PYF Airline stories, airport recommendations, rants and raves

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Airline stories, airport recommendations, rants and raves

«‹›3 »

Applesnots: Oct 22, 2010; MERRY YOBMAS

Zamboni_Rodeo posted:

Tommy, do you like Gladiator movies?

Heh, good movie.

# ? Jul 26, 2017 05:44

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 24, 2024 18:10

walrusman: Aug 4, 2006

C-Euro posted:

I'm hoping that next time I go I'll get routed through that or Tokyo-Narita (also dope but haven't been through there since 2010)

You know you can like...determine your own routing, right? Pick the airlines that use the airports you want to route through, and book with them on their website. Better routings might be a touch more expensive, but it's often worth it.

# ? Jul 26, 2017 07:47

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

walrusman posted:

Better routings might be a touch more expensive, but it's often worth it.

Yeah that's the issue :v:

Maybe I'll treat myself next time.

# ? Jul 26, 2017 12:38

Choco1980: Feb 22, 2013; I fell in love with a Video Nasty

Blackchamber posted:

Ok so Alaskan airlines is ASA, not AA. And even American airlines isnt AA it's AAL. I don't really expect you to know that because you probably don't work with airlines much, but I get calls all drat day from airline dispatchers who work don't even know their own airlines identifiers and I want to gripe about it.

did...you just mansplain to Cowslips that they probably don't have much experience working with airlines right after they LITERALLY said they work with them every day??

# ? Jul 26, 2017 13:35

Cowslips Warren: Oct 29, 2005; What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?; Grimey Drawer

Choco1980 posted:

did...you just mansplain to Cowslips that they probably don't have much experience working with airlines right after they LITERALLY said they work with them every day??

To be fair I am an outside courier and my only deal with Alaska Air is delivering the luggage they misplace. I don't dispatch the planes, just suitcase delivery.

# ? Jul 26, 2017 15:19

walrusman: Aug 4, 2006

That's strange because Alaska is one of the best US domestic airlines.

# ? Jul 26, 2017 15:26

mojo1701a: Oct 9, 2008; Oh, yeah. Loud and clear. Emphasis on LOUD!
~ David Lee Roth

I've had people complain to me about using Air Canada to fly, but I've never really had a problem with them. Maybe not the best airline, but was the cheapest when flying out of Pearson to Heathrow last year (and Pearson to De Gaulle next month).

On my flight back, they undersold (because of a lull between Canadian and US Thanksgiving) and I got an entire row to myself. I just spread out, watched Star Trek and drank.

# ? Jul 26, 2017 16:15

Bird in a Blender: Nov 17, 2005; It's amazing what they can do with computers these days.

walrusman posted:

That's strange because Alaska is one of the best US domestic airlines.

Yea, every time I've flown Alaska it's been better than every other carrier, but I've only flown them like three times. Just flew from Chicago to Anchorage and back, had to check three bags, two were backpacks and everything came out perfect, flights even arrived early. I would fly Alaska all the time if I could.

Anecdotes and all that though.

# ? Jul 26, 2017 16:31

Blackchamber: Jan 25, 2005

Choco1980 posted:

did...you just mansplain to Cowslips that they probably don't have much experience working with airlines right after they LITERALLY said they work with them every day??

Maybe? I guess its like working in a call center and hearing someone complain that they get tired of talking on their cellphone. It was a nice springboard for me to whine about one of my pet peeves.

# ? Jul 26, 2017 18:18

ArchangeI: Jul 15, 2010

Brand New Malaysian Wife posted:

After years of only flying in and out of Berlin Schonefeld (budget airlines) which is essentially just a shed five minutes from a train platform, I was excited to fly into Berlin Tegel. It's actually even worse and there's no connecting train- you have to take a bus to the airport. For a capital city, Berlin has loving abysmal airports.

No worries, they are building a proper airport for a proper capital in BER.

It was supposed to open years ago, was delayed, and then the fire service basically went through it and declared that it was a fire catastrophe waiting to happen. Who knows when it'll open. Until then, enjoy Tegel!

# ? Jul 27, 2017 20:02

new friend from school: May 19, 2008; by Azathoth

OMGVBFLOL posted:

A�roport Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle

I was seventeen. I had grown up on a farm, the child of two state workers. I'd always felt out of place, uncomfortable, and unwelcome in the world. Everything where I grew up was rolling countryside patched over with strip malls and McMansions. I was filled with existential dread everywhere I went.

