Unusual travel experience

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

This week I am traveling on business and tonight I had a connecting flight through CLT. Due to storms in the area, our flight had to circle for about 20 minutes. When I landed, my departing flight had been delayed 2 hours (from 10:20 to 12:25) so there was plenty of time to grab a cocktail. At 10:50 I returned to the gate just in time to hear that the flight had been canceled. Grrrr!

 

So like an experienced traveler, I followed instructions and went to the eTicket counter outside of security, politely sprinting and blocking others so I could be near the front of the line for the next flight out.

 

After standing in line for 5 minutes, we are informed that the flight has been reinstated. Since we were outside of security, we got to get friendly with the TSA agents again. (A pleasant patdown was more attention than I was expecting tonight, so that was a plus.) unfortunately TSA was unfamiliar with the confusion and since there was only one person to review the ID for a flight that was scheduled to have over 200.

 

I am just blowing off steam and trying to find some humor while sitting at the gate. No ETA on our departure time. Something tells me I will be in late tomorrow.

 

Has anyone else ever heard of a flight being "reinstated?"

[+ azdr0710]

anything is possible these days with commercial travel.....did you get a chance to enjoy the rocking chairs there at CLT out in that main area?....

 

since you're trying to find humor, how about this?....."individual overhead light units are an innovation"...."the travail has been taken out of travel"

 

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

Thanks ADZR.

 

Update. So apparently when the flight was cancelled all of our reservations were dropped. So the poor counter clerk has to book us all to the flight again!

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

Update 2: although the plane landed 30 minutes and it is ready and the airline knows we all have tickets, federal regulations prevent us from boarding until the flight has been booked in the system. And they have run into a snafu rebooking us so they can only do one a t a time AND each one takes a little longer.

[Guest]

Any of you remember when they used to give out playing cards? My brother still has a collection. I don't think they're worth much, though.

[+ azdr0710]

Sam: is anybody seriously grumbling or are they all behaving like good Southern folk?....(though I know probably very few of y'all are Southerners)....wow, 1:30am in Charlotte...ugh

[bigvalboy]

anything is possible these days with commercial travel.....did you get a chance to enjoy the rocking chairs there at CLT out in that main area?....

 

since you're trying to find humor, how about this?....."individual overhead light units are an innovation"...."the travail has been taken out of travel"

 

 

I like the flower arrangement...and my God, did people really dress up like that when they traveled?

[Steven_Draker]

... my God, did people really dress up like that when they traveled?

 

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--9PZSnWA6--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/vqvxhszehbbmgnzawkdw.jpg

 

Yes, they did ... and planes had a smoking section too.

 

http://i.onionstatic.com/clickhole/1677/1/original/600.jpg

 

http://i.onionstatic.com/clickhole/1677/2/original/600.jpg

[gallahadesquire]

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--9PZSnWA6--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/vqvxhszehbbmgnzawkdw.jpg

 

Yes, they did ... and planes had a smoking section.

 

Yes, WE did. I had a blue blazer especially for the occasion. As time went on, travel became a tad more casual ... but polo or button down shirt and khakis were normal. Jeans? Very rarely.

T shirts? When I went to high school, men could wear neither tshirts nor jeans. And this was a public school.

[gallahadesquire]

Rules of thumb:

 

Always take a non-stop if available.

Always take a direct flight if non-stop is available.

Always take a flight with a change of planes as early in the day as possible.

 

Although, dear American Airlines once cancelled my "direct flight" extension (DFW-TUS). I was in "first class", which was a Y-UP fair. All they had was seat 37E on the next flight, so I wandered for five hours in DFW until the next flight was available ... and THAT one was an hour late.

[liubit]

When I was a little boy, my mother always dressed me up in blazer and tie (clip-on at the time!) whenever I had the chance to go on a plane. And, yes, everybody was dressed up to the nines! The times they are a-changing...

[Guest Starbuck]

Did people really dress up like that when they traveled?

 

I had a friend who worked (briefly) for Bette Davis in the mid-1970s and accompanied her from the East Coast to California for the filming of a (pretty dreadful) film called Burnt Offerings. I guess by then the standards of proper airline attire had started to slip because, before they flew, Bette explicitly told my friend that she was NOT to wear jeans on the plane. I loved the way she expressed this command because I could easily imagine her delivering the line ...

 

You get on to one of these beautiful jetliners, and it's a sea of denim. It's absolutely heartbreaking.

[bigvalboy]

I had a friend who worked (briefly) for Bette Davis in the mid-1970s and accompanied her from the East Coast to California for the filming of a (pretty dreadful) film called Burnt Offerings. I guess by then the standards of proper airline attire had started to slip because, before they flew, Bette explicitly told my friend that she was NOT to wear jeans on the plane. I loved the way she expressed this command because I could easily imagine her delivering the line ...

 

You get on to one of these beautiful jetliners, and it's a sea of denim. It's absolutely heartbreaking.

