There can also be bad weather between the two airports that grounds flights. I have sat on the runway at Newark twiddling my thumbs when the weather in Newark was fine, the weather in LA was perfect. However the weather in the middle of the country was not fine.
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane]
Maybe the weather problem was in the city that the plane was coming from?
Seriously, do you really think that a major airline with incredibly tight schedules just cancels flights because they haven’t sold enough tickets? What about the next leg for that plane - from Columbus to wherever? And the leg after that? All of those flights get cancelled as well because they haven’t sold enough seats on the one leg. This is a perfect example of passengers thinking a delay is a personal affront to them rather than an act of nature.
[/QUOTE]
Damn, I sure do wish people would read the post before they start telling someone they don’t know what they are talking about. Since you obviously didn’t read the post you quoted, I’ll go over the important parts again. Try to read slowly for comprehension this time.
I specifically stated in my post that it was a commuter flight - not a “major airline”.
The next leg for that plane - “from Columbus to wherever” - was from Columbus back to Atlanta.
The announcement made to the waiting passengers was that there was bad weather in Columbus. We were in Atlanta. We could see out the windows that there was no bad weather in Atlanta. The plane was in Atlanta - we could see it sitting at the gate.
Yes, I do take it as a personal affront that a business would rather lie to me - a transparent, easily discovered, rather stupid lie - that give me credit for having the brains to understand a rational business decision. I still wouldn’t like it, but I would understand it.
And I also fail to understand people who will jump on another post and tell someone they’re wrong without bothering to read the post they’re bitching about.
[QUOTE=SnakesCatLady]
Damn, I sure do wish people would read the post before they start telling someone they don’t know what they are talking about. Since you obviously didn’t read the post you quoted, I’ll go over the important parts again. Try to read slowly for comprehension this time.
I specifically stated in my post that it was a commuter flight - not a “major airline”.
The next leg for that plane - “from Columbus to wherever” - was from Columbus back to Atlanta.
The announcement made to the waiting passengers was that there was bad weather in Columbus. We were in Atlanta. We could see out the windows that there was no bad weather in Atlanta. The plane was in Atlanta - we could see it sitting at the gate.
Yes, I do take it as a personal affront that a business would rather lie to me - a transparent, easily discovered, rather stupid lie - that give me credit for having the brains to understand a rational business decision. I still wouldn’t like it, but I would understand it.
And I also fail to understand people who will jump on another post and tell someone they’re wrong without bothering to read the post they’re bitching about.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe I’m wrong, who knows. Regardless, a commuter plane can be grounded for a lot less threatening weather than a big jet. Could be wind on the route. And still, regardless of the size of the plane or the airline, they had a scheduled flight from Columbus to Atlanta that was now going to be without a plane. Airlines don’t operate like that. Cancelling flights creates monumental scheduling headaches for airlines - they don’t do it for no good reason. Being half full isn’t a good reason.
United Airlines is DEAD to me. dead. More specifically TED is dead to me. I want to find this Ted and slap him around a little.
Something like the OP happened to me except I was starting in Nashville and flying to San Francisco stopping in Dallas. Now because Texas is the epicenter of hell the fucked up tornado weather sitaution was delaying all the flights to the west coast. Simple math was telling me there was no way I was going to be able to make my connecting to SF. I’m from Nashville so I told them repeatedly that if I’m going to get stuck somewhere, I would rather it be Nashville where my parents live.
“No No No Miss Mobster you will absolutely get to San Francisco tonight. You MUST get on this place to Dallas”
So when I’m wandering around DFW airport stranded at midnight assuming that because they convinced me to get on that flight they would at least put me up in a hotel I wait in line for 45 minutes for them to tell me that Ted don’t play that, y’all. They gave me a toothbrush and a tiny wool blanket (i have a skin allergy to wool) and sent me off with a pat on the behind.
To wrap this story up, I stayed up all night smoking cigarettes with Amber, Crystal and Wyatt talking about how the Aye-Rabs smell bad and don’t shower (you know, smart people stuff)
[QUOTE=Voyager]
When I lived in New Jersey, United had a few flights that left from Trenton, which was incredibly convenient for me. Close by, and free parking. The problem was that quite frequently return flights would get canceled because “the landing lights were out.” Right. When we did fly, there were only a few people on the plane - we even got redistributed on a 737 once. A friend who flew frequently chose to drive 50 miles to Philadelphia because there was such a big chance of getting bused to Trenton. So it can happen.
[/QUOTE]
Thanks for the tip! I fly from Trenton to Boston on occasion for daytime meetings, returning the same day. That would suck majorly to have the flight get cancelled like that.
[QUOTE=lobstermobster]
United Airlines is DEAD to me. dead. More specifically TED is dead to me. I want to find this Ted and slap him around a little.
Something like the OP happened to me except I was starting in Nashville and flying to San Francisco stopping in Dallas. Now because Texas is the epicenter of hell the fucked up tornado weather sitaution was delaying all the flights to the west coast. Simple math was telling me there was no way I was going to be able to make my connecting to SF. I’m from Nashville so I told them repeatedly that if I’m going to get stuck somewhere, I would rather it be Nashville where my parents live.
