About 4 years ago my wife and I were returning from visiting family in Los Angeles. This was the experience that convinced me to avoid US Air and the Philadelphia airport at all costs.
The flight from LAX to Philly was not a problem. We had an 8:30ish connecting commuter flight to our little hometown. My wife was giving an exam the next day in a course she teaches so we booked our flights to ensure we’d be home reasonably early Sunday night. So we get to Philly on time, shuttle over to the commuter terminal and wait to board our flight. Things are going smoothly and we board on time (around 8:00PM). As we taxi to the runway, the lights in the little propeller plane flash off and on. The pilot announces, “Well, that’s not supposed to happen. We think we know what’s wrong and it will be a quick fix. They’re sending someone over to the plane to fix it.” After about 30 minutes, it’s not what they thought it was and we are going back to gate.
No problem we’re told (it’s now about 9PM), they are getting us a new plane. We need to stick around because they will have to issue us new boarding passes at the new gate since we’d already boarded another plane. The plane arrives at the gate, we line up to get new boarding passes, all seems well. Suddenly the gate door opens and the crew emerges and says, “This plane is not flying anywhere.” We are advised that there are still a few seats on the regularly scheduled 9:45 flight and we should go to the nearest gate agent to get rebooked. Chaos ensues. There are US Air gate agents everywhere, standing in groups, walking alone. But virtually none are manning a ticket counter. And none seem interested in helping us out. Two are cajoled into helping and we line up 15-deep at two opposing gates. My wife and I are third in line, but our gate agent is taking forever with the first customer. Tap, tap, tap, tap goes the keyboard endlessly, but he can’t figure out how to rebook the passenger. Too late, the 3 available seats go to the first 3 people in the other line (9:45PM).
The reluctant and apparently incompetent gate agent now asks the remaining stranded fliers if they want to be rebooked on a flight the next day or would they like ground transportation (a 4 hour drive). About 10 folks want ground transportation (I would have taken the flight the next day and head to a hotel, but my wife wanted to give her class their exam and not be pushed back further), so we join the ground crowd. We’re told to wait while they rebook the other passengers (10:30PM). OK, now the gate agent turns to our group and says “stay right here, I need to go get approval to arrange ground transportation.” The guy is gone for an hour (11:30PM). Around 11:30 he reappears and tells us the ground transportation is approved and they are arranging for a bus to take us to our destination. It will pick us up outside the terminal in front of the airport.
We head to the pick up spot and wait another hour and half. At about 1:00AM the bus arrives. It is a “party bus” designed for nights out. Bench seats around an empty (of course) bar, we pile in as best we can and most fall asleep somewhere down the road. We got to our hometown airport at 5:00AM. My wife’s class was at 9:00AM. I slept most of the day.
I know mechanical problems happen, but what really made this a flight from hell was the unwillingness of most of the gate agents to try to help us. There must have been 15 in the terminal but they literally ignored what was going on. Then, of the 2 that reluctantly helped, one didn’t know how to do anything. He was the same one that took an hour to “get approval” for ground transportation. And never once did they tell us we’d be waiting an hour and half after that to actually board a bus.
What a night. Haven’t been in that airport since and haven’t flown on that carrier since.
Tagged as:
delay & cancellation,
gate agent,
pilot,
US airways
We were returning from a wonderful vacation in Greece in early May. We left the states two weeks after the volcano starting erupting. I had checked Delta’s website every day since the volcano started erupting and there was only 1 day when either of our flights outbound or returning were delayed by the volcano. That one day only had a delay of about 1 hour. I guess the JFK to Greece flights were able to fly far enough south that they were not impacted.
Anyways, our day started off very early in Santorini. We were up at 4:30 am (8:30 pm EST) to catch a 7:00 am Aegean Airlines flight from Santorini to Athens. It took the ticket agents 30 minutes to check in our bags because they were having computer problems. Not a big deal because we had plenty of time at the airport. After rebooting the computer systems, they were finally able to check our bags in all the way to our final destination which was Columbus, OH (CMH). We board the flight, which although was listed at 45 minutes, is only about 25 minutes actual flight time. This flight was no problem. We head into the airport which was fairly quiet, grabbed breakfast, and spent our remaining Euros on baklava and other stuff to take back to the States.
