The airline experience has become miserable

[purbeast]

8 hours ago, EmirOfShmo said:

I had an opportunity to go to the WFT vs. LV Raiders on December 5th. Told my buddy (who has LVR season tickets) I'm not flying 7+ hours with people I know aren't vaxxed. Especially to Vegas. **** that. It will probably be late next year before I get on a plane again. And that will only be to countries that require vax cards to enter. 

Assuming you are in the USA how is it 7+ hours to Vegas?

 

I've flown 3x this year and flying again in 3 weeks.   It's just been business as usual.

 

Although everywhere I've flown has required either a negative covid test days prior to traveling or proof of vaccination, so you do have a good feeling on the plane.  But the airports are just as crowded as ever.

[EmirOfShmo]

9 hours ago, purbeast said:

Assuming you are in the USA how is it 7+ hours to Vegas?

 

I've flown 3x this year and flying again in 3 weeks.   It's just been business as usual.

 

Although everywhere I've flown has required either a negative covid test days prior to traveling or proof of vaccination, so you do have a good feeling on the plane.  But the airports are just as crowded as ever.

Yes, Richmond, VA. 

RIC - CLT  1 hour 30 minutes

CLT - LAS  4 hour 55 minutes

Typical layover in CLT is 1+ hour

[purbeast]

32 minutes ago, EmirOfShmo said:

Yes, Richmond, VA. 

RIC - CLT  1 hour 30 minutes

CLT - LAS  4 hour 55 minutes

Typical layover in CLT is 1+ hour

Oh duh wasn't even thinking about layovers and non direct flights lol.  

Edited November 8, 2021 by purbeast

[No Nonsense]

Tried paying for preferred seating on a flight to Vegas on AA website. Got a message that said “There was a problem. But don’t worry, you’re card will not be billed.” Thought I might have did something wrong so I tried again. Same message. From experience, I know when this happens, check your bank account immediately. And sure enough, they charged me twice. Called AA and the operator was totally useless. She said to call Expedia, who I made the flight reservations through. I thought it was BS because I tried reserving seats on the AA website. 
 

Now I’m fighting the charge. 

Edited November 8, 2021 by No Nonsense

[The 12th Commandment]

Frontier from El Paso to Denver Saturday.  The smallest space I've ever experienced.  Smaller than a phone booth (that's really small for you youngins that never saw one).  About a a foot and a half square.  I'm seriously glad I'm fairly small because it's really absurd.  Then they have the gall to prod you to tip on a insanely overpriced drink.  Not looking forward to the flight home tomorrow.  

[purbeast]

2 hours ago, No Nonsense said:

Tried paying for preferred seating on a flight to Vegas on AA website. Got a message that said “There was a problem. But don’t worry, you’re card will not be billed.” Thought I might have did something wrong so I tried again. Same message. From experience, I know when this happens, check your bank account immediately. And sure enough, they charged me twice. Called AA and the operator was totally useless. She said to call Expedia, who I made the flight reservations through. I thought it was BS because I tried reserving seats on the AA website. 
 

Now I’m fighting the charge. 

Could just be a temp thing that will be off once it's out of the pending status.

2 hours ago, KAOSkins said:

Frontier from El Paso to Denver Saturday.  The smallest space I've ever experienced.  Smaller than a phone booth (that's really small for you youngins that never saw one).  About a a foot and a half square.  I'm seriously glad I'm fairly small because it's really absurd.  Then they have the gall to prod you to tip on a insanely overpriced drink.  Not looking forward to the flight home tomorrow.  

LOL.

 

Unless you are a poor college student or homeless I don't know why you'd ever fly Frontier (or Spirit).

[The 12th Commandment]

8 minutes ago, purbeast said:

 

LOL.

 

Unless you are a poor college student or homeless I don't know why you'd ever fly Frontier (or Spirit).

Last time I flew frontier was 2003 and it was pretty good back then.  The price was definitely right, about half the cost of driving.  And yeah, I'm pretty poor these days.  Saving up for a place in Denver, a very expensive place, coming from one of the cheapest places to live in the country.

 

I'm channelling Logan Roy, while I'm watching succession right now, when I say...**** off. Lol

[China]

These 'unruly' passengers spit, punched and kicked at airline crew members. Now, they face hefty fines.

 

Airline staff have had their hands full with a large number of "unruly" passengers this past year. Some curse. Some throw punches. At least one is accused of throwing trash and stealing another passenger's cookies.

