OK, Sports fans, it's time for yet another rant from yours truly.
Here it is:
For Christmas, I'm picking my grandmother up from the airport. She's flying in
from Florida to Dallas, Texas. well, she was supposed to leave at 1:00 PM. So I
arrive at the airport at 4:30 to be there when she lands. Naturally her plane
was delayed. No biggie happens all the time, right? What gets me is this. I go
up to the counter where a man and a woman are working for Delta, and I ask them
why the plane was delayed. The woman answered with, "It was being
serviced." Again, no biggie, planes need servicing. I'm glad they did that
before they took off. Then, right after the woman answered my question, the man
right next to her popped up with, "That means it's mechanical." Well,
no kidding. What other type of service could a plane possibly have? Anyways, if
you feel like including your airport and flying adventures in this thread,
please do so.
I've had several travel nightmares. A 'French airline' and a 'Unitedstates
Airline' in particular have really pissed me off.
The one time I took the French airline was a disaster. The staff was
unbelievably arrogant and rude, not to mention completely disorganized and
clueless. My Parisian friend says that's pretty normal, which didn't surprise
me. My party was split up and sent to different
countries and had to regroup at the last stop. Thanks to those geniuses
I've been to airports in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and England (3 extra countries). And these people were
wholly and sincerely unapologetic, and
truly did not have any concern for their customers. I still go to sleep at night
trying to forgive them.
And I've had beef with UA for a long time now. I had to make an international
flight from Chicago, and was taking a domestic connecting flight with UA. And of
course the night before the flight, they
cancel it. We rebook with another flight, feel better. It gets cancelled. We
rebook with another. It cancels, and UA announces that there will be no flights
that day. [Note: if I don't make it before the international flight leaves, I
won't be able to get on one for at least another 2 weeks and will have nowhere
to stay.] I almost went insane that night. We
ended up booking with an 'American airline', which left at the same time our
initial UA flight was supposed to, was a small plane, and still departed on
schedule despite the horrible weather conditions UA was citing. It was
quite splendid.
Another time my domestic flight got delayed like this (I did not make up times,
I actually have them recorded; I later filed a complaint and received $100):
I got to the gate around 10:30am for a 1:30pm flight. (I'm not obsessive, I was
early because it was after a layover). Flight cancels, I'm on the 3:30pm one.
That delays until 4:30pm. Delayed until 5:05pm. Delayed until 5:45pm. (Reasons
for cancellation and delays unclear - some staff were citing weather, some
maintenence.)
Then they change the gate on us away from the airport restaurants, so we can't
even go eat in peace because we have no idea when the plane will be able to
leave.
Then, they tell us they're missing a stewardess. wtf. So delayed
until 6:15pm. The stewardess doesn't come, delayed until 7:15pm, then to 8:15pm.
And THEN, apparently the whole crew is
missing, so they put up another DELAYED sign. Holy mother.. I did not know it was possible for a stewardess to be
missing, let alone an entire crew. It was surreal.
I dozed off for a while waiting, and wake up to hear that the flight was
cancelled and I need to go to customer service (this was about 9:30pm), and
we're sent to hotels. My morning flight was supposed to be at 6:50am, so I woke
up at around 4:15am.. except that morning flight left at 10:35am after delays
and a gate change. ..is that ridiculous or what.
The staff really had no idea what they were doing, and couldn't even give
consistent and coherent reasons for why our flight was being abused with delays
and cancellations. They actually gave me attitude (the 'how should I know!'
kind) for asking questions.
There are many more, like when a bomb squad and
SWAT team and snipers appear, but I'll stop here.
OK, Sports fans, it's time for yet another rant from yours truly.
Here it is:
For Christmas, I'm picking my grandmother up from the airport. She's flying in from Florida to Dallas, Texas. well, she was supposed to leave at 1:00 PM. So I arrive at the airport at 4:30 to be there when she lands. Naturally her plane was delayed. No biggie happens all the time, right? What gets me is this. I go up to the counter where a man and a woman are working for Delta, and I ask them why the plane was delayed. The woman answered with, "It was being serviced." Again, no biggie, planes need servicing. I'm glad they did that before they took off. Then, right after the woman answered my question, the man right next to her popped up with, "That means it's mechanical." Well, no kidding. What other type of service could a plane possibly have? Anyways, if you feel like including your airport and flying adventures in this thread, please do so.
I've had several travel nightmares. A 'French airline' and a 'Unitedstates Airline' in particular have really pissed me off.
The one time I took the French airline was a disaster. The staff was unbelievably arrogant and rude, not to mention completely disorganized and clueless. My Parisian friend says that's pretty normal, which didn't surprise me.
My party was split up and sent to different
countries and had to regroup at the last stop. Thanks to those geniuses
I've been to airports in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and England (3 extra countries). And these people were
wholly and sincerely unapologetic, and
truly did not have any concern for their customers. I still go to sleep at night
trying to forgive them.
And I've had beef with UA for a long time now. I had to make an international flight from Chicago, and was taking a domestic connecting flight with UA. And of course the night before the flight, they cancel it. We rebook with another flight, feel better. It gets cancelled. We rebook with another. It cancels, and UA announces that there will be no flights that day. [Note: if I don't make it before the international flight leaves, I won't be able to get on one for at least another 2 weeks and will have nowhere to stay.] I almost went insane that night. We ended up booking with an 'American airline', which left at the same time our initial UA flight was supposed to, was a small plane, and still departed on schedule despite the horrible weather conditions UA was citing. It was quite splendid.
Another time my domestic flight got delayed like this (I did not make up times, I actually have them recorded; I later filed a complaint and received $100):
I got to the gate around 10:30am for a 1:30pm flight. (I'm not obsessive, I was early because it was after a layover). Flight cancels, I'm on the 3:30pm one. That delays until 4:30pm. Delayed until 5:05pm. Delayed until 5:45pm. (Reasons for cancellation and delays unclear - some staff were citing weather, some maintenence.)
Then they change the gate on us away from the airport restaurants, so we can't even go eat in peace because we have no idea when the plane will be able to leave.
Then, they tell us they're missing a stewardess. wtf. So delayed until 6:15pm. The stewardess doesn't come, delayed until 7:15pm, then to 8:15pm. And THEN, apparently the whole crew is missing, so they put up another DELAYED sign. Holy mother.. I did not know it was possible for a stewardess to be missing, let alone an entire crew. It was surreal.
I dozed off for a while waiting, and wake up to hear that the flight was cancelled and I need to go to customer service (this was about 9:30pm), and we're sent to hotels. My morning flight was supposed to be at 6:50am, so I woke up at around 4:15am.. except that morning flight left at 10:35am after delays and a gate change. ..is that ridiculous or what.
The staff really had no idea what they were doing, and couldn't even give consistent and coherent reasons for why our flight was being abused with delays and cancellations. They actually gave me attitude (the 'how should I know!' kind) for asking questions.
There are many more, like when a bomb squad and SWAT team and snipers appear, but I'll stop here.
Life at the old HongKong Airport (click on the link)