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Warning to same day flyers


Granny DI
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I've been flying for many years all over the world. Yesterday was to be simple trip to DFW via Philadelphia. Thirty minutes before departure the delayed sign began flashing. Then all the flights were flashing. Walked to the windows at my gate and saw 16 fire trucks, police, ambulances and black helicopters. They was a plane that was returning to the airport after a short flight. At this point we're all thinking plane crash. The plane landed safely at the end of the airport but the airport was immediately shut down. All flights diverted and we had to go back outside of security because every flight was cancelled. This was a terror incident.

The airport finally reopened about 4 hours later. I had new tickets to DFW via Charlotte. We were delayed another hour but pilot made up time....just to sit on the Tarmac for 45 minutes in Charlotte. It was a 20 minute RUN to my gate but I made the plane. I arrived in DFW about 10. I guess this is to be expected in our crazy world. I needed to be in Dallas yesterday, so from now on I'm going a day early. It's not worth the stress!

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I've always traveled on Soutwest and never had a problem.......so the one time I thought I can take an earlier flight from MSY to FLL the morning before cruise....was delayed 5 hours bc of heavy winds. Talk about pulling hair and teeth and aged 10 years. We made it in just 10 minutes before they stop boarding. So yes.....we always fly in a day earlier!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Prior to our POA cruise around Hawaii, we boarded our flight at 8:00am, on time, in Phoenix anticipating an 11:30am arrival in Honolulu... and then we sat on board at the gate. 45 minutes later, we're being directed to deplane and wait in the terminal area. Finally, at around 10:45am, we're back on board & pushing back from the gate at 11:05am.

 

During our departure climb, the pilot leveled off before reaching cruising altitude. He then got on the intercom and stated that the problem (a defective vent door that keeps the aircraft avionics cool during flight) that kept us on the ground for three plus hours had returned and that we would be landing at LAX to have the maintenance team check it out. But, before we can land, we need to burn off some fuel because the plane is too heavy to land safely. This took 2 1/2 hours.

 

When we landed at LAX, our plane was directed to an aircraft servicing area at the west end of the airport; which was basically a wide open parking area with a jet-way leading to a small building and no services, except a men's room and a lady's room with two stall each. We would be here for at least two hours while maintenance attended to the problem and the aircraft was loaded with another full load of fuel.

 

Finally, we're given the all-clear and everyone get's back on board. Once again, no more than 15 minutes into our departure climb, our pilot informs us that the problem is still not fixed and we need to return to LAX... but first, we need to burn off the excess fuel once again (another 2 hours of flying around in circles) before we're able to land.

 

By the time we get back to LAX, which is now 5:00pm Phoenix time, we're being told that the flight is cancelled and that we need to stay overnight in Los Angeles.

 

Upon deplaning, we get in line to arrange a flight to Honolulu for the following day. We're also given the name of a hotel (paid for by the airline), a couple of meal vouchers, and two $300.00 vouchers to be used at a later date. (The flight $300.00 vouchers were later replaced with $500.00 vouchers)

 

We finally did get to Hawaii the following day, which still gave us three days to enjoy Oahu before boarding the POA. Had we originally flown on the day of the cruise, we most certainly would have missed the ship. ;)

Edited by azappraiser
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I guess sooner or later our luck runs out and we get a big surprise when traveling. I was thankful I wasn't on the plane with the incident. All passengers were questioned by the FBI etc. They were still in the holding room when I finally left. The airport workers were really frightened and frazzled but the travelers were amazing!

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One thing I learned over years of frequent business travel was to never book the last flight of the night. I had my share of delays and cancellations, but as long as there were later flights, always got out the same day - domestic only. With travel across the Atlantic, I never experienced a cancellation, but if I had, I'd have been SOL.

 

I'm a day before flyer when it comes to cruises.

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Folks fly in the summer months & say, nothing to worry about - and forgot about those thunderstorms that just pop & roll in. Friends of ours flying in - looking at 2+ hours delay at all 3 NYC area airports - JFK, LGA & EWR - that started earlier from their origination airports - thus, they are still sitting at ORD (that's Chicago - for the short 90+ minutes flight, once they are airborne & inbound)

 

Text them to not worry, if & when they land, I will get ready to pick them up - just 15 minutes to the terminal as we have direct view of Rwy 13/31 - across the Flushing Bay, less than 2 miles away ...

