Song Over

That whole Jet Blue landing gear thing happened to me on a Delta flight from LaGuardia about a year and a half ago (or something very similar). Tire blew out on take-off and they did the whole fuel-dumping, bracing position "are there any doctors on board", high heel-removing thing and emergency-landed at JFK.



Actually it ended up being the softest landing I'd ever experienced... I just sort of lifted my head up and realized we'd come to rest on the runway. Everyone clapped. There were dozens of fire/ambulances waiting. It was intense.



But what made me mention this is that afterward, Delta made us sit in the empty airport forever until they could piled us onto a Song plane -- and I recall being so comforted by the music trivia on the screens and the purple seats after what had happened. When we finally got to our destination at 4 AM, hours away from connecting flights, Delta made people (including very pregnant ladies, folks with tiny kids) wait in line and beg for a hotel room. Delta is icky -- regardless of who they get to design their fancy-pants uniforms.

That's odd. I thought they would have been more successful reinventing themselves as mostly-Song rather than going back to stodgy old Delta. Frankly, I think Delta's not going to be in business forever - once they've dumped their pension obligations (if they haven't already) and broken their unions, they have to actually figure out how to concentrate on running a profitable airline. Doesn't look promising.