Airline Delays

[atigeg]

We did our 23rd Disney cruise last weekend, and I was reminded of the wisdom of flying in the day before for a cruise...for the first time in quite a while, we ran into a delay. We were flying on ATA, and a stretch 757-300, and they couldn't get the baggage door open!! It took them something like 45 minutes to finally get that thing closed!! It sounds amused, but I think we were pretty close to being bumped to another aircraft (or, Heaven forbid, having the flight cancelled). It turned out to be a turbulent flight, so of course the running joke throughout the cabin every time we hit a bump was that the door had opened and our luggage was raining down from the sky.
On the way home, we sat next to a man who'd had a very long delay on his trip out due to a passenger having a heart attack. The plane had to divert to Atlanta, where it remained for a couple of hours...no report on the passenger, but hopefully he was okay. This was our first delay in quite a long time...we have had great luck with ATA, but you never know when some problem is going to pop up.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[JulesMom]

This is so true!

Does travel insurance cover those instances?

 

[Luv2Roam]

We flew United into MCO last May. We had a lay over at O Hare.
There, as we start to line up to taxi, the plane is thumping loudly underneath.
Long story -- but giving United credit, another plane arrived and they put us all onto that one ASAP. (They didn't even take the time to clean the other plane first.)
That still resulted in a two hour delay.
I had YourRide lined up. I kept having to call them and let them know our approx time of arrival. (Glad I had my cell phone with me!!)
We literally had to rush to check in, rush out for our (prepaid) Grosvenor Murder Mystery dinner. (Had about 20 minutes to spare is all.)
We all thought United might at least provide some small compensation, like a small meal, discount/lounge coupon, something... Nothing.
Luckily I bought food for the trip. It made our four hour flight into six! Be prepared!
Guess our compensation was arriving finally.