If you have time to spare, go by air

LVSteve

LVSteve

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This was said to me many years ago, and it's truer than ever judging by this week's fun and games.:(

Company travel policy resulted in my trip out of Vegas involving and stop in Denver. Hmm. Looked up the weather before I was due to go and it said light snow on Tuesday morning with heavier snow in the evening. That was OK, as I was due to land about 1000 and leave at 1130. Well, the weather forecasters got caught out because it snowed pretty good on Monday night. No biggie, except the horizontal viz on Tuesday morning caused the airport to operate with only two runways instead of four. Oops.

Got on the phone to get my flights changed as I felt it was all about to go South. The extra cost would have been about $200. Word came back: NO. The flight out of Vegas was delayed about 90 minutes, which was no big deal as the airline had already told me my next flight had been delayed two hours. Even this didn't move my bosses. Arrived in Denver to find this.

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No bueno, but should be OK, Denver has all the toys.

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Got into the terminal and found my way to my next gate. Turns out my plane is coming from somewhere else with worse weather. Uh-oh. After another hour the boards were starting to look like this.

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See all that red? Not a good sign. For the next trick, we had top move gate because the plane parked at "our" gate wouldn't start. Did I mention it was about 12°F at this time with snow flurries?

They eventually canceled my flight at 1615. This meant I needed a hotel. Continued in next post.:eek:
 

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Travel fun, continued....

Soooo, I call the travel folks to get me a hotel. Did you know that there isn't really an airport hotel as such at Denver? If there was, my travel folks couldn't find it. Could have been a per diem thing. They get me a hotel about 20 minutes from the airport but it has no restaurant. I'm told the hotel next door has food. OK, find the shuttle that serves a bunch of hotels and get to my room. In the meantime, my travel folks have me set up on a flight at 0530 next morning with a stop in Houston. Oh well. Call the guy whose meeting I'm supposed to attend at 0800 and tell him I might make it at 1200.

Next, get dinner. Not a chance. The restaurant next door is slammed with other stranded travelers. I'd be lucky to see food before 2100. There are more places to eat "a couple of blocks up the street", but I'm dressed for the South, and "a couple of blocks" West of the Mississippi is further than many of you may think. Oh, and now it's 10°F with a wind up to 10 mph and I have no hat or gloves. Not. Happening. Dinner was barbecue by the Lay's family, hardly satisfying.

Fast forward to the next morning, about 0335. That's when those of us in the lobby discover that there has been some kind of screw up and the shuttles are not running. It came close to getting ugly when one guy tried to force his way onto a Lyft XL arranged for somebody else. I kept out the way because they were all bigger than me and angry with it. Snagged a ride with the receptionist's partner who was coming off a a night of Uber driving. Piled on a thinly populated 737-900, de-iced, and off to Houston.

Approach to Houston was made either through heavy weather or a 57 mm FLAK barrage. Get to my next terminal to find no plane, it's 30 minutes late coming because of (drumroll, please) weather. Plane turns up and on we get, pushing back about 40 minutes late to join a HUGE line waiting to take-off. At sometime after my arrival departures had been suspended due to embedded thunderstorms and suspected microbursts close to the airport. Viz wasn't great, either. The tower was almost in the cloudbase. End result was a 90 minute flight that had us on an Embraer 145 for nearly three hours. Priceless. Made it to the meeting location a bit after 1400.

The only thing I can say about the whole trip is that TSA were no trouble at all at any of the airports I visited. Small mercies, eh?
 
I know the feeling. Back in the late 70s I was supposed to fly to Witchita but ended up spending the night in Denver due to fog. Back home we were still walking around in long sleeve shirts or maybe a light jacket. There was snow in Denver. :eek:
 
When I retire I'm going to burn my passport and never step on a plane again.

About a year ago I had to go to Nashville from Manila. The route was Manila, Hong Kong, Chicago, Nashville. Of course, the first flight was late so I missed that connection; they routed me from Hong Kong to JFK to Charlottesville to Nashville...6 hours later in HK later I was on my way. Landed at JFK, made it through Immigration and got on the plane to Charlotesville. We sat until that had to deplane...they eventually canceled that flight and put us on another several hours later. I was 20 hours late and had been in the air or airports 42 hours.
 
