Summer 2022 Travel nightmare thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friends just got back from Greece. Their flight in Athens was cancelled to due an equipment issue. They spent the night in Athens & were offered flights connecting through two European airports or a non stop to JFK. As screwed up as everything is, they figured getting their feet on US soil was a good thing (they were headed half across the country, but they could drive from there, if absolutely necessary). At JFK, there was a storm delay, and then their crew “timed out” so they ended up spending the night in chairs at JFK.

The problem is a lack of backup crews and equipment. There used to be crews and equipment in standby at major airports, but that doesn’t exist anymore.

Why couldn’t they book a hotel near JFK?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My toxic trait is believing even though I have six flights this summer, none of mine will be affected in any way

I am the same way. Even if it is affected, I will come prepared (cabin luggage only, food and water on the plane, etc)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My recent flight from Dulles took off 4 hours late (with us sitting on the plane all that time). They kept having to repair the plane/ replace parts. This was before we flew across the ocean. It was very unsettling.

I flew on a military plane with DH and DS once. When we got to the plane, the flight crew had flashlights and paper copies of the plane's electrical system spread out on the ground. Luckily they only had to replace a fuse, but it was quite disconcerting. DS did get to press the button to close the back of the plane (don't know the technical term for the back of the plane). I had to sleep on the floor next to boxes of live ammunition. And the coffee machine was broken. And they flew us to the wrong airport. That was fun!

[Anonymous]

Not as much of a nightmare as many of these but we waited for our rental car (that we reserved months ago) for 4.5 hours, all the time thinking we may not have a car at all since no one working there ever could confirm that there were in fact cars available and the line we were in moved so slowly that no one else in line w us had any confidence of actually getting a car either.

[Anonymous]

In defense of the military flight, coffee machines break on commercial airlines constantly. The only difference is that they’ll cancel a commercial flight without a coffee machine.

Fun fact: coffee machine and coffee-related repairs are some of the most frequent and common maintenance issues for airplanes. The machines are really finicky and coffee corrodes the floor in the galleys. They replace those floors and the cockpit floors more often than you can imagine because of that. Pilots spill a lot of coffee! At airlines’ maintenance facilities, there are huge (separate) maintenance workshops dedicated to lavatories and coffee machines. Pro-tip: say yes to peeking into the coffee machine workshop, and no to the lav workshop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an interesting thread.

Traveling by air is certainly difficult right now. It's largely due to the fact that the airlines (primarily because of staffing shortages) have almost no redundancy in place to absorb typical shocks to the system like severe weather.

I don't think the current chaos is entirely the airlines' fault. While I do think they deserve some blame for overscheduling flights and/or announcing new routes without having adequate infrastructure (i.e. planes and people) in place, nobody could have predicted how quickly demand for travel would explode this Spring and how many millions of people decided the pandemic was over and it was time to travel again. I'm sure things will slowly improve over the coming months.

And to all of the entitled complainers out there who are stomping their feet over missing their meetings, vacations, and weddings, etc: Grow up. Read the fine print. Know what you're entitled to and what you're not entitled to when you book a flight. The FAA makes that quite easy to review.

https://www.transportation.gov/airconsumer/fly-rights#Delayed-and-Cancelled-Flights

Do you work for an airline? Given current prices of airfare, it's difficult to imagine calling someone "entitled" who pays $$$ and then misses a wedding due to airline mismanagement.

Prices are actually more reflective of actual value now. Airline prices have been exceedingly low for ages. Yes entitled is totally applicable. Spoiled would apply as well.

Ah, so yes, you do work for an airline.

Nope. I agreed with them and don't work for an airline and never have. The idea that 100 or 200-and-something dollar round trip domestic flights in a giant metal tube hurtling through the sky was normal or sustainable is idiotic. The costs now are more what they should be.

Oh god you’re just an unaffiliated bootlicker. I am so embarrassed for you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just got off a 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Dallas, TX and am traumatized by the disgusting food. Fine, no one expects gourmet meals, especially in coach, but the food was inedible, and the granola bar and almonds I packed as snacks won't get you through a 12 hour flight. Here is the "menu":

Dinner: Deep fried pork cutlets (not sure it was actually pork, some processed grey substance breaded and fried), covered in slimy scrambled eggs and brown gelatinous gravy over rice.

Snack: White bread sandwich with wasabi mayonnaise. They did include 3 grapes and a kit kat, so I ate that.

Breakfast: Soggy noodles in a sweet sticky tomato-ish sauce, with deep fried dough containing fish bits.

Thanks American Airlines!

I ordered vegetarian meals flying from Japan to NZ once and got very strange meals. I guess these come from the kitchens at Narita.

[Anonymous]

Lol, I read your first sentence and knew it was AA. Sorry. They are a national embarrassment.

