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June 15, 2008
Long Night's Journey...
I never thought it would happen to me.
(Nah, it's not one of those stories!)
The 2 hour weather delay was irritating. But the 5.5 hours stuck inside a plane, 3.5 hours of it 5 feet from the gate, but not at the gate, making a retreat back into New York City impossible... that's what got me.
The 8:30 pm edt flight landed in Los Angeles at 6:20am pdt... almost 13 hours later.
I could have gone to China.
But the undiscussed horror of travel nightmares like this is not just the hours stuck - we had no overflowing toilets and most of the passengers slept through much of it - but recovering from the experience.
What really struck me was that American Airlines knew that the delay, once we were sealed into the plane, would be at least 2 hours because of the long back-up of planes trying to leave JFK. And instead of informing the passengers, it pretended everything was normal. This was before they decided they needed to refuel the plane after we sat near-but-not-at the gate for the first 90 minutes.
I knew trouble was brewing, but I didn't want to be "the troublemaker," which was an issue added to getting out fo a plane at 2:30 am at a near deserted JFK with the goal of, what, hoping to find transportation back into the city to pay some ridiculous amount for a hotel room for 8 or 9 hours before starting the whole process again.
One thing I did on the plane was read Sway, a book about the inclinations we all show in our human interactions. One of the stories was of a KLM pilot who killed a plane full of people trying to stay on schedule and not pay for passengers to have an overnight stay… and he had been head of safety for the airline.
I knew that American had instituted a 4-hours-in-the-plane-waiting maximum last year. I looked it up on my iPhone while sitting there in Hour 3. But incrementally, and with my meek assistance (which still felt like me being mean as I challenged the crew to come up with answers), we went from an obvious 2.5 hours to 3.5 hours to 4.5 hours to 5.5 hours.
And we all survived. And I don’t have an illness from it. And the babies were quiet.
But the way we try to cover over the absurdity of the situation… that the airline didn’t do the right thing or offer fair warning… that they got lucky to be at late fight with sleepy people, as there would have been a rebellion if this all happened at midday… that we were less than 30 minutes from the pilot being disallowed from flying the plane for fear of his exhaustion and that a slightly greater delay would have had us all at the gate anyway after all of that… that scores of people in L.A. were inconvenienced significantly by a flight that was due before Midnight arriving just after 6am…
We walk away just happy it’s over… knowing it is also uncomfortable for the employees administering the situation… knowing that “acting out” would make fellow passengers uncomfortable as well (or free them of their fear of being “trouble makers”)… getting horrible service for our money… with no real recourse… with no real thanks or remuneration… when the weather was only the start of the problems and the airline acted badly…
As soon as I knew the plane would be delayed more than 4 hours, into the night, the only question I should have been asking myself was whether a good night’s sleep for me and the person waiting for me in L.A. was worth the financial and scheduling cost of changing flights TO ME, not to American Airlines. Instead, there was all this other stuff, while exhausted… while hungry… without services easily obtained…
I don’t want to linger in it… but I want to think about it… a lot. Because it is more than a delayed flight or 13 hours of my life or a listless Sunday caused by the limits of my endurance. These are the balances of daily living, writ large, if only for a half day.
Posted by dpoland at June 15, 2008 02:00 PM
Comments
in all sincerity, you acted a better person than i....and these situations are just going to get worse before they get better....
for fifteen years i traveled almost every week-end covering film and television but that stopped a couple of years ago when it just became more of a hassle than it was worth....
i just don't know how regular commuters do it anymore.....
congrats on getting through it....
Posted by: scooterzz ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at June 15, 2008 05:52 PM
American Airlines is the worst I've ever flown. And everytime I fly, some bad shit happens. I stopped flying them in 97 after the plane almost crashed and their shockingly lame response. They suck balls. Don't fly 'em, David. Ever.
Posted by: christian at June 15, 2008 06:43 PM
Just be grateful they didn't charge you an extra $20 for sitting in your seat beyond the allotted time.
Posted by: Cadavra at June 15, 2008 08:20 PM
I am not Swayed to belive scooterzz went out of town every weekend on junkets. Who does he think we think he is?
