I have not done justice to the agent in Atlanta. He was extremely helpful, and eased a lot of our concerns).

And then the kicker. We're about 2/3rds of the way to Vegas. I'm in the aisle seat, the ladyfriend is in the middle, and some guy has the window. I'm listening to XM radio and I notice the guy's head fall onto his tray, knocking his cup off. His eyes are in the back of his head and his skin looks very pale. My girlfriend, who has worked at a group home, manged the situation perfectly, calmly pressing the flight attendant button while trying to get this guy to come to.

He wakes up shortly before the FA makes her way to our seat. Apparently this is his first flight since heart surgery ~6 months ago, he had 3 beers before getting on the plane, and had zero water to drink. I wonder why you passed out, sir. The FA takes him to the back of the plane to get him some air, makes him drink some water, and gives him a cool rag. He comes back a few minutes later and turns out to be a friendly guy, albeit a little dense.

In one my not-so-finer-moments the only thing I could think of during this mini-crisis was "please don't [censored] die and ruin my trip, sir."

Our flight from ATL to Indy was [censored] up too. The airline had two plans coming into one gate within 10-15 minutes of each other and told everyone waiting that it was basically "first come, first serve." Our flight was scheduled in later than the other, so we were more likely to get f'd in the a. Other flight comes in (both were delayed LDO) and we wait for that one to take off. Our plane lands (later than expected I believe). As we board the plane, the FA are telling us "If this flight does not get off the ground in 10 minutes, it will be canceled. Please find your seats as quickly as possible." Of course there's some [censored] scmuck who feels the need to get up and get stuff out of luggage even after the FA have warned him personally multiple times. Luckily enough, the flight takes off on time.

[meep_42]

Industry-wide this summer had on-time arrival in the 60% range, so delays are pretty much the norm, sadly. It should get better between now and Thanksgiving, but if you need to fly over the holidays, I'd pack in some extra time for delays.

-d

[jba]

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Definitely mention the fact about the FA going illegal - if the flight was delayed in advance, then as you mention THEY ALREADY KNOW AT THAT POINT SHE GOES ILLEGAL, so there's no excuse to wait until midnight to announce that.


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charlotte is a usair hub. What probably happened is that there was a bank of available flight attendants, they knew that one of the flights would need to be canceled but didn't know which one. Once op's flight was the last to leave they got the shaft.

[Dids]

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Industry-wide this summer had on-time arrival in the 60% range, so delays are pretty much the norm, sadly. It should get better between now and Thanksgiving, but if you need to fly over the holidays, I'd pack in some extra time for delays.

-d

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The thing is that I think everybody understands that there will be delays and cancellations. What's really frustrating is that the airlines seem so unprepared to cope with this sort of thing.

My horror story isn't really a horror story at all, it's kinda life affirming.

Flying back to Pullman from Seattle. The whole damn state is fogged in, so all these Horizon (Alaksa) flights can't land their little dash 8's in these podunk airports. Their plan is to cancell each flight on some individual time frame and deal with each passengar individually.

The first two people in line baill. The next couple, who I will forever hold in the highest estimation even though I never got their names say: "No, you're going to deal with all of us at once, put us on a bus and get us home". Everybody else rallies around them, and we basically unionize all the passengers in about 2 minutes. After much debate and the cancellation to two other flights to that side of the state, they finally make with the bus. The same couple and a few others buy sandwiches and other stuff for everybody on the bus, and after 6 hours of bonding waiting in an airport, it's the friendiest bus ride ever. I've never really liked people as much as on that bus.

[pepper123]

MikeyPatriot -

It sounds like the airline handled everything pretty damn well [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[HionelLutz]

I flew from Puerto Vallarta to SFO on United about a month ago. The trip was: My best friend, his girlfriend, her friend and myself. The girls were on an Alaska airlines flight that left 5 minutes before ours. We all board the plane, watch them takeoff and then the pilot comes on and says an oil leak has been discovered and that it should be about 15 minutes. I turn to my friend and say "I will take the over on 3.5 hours." He agrees and its on for 50 bones.

After about 3 hours I am 100% sure I have this bet won. The captain finally comes on and tells us they are going to be releasing us back to the terminal so we can eat/drink/not be stuck in a plane for 3 hours without air conditioning. So we get off, go eat and relax for a bit and i get to fully recharge my laptop for more entourage watching.

This is where another funny thing happens. See, in Mexico, you are more than welcome to bring water/liquids on the plane, so they dont take these away at the security checkpoint. But, since we are flying to the US, they take all of the liquids from passengers as they board the plane. So we go to get back on the plane and this super fat, overly self entitled woman who was sitting in front of me buys like 5 bottles of water from the airport store and I know EXACTLY what will come of this. So she cuts in line as we're re boarding the plane and the security officers open her bag and takes out the 5 bottles of water and throws them in the garbage. At this point the woman goes absolutely ballistic and is screaming at the security people, who barely speak English about how there is no water on the plane(this is certainly not true) and continues to scream as we all walk past. We got on the plane and that woman never came back on, i really would love to see what happened.