 

Truth-be-told...I still dress up when I travel, well compared to most anyway. As my mother used to say, "Always put your best foot forward"......Unlike Ms. Davis however, I don't care much what others wear. Whatever makes you comfortable.

[Guest Starbuck]

Since we were outside of security, we got to get friendly with the TSA agents again. (A pleasant patdown was more attention than I was expecting tonight, so that was a plus.)

 

Sorry for your travel troubles, Sam, but I think you took exactly the right attitude toward the patdown.

 

I know some folks get awfully bent out of shape about this (insecurity?), but I decided this past year (when I enjoyed a couple of patdowns that seemed especially thorough) that I would henceforth regard this as a perk of traveling. I just hope the hard-working men of the TSA are happy with what they find.

[robberbaron4u]

In the era that "flying" was an "occasion", yes, travelers dressed the part.

[bigvalboy]

Sorry for your travel troubles, Sam, but I think you took exactly the right attitude toward the patdown.

I know some folks get awfully bent out of shape about this (insecurity?), but I decided this past year (when I enjoyed a couple of patdowns that seemed especially thorough) that I would henceforth regard this as a perk of traveling. I just hope the hard-working men of the TSA are happy with what they find.

 

Sometimes the TSA agents are happy with what they find...

 

http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/247096-no-charges-in-tsa-groping-case

 

No charges for TSA agents accused of groping scheme :eek:

 

"No charges are being filed against a pair of Transportation Security Administration agents at Denver International Airport who were fired for allegedly plotting to grope male passengers.

 

The agents, a male and female who have not been named, were accused in April of manipulating security equipment at the Denver airport to ensure the male agent could pat down “attractive” male passengers without drawing suspicion.

 

A spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney’s office told The Hill that officials were unable to press charges against the terminated TSA agents because they were unable to fully substantiate the groping allegations against them.

 

“DPD [the Denver Police Department] concluded its investigation into complaints of TSA misconduct and presented the cases to the DA’s office, and we have declined to file any criminal charges in connection with the investigation," Denver District Attorney Communications Director Lynn Kimbrough said in an email.

"Basically, we were either unable to corroborate the victims’ claims with any additional facts or evidence, or prove specific incidents could have been committed by the one identified suspect, due to the dates of his employment," she continued.

 

TSA officials said in April that the Denver agents were fired as soon as the groping allegations against them were validated.

 

“These alleged acts are egregious and intolerable,” the agency said in a statement when the allegations were made public.

 

“TSA has removed two officers from the agency,” the statement continued. “All allegations of misconduct are thoroughly investigated by the agency. And when substantiated, employees are held accountable.”

 

Denver law enforcement officials said they were initially notified about the alleged TSA groping scheme by an anonymous tip.

 

"The original 'case,' you may recall, was declined in April because there was no identified victim," Kimbrough said. "Media coverage of that prompted a series of new reports by alleged victims and those were then investigated. Most of those were declined because the reporting victim was not able to identify the suspect, others were declined because the incident either occurred after the alleged suspect was fired or occurred outside the statute of limitations."

 

The Denver police department said the male TSA agent would provide a signal to a female worker when he wanted to pat down a male passenger in her lane. She would then tell the agency’s computer system that it was scanning a female passenger. The confusion would lead the scanning machine to request further inspection. "

 

[+ WilliamM]

I'm surprised at the way this thread has developed.

 

I am far more concerned about missing flight connections.

 

Two years aso, I took a pleasant Lufthansa flight from Sarajevo to Munich. The wait in Sarajevo was nice because I met three Bosnian soldiers flying to the U.S. for training. It was a strange mix: one Muslim, one Bosnian-Serb, one Bosnian-Croat.

 

We only has an hour to change flight in Munich to the U.S. and go through security once again. The line was long, and the soldiers were stopped immediately because their official papers named U.S. army bases, but not road addresses. The latter is apparently a requiremen.

 

My problem: should I help them, or say my information is in order and leave them there. Foolishly I helped them by explaining to security that it's normal for U.S. military paperwork to just include the army base and not the specific address (unlike Germany). Security FINALLY agreed.

 

We had to run to the plane. It was a long, long hard run. We just did make the plane. Bosnian soldiers need all the help they can get. I have missed planes, lost luggage -- but this experience was somehow much worse; it's difficult to explain why, probbaly because I was almost 70-years ols.

[+ stevenkesslar]

My best tool to go from liberal to Tea Party in 5 seconds is to reflect on my feelings about TSA. I hate them!

 

The worst situation I've had where I missed a flight to get to a client in Mexico occurred when the TSA shut LAX down for 2 hours for no apparent reason, forcing me to miss a connection and get stuck in Phoenix for a night. They suck at their jobs and every GAO report shows they fail miserably at their basic job responsibilities, like detecting guns and even bombs in luggage.

 

Compared to them, the airlines are bliss .

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

Hey guys, it was fun reading all of the responses.