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For any destination within 1000 miles or so, I can usuallymake better time if I drive. TSA is largely responsible.

OTOH, I have a buddy who flies a lot for work. He says he actually enjoys flying. Racks up enough miles to fly his family to Europe every year. First-class upgrades, VIP lounges, fast track for TSA. For him, the best part is the amount of reading he gets done. All of Pynchon, most of Nabokov, most of James Joyce, and more. You can’t do that behind the wheel of a car.
 
I have only flown once. Chicago Midway to Las Vegas 11 years ago, had no issues as it was a non stop flight. This was also in late August so no snow. Hope your next trip goes better.
 
I flew a fair amount when I was working, but times were different and the airplanes weren’t booked over capacity. I remember one flight from Reno to Detroit. I was able to claim a row with no passengers, put the armrests up and lay down!

I’m 6’5” and close to 300lbs, so modern air travel is flat out miserable for me. The only way I’ll get on a commercial aircraft again is if we go back to Alaska.
 
LVSteve said:
Soooo, I call the travel folks to get me a hotel. Did you know that there isn't really an airport hotel as such at Denver? If there was, my travel folks couldn't find it. .....

Next, get dinner. Not a chance. The restaurant next door is slammed with other stranded travelers. I'd be lucky to see food before 2100. There are more places to eat "a couple of blocks up the street", but I'm dressed for the South, and "a couple of blocks" West of the Mississippi is further than many of you may think. Oh, and now it's 10°F with a wind up to 10 mph and I have no hat or gloves. Not. Happening. Dinner was barbecue by the Lay's family, hardly satisfying.
Click to expand...
And that misery is why I always tried to book my own passage and hotel arrangements.
From time to time our arrogant travel dept. would complain about me violating company policy, not helping them make their quotas, whatever they were, but I always got there cheaper and or faster, with accommodations well suited for getting to work or being fed. I really believe the travel dept. drones never actually had to travel themselves, given some of the layovers they scheduled or the hotels they booked in the middle of nowhere or in the middle of the biggest traffic jam in the local area.
 
I feel your pain...sounds like my last trip from Santa Fe, spending the night on a comfy blue chair in Chicago due to broken planes, late flights and missed connections. I suppose if I have anything to be grateful for, its that my employer will never question any charge when something like this happens...we do what we need to do to get to our destination, no permission or authorization needed. But it all boils down to this: I prefer root canals without Novocain over flying.
 
biku324 said:
When I retire I'm going to burn my passport and never step on a plane again.

About a year ago I had to go to Nashville from Manila. The route was Manila, Hong Kong, Chicago, Nashville. Of course, the first flight was late so I missed that connection; they routed me from Hong Kong to JFK to Charlottesville to Nashville...6 hours later in HK later I was on my way. Landed at JFK, made it through Immigration and got on the plane to Charlotesville. We sat until that had to deplane...they eventually canceled that flight and put us on another several hours later. I was 20 hours late and had been in the air or airports 42 hours.
Click to expand...

I thought I had some bad stories from my traveling days...Chicago stories...Atlanta stories. Then I went to Manila. Wow. I'll take Chicago and Atlanta in bad weather over equipment problems in Manila any day.
 
I never had to travel much for business. Doubtless it’s a hassle with schedules, meeting others, and all that. And I was always pretty well served in my leisure travels - until the last few years. (My last trip that took me through Heathrow pretty much cured me forever of any further international travel, particularly if it might involve stopping in England. :rolleyes:) Now I have to admit that every time I fly anywhere I get more reluctant to do it again. Yes, the actual safety record is impressive. I appreciate that. I really do. The rest of the foolishness we pay to put up with, not so much. So, I’m trying to readjust my thinking to driving instead of flying, anytime that’s possible. I’m surprised a great deal of business travel even exists anymore, what with video conferencing being so cheap and available. Yep, “Bean counters love [what they think of as being] cheap.” :o
 
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