 

No matter what they did to earn the "unruly passenger" label, they all face hefty fines. The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday announced that it has proposed an additional $201,287 in civil penalties against 10 passengers for alleged physical assaults.

 

Unruly passenger cases spiked after the U.S. introduced a mask mandate on airplanes and in airports on Feb. 1. The mandate is set to remain in place until at least Jan. 18.

 

So far this year, the FAA has reported 5,114 unruly passenger incidents, 73% of which were mask-related. More than 100 reports involved physical assaults, according to a Wednesday news release.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Thanksgiving air travel will suck this year

 

The airlines have spent 2021 gearing up for the holidays. It is the travel industry’s season finale, an end-of-year opportunity to significantly recover from the pandemic-induced travel slump. Millions of Americans are expected to fly at near pre-pandemic rates this Thanksgiving, and international travel restrictions have been lifted.

 

But recovery, unfortunately, is not as simple as flipping a switch. It’s a rocky, turbulent phase for an industry scrambling to hire workers to handle the holiday travel surge after a year of reduced flights and limited operations.

 

The staffing shortages plaguing airlines and airports aren’t exactly new. It was a problem set into motion by industry-wide layoffs in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. Airlines, desperate to cut overhead expenses, urged employees to voluntarily quit their jobs, offering early retirement deals and cash severance. Since June, though, airports have struggled to staff back up on all kinds of workers, from TSA agents to concession-stand workers. Airlines, too, are operating with a shortage of pilots, flight attendants, and ground crew members. In the weeks leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, American and Southwest Airlines had to cancel and delay hundreds of flights across the country, due in part to inclement weather events. These operational meltdowns were triggered by storms but exacerbated by the lack of available pilots and flight attendants.

 

The dearth of airline and airport workers has had a domino effect on the industry. And its effects will likely culminate during the busiest travel time of the year. The airlines have no choice but to recruit more workers to keep up with demand.

 

“No one expected travel to rebound as quickly as it did,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst and the president of Atmosphere Research Group. “That rebound was a double-edged sword. It’s great that people are traveling again, but the airlines were caught with their pants down. They had to bring grounded planes back into service. They had to bring back employees.”

 

The nightmarish turn of events is bad news for eager travelers. Fares are up (the cost of jet fuel has increased), middle seats are full again, and airlines are no longer as flexible with their booking policies. Holiday fliers should expect the short end of the travel stick: crowds, long security lines, packed planes, poor customer service, and an overall meh flying experience, unless they can afford first-class treatment. Travel experts suggest booking trips with few to no connecting flights if possible, and to select airlines with a larger flight network, in case of cancellations.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[purbeast]

I'm flying on actual Thanksgiving.  Hopefully it is not as crowded as it will be the days prior.

[EmirOfShmo]

Saw this yesterday & forgot to post it...

 

American Airlines Pilots REJECT Holiday Bonus Pay Offer to Avert Thanksgiving Meltdown

 

Concerted and expensive efforts by American Airlines to avoid another operational meltdown over what is expected to be busy Thanksgiving and Holiday travel season has been dealt a serious blow after the Allied Pilots Association (APA) rejected a bonus pay offer late on Tuesday. The labor union which represents around 15,000 pilots at the Dallas Fort Worth-based carrier appeared to use the prospect of holiday travel chaos as a bargaining chip in a long-running dispute with American Airlines for “meaningful” permanent improvements to pilots contracts.

The 20-person APA board outright rejected the bonus offer put forward by American Airlines but the union reassured pilots that its committee had “thoroughly considered all aspects of the proposed LOA (letter of agreement) before voting 20-0 to reject it.”

Under the proposed offer, AA was offering to pay pilots 50 percent extra for working on peak days during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year periods. Reserve pilots who agreed to work on their days off over the same peak periods would have been paid 100 percent extra. Similar deals have already been struck with labor unions representing flight attendants and engineers. Flight attendants will rake in 150 percent pay if they turn up as scheduled to work flights between November 23 and November 29, as well as between December 22 and January 2, 2022.

 

https://www.paddleyourownkanoo.com/2021/11/10/american-airlines-pilots-reject-holiday-bonus-pay-offer-to-avert-thanksgiving-meltdown/

[Larry]

There's a negotiation going on, at the labor-capital table. 
 

Not sure that's a bad thing. I think it could be argued, long overdue. 

