greenery

The story about the people trapped on the tarmac in Austin TX on American Airlines will not go away. I have seen it talked about in the last few days on FOX, CBS Morning Show and CNN Headline News. It has got alot of people talking on line and at the Water Cooler, about what they would do if they were in a similar situation.

Put your self in a SIMILAR situation in the near future, what would you do?

You have been sitting in a plane on the tarmac for over 8 hours and it does not seem like it is going to move. The flight crew has been giving out false promises and conflicting information about moving any minute now-- but each time nothing happens. You see many planes taking off and landing around you and you can see empty terminal gates in the distance. The toilets are not working and there is no food on the plane. The air is stagnant and full of a terrible smell from human waste and sweat. People are angry and many people are crying and having panic attacks.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO? Do you think calling 911 would be a solution?

(Please do not talk about the specific American Airlines situation, that is already been discussed on their board. This is hopefully an opportunity for people to discuss what they would do when this happens to them sometimes in the future. If you fly often it will happen very soon as the Airline system goes into more chaos)

PlatinumScum

Personally, I'd call a local television station.

rkt10

My thoughts exactly. Actually all four of the majors (ABC, CBS, NBC AND Fox).

Rita

doctall41

Boy, I don't know.
It depends on if the plane were a 747, and I was in the middle section, middle seat, and if I were sitting on the tarmac in Lima, Peru.

Great question by the OP!

dimramon

What if you were sitting on the tarmac in Lima, in a CRJ, with no milk available and the person in front of you was from a developing country *and* was reclining into your space?

skylady

How would the authorities board the aircraft? If you are sitting on the tarmac, the exit doors are in the "armed" mode. It is very difficult to climb up a slide. I would make sure you have a true emergency to explain to the folks going to all that effort to save you.

entilzhaFT

The local tv station idea is nice. I would also call my congressman's office* and see if they could get anything to happen.

*Knowing people in the office and being a donor may positively influence my results.

pinniped

I might try a TV station, although I'm not sure how excited they'd get about it. By the 2 or 3 hour point, I have to admit I would consider dialing 911. I would probably try to rally other passengers to use their phones to place several simultaneous 911 calls.

Marathon Man

oddly enough I was JUST going to make a new thread about this very thing happening to my inlaws this past weekend in Boston!!

ARGHGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!

OK so the inlaws came because we had our baby girl baptized and they also wanted to see their own daughter over here in the States. My wife's parrents come from one of those nice towns in Northern Europe where people still do things like send a christmas card to their local travel agent because his father knew your father and so on. You get the picture. And they DO use a travel agent too whenever they travel.

They wished to fly direct and NWA goes AMS==>BOS, working out nicely for all of us.

We saw them off at around 5pm on Friday night (Jan 26) as they walked thru the security lines at Boston's Logan Airport new terminal E.

Assuming they would take the easy 7+hr flight home and then call us once they arrived at their own house, we went home and went about our normal life being pleased to have had a wonderful week with the family.

But their experience ended up a lot differently...

We never heard from them until late in the evening our time as they just got to their own house in the late afternoon on their time. (6hrs ahead)

Father in law explained in horror about how NW FAs announced there was some mechanical problem and that this should not take long but they needed to wait.

And wait.

And wait.


...Around 3.5hrs into it, they said some part needed to be flown in from Detroit to fix the plane.

Then they let everyone out to stretch in the terminal, which, in a way was decent enough, BUT the problem is this:

Logan Airport SUCKS!

Fact is, there is no food at like 11:30 at night in that crappy place. New or not, terminal E and all their excuses for airport services are just plain locked up and closed! I do not think they would have let anyone leave the area to possibly try to get back through security either, as they most likely left as well.

NO FOOD.

The airline didnt offer coffee or whatever food they never served, drinks or even water!

WHY??????????????????????????????????????????????? ?

And the airport? Hmmmph! They totally suck. I think Logan needs to be shut down, torn down and moved out to sea, rebuilt like that man made island thing in Japan! The place is hideous and stupidly run! NO FOOD! The airline should have taken it upon themselves to make ONE quick call to have SOMETHING available in the lounge or something but they did nothing and so like Logan itself, they also suck!

My father in law did not call us to inform us of this because he thought there would have been little we could have done about it. He was right except then we would have known why they were going to be late getting home. But also, at the time, I think he would have been seeing red so it was maybe a good thing we never spoke that night.

They were allowed back into the plane maybe 1-1.5 hrs later and soon took off around 1-2am. I dont have all the exact details yet because my wife has filtered some of it because she knows how passionate I will get about this sort of stuff.

When they arrived in Amsterdam, NW gave everyone a voucher.

THAT is crap!

MONEY!
FOOD!
E vouchers that can be used by ANYONE ANY TIME

NOT a useless piece of paper, and not a lie!

