We were trying to catch our cruise ship after missing the sailing out of San Juan.
We go to San Juan, went to the airport and found a small airline going to what ever island (I forget).
A beautiful red head sold me my $99 ticket.
She took my bags and put it on the plane.
Now time to fly, I get on the DC8 and SHE WAS THE PILOT.
We never got above 500 feet. She said we just got new engines and I don't want them to rip out of the wings.
Strange experiences we all have.
I went from Nome to Port Clarence on a local carrier...I can't remember who or what type of aircraft now. Small twin engine Cessna or Beechcraft.
While we're waiting and they're weighing us and our bags, we're watching a mechanic working on the plane...pounding on something under the cowling.
He finally wipes his hands off, takes off the coveralls, walks in and asks us if we're ready. He was the pilot. I loved it...my partner was a little less enthused.
Eastern... I used to fly them from DC to Asuncion, Paraguay: 24 hours, with stops in Miami, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Paraguay, finally.
Competition finally killed this awful route. AA switched it to DC-Miami-Paraguay, or one stop in Brazil. The competition picked up, and there was real service, real price pressure on an otherwise unheard of route. Ironically or not, the exact same thing happened with deregulation in the U.S.
Oh, and when American Air picked up the pieces, they found loads of coke hidden in all kinds of places in the old Eastern airplanes.