Re SWA:
We once took an extraordinarily brief flight (forget where) on SWA and the FA told us in advance "We won't have time to get up and move the snack cart around, so when we take off we need your help distributing the snacks. Take what you need and pass it back, quickly."
Well, OK. So we waited.
Pilot guns the engine, the plane starts accelerating, nose comes UP and the FA dumps the whole box of pretzels into the aisle yelling "GO GO, TAKE ONE AND PUSH THE REST BACK!" and as we nosed up with the acceleration the aisle became a big slide with the bags all flowing downhill. I could barely breathe from laughing as we all grabbed a bag and paddled the remainder towards the rear of the plane. BEST. TAKEOFF. EVAR.
Re SWA:
We once took an extraordinarily brief flight (forget where) on SWA and the FA told us in advance "We won't have time to get up and move the snack cart around, so when we take off we need your help distributing the snacks. Take what you need and pass it back, quickly."
Well, OK. So we waited.
Pilot guns the engine, the plane starts accelerating, nose comes UP and the FA dumps the whole box of pretzels into the aisle yelling "GO GO, TAKE ONE AND PUSH THE REST BACK!" and as we nosed up with the acceleration the aisle became a big slide with the bags all flowing downhill. I could barely breathe from laughing as we all grabbed a bag and paddled the remainder towards the rear of the plane. BEST. TAKEOFF. EVAR.
Re SWA:
We once took an extraordinarily brief flight (forget where) on SWA and the FA told us in advance "We won't have time to get up and move the snack cart around, so when we take off we need your help distributing the snacks. Take what you need and pass it back, quickly."
Well, OK. So we waited.
Pilot guns the engine, the plane starts accelerating, nose comes UP and the FA dumps the whole box of pretzels into the aisle yelling "GO GO, TAKE ONE AND PUSH THE REST BACK!" and as we nosed up with the acceleration the aisle became a big slide with the bags all flowing downhill. I could barely breathe from laughing as we all grabbed a bag and paddled the remainder towards the rear of the plane. BEST. TAKEOFF. EVAR.
Wow! As a former air traffic controller Iâd say either that biz jet was told to hold short of the runway & failed to do so, or the ground controller cleared it to cross with the SWA jet having been cleared to land and about to touch down. Hard to know without the controller tape but given how close local & ground controllers coordinate in the tower & how often I experienced business & general aviation pilots not following my instructions, my bet is on the biz jet crossing after being told to hold short at the intersection.
If that turns out to be what happened, that guy should never fly an airplane again.
Wow! As a former air traffic controller Iâd say either that biz jet was told to hold short of the runway & failed to do so, or the ground controller cleared it to cross with the SWA jet having been cleared to land and about to touch down. Hard to know without the controller tape but given how close local & ground controllers coordinate in the tower & how often I experienced business & general aviation pilots not following my instructions, my bet is on the biz jet crossing after being told to hold short at the intersection.
Taking a long weekend to burn up some e-credit with Delta... spent about a month planning before pulling the trigger because I will fly Delta, Justine will fly Southwest, we'll meet in Chicago at nearly the same time... and last night Delta sneaks an email through that they added some flights to their schedule and I've been rescheduled. To some of the most horrible options, because they're apparently not flying out of Midway as much as Ohare now that Covid is over? I dunno, but the only Midway flights had me landing at midnight after traveling all day, and leaving at 6 am to fly to Atlanta then SLC then Oakland and arriving at midnight. So I immediately hit their customer service link and the website wouldn't allow me to modify the flight and so I tried to cancel it and re-book but it wouldn't cancel so I got on the chat and it timed out after an hour so this morning I got up and called them and was told "wait time is approx. 4 hours. Well ha ha ha I had a project so I just put the phone on speaker and let it play muzak all morning... and I also loaded up the text chat window and was careful to keep it active so it wouldn't time out. Eventually "Portia" came on the text chat and boom boom boom changed my flights to something I could live with schedule-wise so we're back on! Woot! I fly into ORD and Justine flies into MDW but if everything clicks according to the timetables, we'll get off our respective trains a short walk from the Cloud Gate within 15 minutes of each other.
But the blues part comes in (well, hey, it's Chicago!) but no the blues is from the terrible night's sleep after trying to get the thing changed last night, then not sleeping after I gave up trying to change it and then listening to muzak on hold for about 2.5 hours this morning. Oy.
But hey, a vacation to someplace I've never been! Hooray! I've never even had a layover in Chicago.
