I was catching up on family news and the subject of Direct Air’s bankruptcy came up. (My brother had tickets for an upcoming flight via them.)
Apparently the announcement that they were going out of business was sudden. Extremely sudden. I’m told there were passengers on a plane on the runway and the pilot announced that they were going back to the terminal, the flight was cancelled, and the airline had gone out of business.
I guess they should be glad they hadn’t taken off and the plane wasn’t shut down in mid-flight.
Yeah, I can sympathize. I’ve got to visit my family, and there’s really only ONE airline which offers service between DFW airport and that city. American Airlines. Yeah, there are LOTS of airlines flying from DFW, and lots of airlines that fly from that city, but Group A and Group B don’t intersect, except for one airline…which is thrashing around bankruptcy court as we speak. I’m probably going to have to have my husband drive me up there, and that might result in a murder.
Oh, and the ticket prices have always been outrageous for service to and from the other city. I don’t want to pay a lot of money to get stranded with useless tickets.
Lynn, why not give Southwest Airlines a try? Sure, they fly out of crappity Love Field, and you’ll have to swap planes once you’ve left Texas, but it’s really not so bad.
Prices are fairly reasonable, they don’t charge for baggage, and their FF program is damn decent. Sure, they herd the passengers along like so many head of cattle, but so does AA.
Also, it might be worth looking into Amtrak - not as quick, but depending on where you’re headed, can be a viable alternative. Beats driving it yourself.
Southwest doesn’t go to my destination. Neither does Amtrak. And I’m NOT going by bus.
I appreciate the thought, and I wish I had an alternative airline, but I don’t. The city I’m going to is served by four airlines, and the only one that goes to either DFW or Love Field is American.
I’ve been traveling back and forth from Chicago to Kansas City for years. I’ve used Southworst and Amtrak, but in the past year I’ve switched over to MegaBus. Outlets, wifi, reasonable comfort, cheap fares and no rectal exam to get on the vehicle.
Oh well. Worth a try. Any chance you could trek down to Waco and catch a different airline down there? Not too terribly much further than Love Field, though probably just as fruitless.
I hate the stranglehold AA has on DFW Int’l, also. The whole racket just stinks of corruption to me.
When I checked Amtrak’s schedule, I was surprised to find they apparently don’t have direct rail service between Chicago and Houston. The Amtrak schedule between those cities includes a seven-hour bus ride.
This is actually the best publicity I’ve ever seen Direct Air get (since it’s the first time I’ve heard of it).
ETA: Actually, I knew there was a budget/charter airline that went from Rickenbacker Airport in Columbus to somewhere south of here, and apparently it was Direct Air. So I guess I’d heard of them, if you count knowing of “some airline that flies from a cargo airport to somewhere vaguely warmish.”
Amtrak seems to be great if you’re in New England. The rest of the country…not so much.
The problem with flying to and from different airports, for me, is that if I just drive to the city I need to go to, it’s a little less than 500 miles. So if I need to go to an airport that’s 90 miles away, it just doesn’t seem worth it. I’d just as soon have my husband drive me, and not worry about TSA telling me that I can’t take my medications with me on the plane.
I think that we’re about to see a lot of airlines consolidate or go out of business in the next few years.