 

Final update - - for the most part, the boarding process went pretty well. No one was too upset about the snafu, although no one had the same seat assignment and I was part of the last five to get rebooked to the flight and ended up in row 20 (of 21.) And because I was no longer Zone 1, I had to check my bag.

 

We were all set to go and mid-plane there was some sort of disturbance that required the captain to come at and talk to the passenger. (Another five minute delay.) We pushed back from the gate at 2:15, landed at my home airport at 3:30. By the time I got to baggage claim the bags were already coming out and my wait was pretty short. I finally pulled in my garage at 4:06.

 

I had decided to sleep in this morning and skip my 10:00 office meeting, and just as my head hit the pillow I realized that today was Wednesday -- the cleaning lady would be arriving at 9:00, so I needed to be out the door by then. I'm guessing I will sleep well tonight.

 

Thanks for helping me pass the waiting time last evening!

[+ Gar1eth]

anything is possible these days with commercial travel.....did you get a chance to enjoy the rocking chairs there at CLT out in that main area?....

 

since you're trying to find humor, how about this?....."individual overhead light units are an innovation"...."the travail has been taken out of travel"

 

 

 

Well this was obviously a totally bogus fictional ad produced in a studio. I mean what pilot announcement ever sounded that clear.

 

Other thoughts about the ad are we've clearly regressed nowadays.

 

1. When was the last time you were on a non-vibratory noiseless flight?

 

2. Bathrooms are back to being minuscule.

 

3. No Blankies on many flights even in 1st.

 

I like the flower arrangement...and my God, did people really dress up like that when they traveled?

 

My 1st flight was a post bar mitzvah gift in March of 1974. It was a 335 mile journey probably on Braniff or Continental. I had a stand-by seat which was common in those days. Back then people could cancel flights without penalty and usually not everyone showed up. I ended up in a smoking row. I sat next to a young mother with a baby who ended up there too-poor baby. But I don't think we thought about it then. I remember dressing up to go on my 50 minute flight-slacks, nice shirt, maybe even a sports coat.

 

People used to dress up on trains too. And in many cases they were not air conditioned.

 

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjAwWDQ2Mg==/z/z3sAAOSwDN1UR7Pk/$_1.JPG

 

Truth-be-told...I still dress up when I travel, well compared to most anyway. As my mother used to say, "Always put your best foot forward"......Unlike Ms. Davis however, I don't care much what others wear. Whatever makes you comfortable.

 

Compared to many on here the majority of my plane flights were for non-work non-interview occasions. I rarely ever had to fly in a suit. I was always so happy at not having to wear a suit or even a sports coat and slacks. I'm usually not in a t-shirt. But aside from that comfort rules my sartorial flying choices.

 

Hey guys, it was fun reading all of the responses.

 

I'm glad you got home safely!!

 

I finally pulled in my garage at 4:06.

 

I had a similar experience on my one trip back from Europe in 1989. I had to get from Dallas to Houston. The rain poured down for around 10 hours grounding all flights. When we finally did get a flight at early o'clock after hours of delay, we were just settling on the plane about to get underway and the crew's flight time expired. We had to get off and go completely to the other end of the 'U' shaped terminal.

 

 

I had decided to sleep in this morning and skip my 10:00 office meeting, and just as my head hit the pillow I realized that today was Wednesday -- the cleaning lady would be arriving at 9:00, so I needed to be out the door by then. I'm guessing I will sleep well tonight.

 

I think I might have left a note on the door with payment in it. Told her it was a paid holiday for her. And you looked forward to seeing her next week.

 

Gman

[Bargara Leatherboy]

Yes people did dress up to fly. Pre 747 flying was stylish. . Today I still wear decent slacks, lace up shoes and a collared shirt.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

Yes people did dress up to fly. Pre 747 flying was stylish. . Today I still wear decent slacks, lace up shoes and a collared shirt.

 

Ever since TSA required removal of shoes to go through security screening, I only wear shoes I can slip on.

 

I also never wear shorts on a flight. Even when flying to a vacation destination such as Nassau, I will casual slacks for the flight - - I find that I'm usually too cold in flight if I don't have my legs covered.

[mike carey]

Today I still wear decent slacks, lace up shoes and a collared shirt.

Same here, and usually a business shirt rather than a polo for international flights. Not always so strict about shoes - leather slip-on shoes perhaps, not JM Williams boots, maybe good trainers.

[trav05]

The day I retired is the day I started to wear shorts on the plane. I go back and forth from Miami to Bangkok every other month. When I leave its 90's and humid and when I arrive is 90's and humid. Comfort is more important than looking pretty. I don't wear flip flops or tee shirts. I spent 25 years of wearing a tie for work on the plane. No more.

[+ poolboy48220]

I wear Crocs almost exclusively, I'm in a casual work environment where they're hardly the most eyebrow-raising thing. Getting them on & off at the security screening is a breeze.

 

NPR this morning just had a bit about a new word, the 'recombubulation area', where people get dressed again after the TSA checkpoint.