DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Air Travel Nightmares

I haven't been back to Cleveland since I moved to Colorado back in January. I decided to make the trip for labor day weekend. What a nightmare it turned out to be.

I booked a flight on American Airlines leaving Colorado Springs at 3pm and had a connection in Dallas. I checked the weather before heading to the airport, looked good. Everything starts of good, boarded on time. They close the door on the plane, we get ready to go and the pilot comes on and says storms are moving through Dallas so our take off from Colorado will be delayed. They keep us on the plane as we could get the go ahead at any time.

Two hours later we are cleared to leave. However, a loose plate on the right wing was discovered and was causing fuel to leak. That needed to be fixed. Another two hours later we are still sitting on the plane waiting to leave. Finally they determine it cannot be fixed in a timely manner. We get off that plane and onto another one. Finally we take off and head for Dallas.

We land in Dallas around 9:45pm. Due to backups, there was no gate to dock at. We sat on the plane for another half hour before pulling up to a gate. I get off and check the flights. To my surprise the flight to Cleveland had not left yet. I sprint across the airport getting to the gate. The plane was still sitting at the gate, but they refused to let me board. 15 minutes later, it finally left the gate.

After arguing, I get them to book me on a 8:30am flight on Friday to Cleveland. And after more arguing, I get them to put me up in a hotel for the night. I take the shuttle to the hotel, wait in an hour long line there to get a room that I used for 4 hours. I wasn't going to risk missing the flight. I planned to catch a 5:30am shuttle back to the airport. Seems everyone else had the same idea. It took me two hours to get through security.

8:30 approaches, no plane at the gate yet. Finally it is announced that the flight to Cleveland will be delayed to 11:30 because the plane is not hear yet. It was grounded in Arkansas, broke. No other planes were available to put us on to. A 11:30 they announce it just got fixed and is beginning to board, it should land in Dallas at 1pm. It did. However, after landing it was determined the plane was not fit for flying. Once again, we were delayed.

At this point, we were at gate b-8. Shortly after, they announce that Cleveland flight would be departing at gate b-10. We go down to b-10 where a flight to Pittsburgh was boarding. We thought that flight would board while we waited out the delay. Wrong. At b-10 they announce that Pittsburgh would now depart from gate b-8(where the broken plane was). That didn't go over well with them. Finally we board at b-10 and get on our way to Cleveland, landing at 6pm, 18 hours later than I was scheduled to arrive due to 2 mechanical issues.

I am currently rethinking my plans to head back to Cleveland for Christmas.

I had issues with flights both to and from Reno last month, so I feel your pain. That trip taught me to schedule longer layovers than I feel required and take a good book.

At least they found the mechanical issues of your planes on the ground and not 30,000 feet up.

I feel your pain --- I've sat on the tarmac in Dallas before...for 3 hours...in the middle seat. My work will never book a flight for me again - I take care of that now.

Although it can certainly happen to all airlines - if you're dealing with Cleveland, choose Continental. Furthermore, pay whatever it is extra to get a direct flight (again, that still doesn't guarantee your flight will take off on time). Finally, avoid DFW, Newark, Atlanta, and O'Hare at all costs.

I have 5 flights coming up this fall, hope they all go without a hitch.

About a month ago, we were flying from Phoenix to Canton/Akron, with a layover in Denver. Our layover was only about half an hour, so we were going to have to rush anyways. There was a storm around Denver so we had to circle the airport a few times before there was finally an opening where we could land. Once we finally landed, we ended up sitting on the plane for about another hour because they couldn't open the ramps because of lightning in the area, but the captain said all the flights were delayed so we figured we were alright with getting on the flight to Canton/Akron. Well, after we finally got off the plane they were announcing last boarding call for Canton, so we sprinted through the airport and were the last people on the flight. We figured it wasn't too bad with only about 2 hours of delays, but as soon as we backed away from the ramp, there was more lightning. We ended up sitting there on the plane for almost 3 hours. I ended up getting home 3 hours before I had to be at work the next day...

Yeah, I will never go near DFW again. I fly out of COS because I hate Denver too. But if I fly out of COS, there will be at least 1 stop along the way, Ohare, Minneapolis and DFW being the most common.