[Mooka]

2 hours ago, purbeast said:

I'm flying on actual Thanksgiving.  Hopefully it is not as crowded as it will be the days prior.

 

Same. Never had issues flying on Thanksgiving personally.

 

Hopefully this year isn't the exception. 

[skinsmarydu]

Accidental discharge of a gun at Hartsfield -Jackson here in ATL today.  Massive chaos ensued. 

I haven't been in that airport in at least 25 years, apparently nothing has changed...the place is still a madhouse. 

[dfitzo53]

On 11/19/2021 at 7:34 AM, purbeast said:

I'm flying on actual Thanksgiving.  Hopefully it is not as crowded as it will be the days prior.

I've done it a couple times and it's always been better than the day before.

 

On the plane in no time, halfway across the country in time for appetizers.

 

Edit: Good luck!

Edited November 21, 2021 by dfitzo53

[purbeast]

11 hours ago, dfitzo53 said:

I've done it a couple times and it's always been better than the day before.

 

On the plane in no time, halfway across the country in time for appetizers.

 

Edit: Good luck!

I'm going to be out of the country in Aruba by 3pm and do not plan on having any turkey there lol.

[ixcuincle]

Saw someone pondering on another board whether he'd pay for wifi on a 6 hour flight.

 

Bro you do not want to pay for that

 

Do not give in

 

I know we millenials now love our internet and our wifi and are like "WHERE'S THE NEAREST WIFI" but you have to understand public wifi is slow or ****ty. Heck even in hotels the wifi sucks ass because so many people are on it. Wifi is overrated. I use it at home but in public?

 

****. You got a 6 hour flight, get your headphones out, get your tablet out, download 6 hours worth of movies, and watch. Problem solved. No wifi needed.

[China]

How to Tell If Your Flight Delay Is Actually Due to Weather

 

As we approach the holiday travel season, flight delays due to weather will become more common as winter storms roll in. Unlike mechanical, technical, or staffing delays, weather delays are deemed “out of the airline's control” and therefore relinquish the airline from the responsibility to cover expenses incurred by the passenger. 

 

If the delay causes a missed connection, the costs for meals in the airport and overnight accommodations now fall to the traveler. Recently some airlines have suffered from network failures leaving planes, passengers, and crews displaced around the country, which in turn lead to massive delays and cancellations. These failures are due, in large part, to staffing issues caused by the pandemic or by computer software malfunctions. However, some airlines still placed at least partial blame on the weather, to avoid spending millions of dollars on passenger expenses. So how do you know when a weather delay really is just, well, a delay caused by the weather?

 

On a recent trip from Seattle to Washington, D.C., with a scheduled connection in Chicago, I received a text message from the airline while en route to the airport stating that the first leg of my flight, from Seattle to Chicago, was departing 30 minutes late due to the aircraft leaving Denver behind schedule following a mechanical issue that required repairs. I thought nothing of it—a half hour wasn't going to cause me any headaches. I had used the airline's app and clicked the option to “track the inbound aircraft,” and it quickly loaded the flight from Denver to Seattle with a description of the mechanical issue they encountered. I took a screenshot. Why? I'm not really sure. But if you find yourself in that situation, I suggest you do too. Once my flight finally took off, about an hour and a half behind schedule, the pilot made an announcement apologizing for the late departure, and explained the mechanical issue that had needed to be repaired. However, it quickly became clear that I and many passengers on my flight were going to miss our connections. I was fairly confident we would be offered overnight accommodations since this was a mechanical delay. I was wrong.

 

Conveniently for the airline, while we were en route to Chicago the reason for our flight delay was changed. The app no longer showed the mechanical reason, but now showed a delay due to weather in and around Chicago. Once I deplaned I made my way over to the customer service center. I explained to an airline representative that it was impossible for our flight to be late due to weather. I was swiftly told, “This is what the computer says. Airport management in Chicago has stated you're late due to the weather here so I cannot offer you a hotel or a meal.”

I opened my text messages and showed her the original communication I had received, then opened the screenshot I took showing the delay. She agreed that the information showed a different story. The airline was using the weather around Chicago as a means to avoid paying passenger expenses for most, if not all, of the late-arriving flights that evening. However, the representative asked me to contact the airline with the information I provided to her and a copy of the receipts for my expenses and request a refund. Although airport management coded the delay as weather, corporate may not agree.

