I’m not crazy about the airlines either, their airport and flight personnel are frequently surley, the executives are looting the till and asking Congress to bail them out, and they’ve done their best to put travel agents out of business. Your problems, however, were not caused by the airline’s negligence.
For American Airlines (and most others) the recommended check-in time for domestic flights is 90 minutes if you have bags to check and 60 minutes for carry-on only. You are required to be at the gate 30 minutes prior to the scheduled departure time or AA will release your pre-assigned seat. These check-in time requirements are published by the airline and it’s your responsibility to make yourself aware of them.
I know that you got held-up in traffic, but my god Sua, you’ve lived in Miami long enough now to know that you should count on traffic tie-ups - it’s worse there than New York! When you purchased your ticket, you entered into a contract with the airline. Both parties have responsibilities, and you didn’t meet yours.
I’m with everyone in bashing the airlines, but anyone who needs to travel and buys a ticket, has a responsibility to comply with their end of the bargain. Leave for the airport early. Do not schedule a departure time which you’re not sure you can make. Then if the flight is delayed it’s their fault, not yours.
All of that aside, I must agree that there is no excuse for the airlines inability or unwillingness to provide accurate and timely information about flight status. They promised to correct that (among many other egregious acts) a few years back when they made those bogus promises to Congress in order to avoid having rules imposed upon them.
Anita, I don’t live in Miami, and you should scrub your fingers raw for typing such an atrocity. I live in Palm Beach, dahling; things are much more genteel here, including the traffic.
And yes, I had considered, indeed planned, on slow traffic - I had 30 minutes’ leeway in my driving time, which, IMO is reasonable on a (normally) 45-minute drive. I did not reasonably expect, given my extensive experience on that stretch of road, that the drive would take 1 hour and 45 minutes.
And, you might notice, I am not blaming American Airlines for the fact that I arrived at the airport late, or at least what would have been late had the plane taken off on time. As it happened, I ended up arriving at the airport early - more than one hour before departure (I had no bags to check).
(Admittedly by chance), I ended up abiding by the 60-minute rule, so you have no cause to berate me for that. American’s refusal to admit that the flight was delayed caused me no end of grief.
I tells ya, when push comes to shove, the travel agents line up with the big airlines, don’t they?
OWWW :eek:
The last thing I wanted was to sound like I’m siding with the airlines. ICK ICK ICK, I feel so dirty.
I was, not so diplomatically apparently, trying to act as the travel advisor that I am. Other passengers reading this might benefit from this advice. I’ve listened to scores of travel horror stories which could have been avoided by arriving early.
Of course, this was not the case for you, and I apologize for assuming otherwise. Planning an early arrival would not usually compensate for a one-hour traffic delay.
As a professional travel advisor, however, I must disabuse you of your notion that you still arrived one hour before flight time. (I know, I know: you used the words “departure time” not “flight time”, but I have my travel agent hat on, and I’m trying to do a public service here.) The time requirements should be applied to “scheduled” flight time, or ETD when the flight is known to be delayed. In other words, if you check before you leave home, and the airline has announced a delay, then your advance check-in time is adjusted accordingly. I am well aware that the airlines rarely announce delays in advance, or even admit to a delay when it’s obvious, but the rules still apply and it’s in the traveller’s best interest to follow the rules. The airlines are not going to cut you a break. I’m not saying that they’re right or fair but they’ve got the traveller over a barrel and you’ve gotta play by their rules. The bottom line is this: You want to get where you’re going, and you can only control your end, so make sure it’s the airline that screws up not you.
Oh, and your genteel Palm Beach traffic? Tell that to my son - we were stuck for an hour in Palm Beach, and you snotty folks didn’t have the decency to put up a McDonald’s for kids who won’t eat anything but nuggets and french fries.
I don’t get to plan fun travel. Not even for myself.
My job description specifically says that I can only send people to dangerous and underdeveloped countries. Besides, if I had helped you with your Disney trip, I’d have to admonish you to get to the airport early and I wouldn’t get as much of a kick out of that as I got scolding Sua.
[sub] Do you know there’s no actual meat in mcnuggets? It’s all skin and processed fat… [/sub]
That being said, in Canada we’ve already seen the self-destruction of nation-wide airlines. Canadian got bought out by Air Canada, and that airline just entered bankruptcy protection. Even one of the charter airlines, Air Transat, is laying 'em off left and right.
The only airline doing well is Westjet: employee-owned. And the people onboard actually like their jobs…
I live in Palm Beach, dahling; things are much more genteel here, including the traffic.
