I fly two or three times per year, mostly domestic or Mexico. I've noticed a trend where it gets slightly worse every single time. Flight delays, crowds, extra charges, engine problems, parking, airline food, airport construction, etc. I do what I can to mitigate a lot of this stuff, like Uber to the airport, pack lighter, better headphones, but I'm really appreciating travel within driving distance more these days. I guess it's time to really explore Texas for a while.

Biggest issue we have had is American changing a flight from nonstop to a 1 stop without any monetary payback. Annoying. Some delays off and on but nothing major. Typically we fly United with few issues. SW has been a cluster and we have stayed away from them this year but are taking our chances with them in November.

I fly SW at least twice a month. Rarely had any major issues, but I don't fly around holidays.

I've generally had good luck. First major issue was when we got caught up in the Southwest meltdown at Christmas.

Recently flew to Sicily with a split itinerary (had a stand alone ticket on Easy Jet to catch our United flight in Milan). That pretty much went off without a hitch. Even caught an earlier flight from ORD to IAH.

This past weekend on American was another story. I wish I'd had a bingo card for everything that went wrong.

Supposed to depart BGR to PHL at 4 pm on Saturday. Ground stop at PHL ended up delaying our departure until 8 pm.

BGR ticket agent rerouted us from PHL to IAH to PHL/CLT/IAH at first delay. As the delay leaving BGR was extended, pretty much all 180 passengers on the flight had to be reticketed. Got an email that we were rebooked on a 5 am flight Sunday from PHL to DFW and then DFW to IAH. AA app has a total meltdown and won't show our new booking. BF gets a false alert that we've been rerouted to LGA. Have to wait in line to see the gate agent again because it's a 2-3 hour wait on the phone/online chat. Get paper boarding passes for the DFW/IAH flights. Electronic boarding passes don't show up in app until the next morning.

Finally depart BGR. At this point we will miss all our connections to IAH. Best hope is to maybe get to DFW or CLT, but decide to book a hotel in PHL and stay the night.

Land at PHL and sit on the runway for an hour waiting for a gate. Many passengers miss their connection because of this.

Debark at PHL. There is a line probably 500 people long waiting for an agent at the AA customer service counter. People are crying. Get to hotel after 11 pm, cost of hotel after tax is almost $400 (over $100/hour).

Get up at 300 am to head to the gate. People are sleeping everywhere. TSA checkpoint isn't even open, and we stand in line and watch agents report to work. One TSA employee is yelling at us that she won't allow us through security with more than two bags. If you have more than two bags, you have to consolidate (WTH??? This isn't TSA's job!). Also, no TSA pre line. We go though the same security line as everyone else, being yelled at to remove our electronics and shoes.

Flight from PHL to DFW leaves on time but as we approach DFW there is, guess what, a ground stop. fly in circles over DFW for 45 min before we are able to land.

Flight to IAH is delayed by an hour+. Get off the plane and happen to be right at the Capital One lounge. Get to experience this for the first time (It's great - better than Am Ex. Just wish this wasn't the only one because I never fly through DFW).

Head to gate for departure to IAH at 11 am-ish. Everyone boards only to have the pilots say they've timed out. Replacement pilots are on the way, but have to complete all their check lists and walk arounds.

Finally depart around 1230 pm. As we are landing at IAH, FA tells us there has been a medical emergency and we should all stay in our seats after landing until those passengers deplane. Thankfully the family got off safely and everything seemed to be ok.

Total travel time BGR to IAH - 24 hours. And we paid $700+ per ticket for this privilege.

Only recent issues I've had have mainly been down to weather. Multiple flights delayed due to these pop up storms in North TX.

Had to sit and wait on crews for an extra 20 minutes because airlines are so short staffed.

Only other delay was flying to Las Vegas. They're doing airport construction there and were down to 1 runway for awhile. With the amount of air traffic airport gets, only having 1 runway is a really bad idea.

I fly weekly or every other week depending on work load. I use to fly United but now back to SWA. Most issues were delays that added to the duration of the trip with unplanned overnight stays or logistical nightmares. I flew from Hayden to Denver a few weeks ago and United lost my golf bag. Its a 1 hour flight, at best. It turned up 2 weeks later in Chicago. SWA has been pretty damn good to me lately. No real big issues to note and service has been great. I leave for BKK Friday on Korean Air and hope all goes smooth as can be.