We eventually head to our gate for our 11:10 am departure to JFK. Granted we are a bit early, but I know that the flight from JFK is supposed to land at 9:30 am. Nine-thirty comes and goes and no plane and no announcement of what is going on. The plane from JFK finally lands about 11:00 am. I am a little worried because we have a 4 hour layover in JFK. This normally is plenty of time to clear customs and make the connection, but I am hoping for the best. It is close to 12:30 pm when we finally board. Once everyone is on board, the doors are closed, and we pull back from the terminal, the captain comes over the intercom to update us. The inbound flight was delayed because the ash cloud had drifted south and the flight had to go south of Portugal to avoid it. Unfortunately, the ash cloud had continued to drift south, so going south is no longer an option. We are going to have to fly north. And by north, the captain says north through Europe, north of the Volcano/Iceland, over the polar ice cap, then south through Canada and finally into JFK. He estimates this is going to add 2 hours to our flight time, making an 11 hour flight now a 13 hour flight. And to make matters worse, there is a very narrow flight corridor available for all of the flights out of Europe and we will have to wait on the ground for 1½ hours before we can take off and hit our flight window. There goes that wonderful 4 hour layover.
The pilot comes through the plane to talk to the passengers and answer questions, which I thought was a nice move. He is explaining to almost all the passengers that the computer will automatically rebook everyone for the missed connections and there should be someone on the ground to explain the options once we clear customs. Oh and that Delta will pay for everyone who needs one to stay in a hotel. Right. Like I believe that. He does have the flight attendants do a limited drink/snack service. I am sitting in row 25 of the plane, so about 10th row of coach. When the flight attendant reaches my seat, I suggest that they turn on the entertainment system so we have something to distract ourselves with and not keep harping on the attendants. She thought this was a great idea and said she would look into this. I can’t believe none of them thought of this. They do turn the system on and we settle in for a wait. I think we finally took off from ATH around 2:30 or 3:00 pm. The flight itself, while long, wasn’t bad.
We land in JFK around 7:30 pm, right when our connecting flight is supposed to take off. Oh well, off to customs. I have to say this only took about 1 ½ hours, which is the fastest I have cleared customs in JFK. Oh, I should mention that the zipper on my checked bag is now broken. It was fine when I left Santorini so many hours before. On to the Delta desk to recheck bags, get rebooked on flights for tomorrow. There are only 2 or 3 agents working the desk and the line looks like it will take at least 2 hours. I am trying to call Delta or my travel agent on my cell phone, but there is very spotty reception down there. After we are standing in the line for 30 minutes, I look over at a flight board, and lo and behold, our connecting flight to CMH has been delayed to 10:30 pm. We still have time. I flag down a Delta agent to make sure the board is up to date. It is. We head upstairs to ticketing to recheck our bags there. Of course we can’t use the self check kiosk and upstairs is near bedlam. A very nice Delta agent walks us up to the front of the self check area and tries to get an agent there to recheck our bags. She is complaining because the bag tags were wrapped around the handles, but we quickly get that sorted out and our bags are rechecked. We head to security and clear that after about 45 minutes. Again, still have time. We get to our gate and there are 7 flights heading out of our gate within a 1 hour period. I ask at 2 separate gate stands if we have to recheck in since we came from Athens, were delayed, etc. but still wanted to catch our flight. All agents say no, just have a seat and wait.
Well there are no announcements by Delta, but the time of our flight keeps getting delayed by 30 minute increments. The only way we are aware of this is by checking the board by the gate. There are Delta personnel all around but no one seems to know anything. I finally find out there has been rough weather on the east coast and the inbound plane from DC hasn’t left DC yet. Boarding finally starts around 12:15 am for the flight home. We get to the gate agent and she says our boarding passes aren’t for that flight, which of course is wrong because it clearly says that flight. The computer had rebooked us for a 9:35 am flight the next morning out of LaGuardia. I tell her that I had checked with 2 different agents and they told us we didn’t need to recheck, that we were on that flight. She said there was room and we would get on the flight. We are the last 2 to board. Once on the flight the pilot says there will be an additional 1 hour delay because of the construction at JFK. There is only 1 runway open. I think we were 15 or 20 in line for take off. By this time I am beyond exhausted. I haven’t slept at all. I tried taking an Ambien on the flight from ATH, but it didn’t work. I don’t know when we finally took off, but we finally landed in CMH at 3:30 am.
Luckily our bags came through fairly quickly. I go to talk to the Delta baggage agent about my broken zipper and she says that it is not Delta’s responsibility but that I will have to file a claim with TSA. Whatever, I just want to go home because I still have a 1 hour drive ahead of me. I drop my friend off at her house and finally get to my house at 5:00 am. I have basically been up for over 32 hours. I am happy to be home but completely exhausted. Luckily I had taken that day off and didn’t have to go in to work. All in all, the worst travel experience I have ever had.
