Wildest Diversion Tale?
 

What's your wildest diversion tale on CO?

I flew MIA-EWR last week...but with snow at EWR, was diverted to IAD ...but because of lengthy hold at IAD, had a fuel emergency that brought us down to RDU in a hurry. Almost 10 hours on the plane for that MIA-EWR run, but fortunately was in F on a 752 :)

I remember back in '04, a NRT-IAH flight was diverted to Midway Atoll where passengers enjoyed an expected stay (which included a tour of the island) due to an oil pressure problem in one of its engines.

My only other diversion experience in all my years of flying was going ORD-EWR, but due to traffic in EWR, we diverted to BOS for fuel. We actually had BOS bound passengers deplane there, although I presume their bags flew as originally expected.

I did an MSY - IAH, and a fast moving front came thru IAH and closed it down. We did circles over the Gulf of Mexico for a while, and then diverted to Lake Charles, LA.

I was supposed to meet my mother-in-law at IAH as she was coming in 5 minutes after me, and now I was 2 hours delayed arriving at Houston. I frantically called my wife, who said her flight had not arrived yet, call waiing rung in, and it was her mother - advising that her plane had circled, and landed at Lake Charles for fuel, and she would be late. I could look out the window and wave as we were parked next to each other at LCH.

On CO I had an MKE-EWR that had a diversion to CLE because of WX at MKE and not enough fuel to circle around. They boarded a snack for all the pax at CLE while sitting for fuel.

Now that CO will soon be UA I had a ORD-BRU that I diverted to KEF.

A guy who should've been in a cath lab the day before though he would try to make it back to Belgium before going to the doctor. Mid way over the Atlantic and FA saw he wasn't doing well and asked for a doctor.... no reply.... then any medical personnel on board, so I hit the FA button and was walked back to the guy in E+, after looking at him and assessing him for a minute I told the FA to get the pilot to divert ASAP and fortunately we weren't too far from KEF.

My most memorable diversion was a few years ago when CO wanted to charge me a change fee and fare difference to reroute to my final destination on CO metal from the diversion point. Nobody at the Plat desk or at the airport was willing to do anything about it, so after an hour of burning cell minutes and talking with agents, I held a Full Y reservation, went back to one of the GA's who quoted a change fee and told him to, print my old ticket to paper, check me in against paper for the new reservation, and "let me borrow your stapler, I'll take care of the rest." ;)

After that, he realized I was serious, but of course paper is a no-no with CO, so he got the Helpdesk on the phone, and after one more last-ditch effort to quote a change fee for that evening, they got it done (I ended up talking to the Helpdesk briefly before a redcoat took over the call and had me just board without a BP while they figured it out).

How could they not re-route you from a diversion point? What was the city you diverted to?

Diversion point was OKC. Both ground staff and Elite agents were unCOoperative, they wanted us to default to whatever the COmputer was going to do to us.

But they most certainly could (and ultimately did) reroute me -- they just wanted to get money to do it.

Mine happened last month on an STL-IAH-GRU-SSA itinerary. After a 6 hour delay due to a mechanical problem leaving IAH and a 2 hour wait for my newly rebooked connection at GRU. I was traveling in Y and was quite travel weary when I finally boarded a COdeshare JJ flight for the last leg of the journey. This flight was scheduled to stop at Salvador (SSA) and continue on to Belem.

About 30 minutes outside of SSA, the captain announces that the airport at SSA was closed because the weather station there was not functioning. We circle the airport for approximately 45 minutes before the captain makes a second announcement that we will need to divert and "wait for the company to tell us what to do". While there were several more announcements, these were the last ones offered in English (important for this gringo! :D).

We fly for about an hour before touching down in the new airport. Through the miracle of 3G, I discovered we were in Maceio (MCZ). We pull into the penalty box area next to two other JJ aircraft. Stairs were brought to the plane. An FA made another announcement in Portuguese. About 25 pax gather their luggage, walk off the aircraft towards the terminal. Not sure what is happening, I manage to fight my way to the back of the plane to find the one FA who spoke some English. He indicated that these were pax whose final destination was MCZ -- which still confuses me as this would not have been possible with our original routing!

