Airline Hassles

Everyone hates to fly these days. In fact, we'd rather drive 550 miles one way than take an airplane. But sometimes we have to fly.

Last August, we were flying into Vancouver for our Alaska cruise, and had to change planes in DFW. Our connecting flight was canceled due to mechanical problems, and suddenly American Airlines had to find alternate flights for a planeload of people.

The American Airlines ticket counter employee booked us on United Airlines. It was in another terminal, so we had to catch the tram to the other terminal. Once we arrived, the guy at the United Ticket counter refused to let us board until our luggage arrived at their gate! We informed him we had a cruise to catch, but it made no difference.

The plane took off without us, so we called American Airlines and they sent us back to the American Airlines terminal. Finally, we arrived at the gate in question and we got a manager this time. He put us on standby on the last flight to Vancouver. We ended up being the last two people on the plane!

We arrived in Vancouver, but our luggage didn't. We were so late, the Pan Pacific had sold the last waterfront room, so we ended up with a Mini-Suite! That Mini-suite was fancier than the one we got at the Hilton back in 1996 when our ship was eight hours late getting into port, and Royal Caribbean had to put us up for the night. The next morning, we had french toast worthy of Alton Brown! Yum, Yum. And coffee in the dining room was $4.50 per person. Ouch!

Flying back from Anchorage, Alaska, we were delayed again, due to damage on the wing. We waited for an hour for American Airlines to contact an engineer in Tulsa. Of course with the time difference, he was off work by then. Finally, we got the go ahead to fix the wing, and they fixed it by applying duct tape (I kid you not). Then we waited another hour for the paperwork (including serial numbers) to be completed. Due to delay regulations, we got more food before the flight than during the flight. We ended up being only a few minutes late for our connecting flight in DFW, but they refused to hold the plane for us. We were told at the desk that it's a huge no-no to have customers arrive without their luggage. But I suspect not as big a no-no as having to put them up in a hotel for the night.

In the October 7, 2010 issue of the Wall Street Journal, "A Big Jump in Gripes About Airline Service" mentions all the hassles, and how people that complain get better service than people that don't. They no longer take complaints via e-mail. Probably because many people can now send emails via their cell phones. These days, you can go airconsumer.ost.dot.gov and fill out a form.