- Kelly
Tagged as:
aegean airlines,
airport,
baggage,
delay & cancellation,
delta airlines,
gate agent,
pilot,
weather
I was flying on American Airlines from SFO to Rio de Janeiro (changing planes in Miami) last July. When I checked in for my flight at SFO, I was told that the flight to Miami might be slightly delayed. I wasn’t worried at first, as I had a 2 hour layover in Miami. Unfortunately, what was originally supposed to be a 1 hour delay soon turned into a 2 hour delay. Two hours after the scheduled departure in SFO the flight had still not started boarding, and it was announced that the flight would be 3.5 hours late due to a mechanical problem with the aircraft. At that point I had given up hope of catching my connecting flight in Miami. To avoid getting stuck in Miami, I asked to be put on a flight the next day which the AA gate agent arranged.
When I headed to SFO the next day, there was a sense of déjà vu: according to AA, the flight to Miami was again delayed by an hour. This time the flight took off with “only” a 2 hour delay, so I was hoping to catch my connecting flight to Rio this time. The connection actually worked fine as my connecting flight to Rio wasn’t about to depart anytime soon. After waiting for 2 hours, AA told us that the jet bridge was stuck to the plane and they were calling in mechanics to fix the problem (that was midnight Miami time!). The problem with the jet bridge was ultimately fixed, and at 2 AM Miami time the plane finally taxied to the runway. At that point suddenly power was lost. This problem was solved quickly with power being restored within less than a minute.
At that time a number of female Brazilian passengers started complaining loudly, demanding tearfully to be let off “that crappy plane.” The captain had to go to the back of the plane and assure everybody that (a) the plane was safe, and (b) the gate agents had already left and it was impossible to let anyone off the plane. After another 45 minutes or so, the captain had persuaded the last holdout and the plane was ready to go.
I’m amazed that I actually arrived in Rio, albeit 27 hours later than expected.
Tagged as:
american airlines,
delay & cancellation,
gate agent,
jet bridge
Summer of 2006 and my classmates, teachers and I had been planning since the beginning of the school year to spend three amazing weeks in France. We made plans to visit Paris, the French Riviera, a ski resort, and castles. We arrived at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport excited about the trip to France. All we could talk about was what we would be doing once we landed at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, of course, connecting in Philadelphia.
As we sat in the airport waiting to board the aircraft to connect in Philly, the Gate Attendant announced that our flight would be delayed. Knowing that they cannot hold international flights from departing, we became worried that we would miss our flight to Paris. So our teacher goes up to the desk to find out if there were any other flights to Philadelphia or to Paris non-stop. To our dismay, the next flight to Philly was three days later, and when getting to Philly on that day we would have to wait an additional two days in order to get a flight to Paris. We did NOT want to spend one week of our vacation in two airports.
We soon found out that the reason for the delay to Cleveland was because of a large storm front that surrounded Philly. Hearing this, we prayed that the storm system would also delay the plane from Paris to land at Philly. After two long hours of waiting, our plane from Philly had finally arrived. We rushed in the small plane and shook our legs, held our rosaries, prayed to the plane gods, did whatever we could to ensure that we would not miss our flight to Paris.
FINALLY we landed in Philly. Thank goodness we arrived in Philly a few minutes before the flight to Paris was originally supposed to depart. So with only a few minutes to spare, we ran across 30 terminals to get to our proper gate.
In our group of students we had about 5 track runners who went ahead to make sure that our Paris flight was still at the gate. We had all seen the gate ahead, and the track stars were allowed on the flight to Paris. Ten seconds later the rest of us caught up. HOWEVER, the Gate Attendant had told us that the flight to Paris had already left. Our teachers had about fainted at the thought of five students flying to Paris alone without the rest of us. We looked out the window and saw that thankfully the plane was still connected to the terminal. We told her the plane was still there, then she allowed us on the aircraft. We cheered as we boarded the plane out of breath, sweating, and hearts beating fast. On the plane we laughed and talked about our grand voyage to get to this plane.
Unfortunately, our luck had not yet arrived. When we were at cruising altitude, we all began to feel relieved that all was fine. We did our own thing on the plane; listening to music, watching a movie on our individual screens, or napping with the cool air running down our face. But soon all of that ended. The flight attendant call button began to ring endlessly, as if someone had continuous emergencies. After about the 50th “ding,” the flight attendant announced that they had a board that would notify them of who it was dinging, and they thought it was a joke a passenger was playing. Of course, since there were 16 of us teenagers boarding late, all other passengers assumed it was us and gave us dirty looks. After the dings continued, the flight attendants came to the conclusion that it was an electrical problem. Soon after, the cabin lights flickered a few times, and this caused the FA to reboot the entire system. We sat with no form of entertainment for two hours as they attempted to fix the problems. Thankfully the flight resumed normally, as they had fixed the issue. But the plane gods were not done yet… the dinging had continued, and for the rest of the flight all we heard were ding ding ding ding ding ding. We finally landed in Paris after 8 long hours and FINALLY our vacation had started.
Thanks US Airways.
Tagged as:
airport,
delay & cancellation,
gate agent,
US airways,
weather