Given the opportunity, I joined a friend's school trip to Paris. I'd never travelled internationally, but had always wanted to. It was something to do, anyway, and my folks agreed to pay for it.

The entire experience of being in Paris felt like breathing real air for the first time in my life. A city. Freedom to go anywhere in it I wanted, just hop on the train and you're there. Huge museums. More to explore than one could manage in a lifetime, and I only had six days to get as much of it as I could. I was overwhelmed.

The guide for our tour group, a 30-ish French lady, was very forthcoming about what the future could hold for someone who wanted to explore. She told us about how she'd always wanted to see Israel, so in her 20s she moved there. No job, no place to stay, just a plane ticket and some savings. In a few days she had a small job and a room. It's difficult to overstate how hard this blew my mind.

Between Paris and Adrienne, my entire idea of what life could be had been torn open and strewn about in less than a week.

I had to leave a day earlier than the group due to a schedule conflict, which meant I was taking a shuttle back to the airport and catching my flight alone. Still in the addled state of mind I described above, I arrived and began looking for my airline and gate. I walked from one end of the terminal to the other, looking, and couldn't find it. I walked the terminal again, sure I had missed the sign somewhere. Hunting for the English on the signage of an airport that serves five continents would be hard even if it wasn't in France. I had arrived with a comfortable buffer of time, but by now had eaten through most of it. I still had security and customs to get through and my flight lifted off in two hours. I felt panic slowly creeping in, clouding my memory of what little French I had learned in the last week. I walked up to a pair of women in airline uniforms and clumsily stammered through "Uhhh, sorry, uh, merci, wee son United?" They stared at me, clearly irritated at the interruption. "United, see voo play?" They started laughing, and one of them repeated "United?!??" in a mocking tone. I rolled my eyes dramatically as a retort and moved on.

Collecting myself, I looked through signage for anything that looked like information, help, security, whatever. Eventually I found out I was in the wrong terminal.

The shuttle driver dropped me off at the wrong terminal.

Too relieved to be angry, I took the loop train all the way around to the right terminal, got through security and customs with a little time to spare.

When I sat down to wait for boarding, I started reflecting on the trip, and the sum total of all my experiences of the last six days crashed into the stress and fear of the last hour and a half of being lost in a foreign airport, and I broke down. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and leaned forward in my chair in a futile attempt at some privacy. I did my best to be quiet but everyone was looking at me.

The United employees working the boarding desk were polite but all business, which I appreciated. I just wanted to get on the plane without anyone making a huge deal about the fact that I'd clearly been crying for a half hour.

The in-flight movie in my seatback TV was Lost In Translation. The story stirred up all my feelings about the trip, starting the waterworks all over again. Despite my attempts to be quiet, the passenger next to me could clearly see my distress. Thankfully, they left me alone. Eventually, I fell asleep.

Rating: two airplane emoji

# ? Jul 31, 2017 03:13

Lime Tonics: Nov 7, 2015; by FactsAreUseless

In the next 20 years, airlines in North America are going to need 117,000 new pilots, Boeing estimates. And the farm team for training and recruitment in the U.S. -- the military and regional carriers -- are already struggling to find and keep aviators.

The coming retirements exceed the active U.S. regional airline pilots corps, which stands around 19,000.

Without enough pilots, the amount airlines can fly will be capped. And an acute shortage may wreak havoc on air travel, grounding planes and reducing air service to some cities if routes are cut or curtailed.

It's already happening.

Last month, Horizon Air, the regional arm of Alaska Airlines, said it was canceling 6% of it schedule -- more than 300 flights -- from August to September because it doesn't have the pilots. And Republic Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2016 in part because it was "grounding aircraft due to a lack of pilot resources.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/27/news/companies/pilot-shortage-figures/index.html

Good time to become a pilot, if you can put up with a lot of BS.

# ? Aug 1, 2017 02:34

Raldikuk: Apr 7, 2006; I'm bad with money and I want that meatball!

Lime Tonics posted:

In the next 20 years, airlines in North America are going to need 117,000 new pilots, Boeing estimates. And the farm team for training and recruitment in the U.S. -- the military and regional carriers -- are already struggling to find and keep aviators.

