irrational fear of flying

[htwoopup]

Jet Blue. Schedule a pilot with 7 hours until he limits out to fly a 6 hour flight? Mechanical delays. Taxi. Mechanical delays. Need to refuel. Don’t cancel for 6 more hours. Everyone takes their name tags off and claims ignorance of what is going to happen and when. Reboard and unload 3 times. Do this until the cabin crew times out because they won’t be legal to fly the return flight but the pilots they finally found can stay at the destination. Then you say not our fault because 15 minutes or so of the 6 hour delay were a weather created taxi to a different runway. We’ll give you a credit that expires in 12 months from the date you booked it. Everyone from Jet Blue leaves the airport. But not before saying the luggage will be on a carousel a quarter of a mile from the one you put it on? When the pax goes to rebook the app is down as is the website is down for scheduled maintenance. When the pax calls the 800 number they are advised there is a 25 per person charge to take to a human. And the wait time is 390 minutes. Sorry you are doing things perfected by Spirit and you haven’t even bought them.

Never will they be in the consideration set.

A shame my pregnant daughter couldn’t take it any more and her toddler was not handling the experience with a smile.

Thankfully, American got me to my step-daughter’s wedding by the ceremony although I did miss the whole day before. My daughter stayed home as we had done 12 hours from leaving the apartment to heads on the pillow back at the apartment at 2 am.

I had a career of thousands of flights and millions of miles. This was the single worst experience and none of the others came close to this one.

As I said, a shame they used to be a great line but no longer an option in my family.

[Chik]

Jet Blue. Schedule a pilot with 7 hours until he limits out to fly a 6 hour flight? Mechanical delays. Taxi. Mechanical delays. Need to refuel. Don’t cancel for 6 more hours. Everyone takes their name tags off and claims ignorance of what is going to happen and when. Reboard and unload 3 times. Do this until the cabin crew times out because they won’t be legal to fly the return flight but the pilots they finally found can stay at the destination. Then you say not our fault because 15 minutes or so of the 6 hour delay were a weather created taxi to a different runway. We’ll give you a credit that expires in 12 months from the date you booked it. Everyone from Jet Blue leaves the airport. But not before saying the luggage will be on a carousel a quarter of a mile from the one you put it on? When the pax goes to rebook the app is down as is the website is down for scheduled maintenance. When the pax calls the 800 number they are advised there is a 25 per person charge to take to a human. And the wait time is 390 minutes. Sorry you are doing things perfected by Spirit and you haven’t even bought them.

Never will they be in the consideration set.

A shame my pregnant daughter couldn’t take it any more and her toddler was not handling the experience with a smile.

Thankfully, American got me to my step-daughter’s wedding by the ceremony although I did miss the whole day before. My daughter stayed home as we had done 12 hours from leaving the apartment to heads on the pillow back at the apartment at 2 am.

I had a career of thousands of flights and millions of miles. This was the single worst experience and none of the others came close to this one.

As I said, a shame they used to be a great line but no longer an option in my family.

Wow, that's bad.

I once sat in the plane for something like 4 hours at JFK on a NRT-bound Northwest flight only to be told that they need to postpone the flight until the next day, but it was all because of the weather so it wasn't the airline's fault. It did get a little uncomfortable sitting on the tarmac for so long but wasn't too bad. It did throw a spanner into my work schedule in Tokyo, but it wasn't anything unmanageable.

[echappist]

Jet Blue. Schedule a pilot with 7 hours until he limits out to fly a 6 hour flight? Mechanical delays. Taxi. Mechanical delays. Need to refuel. Don’t cancel for 6 more hours.

Ooph, that is awful. I'm sorry to hear you and your daughter had to sit through this.

Leaving margins so little only so they could try to squeeze a bit more profit. What a cynical exercise in dereliction of duty.

The tag removal part is really disingenuous and comes across as extremely disrespectful, insult to injury.

I hope someone on the flight holds JetBlue accountable for all this shenanigan...

[rwsaunders]

No mechanical issues noted for Putin's and Kim's respective trains on their way for a summit in Vladivostok...

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/11/11987...h-korea-russia

[72gmc]

I hope someone on the flight holds JetBlue accountable for all this shenanigan...

As ever, one would probably have to bring it to the attention of a media outlet before the airline would "realize" it "made a mistake"

(if the paywall gets in your way--linked story is a letter from a Boy Scout leader whose troop was stranded by Jet Blue, told they had to wait 5 days for the next flight despite indicating their willingness to accept flights to alternate destinations, and then chose the refund and drove across multiple states to get home. Jet Blue only provided an 18% refund, and refused to budge until the NY Times called their spokesperson)

[echappist]

As ever, one would probably have to bring it to the attention of a media outlet before the airline would "realize" it "made a mistake"

(if the paywall gets in your way--linked story is a letter from a Boy Scout leader whose troop was stranded by Jet Blue, told they had to wait 5 days for the next flight despite indicating their willingness to accept flights to alternate destinations, and then chose the refund and drove across multiple states to get home. Jet Blue only provided an 18% refund, and refused to budge until the NY Times called their spokesperson)

Article is from early August, so obviously nothing has changed.

On the one hand, I get the frustration of the employees who took off their name tags: corporate put them into a shyte and untenable position. On the other hand, a bit of empathy goes a long way, and taking off the tag just seem to be such a spiteful move.

Of course, the real ire and spite should be aimed at the corporate big-wigs. It would be nice if something comparable to EU261 could be implemented in the U.S.