[Anonymous]

I hosted an annual girls weekend at my DC home last week and of 5 friends, 4 had their inbound (to DC) flights delayed from 4-6 hours. One sat in the plane upon arrival at DCA for 2 hours waiting for an open gate.


A month ago my flight from Dulles to Heathrow (British Air) was delayed by 2. hours and missed my connection at Heathrow. BA sent me to their "we'll put you up for the night" hotel at Heathrow and I was there with about 400 other stranded BA passengers from hundreds of other late and cancelled BA flights. It was eye opening. Air travel is bad these days.

[Anonymous]

Got Covid 6 days in to the trip

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just got off a 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Dallas, TX and am traumatized by the disgusting food. Fine, no one expects gourmet meals, especially in coach, but the food was inedible, and the granola bar and almonds I packed as snacks won't get you through a 12 hour flight. Here is the "menu":

Dinner: Deep fried pork cutlets (not sure it was actually pork, some processed grey substance breaded and fried), covered in slimy scrambled eggs and brown gelatinous gravy over rice.

Snack: White bread sandwich with wasabi mayonnaise. They did include 3 grapes and a kit kat, so I ate that.

Breakfast: Soggy noodles in a sweet sticky tomato-ish sauce, with deep fried dough containing fish bits.

Thanks American Airlines!

I ordered vegetarian meals flying from Japan to NZ once and got very strange meals. I guess these come from the kitchens at Narita.

I flew Tokyo to LAX on United/ANA and the meals were also gross. Made even more gross because I was supposed to have flown direct from Narita to the East Coast and instead had the LAX stop added to my itinerary after United cancelled the direct route to the East Coast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not as much of a nightmare as many of these but we waited for our rental car (that we reserved months ago) for 4.5 hours, all the time thinking we may not have a car at all since no one working there ever could confirm that there were in fact cars available and the line we were in moved so slowly that no one else in line w us had any confidence of actually getting a car either.

Which city was this? Also which car rental agency?

[Anonymous]

Two week trip to Western Europe to visit spouse’s parent. First week went pretty well. rented an Airbnb in the same city as spouse’s parent. In the middle weekend we went away to a nearby city for a weekend away when we were notified that the police stopped by our Airbnb due to the neighbors complaining about water damage. We were freaking out and wondering if one of our kids did something right before leaving but it turned out that a pipe burst. The photos we were sent didn’t look too terrible. Owner said that it would be ready again shortly but due to having no electricity and water Airbnb canceled our reservation. We said that we would be back Monday to pick up our stuff. Went back Monday and everything was locked with an extra lock. Couldn’t get in. After live chat with Airbnb since host wasn’t responding we eventually picked up our belongings at 11pm which was rough on the kids and take it to a hotel. Could not find any rooms for 4 people since it was so last minute so had to book two rooms with two single beds in it.

Half of the family got Covid during the vacation. Half had recently recovered from Covid before the trip.

Then on our flight home we waited in extensive lines at the airport for baggage check, security and passport control and ran to our flight missing it by 5 minutes. Multiple other people missed it as well due to airport lines. Had to go to a hotel. Did not expect our baggage to leave without us so had hardly anything with us such as no clean clothes.

Rough second

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two week trip to Western Europe to visit spouse’s parent. First week went pretty well. rented an Airbnb in the same city as spouse’s parent. In the middle weekend we went away to a nearby city for a weekend away when we were notified that the police stopped by our Airbnb due to the neighbors complaining about water damage. We were freaking out and wondering if one of our kids did something right before leaving but it turned out that a pipe burst. The photos we were sent didn’t look too terrible. Owner said that it would be ready again shortly but due to having no electricity and water Airbnb canceled our reservation. We said that we would be back Monday to pick up our stuff. Went back Monday and everything was locked with an extra lock. Couldn’t get in. After live chat with Airbnb since host wasn’t responding we eventually picked up our belongings at 11pm which was rough on the kids and take it to a hotel. Could not find any rooms for 4 people since it was so last minute so had to book two rooms with two single beds in it.

Half of the family got Covid during the vacation. Half had recently recovered from Covid before the trip.

Then on our flight home we waited in extensive lines at the airport for baggage check, security and passport control and ran to our flight missing it by 5 minutes. Multiple other people missed it as well due to airport lines. Had to go to a hotel. Did not expect our baggage to leave without us so had hardly anything with us such as no clean clothes.

Rough second

Let me guess you were leaving out of Amsterdam to return? The lines there are crazy right now apparently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes me nervous. My 16 yo is going with her camp to Israel next week. Hopefully everything will go smoothly with their direct flight.

International nonstops are most likely to be fine since they are priority. It’s the connections to and from those international fights that seem to be getting messed up and ruining peoples plans.

My husband's direct flight to Spain was cancelled the day before he was supposed to leave. They didn't automatically rebook, and wouldn't put him on a flight until two days later. He cancelled and rebooked on non-US airlines, with connections, but was able to make his appointment.