No fun at DCA today (8/13/10)
Aug 13, 2010, 8:04 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Programs: US-CP, UA, Marriott Rewards, HHonors, Avis,
Posts: 4,549
No fun at DCA today (8/13/10)
If you're coming on the GW parkway from the District/495, the ramp to the airport is closed, or at least it was 45 minutes ago. Not sure if it's an accident, trees/power lines down from storms, etc or how long it'll be closed. Tailback was about 15 extra minutes, almost back to Humpback Bridge.
Tenrminal C--power to the monitors is out; appears to be at all the gates.
Unusually high number of gate changes. Also looks like a lot of delayed flights probably from the morning storms today. Currently there's 2 flights to MCO boarding up, and my 10am to TPA is boarding late but still before the earlier flight to TPA.
Lots of lost people, lots of cranky people and probably will get worse before it gets better.
Bring all your patience today, folks, and I hope things smooth out soon!
Tenrminal C--power to the monitors is out; appears to be at all the gates.
Unusually high number of gate changes. Also looks like a lot of delayed flights probably from the morning storms today. Currently there's 2 flights to MCO boarding up, and my 10am to TPA is boarding late but still before the earlier flight to TPA.
Lots of lost people, lots of cranky people and probably will get worse before it gets better.
Bring all your patience today, folks, and I hope things smooth out soon!
Aug 13, 2010, 10:46 am
#2
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Purgatory
Programs: Too many to list. Status is a half dozen.
Posts: 9,235
I was in the club until about 7:45. I saw no problems on the monitors and US981 had no significant delays on departure scheduled for 8:30 this morning.
Aug 13, 2010, 10:47 am
#3
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: BOS, PIT
Programs: US Chairman, Delta Silver, UA Premier, Hyatt Platinum
Posts: 719
Fantastic. I'm boarding the 1pm Shuttle from BOS right now. Hopefully I'll avoid the chaos from up in the Club.
Aug 15, 2010, 9:33 am
#4
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Pittsburgh
Programs: Star Alliance Gold, SPG Plat, Hilton Gold, Marriott Silver, Avis Rock Star
Posts: 1,217
It was definitely a mess. I was connecting to a PIT flight and the board showed Delayed as the status, but listed the departure time as "Now 6:55", but that was the original departure time anyway. I was at the gate at 6:15.
I checked the mobile site and they listed departure as 7:20.
I asked the gate agent and her response was "sit tight honey".
So I grabbed a beer at Gordon Biersch(sp), then wandered back to the gate to find that they were already boarding Zone 3.
Meanwhile the terminal was packed and full of very unhappy travelers.
At least the bathroom upgrades made the place a little nicer than it used to be.
I checked the mobile site and they listed departure as 7:20.
I asked the gate agent and her response was "sit tight honey".
So I grabbed a beer at Gordon Biersch(sp), then wandered back to the gate to find that they were already boarding Zone 3.
Meanwhile the terminal was packed and full of very unhappy travelers.
At least the bathroom upgrades made the place a little nicer than it used to be.
Aug 15, 2010, 11:29 am
#5
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Virginia
Posts: 1,558
Not sure what it is about Thursdays, but the last 3 have been nightmares with the weather. I've been flying the shuttle and our delays have been horrible on those days. Have also been flying them on Fridays and having to deal with the fallout from the previous day's delays. Hoping this week is better!
We've been dealing with the 3 hour limit on the tarmac and the airline is very good at gauging how long we can actually sit out there and safely make it back in time to the gate without incurring the fine. Funny thing, many passengers are under the impression that if we exceed the 3 hours then they will receive the $27,000 per passenger fine and they will encourage us to exceed it. LOL Sorry folks, that money would go to the government.
The other night DCA had a ground stop after another big line of thunderstorms had gone through, the airport was trying to deal with ramp congestion and trying to clear out flights that had been stuck on the ground with no place to go. We had a passenger go ballistic because the delay wasn't posted on the FAA website therefore he accused us of lying. He was getting pretty obnoxious and getting all of the people sitting around him riled up about it complaining about our piece of s*** airline holding people hostage for no good reason. He also demanded that the captain come out of the cockpit and look at the website on his cell phone. That was almost as good as "I just talked to my neighbor and he said the weather is fine". Not sure how people think we benefit from sitting on the tarmac burning fuel and risking misconnections, we want to get you there as quickly as we can. Trust me, we're tired of the delays too.
We've been dealing with the 3 hour limit on the tarmac and the airline is very good at gauging how long we can actually sit out there and safely make it back in time to the gate without incurring the fine. Funny thing, many passengers are under the impression that if we exceed the 3 hours then they will receive the $27,000 per passenger fine and they will encourage us to exceed it. LOL Sorry folks, that money would go to the government.
The other night DCA had a ground stop after another big line of thunderstorms had gone through, the airport was trying to deal with ramp congestion and trying to clear out flights that had been stuck on the ground with no place to go. We had a passenger go ballistic because the delay wasn't posted on the FAA website therefore he accused us of lying. He was getting pretty obnoxious and getting all of the people sitting around him riled up about it complaining about our piece of s*** airline holding people hostage for no good reason. He also demanded that the captain come out of the cockpit and look at the website on his cell phone. That was almost as good as "I just talked to my neighbor and he said the weather is fine". Not sure how people think we benefit from sitting on the tarmac burning fuel and risking misconnections, we want to get you there as quickly as we can. Trust me, we're tired of the delays too.