Putting Air Travel Complaints in Context

In article ,
Tchiowa wrote:

Haven't had a delay more than an hour except in Bangladesh.

I encounter substantial delays on almost 1/4 of my flights, and
looking at the on-time arrival statistics, my experience is typical.
Yours isn't.

Haven't had a cancelled flight in over a decade.

I run into canceled flights (especially on commuter / express
operations) at least twice a year.

Hours-long takeoff delays due to airport and air route traffic jams

Never.

Maybe it's not busy in Bangladesh, but at an airport like EWR (and
avoiding EWR is not an option, not for those of us who have to travel
to New York), an hour-long takeoff wait is a routine occurrence.

Once, AF diverted from Paris to Lyons.

Try flying to a megahub like DFW when it gets hit by bad weather.

But those system-wide problems are relatively rare. Most of the
passenger complaints are around service, seat comfort, etc.

I hardly ever hear complaints about service and seat comfort (except in
coach on European airlines, where both service and comfort are worse
than atrocious). What people do complain about is endless delays,
which affect everybody equally - in economy or in business.

I don't drink. But by arriving early, neither do I get stressed in the
security line when there are 50 people ahead of me and my flight is
leaving in 20 minutes.

Use the elite line

And I have seen many examples where the "last person to check in"
didn't make through security and took the next flight.

In years of 100K-miles-per-year flying, I was the last person on board
dozens of times. I only missed one flight, and it wasn't a big deal:
I just caught the next flight out. The usual nonsense advice to come
to the airport 2 hours in advance has nothing to do with security lines
(the only time I recall spending more than 20 minutes at a security
checkpoint was in London after the bomb scare), but all to do with
the desire of airport shops for a captive audience.

I don't care for airport shops, airport lounges, or airport eateries.
Ignoring this advice saved me hundreds of hours over the years to
spend with my family or doing productive work in my office.

In article ,
Craig Welch wrote:

BA is to be avoided. My recent experience with BA (flying business
class, too): 5-hour delay in Heathrow, cabin heated up to a sauna-like
temperature, and then, after arriving to JFK at 2 in the morning,
learning that my baggage has been lost.

The cause of the delay? Mechanical? Weather? Slots?

Mechanical. Or so they told us.

They lost your baggage? *Every* airline in the world loses baggage.
Some more than others, but a sample of one is hardly sufficient to
avoid an airline.

Tell this to ``Tchiowa,'' who avoids Continental on the basis of a
single domestic flight where they would not let him into a lounge
or something. He even seems to have opinions about Continental's
BusinessFirst, which he has never seen.

Really, you've been in this group long enough

13 years and counting

On Fri, 28 Dec 2007 19:39:21 -0800 (PST) (VS) wrote:

:In article ,
:Tchiowa wrote:

:Haven't had a delay more than an hour except in Bangladesh.

: I encounter substantial delays on almost 1/4 of my flights, and
: looking at the on-time arrival statistics, my experience is typical.
: Yours isn't.

I also get lots of delays.

But Tchiowa's attitude is a bit different as he plans to waste lots of time in
the airport and to charge for it. So his view might be slightly colored.

:Haven't had a cancelled flight in over a decade.

: I run into canceled flights (especially on commuter / express
: operations) at least twice a year.

Is there much of a difference between a flight delayed past the time of the
next flight or a cancelled flight?

:Hours-long takeoff delays due to airport and air route traffic jams

:Never.

: Maybe it's not busy in Bangladesh, but at an airport like EWR (and
: avoiding EWR is not an option, not for those of us who have to travel
: to New York), an hour-long takeoff wait is a routine occurrence.

Ditto.

Podunk airports would tend to have less delays.

:Once, AF diverted from Paris to Lyons.

: Try flying to a megahub like DFW when it gets hit by bad weather.

:But those system-wide problems are relatively rare. Most of the
:passenger complaints are around service, seat comfort, etc.

: I hardly ever hear complaints about service and seat comfort (except in
: coach on European airlines, where both service and comfort are worse
: than atrocious). What people do complain about is endless delays,
: which affect everybody equally - in economy or in business.

No, there are some that complain about service.

:I don't drink. But by arriving early, neither do I get stressed in the
:security line when there are 50 people ahead of me and my flight is
:leaving in 20 minutes.

: Use the elite line

:And I have seen many examples where the "last person to check in"
:didn't make through security and took the next flight.

: In years of 100K-miles-per-year flying, I was the last person on board
: dozens of times. I only missed one flight, and it wasn't a big deal:
: I just caught the next flight out. The usual nonsense advice to come
: to the airport 2 hours in advance has nothing to do with security lines
: (the only time I recall spending more than 20 minutes at a security
: checkpoint was in London after the bomb scare), but all to do with
: the desire of airport shops for a captive audience.

: I don't care for airport shops, airport lounges, or airport eateries.
: Ignoring this advice saved me hundreds of hours over the years to
: spend with my family or doing productive work in my office.

Perhaps if you planned on charging your clients to arrive three hours early,
as Tchiowa does, you would see things differently. I cannot, in good
conscience, charge clients for such time.

--
Binyamin Dissen
http://www.dissensoftware.com

Should you use the mailblocks package and expect a response from me,
you should preauthorize the dissensoftware.com domain.

I very rarely bother responding to challenge/response systems,
especially those from irresponsible companies.

In message Binyamin Dissen
wrote:

Is there much of a difference between a flight delayed past the time of the
next flight or a cancelled flight?

That all depends... If the combined number of passengers is less then
the number of seats on the second flight, no.

However, if that combined number of passengers is larger then the number
of seats on the second flight, then yes, there is a noticeable
difference between the two situations.

DevilsPGD wrote:

In message Binyamin Dissen
wrote:


Is there much of a difference between a flight delayed past the time of the
next flight or a cancelled flight?


That all depends... If the combined number of passengers is less then
the number of seats on the second flight, no.

However, if that combined number of passengers is larger then the number
of seats on the second flight, then yes, there is a noticeable
difference between the two situations.

I had one situation when I flew WN from SJC to BUR.
I had a meeting at a studio, and then plan to spend some time in the LA
area, eventually flying out of SNA. I was traveling with a companion on
a "Friends Fly Free (Buy 1 Get 1) Fare". All LA airports were fogged
in and, after circling for awhile, we flew back to SJC in time for the
next scheduled flight of the same plane, for SJC-BUR. Everyone was
offered either a later flight, or compensation of $200 plus the cost of
the value of the segment, if they would give up their seat. Optionally,
they could stay on the flight. Since we were going to be too late for
the event we had planned to attend, we chose to fly to LAX 45 minutes
later.