I was on a flight that landed at CLT without a nose gear, but other than that it's been fine!

About 10 days ago had a morning United flight to SFO that was delayed 12 hours which caused me to miss my connection, which was a once daily long-haul flight. So had to spend the night in SFO and catch the flight the next afternoon. Cost me my first day of my vacation.

Coming back from Istanbul British air flight was last to JFK from Heathrow. Stuck in New York for two days until I booked my own flight back home. A one stop back to DFW. Luggage lost not sure where it is. One plane now from St. Louis to DFW.

I am seeing far fewer issues for my clients. I used to dread flight days and now I would say 98% of them go off without a hitch. I know someone the other day had about 5-6 hours delay on United from IAH to Cancun and someone else a 2 hour delay BWI to HOU.

The biggest challenge I see is flight schedule changes 1+ months prior to travel, often shortening layovers. So I had a client that had a 2.5 hour layover in Seattle. Now its 55 minutes. That is not something I would have ever booked before.

Pretty good with the Airline Who Must Not Be Named for fear of jinxing it…….

(Still trying to right my sleep schedule from this one)

Last Thursday early AM flew United from SAT to EWR nonstop without a hitch. Fast forward through a fun weekend in NYC to Sunday afternoon.

EWR to IAH connection to SAT. Take a $90 uber from Manhattan to EWR. Get there around 4:15PM for a boarding scheduled at 5:15PM. Security goes pretty efficient and as I wait at the gate, I check the big screen. One flight to IAH had been cancelled already for the day, two delayed, one had "returning to gate". There was a pretty big cell forming all along the East coast, so I was already nervous a delay was possible. At the time of original boarding, 54 people were on standby list.

Gate agent calls for us to begin lining up to board on time. As she announces pre boarding group, agent comes up the ramp saying pilot says to pause boarding we need to wait on a flight plan due to weather. A few minutes later, email and text saying boarding has been delayed for 30 mins.

Fast forward to 6:00PM (15 mins past scheduled departure), pilot comes out and says we're delayed till at least 9:30 due to the t-storms all around. Knowing I would miss my connection at this point, I calmly waited and approached gate agent asking if I could release my ticket, head back to the city, and receive a voucher/credit if they needed the seat. She told me everything to TX on United was booked for Monday and today already. Checked SW and everything out of LGA was also booked Monday/Tuesday. So plan A was out, confirmed with her I wouldn't release my seat and staying on.

So I chose Plan B was to wait it out, sleep overnight in Houston, and hop on the first one back to SAT yesterday morning. Around 8:30PM, I check my United app to see if there had been any update. It says "thanks for selecting a new flight, your updated itinerary will be available shortly"??? Worried and confused, I again wait in the line with all of the standby people, finally get back to gate agent. Ask her why it would show that when I did not elect a new flight, she said "oh the other agent must have made a mistake when moving people around the standby list" then just silence and staring at me

Confused, I show her my original boarding pass and tell her that I need to be on the flight. At first, she told me I needed to find a way to rebook. After some conversation. she then puts me in a new seat on the plane. Asked her if she could put me on the first flight out of IAH the next morning, and she did.

We finally get out and arrive around 1:00AM to IAH. Flight was scheduled to board at 7:05AM to SAT. Spent the night (morning) trying to find somewhere to sleep/walking around until we board. Then, the cherry on top, we get delayed another 30 mins due to the meal truck while sitting at the gate. Finally got back to SAT (and credit to United my bag was on my flight)

Took a couple hour nap and a shower and went to the office around 1. Still tired today

Before this, I've had pretty good luck at the airport. Knew it would happen eventually and now I've got a story!

Lots of delays for weather and stupid crap like expired first aid kit and rotten fish left in the cargo bay. Idiot staff and passengers that can't manage the delays.

The thing that frustrates me most is how the apps seem to completely melt down every time there is an issue.

I don't see how the airlines can keep any gate agents when they routinely get stuck rebooking hundreds of angry or hysterical passengers. I felt awful for the American employees we encountered this weekend, but to their credit, just about all of them were very nice and helpful (as much as they could be, considering the circumstances).

And this is across all airlines. None of them seem to have figured it out.

As soon as I read

Quote:

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EWR to IAH connection to SAT.

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I knew this was going to be a fiasco.

Way back in 2010, my family was flying from YVR-IAH-SAT and there was a hurricane coming in. It wasn't obvious that was going to happen the prior day when we flew from SYD-TPE-YVR but... I was prepared.

