I don't know if anyone pays attention to the Flying Nightmare articles that are seemingly posted every day, but I am glad as hell I have no plans to fly this summer.
My step sis and bro in law were supposed to go to Denmark and Portugal this month. Their flight home was canceled due to lack of staff and the airline gave no real assistance and their flight over was canceled due to a strike.
I honestly think they're lucky, they could've easily been stuck. Read an article this morning where can airline wanted to bump a 13 month old baby to a different flight than the parents and wouldn't make accommodations. They were stuck for 12 days until the airline finally got them out.
Lost luggage is rampant and stuff is never seen again.
Eamus Catuli~AC 000000000101010202020303010304 020405....Ahhhh, forget it, it's gonna be a while.
It would be easy to say these are the parade of horribles stories and thousands of people fly every day without incident. But that doesn't seem to be the case - Everybody has a miserable experience for one reason or another even if they're not totally stranded. Even back 7ish or so years ago if I was traveling for the job my personal rule was to take a driving time of 6 hours or less instead of flying. Now that might be 10 or more hours but fortunately a lot of travel that used to be "essential" for face-to-face meetings has become commonly zoomed.
It would be easy to say these are the parade of horribles stories and thousands of people fly every day without incident. But that doesn't seem to be the case - Everybody has a miserable experience for one reason or another even if they're not totally stranded. Even back 7ish or so years ago if I was traveling for the job my personal rule was to take a driving time of 6 hours or less instead of flying. Now that might be 10 or more hours but fortunately a lot of travel that used to be "essential" for face-to-face meetings has become commonly zoomed.
Most of the stories I've read have been summer touristas...
Eamus Catuli~AC 000000000101010202020303010304 020405....Ahhhh, forget it, it's gonna be a while.
I don't know if anyone pays attention to the Flying Nightmare articles that are seemingly posted every day, but I am glad as hell I have no plans to fly this summer.
... Lost luggage is rampant and stuff is never seen again.
... The child was accompanied by an agency worker after she arrived in New York at 11:30am until the airline could get her on the next available flight at 8pm.
Family members who were set to collect the child from Boston airport instead drove six hours to JFK, where she was handed over at a store about 5pm. American Airlines was unaware she had left the airport when the child's father called a customer service agent....
I'm not sure what "an agency worker" is, whose responsibility it was to inform American Airlines of the hand off and why the family is pissed at it. Otoh, American Airlines lost this kid entirely:
A mother whose daughter was flying unaccompanied from Tennessee to Miami was told by American Airlines that she had gone missing after being allowed to leave the plane.
MailOnline and the New York Post reported that Monica Gilliam paid an extra $150 for a chaperone to escort her 12-year-old daughter through Miami airport but was told in a phone call an hour after her flight landed that the airline did not know where the girl was....
The professional photographer said in a TikTok video that her daughter was waved off the plane by flight attendants and then kept walking.
"Not one AA employee stopped her to see if she had an adult [with her]," Gilliam said in the video. "Not one Miami airport employee stopped her and even the TSA agent when she left the secured area and went into baggage claim didn't stop her either," she added.
The girl managed to contact her father and he was able to guide her through the airport terminal and later found her, the mother said in her online video....
Should the girl have known to approach a gate agent immediately on exiting the plane, , but she shouldn't have been put in that position. Are the chaperones AA employees or separate contractors, and where was this $150 one? This wasn't even a connection. $150 is pretty sweet pay to walk a kid from the gate to baggage claim or the curb. How do you fuck that up?
Yeah, I feels sorry for them but when you buy the cheapest Jet Blue ticket why would anybody expect any decent service? There's a reason their tickets were $60 and the average is $200. It does seem like the airport could be more accommodating and let stranded people stay in some contained area, but hey - it's 2020 and if you're not miserable you're not flying.
They coulda taken the ferry from Nantucket to NYC for $260 round trip - 6 hours. Coulda been in their NYC hotel by 9. Beats the $600 wasted hotel bill.
Yeah, I feels sorry for them but when you buy the cheapest Jet Blue ticket why would anybody expect any decent service? There's a reason their tickets were $60 and the average is $200. It does seem like the airport could be more accommodating and let stranded people stay in some contained area, but hey - it's 2020 and if you're not miserable you're not flying.
They coulda taken the ferry from Nantucket to NYC for $260 round trip - 6 hours. Coulda been in their NYC hotel by 9. Beats the $600 wasted hotel bill.
Even the "high price" airlines are willing to screw you.
I would've been thinking about blowing the emergency exit and calling it a day.
I've never understood why this isn't unlawful imprisonment.
Wasn't there some law or rule about how long the airlines nes could imprison passengers? I don't remember the details but I'm pretty sure it was less than six hours.
I've never understood why this isn't unlawful imprisonment.
Wasn't there some law or rule about how long the airlines nes could imprison passengers? I don't remember the details but I'm pretty sure it was less than six hours.
, but moving them from one plane to another after 3 hours may reset the clock, not that it should. At the very least there should be rules about heat/AC and providing food and drink.
I might have done it at 25ish, but as a geezer I probably wouldn't raise enough ruckus to get perp-walked away. But if they did change planes, there would have been some opportunity somewhere along the line to bolt and I'd absolutely be doing that. What are they going to do, release the hounds to drag you back onto the plane?
I might have done it at 25ish, but as a geezer I probably wouldn't raise enough ruckus to get perp-walked away. But if they did change planes, there would have been some opportunity somewhere along the line to bolt and I'd absolutely be doing that. What are they going to do, release the hounds to drag you back onto the plane?
As GoCubsGo suggests, I've always wanted to jump onto an emergency slide . Idk how it was managed, but I can imagine that the passengers hoped the plane switch meant a rapid takeoff. Who can blame them, what kind of asshole airline switches planes only to imprison the passengers for a second three hours?
So Canada isn't so difficult to get into as long as you do exactly what they say. There are a few hoops to jump through to get and load your account in the ArriveCanada app - uploading your passport card, proof of vaccination, entry location, etc. But the process through the gate isn't all that different from back in the day. Took about 15-20 minutes total, using a border crossing off the main (I-5) path. Gas prices are down from a month or so ago, around $7.80CDN (about $6.00USD) Groceries higher for some things, maybe lower for some but probably on balance about the same as WA or CA.
Large order of poutine from the truck, about $9CDN
That's something that has never really appealed to me.
Tell me I'm wrong.
I wouldn't say you're wrong if you've tried it and don't like it. But if you're just imagining, then you might want to give it a try. I originally thought it sounded/looked disgusting. I don't even like catsup or European style mayonnaise on my fries, and generally don't care much for gravy. But the total combination of the fries, the gravy and the cheese curds works way better in a blend of flavors than you'd think. And you can always chase it with a cold Labatt Blue.