2 weeks later I got a $150 dollar voucher from United without even writing them. I was pretty satisfied with the way they handled it. Also with the fact that i got an extra $50 from my friend.

[stinkypete]

yes, us airways sucks. i'll never fly with them again if i have another option.

i book a flight from toronto to ithaca through philadelphia for $630 or so. it's supposed to get me there in about 4 hours. i could also take a train but that would take like 8 hours or so and be a pain in the ass. so i suck it up and pay for the retardedly expensive flight.

i get to the airport many hours early because us immigration has often been a bitch with me and i've missed flights because of it. this time i get through without any problems.

i have a golf bag with me and end up having to pay $53 for overweight baggage. total cost is now about $700 with taxes.

i notice that they flight to philadelphia that leaves a few hours before mine is delayed. this worries me because it could mean that my flight will be delayed. the board says my flight will be on time though so i try not to worry about it.

shortly before scheduled boarding time it's announced that
the flight has been delayed by almost 2 hours. i realize that they knew this hours ago but were too lazy to tell us. i could have, and would have, made alternate plans.

i also know that this means i'm going to miss my connecting flight to ithaca. so my trip that was supposed to take 4 hours is going to take at least 16 hours. i ask if i can get a refund on my ticket, at this point i'd rather spend the night in toronto and find some other way to get to ithaca. they won't refund the ticket. so i'm screwed.

i take the late flight to philadelphia and of course miss my flight to ithaca. i walk over to the service counter and they get me set up for the first flight in the morning.

they offer me a "distressed" rate on a hotel in philly. the rate is $79 at a quality inn. no other options are offered. i take it because i'm too tired to argue, and what's another $79 when i've already paid $700 to these bastards.

i call the shuttle, they tell me it'll be there shortly. i go outside to wait for the shuttle. 20 minutes pass, no shuttle. i call the shuttle number about 10 times over the next 30 minutes and get no answer. i start to wonder if it's goign to show up at all, but eventually it does, almost an hour after it was supposed to arrive "shortly".

i get to the "hotel", which is actually a ghettoass shithole of a motel in new jersey and i start to wonder if i'm going to be murdered or eaten alive by cockroaches. i hate myself for not looking into other hotel options at the airport, and remind myself not to ever assume that the hotels the airlines use aren't going to suck ass.

i decide to look up what the "normal" cost of the hotel is, since i can't imagine that $79 is a discounted rate. i discover that i could have gotten a $76 rate online. thanks us airways.

when i finally arrive in ithaca, my bags aren't on the plane. i have to wait another day and a half to get them.

us airways sucks balls. i fly a lot and i have never had service anywhere near this bad from any other airline, ever.

[daryn]

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i book a flight from toronto to ithaca through philadelphia for $630 or so. it's supposed to get me there in about 4 hours.

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i could also take a train but that would take like 8 hours or so

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i get to the airport many hours early because us immigration has often been a bitch with me and i've missed flights because of it.

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how many is many? you see what i'm saying right?

[dankhank]

i indirectly had trouble with us airways yesterday.

i had a connecting flight in philadelphia, on my trip from boston to detroit. i am moving. i packed all my possession in storage cubes for transport, except for my PC, since i really don't want it damaged.

the flight to philly went fine on a us airways plane. however the plane going to detroit was changed from a canada air plane, to a smaller air wisconsin plane. the flight attendant told me when i got on the plane with my PC, that it would probably not fit under the seat. i think part of her eventual decision was just to prove me wrong and prove herself right, after we spoke as i got on the plane.

on the other side of my row there was a wider under-seat-area, and i was able to slide my PC about 80% underneath that seat. a woman with no luggage took that seat, i told her it was my luggage, offered to change seats with her if she wanted, but she said it was fine. her feet had plenty of room. the flight attendant would not let me keep it like that, saying it was a safety hazard if people were trying to get off the plane. it was a window seat.

i am sure there are thousands of instances every day in this country, where people's luggage does not fit completely under the seat, and flight attendants don't say anything. but this woman showed no flexibility, and was a stickler to the rules. my expensive PC had to be gate checked, and i will find out in a few days when the rest of my stuff gets here, whether it was damaged.

obviously this is not directly related to us airways, but they must have some relationship with the podunk operation air wisconsin. it was a very cheap flight. i normally fly jetblue but they don't operate to detroit. i realize now how much service can vary from one airline to the next and will actively avoid us airways and air wisconsin in the future.

also, for all her concern over protecting passengers from our own luggage, the flight attendant completely forgot to do a safety demonstration pre-flight. i did get into an argument with her (after my bag was packed away), and i really regret not noticing this fact during the flight. it would've been a great burn.

[grando]

I know a lot of flight attendants, and they are probably the most nitty customer service workers in the world

absolutely catty and terrible