When we got to Houston, they told us they could rebook us 24 hours later. We needed to be in Bandera for a family event. So, I rented a car and drove to Boerne. We did have to tell the airline that we were going to not take the IAH-SAT leg of the trip so they would allow us to board in San Antonio when it was time to go back home.

A lot of times, if it's less than 500 miles, you're better off grabbing a rental car and driving.

Maybe airlines should Jack the prices up to the point where it really hurts to fly. Make it more exclusive like it was in the early days. More suits, less pajamas. Fewer clients, more attention. It's my memo, no, my mission statement.

Or just not continue to suck after receiving billions of dollars in subsidies and hand outs every decade when they have the same issues they're having now with no tangible progress towards resolving them.

Philo B 93 said:

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Maybe airlines should Jack the prices up to the point where it really hurts to fly. Make it more exclusive like it was in the early days. More suits, less pajamas. Fewer clients, more attention. It's my memo, no, my mission statement.

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All airlines need full planes, end of story. 73 out of 100 seats sold is breaking even, on average.

Yesterday flying United from DIA to IAH with coworkers coming back from a conference.

I noticed the United app showed our plane being delayed around 45 mins coming from Boise. Eventually, they sent a text saying our boarding would be delayed.

Plane showed up and they rushed the cleaning/turnaround to get us going ASAP.

We all board and then they realize there is no flight crew. About 20 mins later, they figured out the crew had been delayed 4 hours leaving Sacramento (maybe San Diego) for Denver. They are 30 mins out so we should leave in 45-60 mins.

I asked one of the FAs if we were getting a replacement crew because our regular crew had to cycle off or something. She said no and I asked why they didn't know about the crew's 4 hour delay since we had been already delayed due to the late plane. She laughed and said it was actually her and another FA that had figured it out. The United system ranks problems by severity and ours didn't even make the list for notifications to go out.

Anyway, the A/C was blowing cold and they let whoever wanted to get off the plane during the delay. Most just stayed and played on their phone/slept. Some stood up and mingled. No one got irate.

Crew eventually got there and the flight went off without a hitch. Was originally supposed to land at IAH around 8:50 and got there around 11.

lunchbox said:

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Yesterday flying United from DIA to IAH with coworkers coming back from a conference.

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It's DEN

Thank you! I'm always like WTH is DIA! I always figure it out but it throws me off.

Verbally, around Denver at least, you certainly say DIA.. denver international airport.

But if you're writing/speaking in airport codes.. get it right!

I'm sure plenty of times I've said "I flew from dia to bush".. or something like that. But If you throw in IAH, then it needs to be DEN.

Ouch, If I recall, you had a bad SWA experience at Christmas as well, correct?

We are in the middle of an international trip and though we were delayed out of Dallas, so far it's been smooth sailing including a Ryanair flight this afternoon.

Our biggest issue was a Pacsafe cable lock I had jammed prior to departure. So 3 carryon bags locked together. Try asking for a knife or scissors at the Dublin airport and you will get nothing. Even asked if they could see if a Garda or medic could come assist.

We ultimately resolved with Customs desk at Birmingham, UK where the guy tried to pick the lock then retrieved the bolt cutters. He kept the lock so he could study it.

Sometimes things go smooth, sometimes it all goes to hell. Hopefully you get much more of the former than the latter, you certainly seem due.

Yep. We drove back to Houston from New York when SW melted down after Christmas.

This experience was not nearly as stressful. Also, PHL had been having problems all week due to weather and ground crew staffing issues. So, we were kind of expending something.

I knew we would get home on Sunday. It just felt like one thing after another after another, and I was just so tired after the late night landing and 3 am wake up call. But I'm so glad we didn't have to sleep at the airport!

62strat said:

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Verbally, around Denver at least, you certainly say DIA.. denver international airport.

But if you're writing/speaking in airport codes.. get it right!

I'm sure plenty of times I've said "I flew from dia to bush".. or something like that. But If you throw in IAH, then it needs to be DEN.

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My bad...but I've lived in both places and in Houston, you say IAH and the code is IAH. In Denver, you say DIA but the code is DEN.

So...why did you assume I was using the code and not just what people say? Kidding, btw.

