What a sad state the airlines are in today. Now I am all for a minimal
government, but enough is enough - the feds certainly couldn't do any
worse. I will take part of the blame, about 10 years ago I moved my
family across country. Now, with two boys added to my household, I have a
grandma, aunt and uncle-in-law who dearly miss them. We do our very best
to work out time on both sides several times a year, plop down some
serious $$ for some airline
lottery tickets and see if we are lucky
enough to traverse the monumental abyss that appears to be Omaha <-->
Charlotte.
Now, one side of the abyss happens to be a hub city, garnering those lucky
souls with direct flights to other bustling hub cities and city bragging
rights in return for a steep premium for the masses. Of course,
our
desired route has no direct flights, unless you purchase one of the
cheaper tickets for flying into a city
close to your destination,
say a short two or three hour drive away. Rolling caution to the wind,
aunt and uncle-in-law socked over some $$ for the lottery ticket about
four months ago. Cashed in some of their sparse vacation time and packed
for the trip. Only, they got the dreaded 12 hour advance call...
sorry
to inform you, your flight has been canceled because of weather
predictions, slow sales and bad hair. Unfortunately, all of the
surrounding flights are full of other passengers holding lottery tickets,
so because we care we have a flight for you that only gets you to
your destination 12 hours past your arranged/paid for time {but you have
to fly for two hours in the wrong direction to your new connecting hub
city}. Yea! That is just great, they will be there early - good thing
they have the day off already.
Sadly, the first cancelation was so much fun, that after their first leg,
real weather in another, unrelated hub city tossed havoc into the system.
Planes with stranded pilots, pilots with stranded planes, stranded
passengers {in italics because at this point all you have are potential
passengers - passengers in my opinion are actually on a plane in the air going
where they paid to go}. Thank goodness they are stranded in a hub, so
much more exciting and just think of all the direct flights we could take
to anywhere except the city in which we are trying to go. Great weather in
the hub city even, can't go anywhere though, because instead we need to
sit and watch our flight, sorry
potential flight, get delayed 15
minute increments at a time. My guess is we will see them at some point
tomorrow, only a day late. Not bad for a lottery.
This is certainly nothing new for frequent business travelers. Part of the
process, part of the routine. Company paid for the ticket, delays and
overnight extentions in the airport hotels really add up to
company time
anyway, right? Well, I have issues with the business side impact of this as
well, but what really chaps my behind is when all this nonsense happens on
individual, personal, family time. The aunt and uncle-in-law will worst
case have their hard earned, hard planned long weekend cut by a 1/4 and
potentially by a 1/3. Who makes that up? Not the airline - out of their
control. Does their workplace grant them back a vacation day for the
time spent in the airport? Does the hub city give them a key for the
unexpected stay? Of course not. Expected to sit back and take it.We fly
alot - this scenerio happens
frequently! One out of every 4
flights. Not that much bad weather in the country to go around. Out of
control. I'm off to buy a minivan I guess, would have been
quicker..../jason
