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.
Dao, his wife and two other passengers were asked to leave the aircraft because the flight was full and four crew members needed their seats so they could be in Louisville the next day for a “downline connection.” The airline had offered compensation worth up to $800 for passengers to give up their seats, but no one took the offer.
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 could offer a $100.00 tab at one of the airport bars.
yeah they could
from the cj/usa today
Dao, his wife and two other passengers were asked to leave the aircraft because the flight was full and four crew members needed their seats so they could be in Louisville the next day for a “downline connection.” The airline had offered compensation worth up to $800 for passengers to give up their seats, but no one took the offer.
i was always offered a bonus of some sort when asked to re-book
but it i think it was always before boarding
still i would have announced to the plane "due to an administrative miscalculation we're overbooked and we can't leave until this is squared away"
"the next flight to powell wyoming leaves in 2 hours and we're offering a free round trip ticket for future travel anywhere we fly to the first four people who take advantage of this"
or something like that
They could offer a $100.00 tab at one of the airport bars.
Too lazy (no offense) to look for a citation, but this whole episode got off to a bad start when they announced "4 people have to get off this plane and we're not leaving until that happens." Which is absolutely correct, but if you want to see a whole planeload of people set their jaw, that's a good way to go.
i was always offered a bonus of some sort when asked to re-book
but it i think it was always before boarding
still i would have announced to the plane "due to an administrative miscalculation we're overbooked and we can't leave until this is squared away"
"the next flight to powell wyoming leaves in 2 hours and we're offering a free round trip ticket for future travel anywhere we fly to the first four people who take advantage of this"
Too lazy (no offense) to look for a citation, but this whole episode got off to a bad start when they announced "4 people have to get off this plane and we're not leaving until that happens." Which is absolutely correct, but if you want to see a whole planeload of people set their jaw, that's a good way to go.
Like, to go on vacation? They just felt like flying somewhere, so we paid our customers $800 each (on top of booking another seat for them) so we could be nice to our staff, right?
Right?
I get it. they're evil capitalists, and you hate them. But try and think this situation thru about two minutes longer.
The "staff" were aircrews. They don't get where they're going and a whole flight—not just four seats—gets refunds. and they don't get where they're going.
Airline employees (and an awful lot of the people you see at airports doing the work of keeping airplanes flying are not employees, they're contractors—a consequence of union pay scales and work rules) often get free air travel, but they fly standby. They're the last in line for seats, paying customers go first. If an airline bumps a paying passenger to fly someone somewhere it's the last option on their list. It costs them money.
United is everybody's least favorite airline (mine included) because they treat customers so poorly, but this isn't a good example. They screwed up by boarding the plane before bumping people, but three out of the four they bumped got off without being drug off by cops. And at least two of the people who ejected the passenger were cops, not airline employees. the last time I saw something like this (about three years ago) the airline also called cops. They handled it better (Portland, OR rather than Chicago) but the passenger was given a choice between walking off the airplane or leaving in handcuffs.
I want to say something about the passenger as well. What did he think would happen? That the airline would say "Oh, never mind—he doesn't want to give up his seat. His trip must be more important than the entire plane full of people who won't get to make their trips if we can't get our crew to them. Just leave him on the plane"? What other instructions is he not expected to follow?
But at least they got the overbooking part right. Gotta give the memesmith credit for that.
Thanks, I'm going to put this on my to-do list tomorrow.
BTW, we chatted in the U2 thread about a month ago about their new album. Once Spotify had it, I listened - and liked! Definitely gets better with repeated listens.
Yeah, I checked the Christmas Day options when I was looking last year. The pricing was about the same as the immediate days before Christmas. Airlines just don't seem to offer deals any more.
This is a reminder that I need to start looking for tickets. I waited too long last year, and I sure paid for it.
Southwest seems to have the lowest prices these days.
Thanks - last time I checked Christmas Day (I checked all the holidays) it wasn't that low. But then, I didn't check the next state. Just Cinci and Columbus.
Yeah, I checked the Christmas Day options when I was looking last year. The pricing was about the same as the immediate days before Christmas. Airlines just don't seem to offer deals any more.
This is a reminder that I need to start looking for tickets. I waited too long last year, and I sure paid for it.
Southwest seems to have the lowest prices these days.
to look for a citation, but this whole episode got off to a bad start when they announced "4 people have to get off this plane and we're not leaving until that happens." Which is absolutely correct, but if you want to see a whole planeload of people set their jaw, that's a good way to go.
