Note: I’m leaving this post up again today in hopes
of getting some more travel stories from the Monday crowd.
Almost three hours after boarding the airplane
and we’ve only traveled a couple hundred yards from the gate.
Though I’m not the most traveled person in the world, I just knew someday it would happen. Like the news reports you hear on television, of airline passengers sitting on the tarmac for hours and hours because of mechanical or other issues keeping the plane from taking off. My adventure began at 3:45 AM (EST) with the alarm of my cell phone waking me up.
My girlfriend Julia had spent the night with me at my sister’s house, and since her flight was only scheduled to leave an hour before mine, we decide to travel to the airport together. After hooking back up in Chicago, we would be on the same flights to Denver and then connecting on to Jackson. I tried to get on her fight at the gate, but since my baggage was already checked on my original flight, I got denied. I should have listened to my mother.
United Flight 527 was due to leave Logan Airport, in Boston, at 7:01 and we began boarding at 6:30. Everything was going as planned…that is until the pilot got the intercom to announce that he was having trouble with one of the computers and needed to reboot it. No biggie I thought to myself. After about ten minutes I heard his voice again, stating that the original problem had been fixed, but now there was a problem with another computer, and it too now need to reboot. Another 15-20 minutes passed before he reassured us that everything would be fine and in reality, we didn’t need either computer to actually fly the plane.
After a few tests and some filling out of FAA paperwork, we were finally cleared to leave the gate and taxied for only a couple minutes before the pilot got on the intercom again, this time informing us that due to our late departure, we were being held for take-off because of air traffic in Chicago. I smelled something fishy, but knew I was already going to miss my connection in Denver and my lovely travel companion as well, so there was little I could do at the present time.
The pilot must have felt like crap when he had to come on the intercom again, this time being straight with us and telling us that the computers were still showing some error lights and we were going to have to return to the gate for further maintenance. Of course we were not going to be able to exit the aircraft at that time, but if the crew didn’t think they could fix the problem, there was another plane waiting in the wings for us to board. By now we had been in our seats for about two hours and only traveled a few hundred yards from the gate. Those stories of people trapped on planes for over eight hours with inoperable toilets and no water began to creep into the back of my head and I started to get a little impatient.
A few international passengers were allowed to leave, with their connections already rebooked, before the pilot received word that the problem had been fixed. He told us that he was going to run the pre-flight tests no less than three times before take-off, in order to reassure himself (as well as us) that the plane was safe to fly. As we pulled away from the gate a third time, I wasn’t feeling very confident and to myself, gave us a 50% chance of actually getting off the ground this time, never mind making it all the way back to Jackson today.
I could instantly tell by the sound of the pilot’s voice when he came on the intercom, for what must have been the twentieth time, that things weren’t looking good. He said that he was still getting some error lights during his checks, and was now stepping up, and refusing to fly the plane. A small applause came from the cabin because of the minor step in at least some sort of direction. By now we had been on the aircraft for over three hours and I was kind of a wreck. The majority of the time, I feel like I adopt a mountain town attitude and am relatively patient in these kinds of situations, but I’m always extremely anxious to get back the Jackson when I’m traveling, especially with the winter ski season fast approaching.
Of course it was an utter nightmare trying to rebook my flight with a line of close to a hundred people waiting to speak with customer service on one of the busiest travel weekends of the year. I called Untied direct on my cell phone as I waited, trying to attack the situation from both angles before all my opportunities had gone out the window. I’m writing this as I fly from Boston to Denver on a flight that left at 4:30 pm (a half hour late) and I’m now scheduled to arrive in Jackson at 11 pm (MST) after a 2 hour layover in Denver. A mere 21 hours after my alarm woke me up. Flying the friendly skies….oh so much fun!
Got a crappy airline travel experience?
Feel free to share it in the comments section.
Super fun. Was this Delta by chance?
Reminds me of a trip to Jackson to meet my sister for opening weekend at JH in ’96 — she used to work for Full Sail Ale and they were sponsoring open weekend at the Mangy Moose so I had a free place to stay and free beer!
I was coming in from Denver, she from Portland an hour earlier than me. It was dumping snow and I could watch it collecting on the tires of the twin turbo-prop as we approached — just a little sketch. Turns out my sis was turned back twice to Salt Lake City due to snow/visibility. She finally got in 3 hours after I did, but we had a rocking good weekend!
Another flight hassle…on a working trip in Paris, I had hopped a flight to Zurich to visit my other sister for the weekend. Sunday morning the company I was consulting with left a message they needed me back in the states, in Cincinnati, on Monday! I made it to de Gaulle airport in Paris 2.5 hours before my flight to Dulles, but they wouldn’t let me thru security because I “was too late”…WTF!!! I re-booked a flight thru LA and made it back to Denver earlier than my original schedule, but man Paris to LA was a dreadful, packed, long flight!
Safe travels home to all, and pray to Ullr for snow — CO is brown and depressing 🙁
Booked a flight out of Minneapolis to Burlington, VT for a week of hanging out with my girlfriend and taking in a few concerts. Minneapolis to Burlington was obviously cheaper than flying our of Bozeman, and it was made even cheaper by flying on three different carriers. OOPS! The quick version… somewhere between my first and second connection, my checked bag went missing. After several hours on the phone with customer service agents from every airline telling me they didn’t have my bag, I gave up. Four days later, my bag arrived in Vermont (three days before I RETURNED home). The guy who delivered the bag told me that the baggage routing ticket was probably read wrong and my bag returned to the first carrier… Rocket science. Moral of the story, don’t fly United, American, or US Airways. Better yet, if you live in the mountains, there’s really no reason to leave…
Sorry to hear about it, and yes, I have plenty of similar tales, but more importantly: you were in the Boston area yet didn’t let us know?!?