The coming retirements exceed the active U.S. regional airline pilots corps, which stands around 19,000.

Without enough pilots, the amount airlines can fly will be capped. And an acute shortage may wreak havoc on air travel, grounding planes and reducing air service to some cities if routes are cut or curtailed.

It's already happening.

Last month, Horizon Air, the regional arm of Alaska Airlines, said it was canceling 6% of it schedule -- more than 300 flights -- from August to September because it doesn't have the pilots. And Republic Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2016 in part because it was "grounding aircraft due to a lack of pilot resources.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/27/news/companies/pilot-shortage-figures/index.html

Good time to become a pilot, if you can put up with a lot of BS.

Hmm I wonder why no one wants to join the regional carriers to fly. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the absolutely insulting pay and crazy hours. I wonder if there's any cure for that. Total mystery for the corporate big wigs I'm sure

# ? Aug 1, 2017 04:45

its all nice on rice: Nov 12, 2006; Sweet, Salty Goodness.; Buglord

I've flown on Alaska for about 80% of my air travels and have never had an issue. After having flowing Norwegian, I think I'm going to pay a bit more for a better airline the next time we travel abroad. That Dreamliner, though! I could stand! And it was so quiet!

Raldikuk posted:

Hmm I wonder why no one wants to join the regional carriers to fly. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the absolutely insulting pay and crazy hours. I wonder if there's any cure for that. Total mystery for the corporate big wigs I'm sure

And people ask me why I decided not to complete flight school.

# ? Aug 1, 2017 05:43

Theris: Oct 9, 2007

Raldikuk posted:

Hmm I wonder why no one wants to join the regional carriers to fly. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the absolutely insulting pay and crazy hours. I wonder if there's any cure for that. Total mystery for the corporate big wigs I'm sure

Every single sector-specific labor shortage of the last couple decades (nurses, truckers, pilots, probably others) hasn't been "there aren't enough x," but rather "there aren't enough x willing to work for what we want to pay them."

# ? Aug 1, 2017 09:23

Platystemon: Feb 13, 2012; BREADS

The A/T aviation thread�s subtitle used to be �It is not a pilot shortage. It is a pay shortage.�

# ? Aug 1, 2017 09:32

Lime Tonics: Nov 7, 2015; by FactsAreUseless

United killed another dog,

United Airlines is caught in yet another controversy surrounding the death of an animal.

The airline, which has the worst record for pet deaths onboard their flights, is being held responsible by a Houston family for the death of their 5-year-old King Charles Spaniel.

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/08/07/united-airlines-blamed-for-5-year-old-dogs-death.html

# ? Aug 8, 2017 18:16

Gynocentric Regime: Jun 9, 2010; by Cyrano4747

Lime Tonics posted:

United killed another dog,

United Airlines is caught in yet another controversy surrounding the death of an animal.

The airline, which has the worst record for pet deaths onboard their flights, is being held responsible by a Houston family for the death of their 5-year-old King Charles Spaniel.

http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/08/07/united-airlines-blamed-for-5-year-old-dogs-death.html

This is exactly why airlines need to let me buy a ticket for my dog. I'd rather drive 12 hours than worry about her the whole flight.

# ? Aug 8, 2017 20:48

EvenWorseOpinions: Jun 10, 2017

Why let someone buy a ticket for their dog when they could let someone buy a ticket for their dog (in pressurized cargo) and let someone else buy a ticket
I have no intention of flying my dog anywhere if I'm not at the controls

# ? Aug 8, 2017 20:53

HerStuddMuffin: Aug 10, 2014; YOSPOS

Is it at all possible that the giant bunny they claimed they accidentally put in a freezer and killed could instead have been placed in unpressurized cargo by mistake and killed that way? They cremated the evidence either way so nobody can tell for sure what happened, but at first glance it appears to me that it might make more sense.