[72gmc]

On the one hand, I get the frustration of the employees who took off their name tags: corporate put them into a shyte and untenable position. On the other hand, a bit of empathy goes a long way, and taking off the tag just seem to be such a spiteful move.

When I read this in Jon's initial post, it reminded me of the stories of Carnival cruise line employees who ghosted ship guests during extended breakdowns, forcing paying customers to fend for themselves.

[rwsaunders]

Airport success story…post the good with the bad. Our oldest was in Geneva and the surrounds for a wedding and some hiking a few weeks back, and she connected from Seattle through Heathrow. Somewhere through security at LHR, she lost her watch, which we gave her a dozen or so years ago. Mondaine…official watch of Swiss Railways et al…and she was really bummed, as she was excited to take a photo with a clock at a railroad station…family inside humor.

She filed a claim with the lost and found department at LHR, not expecting to hear a peep and lo and behold, they responded with specific questions pertaining to the claim. Fast forward a few weeks and it’s back on the arm of the young lady in the emerald city, and ready for her next trip. Shout out to the folks at LHR and there’s hope in this world.

[vertical_doug]

LHR is actually pretty good about lost and found if you lose it near security. One of my colleagues had a iPhone returned two years ago.

[bigbill]

My wife and I are considering a trip to Rome in Spring 2024. It's been ten years since my last trip to Rome, but from what I learned last time, KLM is the way to go. In 2007, I flew round trip from Rome to the East Coast monthly. I had to be in DC, so I'd connect to Reagan. American, US Air, and Delta. They could all learn from KLM. The other thing I learned was to fly to Amsterdam and connect to Rome. The Dutch are far better at immigration than the Italians.

[Jess Couch]

My wife and I are considering a trip to Rome in Spring 2024. It's been ten years since my last trip to Rome, but from what I learned last time, KLM is the way to go. In 2007, I flew round trip from Rome to the East Coast monthly. I had to be in DC, so I'd connect to Reagan. American, US Air, and Delta. They could all learn from KLM. The other thing I learned was to fly to Amsterdam and connect to Rome. The Dutch are far better at immigration than the Italians.

I've done Dallas to Rome twice this year. Immigration through Rome was a breeze and fast. I have no idea how KLM compares to the rest of the providers, but for sure speed Dallas to Rome is super convenient for someone in AZ.

[Saab2000]

I've done Dallas to Rome twice this year. Immigration through Rome was a breeze and fast. I have no idea how KLM compares to the rest of the providers, but for sure speed Dallas to Rome is super convenient for someone in AZ.

American Airlines? Long flight……

[72gmc]

The other thing I learned was to fly to Amsterdam and connect to Rome. The Dutch are far better at immigration than the Italians.

Wife and kid connected through CDG for their trip to central Europe this summer. Wife's report: never again. Amsterdam from now on. I'm good with that.

[bigbill]

American Airlines? Long flight……

I flew KLM from DFW to Amsterdam, did immigration, and then flew to Rome on a domestic KLM flight. The times when I flew to Rome from JFK, Philly, Cincinnati, and Chicago, immigration was a cluster upon arrival at Rome. I learned to flag down an Italian military member to walk me through and avoid the sea of humanity. Amsterdam uses immigration to control the flow of people through security, which makes it all run smoother. Slow is fast.

[j44ke]

We used to travel through CDG from the US to Prague when we lived there, and if you arrived at 11AM and left at 1PM, you could almost guarantee that your bags would not reach Prague when you did.

Most mayhem in an airport was Reykjavik. All the flights from Europe arrived at the same time and unloaded loads of through passengers to the US. The airport's answer was to have hundreds of young Icelanders yelling "This way" "That way" "Follow me" etc. herding various groups like border collies moving sheep into paddocks and keeping everyone from bolting in a panic. Well most everybody. But as far as mayhem goes, which it was, it was a rather gentle mayhem. Mild panic. Panic-less panic.

[72gmc]

We used to travel through CDG from the US to Prague when we lived there, and if you arrived at 11AM and left at 1PM, you could almost guarantee that your bags would not reach Prague when you did.

Change Prague to Vienna and this is exactly what happened to my wife and kid. Good thing there’s an H&M in Vienna.

[Dave Thompson]

I just returned from the IronMan World Championships in Nice, France. Flew Spokane-Atlanta-Amsterdam-Nice. Returned Nice-Paris-Seattle-Spokane. No delays, missed connections, lost baggage, snafus, cock-ups…nothing. Perfect all the way. What’s wrong with me?

[Tom]

Flew into Dublin this week. Couldn't have been smoother. The only issue seems to be that every Dubliner we meet gets to talking and tells us all about the best pubs and museums to go to and if we go to a touristy pub which door to use so we duck the main touristy room and the backstory on the farmers market street and you get the idea. I think they see first time visiting tourists and feel sorry for us and we need guidance. Now its tough because we have too many things we can't miss this week!

[72gmc]

I just returned from the IronMan World Championships in Nice, France. Flew Spokane-Atlanta-Amsterdam-Nice. Returned Nice-Paris-Seattle-Spokane. No delays, missed connections, lost baggage, snafus, cock-ups…nothing. Perfect all the way. What’s wrong with me?

They know who you are.

We’ve talked about trying a Dublin connection for flights to Europe. An Irish neighbor says good things about Aer Lingus when we meet at the coffee shop.

[Jess Couch]

American Airlines? Long flight……

Yes, AA direct. Rome to Dallas and back