They are going to mail me the vouchers so I can do my thang.

And I will... oh yes, I will!

NWA will pay.

The inlaws came in the summer too when our baby was born. On that flight, whos return was BOS-Philly-AMS, no sooner did we see them off did BOS-Philly get cancelled without warning. They were left standing there watching people who seemed "in the know" running about getting on other flights. They went back to get their bags but these were somehow already lost.

The airline eventually put them on a NWA flight that was leaving later on (same #38 as above btw) but this in itself was like pulling teeth as US Air and NW did not make it easy for them to travel. Broken English and frustration coming out of a couple in their early 60s who come from a time and place where people either dont screw up or make damn well sure you are taken care of tri-fold if they do, did not make it any easier. Dealing with fumbling large policy-ridden American beurocratic corporate monsters looking to save and milk every penny while pushing their own staffs all the way down the politically stiffling food chain of employment hierarchy is NOT easy for anyone, let alone the good-natured, properly brought up, gentle European man and wife.

It was for this reason they decided to ask their travel agent, with whom they have dealt for about 30 years, to kindly put them on the direct flights to and from Boston.

On that missing baggage flight, US Airways must have ported everything over to NWA because NWA sent them vouchers they never even asked for with regards to their situation and noted frustration. While this was a kind gesture, when they tried to use those vouchers to book THIS flight, they were prompted to send them into the airport desk services department of the airline and someone contacted them to inform them of the obsurities and fine print rules that stated these could only be redeemed if one were to book directly with the airline. They asked to have them back but the airline keeps forgetting to send them.

Now they have more vouchers with NWA. USELESS, I say!


(And to think I had JUST begun to get thru to them about the benefits of having miles on ONE airline, and that we liked using NWA for our trips because the planes were new and the flights are direct for that routing!)

Flying US Air or NWA from Logan poses a problem for them. In the past, using American was out because they had problems in London. When you get stuck at LHR and the connecting carrier (sometimes BWI) puts you on a flight to a place like Amserdam, they often have loads of delays and changes and so it's really hard to let anyone know on the other side what to expect or when to expect it. They have had lost or delayed baggage issues in the past from that experience, and as we all know, touching down from the US into London often involves busses driving at lightning speeds twisting around between terminals while having to spend more than double in money on anything you might buy at the airport. Plus, you are about 1hr from mainland Europe but you just cant get there because it's like the busiest airport in the freakin' world. Lost bags, delays and changes, or broken planes... It's getting to the point where our family will not enjoy traveling to the states.

I have just cited real cases from one airline of each major aliance all happening to the same otherwise happy go lucky and content couple. This has surely been their indoctorination into today's horrid world of US-related airline travel. Something tells me if we wish to see our extended family, we will need to be the ones to try and get through it unscathed. That's why I need to get the vouchers converted to something that could be useful for others, like miles or e-vouchers that can be used in different ways. I do know NW could do this.

Nevertheless, until many things change and the people in the industry realize they all work for bad companies that need world wide walk outs, I think we all are in for many many more of these stories. It's a shame, really, because we ALL know with a little planning and courtessy, it could be so much better!

I for one, have had the problems I mentioned above more times than I care to remember. (This is precisely why I sometimes love to talk about things like being able to return items I bought on my mileage earning credit cards but still secretly keep the miles. It's all one of us can do to survive, maybe!)

DOES ANYONE think something serious needs to change out there? HOW? WHEN!

I think the TV station and 911 thing could have been a cool idea had they contacted us to let us know of the problem. Who knows, maybe some overzealous security person would have hassled them but hey, they got more important things to deal with such as charging you 35cents for a zip lock bag to put something into that you did not need to do on the inbound flight.

MM

oldpenny16

I would call CNN, MSNBC and FOX. We all should carry those numbers.

Marathon Man

agreed, and perhaps the local news of the city you are in. I think Fox is evil but in this case they would have been on my side.

I was also wondering a few things about my in law's situation:

1) could they have at some point simply requested to be allowed to leave and then just fly the next day? We could have come to get them and brought them back the next evening to fly again. Would an airline like NW flying internationally be able to allow this?

2) could anyone be allowed to leave the gates and go out of the terminal? They still have their boarding cards and have to get thru security again (if THEY are still open, that is)?

3) What if you happened to have your 7month old baby with you and this took place? When my wife flew when our baby was just 5 months old to go see family, the baby was fine in the whole flight and yet it's only a 7+hr direct ride! I know after sitting in one place for 10-12hrs, many babies are NOT going to be as good.

it angers me that the airlines cannot THINK of at least TRYING to do better here. I still wonder why no one thought of presenting like 50 cups of coffee and some of the airline's own snacks or food while everyone was waiting!

AND, why why why do they continuously lie about when they think they will get underway?