“No No No Miss Mobster you will absolutely get to San Francisco tonight. You MUST get on this place to Dallas”
So when I’m wandering around DFW airport stranded at midnight assuming that because they convinced me to get on that flight they would at least put me up in a hotel I wait in line for 45 minutes for them to tell me that Ted don’t play that, y’all. They gave me a toothbrush and a tiny wool blanket (i have a skin allergy to wool) and sent me off with a pat on the behind.
To wrap this story up, I stayed up all night smoking cigarettes with Amber, Crystal and Wyatt talking about how the Aye-Rabs smell bad and don’t shower (you know, smart people stuff)
[/QUOTE]
lobstermobster, my mental image of you is Tina Fey. I hope you don’t mind.
Robin
[QUOTE=MsRobyn]
lobstermobster, my mental image of you is Tina Fey. I hope you don’t mind.
Robin
[/QUOTE]
hah it wouldn’t be the first time (brunette with prominent glasses) The only thing that bothers me about this is there was this Maxim article about the Least appealing women on television and one of them was Tina Fey. It said something like “If Tina Fey is the thinking man’s sex symbol we’ll gladly hand in our library cards” It left a bad taste in my mouth.
[QUOTE=minor7flat5]
Thanks for the tip! I fly from Trenton to Boston on occasion for daytime meetings, returning the same day. That would suck majorly to have the flight get cancelled like that.
[/QUOTE]
I took that flight also - not United, but WingWalker Airlines, associated with Delta, and about half the time it got canceled, we wound up in Philly, and crawled down 95 to Trenton. That’s when we gave up and took the Boston to Newark Continental shuttle.
It was very frustrating to drive 50 miles to either PHL or EWR, especially in winter. Trenton would have been great if they had been serious. Now I’m blessed with 3 airports, none further than about 35 miles, and no snow!
ETA: This was about 15 years ago, so maybe they fixed it. But that was when airlines were a lot better than they are today, so I doubt it.
[QUOTE=lobstermobster]
hah it wouldn’t be the first time (brunette with prominent glasses) The only thing that bothers me about this is there was this Maxim article about the Least appealing women on television and one of them was Tina Fey. It said something like “If Tina Fey is the thinking man’s sex symbol we’ll gladly hand in our library cards” It left a bad taste in my mouth.
[/QUOTE]
Meh. If men are easily intimidated by an intelligent woman, it’s more their problem than yours. 
Robin
[QUOTE=SnakesCatLady]
Ok, they can’t control the weather. I call my husband in Columbus to tell him of the change in arrival time. He says “What bad weather? I can see the airport from here and the sky is clear.”
[/QUOTE]
They probably weren’t lying. I don’t know the setup at Columbus, but take Boston Logan as an example. If the wind is blowing in the wrong direction, they have to close several runways. So bad weather doesn’t apply only to snowstorms, hail, thunder etc. Plus, of course, the bad weather could be enroute and nowhere near the destination airport.
Another complication is the “Chinese Whispers” type problem - information gets passed from schedulers to pilots to cabin crew to ground staff, and they all have their own jargon. There was a case in the UK where passengers were effectively told “the pilot doesn’t have the experience to land in this fog” - understandably alarming, but if the passengers heard “Oh, they’re shooting CatIII down at EGLL, and with an RVR of 100 we need 100 hours in type - we only have 80” would that really be any better?
Sorry to pilots if I ballsed up the jargon there, but I’m just trying to make a point.
Oh, here’s my favourite aviation writer, at Salon.com. You may need to view a short ad to access.
This guy does a combination of Q&A stuff and more esoteric writings about aircraft, airports and travel. He is one of the few people I have read who can still see the wonder in flight - a human dream for thousands of years that has only been possible for 100.
Funny, so to speak, I just posted about United’s french waiter approach to customer service in this thread
[QUOTE=user_hostile]
Funny, so to speak, I just posted about United’s french waiter approach to customer service in this thread
[/QUOTE]
Or should I say posted a comment–I didn’t start the thread :smack:
[QUOTE=Lamar Mundane]
Out of curiosity, what in the OP do you see to be the fault of United, and requires them to be punished? I have no connection to United and don’t care to defend them, it’s just that my experience is just the opposite. I’ve flown over 500,000 miles with them and don’t have any complaints, other than the summer of hell they inflicted on us about 10 years ago when they were having labor issues. I switcher to Frontier for a while but came back once things were resolved.
[/QUOTE]
Just wondering what it was about Frontier that made you switch back. Many of their loyal customers switched over the Summer 2000 debacle and didn’t go back. Frontier’s product continues to improve, their frequency and destinations have all increased since then.
[QUOTE=D-bear]
Just wondering what it was about Frontier that made you switch back. Many of their loyal customers switched over the Summer 2000 debacle and didn’t go back. Frontier’s product continues to improve, their frequency and destinations have all increased since then.
[/QUOTE]
No First/Business class. I fly enough that I can generally upgrade. Also, having a lot more flights to choose from. I usually book a return flight for the evening, and often I will be done with business earlier in the day. United usually has 2-3 flights that I can try to go standby on, while Frontier is lucky to have one.
Finally, I don’t have any problems with United. They treat me just fine. I don’t take weather delays personally and blame the airline.
That being said, I like Frontier. I flew them to St. Louis a couple of weeks ago. It was a trip on short notice and Frontier’s fares were about half of United’s.