 

She was right. After spending the night in a cheap last-minute airport hotel, I departed the next morning for Washington, D.C., and filed for a refund of my expenses with the airline. It was approved, proving my flight was not weather delayed.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

An ex-flight attendant told us how to get free drinks on a flight. And it worked.

 

There's something about getting a free drink on a flight that is wholly fulfilling. Airlines are constantly taking things away, from leg room to free bags to the other half of your tray table, so it's satisfying to claw back something, even if it's a $6 beer.

 

Economically speaking, that's nothing compared to the hundreds of dollars for a roundtrip ticket, but principle-of-the-matterly, it's everything.

 

Which is why it was my first question to retired flight attendant Shawn Kathleen, who spent seven years flying in and out of SFO and OAK for more than one domestic airline and now runs @passengershaming, an Instagram account that showcases airplane passengers who've all but given up on being part of humanity (more on that here, if you dare).

 

And sure enough, she had a trick, a hack, a way to beat the proverbial system. Spoiler alert: candy, you guys, it's candy. But the subtext was sort of shocking: all you have to do is achieve the most basic level of being a nice human.

 

"One thing I like to tell people, it's so rudimentary, is just saying 'hello, are you having a good day?' If you're acknowledging our existence, I swear to God, you'll be like George Clooney. That's the state of affairs up there," Kathleen says. "I'd be standing at the front, forward door welcoming people on board, and I started tallying on a Post-it note tick marks for the number of people who would walk on, turn, and keep walking. They wouldn't even acknowledge the cabin crew."

 

I've very strangely not paid for a drink on five straight flights. And I didn't do anything outside of saying "hey, how's it going?" while boarding and being a regular, polite person while ordering drinks. According to Kathleen, that's going above and beyond.

 

"Your best bet would be that you're friendly and respectful to the cabin crew, because that gets you pretty far," she says.

 

And, if you want to go even further, bring chocolates.

 

"Bring them chocolate. Bring them candy. It's a few bucks just to say thanks," says Kathleen, a former police officer and paramedic. "A lot of people send me images where they'll have them sitting out on their tray table and I always think that's awesome. I guarantee you'll get free drinks with that. One hundred percent."

 

So, I tried it.

 

I bought three identical Hershey's candy bars in the SFO gift shop last week on my way to a wedding. As we approached the plane, I handed them to the two flight attendants standing near the entrance.

 

"Oh!" the first one said, very clearly surprised.

 

"Oh wow, thank you," the second chimed in.

 

"These are for you. I appreciate you guys," I said with a smile. My heart beat just a little harder because I didn't fully know how they'd respond.

 

"We appreciate you appreciating us," the first returned in the most cheerful of flight attendant voices.

 

I sat down, we took off, and here came the drink cart. My wife and I ordered two drinks, which we never paid for, and then came two more after we were finished.

 

"We had two drinks that were accidentally already poured, do you guys want them?"

 

Yes. We did.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[ixcuincle]

 

[Cooked Crack]

 

 

[Riggo#44]

Ok, I don't care, that's just funny.

[China]

 

[China]

A Tennessee woman who authorities say punched a Spirit Airlines flight attendant and dragged another by the ponytail faces federal charge

 

Federal prosecutors in Tennessee announced Tuesday that they charged a woman with interfering with a flight crew, accusing her of kicking and hitting flight attendants and screaming that she wanted to get off the plane.

 

The incident, aboard a Spirit Airlines flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Nashville, occurred on November 27 after two airline passengers asked to change seats because a women's "disruptive behavior made them feel uncomfortable," according to a criminal complaint.

 

The woman, 43-year-old Amanda Renee Henry, had "acted flirtatious" and "made lewd sexual advances" towards the passengers, placing her hands on both of them and even laying her head on one passenger's shoulder, the complaint said.

 

A flight attendant told federal authorities that Henry — who appeared drunk — grew "irate and belligerent" once the men moved to different seats. The complaint said Henry grew even more disruptive when the flight attendants asked her to move to a different row, away from the emergency exits.

 

Henry then grabbed her carry-on luggage, ran down the length of the cabin towards the front of the plane, and screamed, "I'm getting off this plane," according to the complaint.

 

When the two flight attendants attempted to restrain her, Henry kicked and screamed at them, dragged one by her ponytail, and punched the other in the face, the complaint said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Evil Genius]

There really needs to be permanent no fly list and jail time for every occurrence.