Went June 30th, IAH-SFO-Brisbane, United. This is when they were having a bad week. When we landed in San Francisco I turned on the phone and got a text saying the next flight was boarding. Ran to catch it. The bag did not make it. I got it in Brisbane 12 hours before heading back. The flights back were on time. No issues.

Flew United from IAH to LHR and back 7/1 to 7/8 without issue. I'm headed to McAllen this Friday for a day trip...watch that return get jacked up as I have a wedding to attend that night. Lol.

JustPanda said:

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Or just not continue to suck after receiving billions of dollars in subsidies and hand outs every decade when they have the same issues they're having now with no tangible progress towards resolving them.

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Most of the problems seem to stem from staffing issues these days. Not enough pilots and crews and ramp agents etc. 2020 happened and now nobody wants to work these days. Especially now when it seems like if something goes wrong, people are just gonna whip their phones out and record themselves screaming at you in the airport.

I have 76 clients flying today across 16 flights. So far 7 flights have taken off successfully with only 1 delayed under 30 minutes. Hoping for a seamless day. United, Jet Blue, Delta, Copa.

I think that's part of the issue. Airlines have also fully just gone into "maximizing profit" mode. Yes, that's obviously what they've always done, but long gone are the days of them putting the consumer first

They try to cut costs + maximize revenue every flight, leading to a multitude of issues. Yet they still struggle with their own internal operating mechanisms (see the SW debacle over Christmas)

TexAg1822 said:

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I think that's part of the issue. Airlines have also fully just gone into "maximizing profit" mode. Yes, that's obviously what they've always done, but long gone are the days of them putting the consumer first

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I would retort this with United (and maybe others I don't know) getting rid of re-booking and cancellation fees at the start of the pandemic, and never brought them back.

I used to love, and fly SW, for that, but switched to united in 2018ish and just dealt with it.. was much more hesitant to pull triggers on flights. Now it's great, as soon as we have an idea for a trip, and I check flights and they seem really cheap, I pull the trigger with no worry of canceling or possibly even re-booking to recoup the savings.

The SW cookies know if you looked at a flight but did not book it. The cheap fare will not be available when you go back. Always, do not log in until after looking at a flight and use a different browser if you do not book at that time.

Have had trouble with my last few SWA flights. First left us overnight in ATL after missing our connect to SAT. Delay started with weather, but then we spent 45 minutes at the gate waiting for them to decide if two passengers were allowed on the flight (brought them on, took them off, waited awhile, then we took off). Missed our connect by 10 minutes. Gate agent suggested sleeping in the terminal to avoid morning security rush.

A couple weeks back we had a main counter agent switch our cancelled flight (due to Florida weather) to a connect in Nashville. Problem was that plane was also arriving from Florida, which I feel he should have been aware of. Nine hours later (with an additional one hour on the plane at the gate due to a fuel paperwork issue) we finally took off. On the plus side, David Robinson was on the plane (as a passenger).

I've flown on Singapore, Bangkok Airways, and Vietnam Air in the last few weeks. I continue to be amazed and how absolutely horrible the flying experience is in the USA compared to Asia. I get more (and better) service on my little hop from BKK to Phnom Penh than I do on my flights from South America to Houston on United.

Was in Europe in June and my return flight from Malaga, Spain to Newark on United got cancelled the morning we were supposed to leave. This was late June and travel demand was through the roof at that point and there was NOTHING they could rebook me on, not even from Madrid. Bear in mind, the Malaga-EWR flight only goes 3-4x a week. They said it was because of severe weather in Newark, so the inbound flight to Malaga was cancelled. Infuriatingly, I checked the weather and it was just cloudy at that time.

I wait on hold for hours to speak with someone then finally get through on their chat app. They try to rebook me on other airlines but all the options suck as they are at least 3 days later, involve multiple stops, and a very long travel duration. I check on google flights and find a roundabout itinerary getting me home via Rome and Chicago on AA. For some reason thsi didn't pop up on United's system. So I cancel my United flight and just book that for about $1k the next day.

I get home without any major issues, but then a few days pass and United emails me saying they're denying my refund request. I resubmitted it clarifying this was a cancellation by the airline, not me. It's still pending.

Needless to say I do not love United at the moment. I understand inclement weather around the hubs can really screw up operations but I'm shocked at how bad customer service has been. Just refund my money and be done with this an I'll forget about it in a couple weeks. But no, they drag it out with this BS.

Hilariously, this is the second time in 2023 I've had an international flight back home cancelled on United with no rebooking options.