 

Always happy to land on time, if not early - keep in mind that you can be airborne & en route, and, get diverted last minute for ANYthing - until you reach the destination airport's gate, with all your luggages (another reason to do just carry-on & travel light)

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being caught up in the United grounding today I couldnt help but think of travel that I wasn't getting paid for.

 

we always fly in the night before at the latest...

 

you just never know, direct or with connections:)

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We are going to fly in to Seattle a day early. But if I get on one of those flights like described above, I will never make it there. I have never flown before and if it doesn't go off without a hitch, I'm not sure if I could get back on a plane.:eek:

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azappraiser, glad to see you were compensated! which airline?

 

Hawaiian - although they didn't make it very easy to use them. First of all, as expected, they were non-transferrable, non-refundable for cash and must be used within one calendar year. The vouchers were only valid on Hawaiian Airlines and could not be used toward flights on any of their "partner" carriers. The vouchers MUST be original documents, copies were not acceptable for redemption. :mad:

 

In order to cash them in, I basically had to two choices:

1. Book a new reservation & pay for it out of pocket, and then send the vouchers to Hawaiian Airlines. Upon receipt of the vouchers, they would then apply the voucher credit to my reservation and refund the appropriate amount to my credit card. Or,

2. Go to the nearest Hawaiian Airlines ticket counter and book my reservation there. I could then apply the voucher amount to the reservation and pay any difference out of pocket (if any money were due), although, this option may incur an additional fee. There may also be a price difference for the same flight if booked at the ticket counter versus a fare found on the web... fortunately in my case, the price quote I had in hand was the same as what was available at the ticket counter.

 

The first option didn't appeal to me as I wasn't thrilled about paying for the reservation and then sending Hawaiian Airlines my vouchers... only to have them get lost or misplaced and not have any proof that I was entitled to a refund. Besides, I work (part-time) at the airport, so going to the ticket counter was relatively convenient for me, therefore I exercised the second option. I avoided the ticket counter booking fee ($35.00 per reservation) by securing a waiver (by email) from one of the customer relations managers at Hawaiian... I insisted on having the waiver in writing. ;)

 

It took a few phone calls and emails, plus a side trip to the ticket counter... but in the end, DW & I secured our reservations for a R/T flight from Phoenix to Oahu for the grand total of $73.60. :D

Edited by azappraiser
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Yep.

 

drive to my Port it is a two to two and a half hour drive most days.

 

I go the day before if at all possible, so that if anything does go wrong I can try and make alternate arrangements.

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You just have to weigh the odds of missing the departure due to a serious plane delay or cancellation and the costs involved. The costs being the cost of catching up to the ship if you miss it and the costs of flying in a day early (extra day off work, hotel and food costs, etc.). If the odds of missing are low (i.e. little chance of incurring the extra missed-the-ship costs) and the extra costs for flying in the day before are high, same day flying is makes sense. If the odds are higher (and therefore the change of you inuring those extra missed-the-ship costs are higher) and the extra fly in early costs are lower, flying in the day before will make sense.

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Hawaiian - although they didn't make it very easy to use them. First of all, as expected, they were non-transferrable, non-refundable for cash and must be used within one calendar year. The vouchers were only valid on Hawaiian Airlines and could not be used toward flights on any of their "partner" carriers. The vouchers MUST be original documents, copies were not acceptable for redemption. In order to cash them in, I basically had to two choices:

1. Book a new reservation & pay for it out of pocket, and then send the vouchers to Hawaiian Airlines. Upon receipt of the vouchers, they would then apply the voucher credit to my reservation and refund the appropriate amount to my credit card. Or,

2. Go to the nearest Hawaiian Airlines ticket counter and book my reservation there. I could then apply the voucher amount to the reservation and pay any difference out of pocket (if any money were due), although, this option may incur an additional fee. There may also be a price difference for the same flight if booked at the ticket counter versus a fare found on the web... fortunately in my case, the price quote I had in hand was the same as what was available at the ticket counter.

The first option didn't appeal to me as I wasn't thrilled about paying for the reservation and then sending Hawaiian Airlines my vouchers, only to have them get lost or misplaced and not have any proof that I was entitled to a refund. Besides, I work (part-time) at the airport, so going to the ticket counter was relatively convenient for me, therefore I exercised the second option. I avoided the ticket counter booking fee ($35.00 per reservation) by securing a waiver (by email) from one of the customer relations managers at Hawaiian. I insisted on having the waiver in writing. It took a few phone calls and emails, plus a side trip to the ticket counter... but in the end, DW & I secured our reservations for a R/T flight from Phoenix to Oahu for the grand total of $73.60.

