Hell on air

Wow. Just, wow...

This crap happens way more often than people probably realize. I can't even count the number of times that I've been part of the passengers that were loaded onto the plane only to sit...and sit...and sit...and sit...waiting before takeoff.

Absolutely ridiculous.

I am sure most of everybody knows how bad it feels like in this situation.. only hope for the better...

Pretty bad. But imagine a video of this Continental experience:
http://nyc.metblogs.com/archives/2007/06/contin...

I'd rather sit on the tarmac taxi-ing for 7 hours than drive to Europe from Canada that's for sure.
I complain about a lot, but air travel isn't one of the things I complain about. I've had my share of bad experiences, but I only get to fly a couple times a year, so I don't mind at all.

I have had to be rerouted because we were circling over Dallas and could not land due to a thunderstorm, so we had to go get fuel in San Antonio, then fly back to Dallas after sitting in San Antonio for 2 hours. We were flying back from Alaska, so we traveled for about 24 hours straight..

I had a similar experience on a Delta flight from DFW to SEA several years ago. we boarded on time then spent 5 hrs on ground then had a 4.5 hour flight. My only comment is that it is a shame the difference in treatment for those of us in first class and those in coach (i was lucky enough to score an upgrade on that flight). Delta bent over backwards to make sure the folks in the front of the plane were happy while the coach pax were basically tolk to keep quiet. It is sad that things havent changed much.

Surely they could have gotten the passengers back into the terminal until they sorted all this out. Just really bad service.

Flying these days stinks. I'd much rather drive just about any distance. What's worse is that often, like in this case, the real problem is caused by the airlines and their asinine policies, and not actual weather or mechanical problems.

I wonder if Delta has tried to make this right for any of those poor passengers...

Best reason to shout "I HAVE A BOMB!", at least you get back to the terminal. You go to jail sure, but there's food there, right?

@7: Main Problem is that the Airlines charge not enough for the Tickets to actually provide a good service. Delta just got out of Bancruptcy, most employees had to take severe paycuts, lost part of their pensions and other benefits while upper management raked in their bonuses. They just don't give a damn any more.

There is no real competition because all domestic carriers suck equally. There is no incentive for an airline to offer better service because customers don't care, they hit "Cheapest Ticket" on Kayak or Expedia and that's it. JetBlue tried the "Better Service" approach until they ran through their inital funding, now they are are just another struggling carrier loosing money, cutting service like everybody else.

Oh and Southwest got lucky with their fuel hedges. If it weren't for those they would be losing money like everybody else.

The issue of tons of these small "more efficient" planes is what causes alot these bottlenecks both on the ground and in the sky.

@7 Spoken like someone that doesn't know much about airport operations. The FAA which is the one in complete control of take offs and landings, not the airlines. There are not an unlimited amount of parking spaces. Airlines pay for the gates for the time they are scheduled to use them. Which gate would you have suggested they go to? Not all gates can accommodate all airplanes. So, that limits your options even more. Then which gate would you have suggested they depart from when it was time to leave? And what about those other planes that were scheduled for those gates? Now the airport as to play a unending game of gate shuffle Following your suggestion, other passengers would have then been inconvenienced. Can you predict the weather? Can you empty a 757 of bags with multiple destinations and have them on the correct flights without anyone to do it? I'm sure the airlines and airports are open to suggestions, but simply saying "go back to the gate" is not as easy as it sounds. And we also have to factor the FAA into this which is probably more to blame than the airlines. They have policies as well. And say there is a maximum wait policy of 2-3 hours then go back to the gate. What happens if at 1:55 min the weather clears but the plane is on the way back to the gate.? Do you want to lose the chance to make your destination? BAny solution they come up with passengers will have to be willing to pay for it.

Let Virgin America in already!!!

I asume @14 "Spoken like someone that doesn’t know much about airport operations." that you really are referring to the comments of @8. I (@7) only made the comment about the way the different classes of service are treated. And I agree with @11 about pax not paying for the service they demand. I saw an article once that showed the cost of a flight from the early 1970's adjusted for inflation would be about 3 times the average fare today.

What if they had someone with a diabetic situation? We diabetics can't always go seven hours without eating; major sugar crash.

@18: Then they'd deal with it, because they have to. As this video clearly has shown, if the Airline does not HAVE to do something, well, then they don't.

Delta is a bunch of "please, stay at your seat" nazis. I was flying JFK->Moscow on aeroflot and when the captain said that we're going to taxi in lin for one hour more, everybody was on their feet walking through the cabin.

That's pretty bad. Maybe worst than the famous 29E (google "snopes 29E") but not nearly as bad as the recent Coninental overflowing sewage.
(http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_0619...)