I Hate Winter Travel

[Randy]

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Here I am again, cooling my heels (literally) in an airport after having yet another flight cancelled because of ice, snow or who knows what else.

Last week I got done about 11AM Friday in San Jose and couldn't fly out until 7:30AM on Saturday to Dallas. Upon getting to Dallas all flights to home and anyplace reasonably close were cancelled because of the ice ( I couldn't even rent a car a drive the 300 miles home because of ice in Oklahoma). I finally got home on Sunday after spending a rough night at a local Hilton (well not really rough)

Here I am today, sitting at Dulles, my original flight to Dallas cancelled and instead of getting home at 10AM it will be nearly 5PM if all goes well (thank goodness for the Admirals Club and my 1st Class seat)

Of course there is now my flight tomorrow to Atlanta at 10AM which will be at the mercy of the weather.

Anybody else having fun this year?

 

[Colin]

Sorry to hear of your woes Randy, I hate having flights delayed and/or cancelled.

We have had a few stormy days in the UK this week, no snow yet but 100mph winds which brought chaos to our roads. Almost all of the country was affected and most of the motorways were closed at 1 place or another.

I had a 60 mile journey take 3 hours and my niece took 6 hours to travel 100 miles.

 

[Randy]

Continuation of my saga today...

I arrived in Dallas according to my new schedule with a planned flight out of here at 3PM and what do I discover? The next scheduled flight for home is still at the gate (12 noon) and I'm only 31 gates away (I'm actually at D20 and the flight is at B11) and there is still 15 minutes of boarding time left..

I hustle thru the terminal (I weigh about 270 (or 130+ kilos for the rest of the world) so people are very happy to get out of my path.

I arrive at the gate, the agent is there, the door is open, I walk up and ask "Are the open seats on the plane" he says "Yes" and starts typing at his terminal....I'm going home. He types for about 2 minutes, walks over to the door, closes it, comes back to the counter and proudly tells me "I just closed the flight" :mg:

I don't say a word, I don't give an ugly stare, I just downcast and broken resign myself to my fate and head to the Admirals Club for an afternoon period of gluttony of free Coke and pretzels.

 

[Wes Bucey]

For a large part of my early career, I was literally a ROAD warrior, putting a 100,000+ miles a year on Oldsmobiles and Buicks from Canada to Mexico and two or more states east and west of the Mississippi (Minnesota & Dakotas on North, Texas & Louisiana on the South. Cross the river and do Mississippi, Alabama, etc. on up to Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan)

I used to pack survival gear, camping gear, tools, etc. and often got stranded by snow, floods, fog and many times I was the Samaritan who helped other folks less prepared. This was all before CB radios and cell phones, so even getting caught in a minor snowdrift could be a life-threatening experience for some folks unaccustomed to winter driving in the upper midwest. Many of the north-south interstates were not continuous and rarely were service stations open past dark in most of the small towns up and down the routes.

I would have loved to sit on my duff in a warm airport lounge like the Admiral's Club or the Red Carpet Club, calling wife, coworkers and friends on my cell phone and amusing myself with the internet or a DVD of a recent movie.

My advice, Gyrene, is suck it up and save the complaint for something serious like the lounge running out of liquor or cappucino.

 

[DannyK]

I got stranded at the Philadelphia airport in December. The flight was scheduled for 8:15 PM and got delayed up until 1:45 AM. At that time, we were informed that the flight was cancelled and we should make alternate arrangements.

All the hotels nearby were completely booked so I had to sleep in the airport. I only got onto a flight at 4:00 PM the next day to head home.

Danny

 

[SteelMaiden]

Let me just say that I do not do much travel for work...but I hate air travel anyway. I feel bad for all of you who do it regularly. If God wanted me to fly, he would have given me wings.

 

[Randy]

. If God wanted me to fly, he would have given me wings.

If he had meant me to fly he wouldn't have created weekend travelers and tourists

 

[Laura M]

Continuation of my saga today...

I arrived in Dallas according to my new schedule with a planned flight out of here at 3PM and what do I discover? The next scheduled flight for home is still at the gate (12 noon) and I'm only 31 gates away (I'm actually at D20 and the flight is at B11) and there is still 15 minutes of boarding time left..

I hustle thru the terminal (I weigh about 270 (or 130+ kilos for the rest of the world) so people are very happy to get out of my path.

I arrive at the gate, the agent is there, the door is open, I walk up and ask "Are the open seats on the plane" he says "Yes" and starts typing at his terminal....I'm going home. He types for about 2 minutes, walks over to the door, closes it, comes back to the counter and proudly tells me "I just closed the flight" :mg:

I don't say a word, I don't give an ugly stare, I just downcast and broken resign myself to my fate and head to the Admirals Club for an afternoon period of gluttony of free Coke and pretzels.

WHAT? He closed the flight while you were standing there? That sounds like a customer complaint and some extra frequent flyer miles to me. Although you probably don't even use all your miles as much as you travel.

 

[Randy]

I'm serious, the guy must have thought I was taking an inventory of empty seats or something.

I was too tired to get upset.

 

[Laura M]

See, as an auditor, you need to ask the right question. You asked 'are there seats open?' and he said 'yes.' You didn't ask if you can have one!!!!!