Kerry & Edwards were playing 'touch' football??
Take a breath. Two lines of thunderstorms came up in the afternoon - one from northeast of chicago through central indiana, and one from Grand rapids down towards dayton. This make it next to impossible to get any air traffic eastbound, and all mdw (I don't know the O'Hare status then)traffic was ground-stopped due to weather. Ask me how i know :-)
United may have handled the aftermath of your flight differently, but they're not out to get you. This sort of stuff costs them tons of money. Planes can't fly through thunderstorms.
The easiest way to check on the atc status is via the FAA's site www.fly.faa.gov where you will get a real-time update on any ground stops. It's a little tricky when you're on a plane, but if it makes you feel any better, try calling a friend who is online. Just remember that what the site reports is a snapshot of current delays and not a forecast.
WOW! You were in a 707?
Haven't seen one of those babies since I was in Miami in '94.
It wasn't "weather related" it was "whether related." "Whether" it would make it or not.
WOW! You were in a 707?
Haven't seen one of those babies since I was in Miami in '94.
It wasn't "weather related" it was "whether related." "Whether" it would make it or not.
I flew into O'Hare in the 1980's and our plane has to circle the airport for nearly an hour while a severe weather system cleared out of the area. Outside the windows we could see other planes lined up and circling like lost birds. Lightning was flashing all around the plane and the clouds would turn bright pink when another blast went off.
Hint: Severe weather near Chicago may be avoided by taking another airline.
Funny thing is, I was in Illinois Friday, driving across mid-IL to Hannibal, and could see very dark skies north of us.
Why is that funny? Because I live in GA, and had never been to IL before last week, but here's your thread, and there I was.
funny
The airline isn't doing this (making you wait) of its own volition, and the 4+ hours you were stuck on the ground are a nightmare for everybody on their side of the deal, too. In fact, if your flight had any chance to make money, that hold erased it just for what the extra cost of wages was (pilots and FAs are hourly employees -- most travellers assume they're salaried). I don't know what equipment you were on (it wasn't a 707 -- those antiques are hauling cargo around the third world, or being converted into pots and pans by scrap dealers). But assuming the usual domestic 737 with two pilots and four FAs the airline probably ate $12,000 in salary and bennies on your flight. You know what you paid for a ticket and how many people were on the plane -- now you see why United is financially paws up?
If the hold had been longer, it would have been worse (for you and the airline) because they would have had to call in another crew. Since fatigue has been cited as a causal factor in accidents, strict crew rest and duty hours rules have come into effect. If they call in a reserve crew, they wind up paying two crews... plus you have to wait while the reserve crew briefs-in on the flight. FAs can pretty much step into the position cold, but pilots have to know certain facts about the plane, the weather and the route before they go.
One thing the lines have done to make better on time stats, as these holds become longer and more frequent, is increase the "official" length of legs by anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour. People are more concerned about arriving when they are promised, than about how much time it takes to fly.
The one thing the captain might have done to make your long stay on the tarmac more palatable is to permit a beverage service. The problem with that is, if the controllers tell him "OK, roll" when the service is ongoing, he has to say, "stand by" while the FAs put the carts away, winkle out any pax who have gone into the lavatories, and get everybody (including the FAs) belted in again. If he's not ready to roll when the controller green-lights him, he may have to say, "unable," and then somebody else goes and he winds up, if he's unlucky, at the back of the queue again.
The bottom line is: more people flying, and paying less, means that flying will be more congested and more hassle. Most people buying airline tickets are bottom feeders price wise. Most people will not spend $50 extra for a direct flight, but they will bitch forever about the airline that "forces" them to change planes. Therefore, very few airlines try to sell service and those that do (Midwest Express, for one) usually go blooey.
The way I see this shaking out is with two or three big bankruptcies, and then the market settling on higher prices. I'm not suggesting airline execs are blameless for the bankruptcies, the majors (especially American and United) have been run by inept kleptocracies for years.
But a nightmare like you had could happen to pax on any line -- even the best run (in the USA, probably Southwest, still).
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
I rarely encounter problems on departure. My problems usually occur on arrival. 3 times in the last year (out of 5 trips), we take off on time, but on landing, we sit in front of the gate for half an hour waiting for someone to direct the plane to the jetway. Were we not expected? Or did we just land at a bad time?
Also, I consider all domestic airlines equally bad, so it doesn't really matter to me who I fly. However, I will NEVER take a flight which connects through Kansas City. Last December, I gatechecked my carry-on, since the first leg was on a tiny Canadair plane. When we arrived, they sent all gatechecked luggage through with the rest of the baggage! So, I had to go outside the secured boarding area to get my carryon, then come back through security to wait for my next leg.
They kidnap you to the tarmac so that you can not take a competitors flight to your destination.
I would like to know how you got stuck on a "707" when no domestic passenger carrier has used them in over 15 years. Were you in a time warp too?
I've flown into and out of O'Hare every month for 2 years. My flights are rarely on time. After a while, you just expect it.