For Christmas, I will probably try Frontier, they fly direct from Denver to Akron/Canton. As much as I hate Denver, especially during the holidays, I think I will give it a shot.

My parents flew out of Cleveland on Continental, it got canceled because of weather. Continental responded by booking 110 people on a 65 seat aircraft. They are not high on my list either.

Frontier is who I took. The only good thing about the delays were they let us watch the TV's for free the whole flight. I was able to watch Sports Center the whole time...

I just returned to Bogota ( form Cleveland ) and it took me two days on Continental ( through Houston ) . Long flight , longer story ! ... I am so thrilled the Airlines are making a profit now . ( At our expense )

it is to the point i don't fly anymore unless it is over a 15 hour drive.

Here, we get screwed at every turn. The last couple of times I got stuck in Atlanta 4-5 hours....long enough so the bastards could fill a bus and bus us home. And I am a 2 hour drive from home to the Atlanta airport.

I really wanted to take a hatchet and chop someones thumbs off.

Southwest is the way to go. A lot of people complain about their seating system but I've never had plane issues. I did have one issue once when it accidentally double booked my trip. Not only did they issue me a refund for the second trip, but they also gave me an equal amount of money in credits for the hassle.

i heard southwest is great...if you can afford them. I checked flights for the holidays, most airlines are in the 400-450 price range, southwest is up to 700.

Are you sure you looked at Southwest? Usually they are far cheaper than everyone else, lol. I used to be able to snag round trip Tampa to Cleveland for $99 at X-Mas but recently its been more like 130.

That is one of the wickedest stories I've ever heard - with all of the issues.

Sweet satisfaction that they moved the Stoolers to the broken gate though.

I love Southwest Airlines. My Aunt in Portland, Oregon did all the booking of my flight from Cleveland to Portland via Pheonix.....$250 round trip. I screwed up on my way home and missed my connection in Pheonix by about 1 minute. They hooked me up at no charge to get to Columbus instead of being stuck in the airport until the next morning and getting to Cleveland at 4pm (plus the drive home) which would have made me at least 2 hours late for work. I have no complaints what so ever about Southwest. Would use them again.

On another note of flying.....Frontier is the airlines that Shotty is flying on from Vegas....round trip less than $200. He's absolutely stoked about the inexpensive flight he got.

What airline were you flying on? I've never had any problems with Continental (knock on wood). I just wish they would route flights to other places than Newark...that place is crazy.

Last year I took a trip to Saint-Petersburg, Russia with a friend. The trip there was fine. We flew from Tucson to Chicago, Chicago to London, London to Saint-Petersburg. Took 18 hours total. We had a 3 hour layover in London, but that didn't matter because it took almost all of that time getting threw security.

I decided to stay an extra week because I met a girl, but my friend went back on our original flight. Changing the my flight, changed my flight plans on the way back. I was supposed to come back the same way I came, but the change made me fly from Saint-Petersburg to Moscow, Moscow to L.A., L.A. to Tucson.

The flight from Saint-Petersburg to Moscow only took a few hours if that, the problem was the weather was so bad once the plane landed my flight was canceled. The next flight was in the morning 16 hours later. My visa had run out, so they would not let me enter Moscow to get a hotel so I had to stay there till the morning. Well that morning flight was also canceled , so I had to wait until the following morning for a flight back to the US. I spent 40 hours by myself in the Moscow airport waiting for a flight back to the US.

What only took 17 hours to get there turned into almost 70 hours getting back. Most of it spend in an airport where almost no one spoke English. I knew very little Russian mostly just how to say "Sorry I don't speak Russian" and of course the curse words I was taught by the woman I met.

The only good that came out of it was that the woman in Russia I met is now my fiancée and is probably about 2 months away from getting her Visa to the US.

I am a long-time traveler.

The "Southwest Bus" is one of the better run airlines. Sure the seating thing is a bit silly, but you know the rules going in.

I really only have one airline that I avoid. That is Northwest. Too many bad experiences.

Some people blame weather problems on the airline, when there is not a lot that can be done about the situation.

However, that stated, it is a bit unreasonable to ask passengers to sit in a plane for more than an hour after take-off.

If you can, book your flights direct, or with no plane changes.

