I've been reading for several years about all the woes associated with traveling by air, but it was not until just recently that I experienced personally just how bad it has become.
My wife and I were traveling on United Airlines originally from Greensboro, NC, through Chicago to Anchorage, Alaska. We made our reservations months in advance, only to learn the day prior to our departure that United had changed our initerary from Greensboro, to Washinton DC (Dulles) to Denver, then to Anchorage. Nothing we could do at that point, so we accepted it as it was.
The short leg from Greensboro to Dulles was uneventful and on time. But it was at Dulles that things went downhill fast. First, after a three-hour wait to depart to Denver, we learned the incoming flight had been delayed by an hour. After we finally boarded, we were told that the co-pilot was "not legal" and had too many flying hours. Fortunately, there was a "legal" co-pilot on board as a passenger (in uniform returning home), so she switched with the non-legal pilot. This took almost an hour. More delay was associated with getting all the baggage loaded. Then we were told that the plane had a flat tire, but that it was being changed with us on board. Another delay. Finally as we began to slowly move away from the loading dock, the pilot said they were having touble "determining the total weight of the aircraft." More delay. At this point it was turning into some sort of comedy of errors...but it really wasn't that funny to us since we had a plane to connect to in Denver to get us to Anchorage as scheduled. Finally...to a rousing cheer from many on board, we left the ground.
Long story short, as a result of the incompetence of United Airlines, we missed our flight to Anchoprage and had to spend the night (at United's expense) in Denver...not a fun experience for those like us who had expected to be sitting in cool Alaska, but were instead sitting in 98 degree heat in the mile high city...a place I never want to see again.
The next day after waiting over six hours in Denver International for our evening flight, we finally departed for Anchorage; and fortunately for us, our luggage was on board as well. So it was with great relief when we finally arrived in Alaska. Since we'd included two days extra in our plans before we had to board a cruise ship, spending the night in Denver did not impact that aspect of our travel, but it did cause us to miss seeing some things around Anchorage that we wanted to see. Still, this was our third time there, so we adapted as best we could with only a day left to "explore".
The two week ship's expedition we were on to Alaska, the Bering Sea and Russia was wonderful, but in the back of our minds was the thought we had to eventually suffer the "friendly skies" of United Airlines again on our journey back to Greensboro. As you might expect, there were delays coming home too, and our baggage was not waiting for us when we arrived; although it was delivered to our home late in the day we got home.
Was our experience much different from millions of others worldwide these days? Not at all, if the opinions of the 100 people from the U.S., UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand we sailed with are considered. Virtually all of them suffered some sort of airline problem themselves. This indicates to me that the worldwide airline industry is on the verge of total collapse.
Right now my feelings are if I can't drive to a destination, then I ain't going. Maybe in a few years my feelings will change. I hope so because there are many places in the world we want to visit.