After another hour and a half on the ground, another announcement in Portuguese is made and half of the remaining pax begin to leave the plane. I battle my way upstream to find the FA again who tells me that everyone going to Salvador should board the plane immediately to our right. I grab my things as quickly as I can, but by this time people from the other AC are boarding this one. I fight my way to the front, manage to get down the stairs and onto the next AC right before they closed the door. As I was boarding, the captain was announcing (in English!) that SSA was open again and we would be departing in 45 minutes. I finally arrived at SSA a little after 1am -- a 31 hour door-to-door journey in an unCOmfortable Y seat.

about 5 years ago I was on an EWR-OKC COex flight and we diverted to TUL, at which point several pax got drink at the TUL airport bar and started fighting thus we had 3 fewer pax on the short hop to OKC when the storms cleared.

Ciao,
FH

Was that in October? I was at KEF catching an Icelandic flight KEF-JFK and I saw a UA bird on the ramp, the lounge matron told me that they had been forced to divert.

Last March I was on a GRU-IAH-EWR trip, on the IAH-EWR leg, we had to divert to ROC. We took a more northern route than normal due to weather. We circled south of Syracuse for a while, started to head towards SWF, then made a u turn and landed in ROC. I think we stayed in ROC for 2..3 hrs, the overall delay was about 4.5..5 hrs (in Y).

The next evening, I had a EWR-IAH-MZT trip so, I went back to EWR, CO1611 was delayed couple hours, I got into IAH around 1:30am, slept in terminal D, and at 5:30am, went to the PC in terminal E for a shower, and then headed to Term B for my flight to MZT.

IAH-EWR-AUS

Not me but close....

Me and DW were booked on a EWR-LAS for a family wedding. My dad was booked on Delta or AA metal out of RDU. He calls me and says "My flight to LAS is cancelled and they are rebooking, what flight are you on?" So I tell him. He says fine, see you in a bit. Now my Dad is handicapped so I grab a helper and go meet him at the gate.

I always book my wife and I in Aisle and Window on the same row. Many times no one books the center seat and this was no different. So when he gets to EWR I ask the agent to check and sure enough, there he is in the seat next to me. I haven't flown on the same plane as my Dad since I was 10, I'm 38 now. So we BS'd the whole way out, and since I was his ride in LAS I didn't have to find him and his luggage at the airport!

Not me --- but here's John Oliver (of The Daily Show) doing a funny bit about being diverted to Hanover en route to LHR

http://comedians.jokes.com/john-oliv...erman-airport/


:)

AA flight, early 90's

SNA-DFW-DCA

- departed SNA about 9:00am
- severe thunderstorms when approaching DFW, circled in holding pattern for a while, then diverted to TUL or OKC for fuel. sat there on the apron for a while, nobody allowed off the plane.
- landed at DFW about 11pm and hustle over to the next flight.
- next flight DFW-DCA boarded, told by GA we would leave about 12am, "just waiting for the crew"
- shortly after all pax were seated on the plane, announcement was made that crew has exceeded their daily limit, and another crew will see you in the morning!
- I'd say 80 or so of us were left to sleep on the plane (MD80?), unsupervised, overnight, with nobody from the airline on board!
- about 6am, new crew boards
- the final insult: the captain announces we are no longer going to DCA, we'll be landing at IAD.
- after sitting in a tube for about 24 hours, we arrive at IAD, and are out of pocket on the more lengthy and expensive cab ride to downtown DC.

I've never forgiven AA for that series of lies, half-truths, and absolutely abominable customer service.

Not a CO diversion, but an Air India one...


Boarded a 747 from BOM to RUH. Upper deck, first class. Half way through the flint, captain comes on and says that we're turning back. Apparently one of the engines had stopped functionining. We turn around and land in BOM late at night. F passengers are put up in the Taj hotel.

Board the next aircraft at 9am the next morning and safely make it through.