Four hours after boarding...

[WebmasterAlex]

The passengers that sat on the runway for 6 hours during the snowstorm ended up getting 500 dollars each and a 500 travel voucher or something like that from their class action suit.

 

[dianeschlicht]

Once on a trip to Hawaii, we sat on the tarmac at MPLS for 4 hours while they tried to prove we had the correct fuel in the plane! Some idiot from the fuel company didn't sign the requistion correctly. They had to find him to straighten in out! This on top of the 8 hour flight made us VERY testy by the time we arrived!

 

[caitycaity]

i must have incredibly bad luck. i fly pretty frequently as well and that has happened to me maybe 2-3 times.

 

[AirForceRocks]

It's not as uncommon as one might think, but I think it probably happens at certain busy airports more than others. My best friend was a flight attendant for USAirways, and her explanation for these situations dovetailed with what WMAlex said earlier. Most of the time, it has to do with the time windows for crews.

 

[Rajah]

Originally posted by Lucky4me
They should have a rule that if the plane doesn't plan on taking off in 30 minutes from the time of boarding, it must allow passengers to get off and wait in the terminal.

I totally agree! There is no excuse for making people sit on a plane on the tarmac for 3 hours!!!

 

[RUDisney]

The only time that my DH was in Washington, DC, up until about a month ago, was when we were stuck on the runway for 3 hours at National in the dead of summer. Your family was lucky, they never turned the AC on for us during that entire time. I kept pulling the European Vacation lines about "Parliment, Big Ben" only I substituted "Capital Building, Washington Monument."

 

[AirForceRocks]

Originally posted by Rajah
I totally agree! There is no excuse for making people sit on a plane on the tarmac for 3 hours!!!

The only problem is that if they aren't able to get a crew in to sub, the flight can be cancelled, then people would be griping about that too.

It's really a no win situation for the airlines and the passengers.