Took a trip to New Yok for leisure. I should have known better than to go back to the well given the amount of problems I've had on AS metal starting East.

The itinerary: SEA>DAL>LGA>DAL>SEA. F class.

First, the trip out. Flight from SEA was uneventful (as per usual, AS is great if you're originating 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean). However, our pilots in DAL decided to get cute and undercut the petrol they were going to need to get us to LGA. They ended up waiting on the tarmac so long that they ended up needing to go back and fill up again. Problem is, between the time they realized they had to go back and the time they finished filling up, a storm had rolled in and we had to wait 2 hours for it to pass. So instead of getting in at a reasonable 9 pm, we didn't pull into our hotel in Tribeca until after midnight.

Irritating, but it happens. But today, oh, let's talk about today, because this one is for the record books.

Again, LGA>DAL>SEA, F class. The flight leaving LGA has mechanical problems. Because AS doesn't believe in putting a hub or even a secondary hub more than 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean, it took a couple of hours to fix, as they had to have a circuit board brought in from far, far away. By the time the plane starts loading, we're informed that if we get on the plane, we're going to end up stranded in DAL, as we'll have no chance of making our connecting flight.

AS's solution? A VX flight leaving JFK a little later, going to LAX in F, and from there we can have our pick of flights back up to SEA which may or may not come with an upgrade. I'm actually pretty OK with this, as VX's transcon F offering is light years better than anything AS has ever offered. The lie-downs are fantastic. Just one problem: We head to JFK, only to find that THAT plane has had mechanical issues, and the flight isn't going to leave.

AS's next solution? "Go back to LGA. We're going to put you on an American flight to ORD and then on to SEA". The problem there is the flight to ORD didn't have any seats for us.

AS's NEXT solution? Hop in a car and go to Newark, then get on a flight to PDX. Oh, and F seats are officially completely out of the picture. For those unaware, the drive from LGA to EWR takes over an hour. THIS flight actually takes off (shocker), albeit also late, but there are few hells greater than 6+ hours in coach when you were supposed to be in F. Oh, and by th is point we're starving - we didn't eat, because we figured the airlines were going to feed us. I forgot how vile TD's coconut chicken dish is.

So we arrive in PDX at 7:20. Right when our last puddle jump to SEA was going to start boarding. We dart over there (don't know why, we should have seen what was coming), only to find our plane isn't there because - you guessed it - it too had mechanical problems, this time in Boise. We finally board at 8:20 (for the record, this is roughly the time we were supposed to land), and then promptly sit at the gate, not moving an inch, until 9:40 - with no air conditioning, so it was pushing 90, it was stuffy, and there were some smells. We ran the math, and it would have actually been quicker for us to rent a car and drive back up to Bellevue.

The service on this flight was interesting - the lone attendant decided to get into a long, drawn out conversation with a bloke in row 2, so only the 1st 2 rows got drink service. Then, when we finally did land in Seattle, after 10 pm, she made sure to have another nice long conversation with the guy who's job it is to set up the ramp so that we can get off the plane. So we all got to sit there awhile whilst she had her talk.


Then, just to add insult to injury, we're at the baggage claim stand (12) that our luggage was supposed to come off of. And, to be sure, many PDX fliers got their bags. We sat there looking stupid for over 20 minutes, only to realize that AS had decided as one final "F you" to us to have our bags and those of a couple of others...come down baggage carousel 11.


It's not secret that I (and many others) have had an ever-increasing amount of problems when flying AS in the last year or 2, but this one likely takes the cake for the biggest, most epic consistent F up in one day of any airline I've ever had the misfortune of patroning. Between going between LGA (twice!), JFK, and EWR, and our itinerary including cities like DAL, ORD, LAX, and PDX as this comically bad series of events just kept piling on, it almost seems as though they've set out to drag the bar below ground.