 

Good for you. I am glad you were able to use this; however, isn't it ridiculous that we have to jump through all the hoops ? It is made to dissuade you from using them. ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another anecdote demonstrating why you shouldn't fly in the same day:

We departed 7/15 for Istanbul for a cruise. We left out of FLL, flight delayed and we weren't sure we'd make our ATL connection. We were lucky, and cleared the last 2 standby seats on an earlier flight so we did make our connection and all was well. However....

 

We had 6 friends who were leaving from TPA, connecting at JFK. First they were delayed at TPA due to weather over central FL. (Same reason our original departure was delayed out of FLL). Then there was weather in the NYC area and JFK issued a ground stop. They finally left TPA 4 hours late and missed their JFK connection by about an hour. 5 of the 6 got rebooked on an Air France flight to Istanbul via Paris. The 6th got rebooked on KLM to IST via Amsterdam. He made it, but his bags didn't. He got one bag 2 days later in IST; (fortunately we had allowed 2 days there pre-cruise.) The other bag still has not been located 12 days later. The other 5? They got to the gate for the AF flight and the boarding door had just closed so they had to spend the night in the NYC area. (As the delay was weather related, the airline was not obligated to compensate them with hotel rooms.) Had the cruise been leaving the next day, they'd have missed it. They were rebooked again the next evening on Alitalia via Rome and had no problems with the flights themselves, but only 3 of the 5 got their bags. The 4th person finally got his bag delivered to him on the very last day of the cruise. The 5th one still has not seen her bag.

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They got to the gate for the AF flight and the boarding door had just closed so they had to spend the night in the NYC area. (As the delay was weather related, the airline was not obligated to compensate them with hotel rooms.)
Assuming that "AF flight" means that it was operated by Air France, then this is incorrect. Air France was obliged by law to provide care, including meals and hotel accommodation, during the delay to their journey, even if this was caused by weather. And that itself assumes that AF's CoC did not already include that provision.

 

AF was also obliged to give them information about these rights, so it sounds like the airline may have failed on two counts here.

 

If your friends are out of pocket, they should think about making a claim. The relevant legislation is usually referred to as Regulation EC 261/2004 (or something very similar) and the AF website ought to have some information about this.

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Of course it does not take much to get me worried! We scored the holy grail of FF tickets flying business class from Phx to Barcelona on US air via CLT at the end of September.

 

Of course, I was smart enough to book the flights so that we have an overnight in Barcelona before the ship sails the next day. This leaves an extra day to get to BCN before the cruise starts should there be flight problems. I was also smart enough to take the first flight out of PHX in the morning so we have plenty of time in case of a delay.

 

What I was NOT smart enough to check was -- should there be a flight cancellation of the CLT to BCN flight, there is NO flight the following day (weds) from CLT to BCN. So, my questions are ...... If something happens and the CLT to BCN flight gets cancelled, will US AIR (AA) arrange for us to take the USAIR flight the next day from PHL to BCN? Does flying on FF tickets mean we have lowest priorty for rebooking? There is also a AA flight to Barcelona from Miami every day. Would they allow rebooking on AA metal to get us there? (Our flights are before the reservation systems merge in Oct)

 

Yes, I know -- I am overthinking this. I just like to know options in case the unexpected happens. (Note to self... stop reading Flyertalk messages about unexpected cancellations and mean gate agents).

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Folks fly in the summer months & say, nothing to worry about -...........................

 

Yea right, on our first cruise, we flew in from ABQ NM to LAX, 3 hours right.......:rolleyes:

 

Well in PHX we were delayed about 3 hours because of FOG in LA...:(

 

We were scheduled to be in LAX around 11, well we got in at 3, ship leaves at 4, well thankfully Carnival was aware of the delays and was waiting for us when we got to LAX, but to get the bags.............:eek: one more headache, we walked on and in 15 mins the ship was gone, phew that was close, so we NEVER, EEEEEEEEVER fly in the day of the cruise:cool:

 

To those who do, good luck!

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Mina,

Check your reservation for changes from time to time.

It wouldn't hurt to have a list of alternate flight possibilities with you in case of irops or weather.

US/AA will work with you even if you booked with points. The problem is generally seat availability.

Don't worry too much about your flights....think about your wonderful cruise.

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