Posted by: T. Holly at June 15, 2008 11:29 PM
ah, but i did, t.holly...flew twa, never less than first class (and, if you flew first class, you got the chopper from jfk to 34th and the river for seventy-five bucks....jfk to the plaza/regency in 20 minutes).......
then twa died....did aa for a while...then jet blue.....
won't do it anymore....why would you doubt this?
Posted by: scooterzz at June 16, 2008 12:31 AM
being a royal butinski here, but...
who are you talking to, t. holly? who's 'we', the secret hot blog police? it's quite obvious, really; scoot is scooter with two zeds at the end and that's all your snarky little ass will ever know...(ok, retreating indignantly and sheepishly back into the shadows with my caucasian, burnt ass sufficiently soothed)
Posted by: leahnz at June 16, 2008 03:27 AM
I had a similar experience last year trying to get from Detroit to Charleston with Northwest Airlines. We sat on the tarmac outside the gate, waiting for two hours, the crew wearing false smiles and handing out cookies and water. We were finally told that the reason for the delay was that the baggage truck had dinged the plane, and technicians were trying to determine whether or not the plane was okay to fly. My immediate reaction, which was mirrored by approximately 100 percent of the passengers, was to demand a transfer to a different flight. There was no way I was going to fly in that plane after some coked-up moron got a little too careless with the baggage truck and smacked into the fuselage. After some deliberation, Northwest decided that it was not worth the risk, and moved us all into another plane. Of course, I missed my connection in Atlanta, and it ended up taking 14 hours to get from Detroit to Charleston - I should have rented a car. I felt great sympathy for the crew, though; I suspect they were a large reason why we did end up switching planes, because I'm sure they wouldn't have wanted to fly in a damaged plane either. The best part was that to make up for all the delays and stress, everybody got ten dollar food vouchers. Thanks, Northwest. I was able to buy one drink with that voucher, so yeah, that definitely made up for all the stupidity.
I fly JetBlue now, and so far I haven't had any problems. I just wish they would fly to more destinations, but I guess that's part of the problem - too many planes in the air, not enough available flight paths.
Posted by: grrbear at June 16, 2008 12:12 PM
grr -- i love jetblue also but both my partner's brother (a delta pilot) and a close friend (a flight attendant for alaska) are saying we should expect a grim announcement from jetblue in the not too distant future...
apparently, too much expansion in too short a time has them in a severe crunch.....
leah -- thanks for the assist....
Posted by: scooterzz at June 16, 2008 05:35 PM
de nada. during the day i'm mild-mannered reporter leah, but at night i'm 'supermouth' - defender of those who don't need my help in the slightest but get it regardless ;)
Posted by: leahnz at June 16, 2008 11:15 PM
Thanks scooterzz, I'm selling short.
Posted by: T. Holly at June 16, 2008 11:18 PM
Speaking of JetBlow: My fiancee and I got back in town from Las Vegas this morning at 10 a.m. Which wouldn't be bad if not for the fact that we should have gotten back at 5:45 this morning. The flight, which was supposed to fly out of McCarron at 1 a.m. (EST) didn't leave till 5:45 a.m. (or 2:45 in the morning, PST).
Given that I had a 10:30 meeting with one of my clients and my fiancee had to fly out to our old homestead in Indianapolis tomorrow in order to meet with her clients and sell our house, none of us were too pleased with the delays.
And sadly, air travel is going to get worse before it gets better. Too many airlines with too many systemic problems still around despite being too unprofitable to stay alive.
Posted by: Sevenmack at June 17, 2008 03:57 PM
Not to mention the jackbooted thugs in the TSA.
Posted by: Chucky in Jersey at June 17, 2008 05:21 PM
To paraphrase Jim Morrison, Southwest is the Best.
Posted by: christian at June 17, 2008 05:29 PM
Charles linking to Lew Rockwell? No wonder he's paranoid. Or does he link to it because he's paranoid? It makes little difference.
Posted by: Blackcloud at June 17, 2008 11:40 PM
Self-fulfilling prophecy.
Posted by: jeffmcm at June 18, 2008 01:38 AM
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