# ? Aug 8, 2017 21:18

EvenWorseOpinions: Jun 10, 2017

Live cargo is marked for pressurized holds and also packed in conspicuous 'there are holes in this box so the living thing inside can breathe' boxes, so it would take some severe lack of common sense for that to happen which the airlines avoid by keeping high standards and pay for baggage handlers
That last part is a joke

# ? Aug 8, 2017 22:02

cubicle gangster: Jun 26, 2005; magda, make the tea

This past year I was able to use jetsmarter for a few flights for work and it's so, so good I wish all my flights could be like that. The security is hilarious, I don't think they even checked my ID on one flight. Just waltz into the 'terminal' (basically one room with tons of sofas and a lounge), tell them what flight you're on and sit back on the sofas waiting to be told it's ready. it was unbelievably dope.
It was with one of our clients who uses it for pretty much 100% of his domestic flights.

# ? Aug 8, 2017 23:12

Adeline Weishaupt: Oct 16, 2013; by Lowtax

Just because sometimes this thread needs to hear ~~why the megacorps are actually good and need defending~~ some good and positive news.

quote:

A WestJet employee named Susan has made the world a little bit brighter by giving away a pair of airline tickets to the family of an Ottawa woman dying of cancer.

Kellie Martin told the Calgary Eyeopener that her best friend in Ottawa is losing a fight with cancer and went into palliative care this week. Martin wanted to make sure her friend's brother, who lives in Calgary, could get to Ottawa to be with his sister for her final days.

Low on funds for airfare, Martin made a call to WestJet in the off chance the airline could help the family with a discounted ticket.

That's when the WestJet employee named Susan stepped up to help the family with a random act of kindness.

Flying the friendly skies

WestJet gives their employees discounted tickets called buddy passes, which they can give to family and friends. While a buddy pass doesn't make a flight free, it does significantly reduce the cost.

"(Susan) said 'Could you just hold for a moment,' and then she came back on the line and she explained about the buddy passes," Martin said. "She wanted to give me two of hers in order to get Andrew home to be with his sister."

Martin said she was shocked when the stranger on the other end of the phone offered up two of her own buddy passes to help the friend.

"I was dumbfounded," Martin said of Susan's good deed. "And she's like, 'Ya, I'm going to give you those passes and you're going to get him home' and I just started to cry."

Martin said the flight was booked the next day and Andrew is now in Ontario with his sister, all thanks to Susan.

"He's going to be staying at the hospital with her until she goes to the next part of her journey," Martin said.

"I can't even tell you, to have those two together for her last days here, what that means to them and what it means to me."

And on a mostly unrelated note, it sounds like Ultra Low-Cost Carriers are going to be introduced in Canada in the next year. So I expect to hear about more airline horror stories soon. As well as stories of airlines folding since a lot of new companies are going to be fighting against tried-and-true airlines that are also trying to expand into the ULCC market. At least flying on ULCC's isn't going to be nearly bad as flying on Air Canada :v:

# ? Aug 10, 2017 01:54

Hyrax Attack!: Jan 13, 2009; We demand to be taken seriously

Recently flew to Iceland and UK for vacation. First flight was Seattle-Keflavik on Iceland Air direct and that was fine. When they turned down the illumination on the cabin the lighting looked like the Northern Lights.

Iceland to Edinburgh was Iceland Air, then British Airways. Routine and on schedule.

Going home was Edinburgh-Manchester-Boston-Seattle. We booked through Thomas Cook (excellent customer service), and the first flight was FlyBE, followed by Thomas Cook across the Atlantic. That was alright, good price but an older plane with no in-flight console. Good food.

Boston to Seattle was through Alaska Airlines. Flight was half hour late boarding as the Alaska check in squad did not seem like their A team, it took them about twenty minutes to find a wheelchair to finish unloading the passengers from the arrival flight, then more delay as the whole terminal was sharing one dot matrix printer for printing flight plans.

In the air a passenger took ill and fortunately there were multiple doctors and nurses able to help. She was having a severe anaphylactic reaction to something (no food was served on the flight, so not Alaska's fault) and so the plane made an emergency landing in Fargo to send her to a hospital. Overall not a great flight, but our luggage made it and we didn't have any transfers so alright.

# ? Sep 21, 2017 18:36

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? Apr 24, 2024 18:10

Sponge Baathist: Jan 30, 2010; by FactsAreUseless

Just a reminder that the world's largest rabbit died on 4/20 in United's hands

# ? Sep 21, 2017 19:47

The Something Awful Forums > Main > Post Your Favorite: Carefully Curated > PYF Airline stories, airport recommendations, rants and raves

«‹›3 »