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Post by alyk on Jan 20, 2008 13:03:47 GMT -5
I was amused by Jack's recent complaints about how a certain airline was charging him for canceled flights, but he had many problems with them in the past. Several years ago, I used to always fly that airline out of Washington Dulles to go home to visit my parents. Every single time I flew that airline over a 2 year span, my flight was either delayed by 5+ hours or canceled. The worst time was Christmas 2000. I got to the airport on time, which was quite a feat in itself considering my flight was at 8pm on a Friday and I had a 30 minute drive to the airport in DC commuter traffic. When I arrived, my flight was listed on-time. Then they kept pushing the departure time back. Finally, at 10:30pm, they canceled the flight. I asked them to put me on another flight, they couldn't do it until December 27th, which was when I was scheduled to fly back to DC. Luckily, I was able to go standby with the last possible seat on a flight on a different airline, but that was the last time I would ever fly the airline Jack mentioned. I chose to pay a higher fare and fly on another. Now, I only fly Southwest or AirTran, and even they have some problems.
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Post by Colleen on Jan 20, 2008 19:13:50 GMT -5
Every single time save ONE trip, I have had a problem with that same airline, including last weekend when they cancelled MY flight this time leaving Raleigh.
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Post by uncaged on Jan 20, 2008 22:28:52 GMT -5
When I have flown with them, I have found that their landings are always the worst. I have flown with many airlines, but I have only felt nervous landing with the airline which we will not name.
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Post by alyk on Jan 21, 2008 9:00:02 GMT -5
Sometimes I wonder how they stay in business. Colleen, are they the only airline that flies from Raleigh to NY? If so, I'm terribly sorry.
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Post by Colleen on Jan 21, 2008 11:31:22 GMT -5
I used to fly Southwest when I lived on LI, because they fly out of the airport close to my parents' house and I am one of those people that likes that you can pick your own seat lol. When I moved to NYC, I live literally 2 miles from Lagaurdia, and SW only flies to Florida out of there - I had that bad experience with US Airways in August and Delta's the cheapest. JetBlue I think only flies out of JFK. I think it's time to keep searching for another airline. Any suggestions? TransAir is cheap, but it makes at least one layover every trip and you leave at 9am and don't get in til like 4:30pm.
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Post by alyk on Jan 21, 2008 15:18:34 GMT -5
Colleen, unfortunately I don't have any advice on how to deal with them. I totally had to switch airports to start flying SW or AirTran. Luckily, I've moved closer to that airport, so it's not as bad. My now-husband and I used to fly back and forth from DC to Orlando at least once a month before we got married and moved to Maryland. I'm sorry your options are so limited. I know how you feel, though. I truly despise flying Delta. I had less of a problem with US Airways, but I haven't had to fly them since before 9/11, when I started just flying out of BWI to avoid the restrictions with the other 2 DC-area airports. What amuses me is how much everyone complains about Delta, but it's United that consistently ranks the lowest in consumer evaluations. I guess we're all stuck until they invent a transporter like on Star Trek.
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Post by markedman on Jan 21, 2008 16:19:06 GMT -5
I used to travel a lot (4-5 times a month) and now only travel once a month or so, but FWIW, I haven't found any airline to be consistently good or consistently bad. Specific flights on the other hand, can definitely be consistently good or bad. For a specific airline it may mean that their schedule calls for a plane to start in NJ, fly to Chicago and then end up by going to St. Louis. The odds of it still being on time when it leaves on its next journey are now greatly reduced.
Here are a few generalities: First flight in the morning are only rarely canceled or late. (This usually means getting up at 3:30 or 4:00 am for me.) Flights leaving at 8:00am or 5:00 pm are totally fictional. I once counted 13 flights that were supposed to leave LaGuardia between 5:01 and 5:03. There's only one runway taking off and there is just no way they are getting that many flights out at 5:00. Last flight of the day from anywhere is likely to be late because a) all the accumulated lateness from all its other legs during the day, and b) they hold it for anyone coming in late from somewhere else. I've had good luck with middle of the day flights. And finally, I always buy my own breakfast/lunch/dinner and bring it on. Even the airlines that serve meals don't really have "food". They have miniaturized representations of food.
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Post by Colleen on Jan 21, 2008 19:19:49 GMT -5
I guess we're all stuck until they invent a transporter like on Star Trek. lol, if they could do it soon, that'd be grrreatt  +2 |
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Post by Colleen on Jan 21, 2008 19:34:06 GMT -5
I used to travel a lot (4-5 times a month) and now only travel once a month or so, but FWIW, I haven't found any airline to be consistently good or consistently bad. Specific flights on the other hand, can definitely be consistently good or bad. For a specific airline it may mean that their schedule calls for a plane to start in NJ, fly to Chicago and then end up by going to St. Louis. The odds of it still being on time when it leaves on its next journey are now greatly reduced. Here are a few generalities: First flight in the morning are only rarely canceled or late. (This usually means getting up at 3:30 or 4:00 am for me.) Flights leaving at 8:00am or 5:00 pm are totally fictional. I once counted 13 flights that were supposed to leave LaGuardia between 5:01 and 5:03. There's only one runway taking off and there is just no way they are getting that many flights out at 5:00. Last flight of the day from anywhere is likely to be late because a) all the accumulated lateness from all its other legs during the day, and b) they hold it for anyone coming in late from somewhere else. I've had good luck with middle of the day flights. And finally, I always buy my own breakfast/lunch/dinner and bring it on. Even the airlines that serve meals don't really have "food". They have miniaturized representations of food. My flight that was cancelled last Monday (we rescheduled it for Sunday night) was for like 6:30am. They cancelled it for "weather" a full day in advance, but we had no snow, no anything. My flight last Sunday night was ALMOST cancelled because they couldn't schedule a flight pattern for us! RDU is so relaxed, it's almost funny. They told us we had to wait 40 minutes til they could tell us if we could fly or not, then it became 50 minutes, then it became "check back every 10 minutes" just IN CASE we got clearance to fly and would have to board and take off within a 15 minute time period or else we'd lose our flying space! I totally agree with you about the airplane food - though Delta gives you those shortbread cookies and I'm kinda a sucker for them! I think the airport in San Diego only had one runway too. But that's why I almost missed our connecting flight from Atlanta to LAX for the podcast awards - we were on the runway for almost an hour, then taxi-ing on the ATL runway for like a half hour and I only had an hour and a half layover! Gotta love flying  |
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Post by ironfiggy n middy on Jan 21, 2008 19:57:58 GMT -5
try jogging!!! youre a fitness freak!!!!LOL or maybe just stay in new york!!! luv ya coolleen
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Post by alyk on Jan 22, 2008 7:36:52 GMT -5
I think Atlanta is supposed to be one of the worst airports in the country. Every time I've flown through there, my connecting flight has been at the other end of the airport from the gate at which my first plane landed.
I always try to take the first flight of the day, if possible. I've actually been upgraded to business class flying AirTran that way, since no one wants to fly to Baltimore from Orlando in January.
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