I like to fly under the radar.
Sorta? 😉
My story of the Front Range christmas storm of 2006. I started out it Colorado Springs due to college, and planning on meeting my parents in Virgin Gorda (My mom needs her warm winter vacation when living in somewhat northern Maine). I had a flight out on the 20 from the Colorado Springs airport. It started snowing Tuesday night, blanketing I-25 under 4 feet of snow in some places. As Colorado Springs isn’t a mountain town it and pilots don’t get along with snow. Unsurprisingly Denver was closed too, even if it was possible to get out of there.
On the 23 there was a possibility of me getting out, so starting at 5:30 am mountain time I hopped on the 6 am bus from school to DIA, then caught a CME van to Vail Transportation center, and then a CME van to Eagle airport. Then I could finally catch a flight from Eagle to LA where I waited around for about 5 hours and caught a flight from there to San Juan. After waiting around San Juan a while I hopped aboard an Air Sunshine prop plane and immediately fell asleep before the wheels even left the ground. Sleeping is actually normal for me on prop planes, not part of the trip. Unfortunately my sleep got interrupted pretty quickly as we had to stop in Vieques but I fell asleep again only to be woken as we hung a large turn around the mineshaft restaurant and then landed. I then got the experiance of waiting for the customs officer and then dealing with the paperwork. Finally I got to leave the small building and meet my family out side. It was about 6:30 pm on 24 locally, too damn late island time.
I won’t bore you all with the 6 hours on the Tarmac details, but what i found very interesting once back in like ’92 while sitting in a overdue to retire DC-10, was the girl that was sitting next to me started acting all wierd and ‘hyperventilating’, she told a stewardess that she had a terrible fear of flying and had a bad dream the nite before…blah, blah, anyway she convinced them (the main FAA guy at LaGuardia included)…Anyway after he makes the call, security-wise, that she can get off the plane. We were waiting, still, while they where pulling up the stairs and as shes getting her things together she smiles and winks at me like ‘Ha ha sucker I m outta here’….I have always thought that it was a little act to get off the plane while the rest of us suckers sat for a few more hours before being offered ‘chicken or beef’ In retrospect i almost have to laugh at how she played the scared young women begging the FAA guy to let her off the plane….more power to her, I guess.
i consider myself lucky. some bad travel experiences but never had six hours on the tarmac. about the worst ever was a 6+ hours delay followed by the worst weather i’ve ever been in for the landing at laguardia — the plane was going sideways, up, down and you couldn’t see anything except lightning, snow and rain — he made 3 passes at the airport, we’d be descending (that was the trend, anyway) and all of a sudden, full power ascent. people were throwing up all over the place. i got hit with some backsplash (not too bad, fortunately) when the guy in the row ahead of my power ralphed into the seatback in front of him. i was just glad i wasn’t in front of that guy. i think the pilot landed blind – really impressive.
This September heading home to Boston via Atlanta. Circled Atlanta for a few hours over stormy weather and had to redirect to Nashville to refuel. Unfortunately Nashville was over whelmed with flights so at least two hours wait in the plane then back to Atlanta where the weather had cleared but the gates were all full. Another few hours in the plane. Finally got off the plane after a total of about 10 hours for a 2.5 hour flight and waited several hours to confirm rebooking which we could have done by phone but the airline said we would get hotel vouchers (which they ran out of) if we stayed in line. Got to the hotel at about 2:30 am and had to wait to check in. I think we got in bed at about 4:00 am which was when our 18 month old who had been an amazing trooper the whole time decided to melt down. Up again at 6:30am to get back to the airport. Fun, fun, fun.
One time I had the fish, oh man that was a bad idea!
I have learned not to travel by air during these holiday periods. Everybody else is in the system, which is booked to the max. When somebody stubs a toe in Boston on Friday morning, the cascade is felt all the way to L.A. I learned this the hard way. And today’s Daily headline: “Returning travelers escape long lines, delays”
Moral – when things go as planned and that’s news, stay away.
The fish…that’s funny! 😆
Hey Bro,
I’ve got you beat!! My worst flight ever was actually 20 years ago coming home for Christmas from my semester in Spain.
The plane was broken down in Majorca and we were stuck waiting in Madrid, once you were past immigration there were only 2 phones to call the US (no cell phones back then!) and a mad rush every time they changed the flight.
I spent the entire night at the airport with other students and we were off in the morning. However, we stopped to re-fuel in the Azores and they opened the plane doors to 80 degree heat and jet fuel fumes. We were obviously dressed for winter in New England and getting more nauseous by the minute.
By the time I got home I was sooo smelly – the worst ever!!
Hey Bro,
I’ve got you beat!! My worst flight ever was actually 20 years ago coming home for Christmas from my semester in Spain.
The plane was broken down in Majorca and we were stuck waiting in Madrid, once you were past immigration there were only 2 phones to call the US (no cell phones back then!) and a mad rush every time they changed the flight.
I spent the entire night at the airport with other students and we were off in the morning. However, we stopped to re-fuel in the Azores and they opened the plane doors to 80 degree heat and jet fuel fumes. We were obviously dressed for winter in New England and getting more nauseous by the minute.
By the time I got home I was sooo smelly – the worst ever!!