The air travel gods did their best to keep me stuck in Hartford for the weekend. The combination of storms moving through Dallas and wind in Chicago screwed up American's schedule from coat-to coast. Consider for example, the plight of people on a flight to Dallas that was cancelled first due to mechanical difficulties, and then switched to being cancelled due to weather a few minutes later. Those of you who travel frequently know that this then absolves American of any responsibility to transfer those passengers tickets to other airlines (as they would have had to do for a cancellation for mechanical problems). Even more ridiculous, the earliest flight they had availability to get those folks home was on Saturday. It was almost enough to make me feel sorry for those Dallas folks, until I remembered how they stole my hockey team and traded Herschel Walker to the Vikings. Now I consider it a small step towards justice.
As for myself, I did manage to get a seat on the 4:15 flight, however it didn't actually board until two hours later. Even then when I boarded I discovered that the people in charge of emptying the toilet in the bathroom had apparently broken it and caused the "contents" to spill over and start flowing up the aisle up until about row 16. It was still too far back for me to smell, but a guy I spoke to after we got taken off the plane for repairs tole me it smelled like "old, putrid tuna". Good times!
Even the flight itself had issues once we got in the air at 7:00. Something wasn't working with the ventilation system, so by the time we were about halfway home it felt like I was sitting in a sauna. Of course, nobody mentioned anything or complained - no doubt worried that notifying the pilot of annother potential mechanical problem would cause him to turn the plane around. So we all suffered in silence for the last hour, sweating through our clothes and avoiding the bathroom at all costs. Well, at least * I* avoided it.
As for myself, I did manage to get a seat on the 4:15 flight, however it didn't actually board until two hours later. Even then when I boarded I discovered that the people in charge of emptying the toilet in the bathroom had apparently broken it and caused the "contents" to spill over and start flowing up the aisle up until about row 16. It was still too far back for me to smell, but a guy I spoke to after we got taken off the plane for repairs tole me it smelled like "old, putrid tuna". Good times!
Even the flight itself had issues once we got in the air at 7:00. Something wasn't working with the ventilation system, so by the time we were about halfway home it felt like I was sitting in a sauna. Of course, nobody mentioned anything or complained - no doubt worried that notifying the pilot of annother potential mechanical problem would cause him to turn the plane around. So we all suffered in silence for the last hour, sweating through our clothes and avoiding the bathroom at all costs. Well, at least * I* avoided it.
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One of my housemates flew American from Madison to Tulsa yesterday (via Dallas). Her flight out of Madison was delayed, and then they couldn't land in Dallas, so they ended up in Wichita Falls, TX. Last I'd heard she was thinking of demanding her way off the plane so she could rent a car and drive the rest of the way.