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Photograph of American Airlines ticket holders at Laguardia Airport yesterday by Frances Roberts/AP
American Airlines canceled more than 1,000 flights today, causing more chaos for its would-be passengers. NY1 reported lines looked less messy today, suggesting people called ahead. But yesterday, it was a terrible mess. From NY1:
"It's a little irritating that they are offering coffee to everybody, in exchange I'm missing a whole day of meetings in Texas," said one traveler. "I don't think I would [fly American again].More flights may be canceled tomorrow as American tries to inspects its MD-80 planes for wiring stored near the wheels. More than a third of American's 2,300 daily flights involve MD-80 planes."Yesterday I was going from Caracas to Cincinnati through Miami and the flight was canceled from Caracas to Miami. So I ended up going to Puerto Rico and then spending the night in New York, and now hopefully to Cincinnati this morning," said another.
"My flight go canceled, so they were able to reroute me and get me on Delta," said a third. "So I gotta run all over there to the shuttle right now."
On Tuesday, about 500 flights were canceled while almost 1,000 were canceled yesterday.
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omg it's jayz on the celly!
I would rather be safe than on a flight with questionable wiring. That's just me.
and i heard they will not be fined for this... what gives?
*I would rather be safe than on a flight with questionable wiring. That's just me.*
i agree, except the canceling of thousands of flights because you're not initially doing your job of checking wiring day-to-day is unacceptable.
flying is hell.
I would rather drive 9 hours than fly 4.
Let's see...ATA, bankrupt, abruptly cancels all flights; Aloha, bankrupt, abruptly cancels all flights; Jet Blue, passengers sit on tarmac in hot, smelly planes for six hours; American, cancels hundreds, if not thousands of planes, stranding countless passengers; Southwestern, the best on-time percentage is on-time only 60% of the time...
Yet an air passengers' bill of rights is rejected.
We accept, at this time, that if we purchase a ticket on an airplane we will be seriously inconvenienced.
But, if we pay for an airline ticket and we are seriously inconvenienced, shouldn't there be certain assurances that we will be compensated for that inconvenience?
"I would rather be safe than on a flight with questionable wiring. That's just me."
Sure. But what I'd REALLY prefer is for airlines not to fly planes susceptible to questionable wiring. Or to do their jobs and inspect well in advance so they don't inconvenience thousands of passengers. Or to spend a little bit of extra money and try to inspect the planes overnight or bring in additional aircraft to avoid inconveniencing thousands of passengers.
You know, the simple courtesy that most businesses afford their customers.
What is it about travel in the USA that is so inexorably screwed? The automobiles -- awful. The auto industry in decline, no real push for alternative fuels, roads in gridlock. Airlines -- see above. Amtrak seems to have gotten its act together in the NEC but is a complete mess everywhere else. Locally, we have the lovely MTA.
Kind of makes you glad you live in a place where you can walk around.
Walking is the best solution, and we fly way too much. Flying is one of the worst things we can do to the environment; it's pricey; it's unreliable. Hopefully train travel will pick up again. At least for the DC/PHILLY/NYC/BOSTON routes, it makes a lot more sense than flying.
Cheer up stranded flyers! Not flying on American gives you one less chance to either crash into a skyscraper or plummet to your death over the Rockaways.
@8: Yeah, we should totally walk from Cali to New York. I frequently fly between two places that are walking distance. WTF?
Yeah, I love the train for travel to D.C., but it really is frigging expensive. It seems like it should cost less than flying, but it generally doesn't. And the Acela is a real ripoff -- twice as expensive to save half an hour, IF it's on time...
The train is SO much more relaxing than flying though. And the train NY to DC can be faster door to door since you're going from midtown to downtown DC.
Acela is indeed pretty much a ripoff. I think the vast majority of the time you save is not from the technology, but rather because you make less frequent stops. The trains are nice though.
Hopefully train travel will pick up again.
Only if foreign money buys American lobbyists. Train travel is big business in the rest of the world. But Amtrak is and has always been designed to be the American airline and automobile industry's bitch. I
We need more high-speed train systems, like the ones in Europe.
"Only if foreign money buys American lobbyists. Train travel is big business in the rest of the world. But Amtrak is and has always been designed to be the American airline and automobile industry's bitch."
Don't forget that railroads were once the domain of the rich and powerful monopolists. Times change. In theory, air travel plus automobile travel is a technological step up from train travel in the US. But if the airline industry doesn't shape up soon I think there will start to be a real groundswell of support for an alternative means of high-speed long-distance travel. Hopefully rapid rail technology will catch up and get more publicity.
Ummmmm. @10
Did you even bother to read the last sentence of the post?
Or anything except the first sentence?
(Separating comments due to apparent Attention Deficit.
)
@16,17,18: So I should just WALK to Boston? That's MUCH MUCH more reasonable.
Dear Mike,
Sentences usually work best in sequence. Check out the sentence prior to the final sentence in my original comment. That may help you.
If you are actually sincerely asking for advice, you could try biking to Boston. That is actually a pretty pleasant experience. Walking would be less than stellar around Hartford.
And you are correct. Walking to Boston from NYC is "MUCH MUCH more reasonable" than walking to California. Well said!
Ah. You're a troll. Or a completely irrational fossil-fuel hater.
I always prefer to drive my single occupant vehicle whenever I need to travel cross-country, but that's just me.
Does anyone really care about these people and whether they fly conveniently or not? I thought so.
@22: It represents a breakdown of America's infrastructure -- Don't you think it's kind of a big deal?
Hosted by the airline’s very own Pilots union…
http://tellyouraastory.com/