Beerdowners comments about avoiding transfers (hub cities) of Newark, O'Hare, DFW, and Atlanta is solid, when flights back up, it cascades.

Back in 2000 a group of us went to a friends wedding in Kenya. We were all aboard the plane after taxi-ing to the runway when one of the passengers a few rows in front called the steward over. He pointed to what was fuel literally gushing from the wing. Now air-stewards are usually calm and collected but this particular guy sprinted to the front of the plane to stop us taking off. The smell of fuel was overpowering yet they made us sit there for 3 hours until the problem was sorted and we were able to take off ..... in the same plane

I also flew Monarch airways to the Maldives - now I am about 6'3 and was put in a seat where it was not possible for me to sit upright at all during the journey. 11 hours of hell but worth it once you get there .....

Hopefully my direct flight from Gatwick to Cleveland on Friday will be a breeze

j/c

Hey, everyone - just be glad you haven't flown on this airline!!!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070904/od_nm/nepal_airline_odd_dc

I've done the flight Gatwick-Cleveland flight, English. It was definitely a breeze, but I was disappointed by the plane. It had the normal 3 seats on each side of the aisle, and I was hoping for a big, comfortable international plane.

The first time I was ever in an airplane I jumped out of it !! Matter of fact the first 5 times I took off I didn't land with the plane . Course it was C-130 and I was in the Army at the time. As for horror stories well, there was this time in Germany where we were waiting on the runway for 6 hours....in a C-130...in full gear....in summer...every time you had to go to the head you had to unrig then get inspected again before you sat down...after all of that once we were in the air a bird went through the wing leaving a huge hole that forced us to land in Austria and forced us to ride trucks 6 hours back to base. Never had a topper to that on civilian airlines.

Its a Boeing 757 (I think) and I am flying with Continental Airlines - just hoping for no delays and a safe journey

Man that's just awful,,, terrible.

The weather stuff can't be helped,,, but the rest is just plain stupid in my view..

Flying pretty much sucks any more. I went to Europe in March - the trip started good - I was upgraded to business class from Rome to Toronto. Perfect flight, smooth, relaxing, good movies...then I landed in Toronto to beautiful 60+ degree weather.

Went through customs and headed toward my gate and everything to Chicago was cancelled, and after 3 hours of trying, I couldn't get a flight anywhere outside of Toronto to get me back home to Portland for 2 days. So I got stuck in Toronto over night. Got to Chicago the next morning and tried again for 2 hours to get a flight back home to Portland to no avail, so I had to stay overnight in Chicago (got to see a couple friends so it wasn't too bad). I landed in Portland 61 hours after I left Rome...

You think thats bad?.... Iwas asked to remove my Turban.

In Anchorage one time I left a small crescent wrench (3 inches long maybe) in my brief case/laptop case by mistake. The screening lady couldn't find it after searching about 10 minutes ( there are a lot of small pockets/compartments in the bag). At this point they were actually going to start cutting my bag up. I offered to show them exactly where it was since I was pretty sure I knew the location. You would have thought I said I knew Bin Laden. I got a lecture about bringing tools on the plane at this point. And another lecture about coming too close to TSA personnel.

Anyway, after I suggested that maybe since the bag was now empty that if they systematically squeezed it instead of tearing it to shreds they'd find the wrench they indeed found the dastardly tool. At which point I got another no tools on the plane lecture. I felt it necessary to mention that while I agreed with the no tools on the plane rules I could see they had plenty of "tools" at the screening station. Luckily they didn't get my point.

I then got to re-fill my case with all my paperwork, books, etc. and head to my plane. Funny thing is that I know when I left the wrench in there and it had been there through at least two prior airport screenings with no mention from anyone. They kept the wrench, by the way.

It's kind of one of those "when it rains it pours" type of things.

Not just one thing will go wrong...as many things as possible will.

Ahhh the screeners....

Had a 3.1 oz. ($50) bottle of cologne confiscated, because TSA restricts the amount to 3 oz. of liquid. My slight argument that the bottle was halfway empty fell on deaf ears. Needless to say I learned my lesson.

More examples of why I avoid flying.


Maybe we need to move some of these screeners to the borders??