Airline Rage

Okay, after the Jet Blue fiasco of the past week, I was hoping to have an event free travel this week as I headed to the east coast. I was doing well until the very last leg of my week-long travel. My return flight home was horrible. It was if Continental Airlines had never flown a commercial flight ever! It was a comedy of errors, too inane to be mad about...something one just throws their hands up in the air about. Let me set it up for you all...

I had to be in New Jersey for meetings on Friday, so I had our sales team in the NY/NJ area set up meetings for me with clients and perspectives for the rest of that week...Tuesday through Friday...no sense wasting the trip just for one set of meetings. They did a great job of setting me up...meetings on Tues in NYC, Wed in Connecticut, Thur in Philadelphia, and Fri in NJ. I think the week went great. We may be signing one of the prospects and renewing a couple of others on the bubble. One client is even considering having me fly out every quarter to do more face-to-face meetings...at their expense!

Like I said earlier, I had trouble free travel until the very last flight home. After a full week of awesome meetings, I was in a great mood checking in for my flight home that afternoon. I got a great seat on the plane, and everything looked good to go...until I looked outside and saw that the baggage handlers had stopped loading the plane and started unloading the baggage. Uh-oh was my first thought. I asked the gate agent what was going on, and he said, "nothing, we are going out on time." I am no dummy, I learn more about the status of flights by watching the ground crew v. listening to the announcements. Literally 5 minutes later the gate agent makes an announcement that the plane had a slight maintenance issue that would only take 5 minutes to fix. He would keep us informed as progress was made. That was almost the last time we heard from him. The electronic board over the gate counter is what kept us informed. The "on time" sign changed to a 30 minute delay, then a 2 hour delay. I knew that plane wasn't going anywhere...they NEVER unload the baggage unless they can't fix the plane. Finally gate agent guy gets on and tells us that the plane is being pulled out of service and that they are doing everything in their power to find us a new plane. Another 90 minute delay. A plane does finally pull to the gate, but it is a different size than the previous...so they take another 30 min. to change seat assignments. Guess what? There aren't enough first class seats for all the passengers that paid for it. They already bumped 6 upgraders (boy were they hot!), and were looking for 3 first class volunteers to take a coach seat. Good luck, I said. We were finally ready to board 41/2 hours late. As they loaded the first class cabin and then the elite status passengers, they had to stop loading because the boarding pass reader wouldn't work, and they had to hand check everyone. So instead of loading in 20 minutes, it took them over an hour. Then the multiple seat assignments caused an uproar. People were already pissed, now they had to fight for seats. After the flight attendants and gate agents finally get everyone a seat, they close the doors for us to take off. But air traffic control decided to add to our misery. We sat on the taxi way for a solid hour waiting to take off. The crew did their best to keep us happy, with free drinks, headsets, and cheerful language. The pilots even tried to get us home by flying a bit faster than normal. But people weren't responding very well. I think there were 3 or 4 fake petitions being passed around on the plane calling for Passenger's Rights...ha!

As we approached Seattle, I thought my ordeal was finally over...what started as an early afternoon flight home ended up 5 hours delayed and then I watched a young woman in first class (damn those people!) faint and collapse. Uh-oh, guess what? Yup, an announcement from the head flight attendant. "Ladies and gentleman, can I please have your attention. We have experienced a medical emergency on board this flight, and we will need everyone's cooperation. A young woman has taken ill, fainted and bumped her head. We have stabilized her condition, but when we land we need all of you to stay seated until the EMT's are able to remove her from the flight. Please be patient. Thank you." So, not only have we been delayed on the front end of the flight for over 4 hours, but now we won't be able to deplane after we land! Thankfully she was not hurt too badly, so after just a few minutes they had her off the plane and we were able to escape.

Like I said, a comedy of errors, no information, no communication, and no love for paying customers. Continental Airlines, you just don't seem to care enough for your consumers to show them a little respect and dignity. Mistake #1: please start inspecting the planes right after they land for mechanical problems and not right before boarding. Mistake #2: we can handle the truth! We don't have to be lied to, or have information kept from us. Mistake #3: please, just look like you are hustling to get the plane ready to board. Standing around and goofing off just doesn't look right to the frustrated flyers waiting to get home.

That Passenger's Bill of Rights is looking pretty good to me right about now. Well, I am off to the east coast again starting Tues. Expect fewer posts. Hopefully I will have a more fun post next time.

Chow!