Travel nightmare

For those folks who fly frequently, here's a video about a delayed Delta flight and the appalling lack of customer service.

http://dallasmorningviews.beloblog.com/archives/2007/06/how_bad_was_it.html

And, thankfully I was not on the flight.

 

That is crazy. I love how a Delta agent told the guy's wife the plane had already landed at DFW, even though it was still at JFK. Also, Delta refusing to serve food because that flight wasn't scheduled to have food, even though its customers had been stuck in a plane for 7 hours on the tarmac.

 

i would have done something to spend the night in jail at about the 4 hour mark of being on the ground. anything has to be better than sitting on a plane that long (without actually moving).

 

i was on a jammed coast to coast flight that was diverted at the last minute from San Francisco to Oakland because of high winds and rain just south of SFO

we were already a couple hours late and had been on the plane for seven hours or so when we landed in Oakland. there wasn't a gate for us though, so we had to wait on the plane - an absolutely packed 737 - another 90 minutes until we could take off for the five-minute hop across the bay.

those 90 minutes in Oakland were scary because a handful of people were getting claustrophobic to the point of near panic

there was no food, no water, no way off the plane, nowhere to even walk around. I didn't really give a damn because I had a few bottles of water, a spare battery for my laptop and a Sunday takeout to finish. But I really felt for those people. Tough situation.

 

Man, I thought my flight last week with Jabba the Hut in the window seat was bad. This dude's gut was touching the seat in front of him.

I still don't understand why airlines don't require morbidly obese people to buy two seats. The flight was full, so I couldn't switch to another seat. I should have gotten 1/2 off the flight, since I had to sit at a 45-degree angle in my chair and lean out into the aisle so we could both sit in that row.

 

I didn't watch the whole movie, but if everything was accurate, Delta's treatment of their customers is reprehensible.

According to some pilot blogs I've read, the crews can do up to four flights in a day. So if this was their final flight, it's not surprising they had to get a relief crew on board.

JFK's traffic is notoriously bad, in no small part (I'd guess) due to the large volume of heavy jets taking off bound for far-flung destinations. If you're on a 737 and say a 747 or A340 is taking off in front of you, you've got a several-minute waiting before you get takeoff clearance because of wake turbulence.

And once you push back, you're kind of stuck. If traffic is severely backed up, you have to wait in line. If you return to the gate, you'll probably lose your takeoff slot and get pushed to the back of the line.

That being said, surely someone at Delta could have found a way to get provisions on that plane. If you're sitting on a taxiway not going anywhere, surely you can get some terminal-bound crew to bring something. (I heard audio transmissions of a Lufthansa flight, I believe, who thought there might be something wrong with their aircraft. The pilot requested, and got permission, to get a ladder to walk outside the plane and check to see what the malfunction was. If that's possible, I don't think it's impossible to get some water, at the very least, aboard.)

 

I got claustrophobic just watching the video.

What a nightmare. One more reason to really not want to fly.