Let me tell you my sorry tale about why the Mrs. and I will never fly United!
We were flying back to Harrisburg from the left coast. (This was back in summer of 1995.)
We were an hour late taking off from Portland Oregon (due to the weather!) and by the time we landed in O’Hare we had 20 minutes to get from one end of the airport to the other to make our connecting flight. Which the overhead monitors assured us was “on schedule”!
Well we made it, and arrived at the gate, huffing and puffing only to find out that our connecting flight was still circling high overhead and couldn’t land because there was a “disabled” plane at the gate. Why they couldn’t land our plane at another empty gate or tow the disabled plane somewhere else was anybody’s guess but that’s the story we were told by the gate attendant.
Finally, after 1 ½ hours, they towed the disabled plane to parts unknown and permitted our plane to land.
They un-boarded (it that a word?) the plane and then announced over the PA system that they would begin boarding as soon as they get the plane cleaned and re-stocked.
Another hour later, they finally announced that our flight was ready for boarding. It is now 11PM (Chicago time) and we were supposed to have landed in Harrisburg two hours ago.
We got settled into our seats and taxied out to the waiting line for take-off. The pilot announced that we were 14th in line and it should only be about a 30 minute wait. True to his word, 28 minutes later, he announced that we were next in line and would the flight attendants please be seated for take-off.
We then taxied out onto the runway, straightened out and just as you heard the engines start to rev up for take off….
The plane goes completely DEAD! no power, no engines, no lights, NO NUTHIN! The co-pilot comes back and announces that we have had a major power failure (no DUH!) and that a ground crew will arrive shortly to fix the problem. Meanwhile, there we are, dead on the runway, traffic building up behind us and not so much as a wisp of air circulating in the fully booked aircraft cabin.
The ground crew does indeed board the plane and proceed to “fix” the problem.
THREE HOURS LATER!!! (I’m not kidding!) The ground crew announces that they are unable to fix the problem and they will have to have this plane towed back to the gate. Amidst groans (and I’m sure plenty of cheers from the passengers in the planes behind us!) they proceed to do so. When we get back to the gate and are connected to gate power again, the flight attendant announces that we will unload from this plane and immediately board an identical plane at the very next gate.
Surprise! Surprise! We do so and in record time no less!
However, the attendant then announces that the flight crew from our old plane had to be “de-briefed” and would not be flying with us on to Harrisburg. Unfortunately, our replacement flight crew was “stuck in traffic” (At 3 in the morning!!!!!) and hadn’t arrived at the terminal yet! So we will have a “short” delay while we wait for the replacement crew to arrive.
Two hours later, our crew finally arrives, we pull away from the gate and taxi out to the waiting line. Then, the pilot announces that “due to a previously disabled plane, blocking the runway earlier this evening” (DUH, I wonder which plane that might have been) our wait in line may be as long an hour.
Finally, at 6:00 AM (Chicago time) we lift off the tarmac and land in Harrisburg an hour later at 6:00 AM (Harrisburg time.)
We were supposed to land in Harrisburg at 10:00 PM the previously evening and we finally made it 8 HOURS later.
What made matters even worse was the attitude of the United employees. No remorse, no apology, NO NUTHIN! It’s as if this was standard operating procedures for United Airlines!
Well, like I said, the Mrs. and I have NEVER flown on United since and we NEVER will!
It might be a Chicago problem. The last two times I had Southwest flights delayed they were coming out of Chicago.
As a few others have already said, I wouldn't be suprised if there was a weather system that was out there impacting your flight. I had a similar experience, though, in the middle of summer at one of the airports in New York while flying Delta. In that case, we were on the tarmac, the plane was turning into an oven, and the stewardesses were up handing out water to the pax as fast as we could drink it. I wasn't too happy about the situation, but at least the crew left me with the impression that they weren't necessarily enjoying our suffering.
That having been said, the domestic carriers can't really even spell "customer service". If you want a real shock, travel into the country on an airline like Singapore Airlines, and then connect to a cross-US flight on, say, Delta. I was on Raffles/Business class for both legs, and while the Singapore Girls went out of their way to cater to my every need (for the 20+ hours we were cocooned in the plane), the only difference I could detect between Business/First class on Delta and the cattle class was that we got a larger seat and a free beer. Two free beers if you were lucky enough to get a stewardess to notice that you were trying to get her attention. Pathetic.
This was also United.
YMMV
Greyhound.
One day, though, after the plane we were supposed to fly arrived very late, we begged the folks to just let us get on and take off because we could see the storm coming toward us. They said "no, we have to clean the plane." We all yelled "we don't care! Let's go! Do you see that big cloud coming at us?!"
Well, rules are rules. They cleaned the plane, delaying us an additional 20 minutes. We boarded, and sat there while the storm came overhead. They evacuated the tower and the ground crew, moved everyone away from the windows inside, and left us on the plane while a tornado marched across the tarmac. That took hours to unscrew.
Oh, yes, it was United. Government contract carrier.