Me mum lived in Michigan and I would often meet one of my siblings who was travelling from Ireland in Chicago. There's a lot to do there so we would lay over for a couple days before catching the bus or amtrak down to South Haven. I hope you have a great time there! Don't get lost and look both ways when you cross the street! Chitown! Yay!
Taking a long weekend to burn up some e-credit with Delta... spent about a month planning before pulling the trigger because I will fly Delta, Justine will fly Southwest, we'll meet in Chicago at nearly the same time... and last night Delta sneaks an email through that they added some flights to their schedule and I've been rescheduled. To some of the most horrible options, because they're apparently not flying out of Midway as much as Ohare now that Covid is over? I dunno, but the only Midway flights had me landing at midnight after traveling all day, and leaving at 6 am to fly to Atlanta then SLC then Oakland and arriving at midnight. So I immediately hit their customer service link and the website wouldn't allow me to modify the flight and so I tried to cancel it and re-book but it wouldn't cancel so I got on the chat and it timed out after an hour so this morning I got up and called them and was told "wait time is approx. 4 hours. Well ha ha ha I had a project so I just put the phone on speaker and let it play muzak all morning... and I also loaded up the text chat window and was careful to keep it active so it wouldn't time out. Eventually "Portia" came on the text chat and boom boom boom changed my flights to something I could live with schedule-wise so we're back on! Woot! I fly into ORD and Justine flies into MDW but if everything clicks according to the timetables, we'll get off our respective trains a short walk from the Cloud Gate within 15 minutes of each other.
But the blues part comes in (well, hey, it's Chicago!) but no the blues is from the terrible night's sleep after trying to get the thing changed last night, then not sleeping after I gave up trying to change it and then listening to muzak on hold for about 2.5 hours this morning. Oy.
But hey, a vacation to someplace I've never been! Hooray! I've never even had a layover in Chicago.
Sounds like a modern-day version of Job's travails or a sub-plot cut from Trains, Planes and Automobiles.
For your sins, Pat Robertson predicts you'll be stuck in a Subway Sandwich shop for the duration of your stay. Vaya con Dios, Scott!
Taking a long weekend to burn up some e-credit with Delta... spent about a month planning before pulling the trigger because I will fly Delta, Justine will fly Southwest, we'll meet in Chicago at nearly the same time... and last night Delta sneaks an email through that they added some flights to their schedule and I've been rescheduled. To some of the most horrible options, because they're apparently not flying out of Midway as much as Ohare now that Covid is over? I dunno, but the only Midway flights had me landing at midnight after traveling all day, and leaving at 6 am to fly to Atlanta then SLC then Oakland and arriving at midnight. So I immediately hit their customer service link and the website wouldn't allow me to modify the flight and so I tried to cancel it and re-book but it wouldn't cancel so I got on the chat and it timed out after an hour so this morning I got up and called them and was told "wait time is approx. 4 hours. Well ha ha ha I had a project so I just put the phone on speaker and let it play muzak all morning... and I also loaded up the text chat window and was careful to keep it active so it wouldn't time out. Eventually "Portia" came on the text chat and boom boom boom changed my flights to something I could live with schedule-wise so we're back on! Woot! I fly into ORD and Justine flies into MDW but if everything clicks according to the timetables, we'll get off our respective trains a short walk from the Cloud Gate within 15 minutes of each other.
But the blues part comes in (well, hey, it's Chicago!) but no the blues is from the terrible night's sleep after trying to get the thing changed last night, then not sleeping after I gave up trying to change it and then listening to muzak on hold for about 2.5 hours this morning. Oy.
But hey, a vacation to someplace I've never been! Hooray! I've never even had a layover in Chicago.
One more reason United sucks. They've found a way to force you to pay for even a carry-on bag now. "Basic Economy" only allows a personal carry-on bag/purse, you board last, no changes to schedule. No luggage, unless you check it and pay. If you want to do the "Standard Econonmy" it's the fare plus $30.
For that kind of money, they could have chartered a plane if only they knew where to find such a thing. And it's 300 miles! Stick 'em in a limo, they'll be door to door in about the same amount of time.
This whole thing is a common sense/critical thinking disaster. If those goons didn't think for a second that the hundred or so people sitting there playing with their phones were going to make this a pr nightmare, then some on the flight crew should have been able to step in and say "uh, we need to find a better solution here". Honestly it baffles me that people don't think in terms of "how will this play on facebook?" as a matter of course.
For that kind of money, they could have chartered a plane if only they knew where to find such a thing. And it's 300 miles! Stick 'em in a limo, they'll be door to door in about the same amount of time.
they do try to make it fun! 
