Originally Posted by BearX220
Flying Buccaneer, you had a bad travel experience during the worst single-day blizzard in New York City history. I'm not surprised.
I also recognize that you're writing in the throes of anger and fatigue. But I still don't think you're being fair. You expect perfect knowledge and total courtesy from B6 during a gigantic operational meltdown in which perfect knowledge did not exist and the staff were probably working double or triple shifts. And you ascribe nefarious motives to B6, as if they set out to deliberately hurt you, when you were almost certainly a victim of 80 percent circumstance and 20 percent poor planning.
I don't expect "perfect knowledge and total courtesy" from any airline. I fly enough that I am not that naive, and I know that the nature of the service (i.e., individuals performing in high customer-contact situations) makes that unrealistic. However, I expect to be treated with at least as much courtesy and respect as I show those representatives of an organization. I am not a confrontative individual by any stretch of the imagination, and I understand the conditions under which those in the airline industry work.
I don't think any part of my post implied that I thought B6 "set out to deliberately hurt" me. I was speaking on behalf of 156 passengers on my flight. And if you think I am being unfair, what I wrote is tame compared to what many of the other 155 were saying (and screaming). Again, it's not my nature. I've learned through countless contacts with those in the service industry that asking a question or making a request calmly and with a smile on my face is usually met with courtesy and an answer. As for the information, it would be nice if they were at least reading off the same page and making the same announcements. Given the fact that they are (presumably) connected to the same information system, that shouldn't be too much to ask.
Originally Posted by BearX220
Originally Posted by FlyingBuccaneer
At 10:50 p.m., the pilot... told us that there were 20 planes in front of us and that--assuming 2 minutes per plane--we should be ready to take off at 11:30 p.m. However, before 11:30, I heard on TV that a Turkish Airways plane had skidded off the runway. Though we were never informed of this, we were told that there was only one runway for takeoffs and landings. Considering the conditions, this was understandable.
Around midnight, our pilot told us that we were now number 15, and that takeoffs had slowed considerably, because some landing planes were in a fuel-critical situation. In the meantime, we inched our way toward the runway.
How is any of this B6's fault?
I don't believe I said any of it was, did I? I was giving an account of the situation. I acknowledged at least twice that much of this was beyond B6's control.
Originally Posted by BearX220
They don't fill the tanks full every time. They fill them with enough to get to the destination plus a reserve. Considering the unanticipating ground time you had owing mainly to the Turkish Airlines accident, this isn't odd at all.
Ground times had been high before the Turkish plane had its accident. With more flights arriving and departing as the night progressed, it would not have hurt to anticipate higher ground times.
Originally Posted by BearX220
What do you think should have been done at this point? When you pushed back Ops figured you were gone and put other aircraft at the gates. Should they have broken off another flight's turn process and evacuated that aircraft from the gate to move you in? Now you've got another busted flight.
Those planes at the gate were empty. Perhaps you missed the fact that this happened between 2 - 5 a.m. There were no B6 planes leaving the gates, period. Moving those empty planes to allow passengers to return to the terminal was not asking much.
Originally Posted by BearX220
What motive would they possibly have for lying? They should have made more announcements to prevent conspiracy theories from taking hold, but chances are there wasn't any news to pass on.
If you honestly believe that this level of Machiavellian plotting and conspiring against customers really takes place at the height of blizzard ops -- when the whole system is in meltdown mode and plans -- make that "plans" -- change on a minute-to-minute basis, I have no sympathy. You're interpreting chaos as dishonesty.
Maybe ops decided that our plane was needed for the JFK-LGB flight at 7:10 a.m.? Maybe ops decided that the other three planes were better used on routes other than the ones they were originally scheduled for? Hey, I'm not averse to a business making a dollar. However, I doubt they decided a few minutes before we returned to the gate to use our plane for the LGB flight. When that decision was made--whether it was at 2 a.m. or 4 a.m.--we should have been allowed to return to the terminal.
Originally Posted by BearX220
You had a rotten time and probably have a refund coming. But as near as I can tell, the only thing B6 did wrong in this whole episode was fail to clear a gate for you when you had to come back and top up the tanks. Towards the end of the wait, toward breakfast time, the crew went illegal. So, flight cancelled. They tried. Stuff happens. There was no conspiracy against you. It was just... the way... things happened.
Actually, the pilot was going "home" to TPA, and I sensed the frustration in his voice. When he introduced himself as one of the "Stooges," he said that he was not scheduled to pilot that flight. Perhaps when ops decided the flight was no longer going to TPA, there was no longer any need for this pilot to be in the cockpit. Not a conspiracy theory, but a reasonable connecting of the dots.
It's easy to say "stuff happens" when it happens to someone else.
Originally Posted by BearX220
Any UA flyer who's spent four hours in the ORD penalty box, or waited 90 minutes to deplane at EWR while they find a working jetway, knows stuff happens.
I've done both, as well as being on a UA flight between ORD-TPA that was scheduled to depart at 6:30 p.m. that departed after midnight because of heavy thunderstorms. None of those ever involved over 8 hours in a plane on the ground with no hope of taking off. Again, say "stuff happens" when it happens to you. I doubt you'll be as forgiving as you are now.
Originally Posted by BearX220
Next time don't try to fly during the worst blizzard ever.
I didn't
try to fly during a blizzard. In fact, I would have been OK with B6 cancelling my flight yesterday afternoon. I would have understood why.