Comments on: This is why I don't like to fly anymore…

By: Steve Heywood

Steve Heywood — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:22:12 +0000

Alex,

I agree, flying these days SUCKS!

However, the Delta flight from Seattle DID NOT “sit on the runway for 3 hours”. I doubt if it ever got off the gate.

By: Alex Kahn

Alex Kahn — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 12:53:13 +0000

You may want to check out http://flyontime.us/, a site made with data made public my the TSA and FAA. It could help you out. It was part of Sunlight Labs” Apps for America contest.

By: seth vidal

seth vidal — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:29:33 +0000

For travel up and down the east coast we”ve just opted for train travel. It may take longer but it just keeps me from chewing on glass at airports.

Sorry for all the suffering.

By: Jimmy Livengood

Jimmy Livengood — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:22:38 +0000

A simple-ish fix might be a law that requires that any time your flight is delayed/cancelled by 1hr or more, the airline must place you on the next available flight by any airline, to any destination you wish (so you could fly to a neighboring city then take a bus/etc. if you wanted).

This creates an incentive for your flight to continue, or for other airlines to build extra capacity or for the original airline to have backup planes. It allows for bad weather because all flights would be grounded.

I could see an addendum that says if your destination is less than 200 miles away, the airline is required to offer charter bus service to that destination if the delay is expected to be 4hrs or more.

There are a bunch of other additions I could think of, things like a ratio for original flight time vs. time sitting on the tarmac and how much of a refund you get.

It seems at the moment there’’s just not a big enough financial lever to push the airlines toward what I”d call good behavior.

It’’s still amazing that an airline can cost you two day’’s worth of vacation/work/hotel/food/missed meetings/car rental/whatever and not have to pay a dime. We”re going to Colorado for Christmas this year, and my wife thinks I”m joking when I get excited and say “road trip!”. I am not joking.

By: Bryan McLellan

Bryan McLellan — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:58:27 +0000

FWIW, I”ve never had a canceled flight going back to the east coast for christmas on Continental. I did have a cheap flight through JetBlue canceled during snowpaclypse, and gave up and rescheduled on Continental a month later.

My father used to fly for Continental though, so I use them out of habit and familiarity more than anything else.

By: Boris

Boris — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 18:39:42 +0000

With those delays, train travel starts to make sense again. Even if the train is delayed a bit, at least you”re comfortable.

By: Rory

Rory — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:57:45 +0000

the debate i would start with is how a “good” airline is measured. I would start with defining average/expected, and then go from anything over the top to be good.

I”d expect an average airline to operate like a bus, and get me from point A to point B in the time alotted I purchased the ticket for. If i get to the airport and they say your travel time has shrunk by 1 hour, I”d say that could be good. if they do the opposite, I”d call them bad.

Now, if the mitigated the circumstances by travel vouchers, I might say they get up to average/expected. Also, if they told me they couldnt fly somewhere because of a hurricane, I wouldnt necessarily count that against them.

most of my recent experiences on flights have been average. flights are on time, and what i expected. I do usually pay the extra for direct flights, because it runs the least likelyhood of complications, and the uses the least of my time.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:43:26 +0000

Hear hear! I hate flying on those airlines. The odd thing is I contract to airlines and airports and install their baggage handling and EDS systems. Nature of the beast is a lot of work travel for me. I recently made a trip to Santiago Chile on LAN airlines. Great service, friendly, polite and on time. Both my connectors to get me back home from JFK New York were Delta. I think those guys are trying to run their company into the ground. I have a hard time finding one part of their operation that is smooth, well managed and pleasing to the customer. Man, I hate airlines too! With exceptions to a select few.

Hope your upcoming trip is smoother!

Cheers.

By: spudpatch

spudpatch — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:25:54 +0000

…and you didn”t even get into the proctologic “security” screening..