Do they not know the pyschology of people these days?

Honestly, I would rather be told:

"Sir, it's going to take 3.5hrs" and then have it only be 3hrs, rather than be told I will be only waiting for 20 mins and then sit there all freakin' night! In the first way, I would be HAPPY we got out early! But no, they HAVE to lie. ALWAYS!

PTravel

Anyone remember the LA Law when one of the lawyers was trapped on a plane, called his office and had someone run down to court and get an order letting everyone off the plane? Interesting possibility.

Marathon Man

I traded in some of my FF miles for "Get out of plane free" cards.

(seriously, I have NO idea why they don't like just LET you out and fix the problem and let you back in or GET ANOTHER PLANE THAT WORKS or send you on a carrier that does that too)

Bluehen1

Unlike most of you, I can actually tell you what would happen if I was stuck on a plane for a large number of hours because it happened to me. No, I wasn't on the flight that got diverted to Austin but this happened a year ago...

I was originally flying ATL-IAD-PHL on UA to come up and see family for a Christmas party in mid-January (we're spread out and it's the only time all of us could get together). I had taken Friday off and was flying up a day early expecting to have lunch on Friday with a friend in Philly.

ATL-IAD went off fine. No problems at all. While walking through G Concourse (Thank God that's gone), I noticed the previous IAD-PHL hadn't gone off yet. I went to its gate and found out it had been delayed four hours and they had no idea when it would go. I walked over to mine where I waited, and waited, and waited. We had no crew. Just as they announced they were cancelling the flight due to crew out of time, I ran back to the gate of the previous flight. It still hadn't left and eventually got cancelled while I was sitting there.

Now, I knew that my options were gone. I had already worked a full day and didn't feel like getting into DC then taking the train. The earliest UA could get me out was 2 PM which was unacceptable. I asked to be moved to US out of DCA and was told I could go at 6 AM or 7 AM. As it was already midnight, I asked to be put on the 7 AM (my mistake).

When I got to DCA to check in, I could have gone standby on the 6 AM flight (second mistake) but didn't. We boarded fine for the 7 AM which should have arrived in PHL at 7:57. We pulled from the gate. I then noticed we were going off to the side (I assumed it was DCA's penalty box). The pilot came on and announced that fog had settled into PHL and they put a ground stop on us (it was rolling in at DCA as well). He said he'd try and get us back to the gate, but there was no open gates. We sat there for at least an hour. There was an AS plane ahead of us. I noticed him on the runway for position and hold. The pilot mentioned that we'd go right after him. Unfortunately, we heard the engines rev then shut off. The ceiling at DCA had just dropped below the limit.

Now, we sat and waited for a while longer. I could see the fog rolling in and out across the Potomac. Eventually, it rolled out long enough so that we could take off. However, as we "neared" PHL it felt like we were circling. Indeed we were. With that, we were going to run out of fuel and were diverted to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. When we landed, I noticed eight other planes already on the ground. They had us taxi to a spot on the tarmac away from the terminal. An announcement was made that we would not be getting off the plane, however they would open the plane door. Since the plane was not catered for an extended flight, there was no food on board.

We sat for a few hours. Finally, the captain came on and announced that we would be moving closer to the terminal. We'd be allowed to get off and get something to eat. Oh, in addition, the passenger in seat 1D was a USAirways Exec and we'd each get $10 to spend on the airline. Just as we parked, he came on and said he had clearance and that everyone had 50 minutes.

We all got off. There wasn't much other than a coffee shop in the terminal and it quickly became crowded. So did the US desk where people who hadn't already tried were rebooking.

When we did take off, everything went fine.

There were a few funny things about this. One, the pilot's mother was on the flight with us (I had helped her down the jetway in DCA and she mentioned that info). Second, at no time was anyone overly upset. People were more concerned about missing connections (like the mother sitting next to me whose family had been trying to get to Nassau for two days). I really found it odd and I wasn't getting too upset either. There was nothing the pilot could do.

Funny thing... as we were getting ready to reboard to leave for PHL, another diverted flight came in. Those passengers were extremely pissed and they'd only been waiting two hours. You should have seen some of the looks they got.

Oh yeah, one other thing... this was all on an RJ.

BILLRNNP

What about getting a passenger's bill of rights passed?
I just do not think the airlines can police themselves. There should be a maximun amount of time someone can be forced to sit on the ground
90-120 minutes? in the aircraft. then penalties start. Like a cab flag drop in reverse. Prisons have to provide prisoners with basic meals, air quality, toliting facilities.

As I have flown much more in the last year, I cannot believe how bad CS
has become in the airline industry. If we can have a patients bill of rights,
why not an airline passenger's bill of rights?. I think what ever over all small incease in the price of traveling that this legislation would incurr, it would provide the flying public with some insurance in these situations.