US Airways - NEVER AGAIN !!!

On 11 Jul 2003 02:43:12 GMT, PS2727 wrote:
Your logic escapes me. Airline travel has become the bus service in the air so
luxury is out and mass tansit is in now. That means more crowded skies and,
unfortunately, more delays.

If only airline travel was as convenient as mass transit.

Train: turn up at the station, buy a ticket, get on, go. No need to arrive
at the station more than 10 minutes early except at busy times. Tickets
can be bought at a 'vending machine' if you don't have anything special
keeping queues down. Trip from London to Edinburgh: 3 hrs 59 minutes. On
a weekend, only a small fee to upgrade to First Class. Even discount
tickets have reasonable flexibility. There is usually a train station
reasonably close to your destination. If you have to change trains,
the wait at the intermediate station is usually fairly brief. If you miss
a connection, generally there's not too much trouble getting the next one.

Plane: Obliged to turn up at least an hour before departure. Long queues.
You have to buy the ticket way in advance to get any kind of discount.
Lengthy security checks. Airline airports are almost always a fair distance
to where you actually want to go. Trip from London to Edinburgh + waiting
usually also at least 4 hours. No flexibility with a discount ticket at
all. Layovers are usually at least an hour if you have to change planes.

People complain about the trains, but I'd far rather go by train
than airline. Railway staff don't treat you like a terror suspect.

GA: Go whenever you want. Usually a GA aerodrome close to where you want
to go. Your luggage doesn't get lost. You might get delayed, but you'll
spend the time amongst other flyers, and can usually borrow a car or get
a lift somewhere outside whilst you wait for the weather to improve.
You don't have to be wedged between two other passengers, one of whom
is a screaming toddler.
Expensive, but worth every damned penny. GA gains a great deal of utility
when you live on a relatively small island.

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"

Michael wrote in message Actually, in the long run it's the right thing
to do. It creates financial consequences for the airline. It ****es off
the flight
crew, and as a result the airline has to either pay the flight crew
more for dealing with the fallout or accept less-qualified flight
crew, which will show up in the insurance rates before long.

You are severely misguided. Flightcrews have been dealing with delays since
commercial flying started in much the same way. A mean-spirited passenger
venting on us won't change anything, except that we may have that passenger
removed from the plane.

D.

Michael wrote:

Yeah. Like just a few months ago I had a mechanical problem - right
engine starter bendix wouldn't engage. Takeoff was delayed by two
hours while I decowled the engine, cleaned out the bendix, and
reassembled.

Was it that long? Didn't seem like working on the plane took
that long. Must be because you stopped to gobble down BBQ Pork Loin
or whatever carnivorous material y'all were devouring, fresh salad
which actually had flavor, topped off with the (in)famous brownies.
Catch that being served on an airline during a mechanical or wx
delay

Cheers,
Sydney

Appropriate management of maintenance completely prevents such things.
I once had a perfect P Baron.
Victor Sloan runs a great shop, by the way;
And I paid HIM a lot of money to be able to say that.
Beech did my first ($40K) annual.
Now I question the point of insurance; THAT'LL MAKE FLYING CHEAPER!!
AIG blows. "How 'bout we cobble something together at the wreckong yard for
$170K?"
Beech SN TJ415 (Anniversary Edition) deserves repair at Beech.
By the book.
H.
N502TB

"Sydney Hoeltzli" wrote in message
...
Michael wrote:

Yeah. Like just a few months ago I had a mechanical problem - right
engine starter bendix wouldn't engage. Takeoff was delayed by two
hours while I decowled the engine, cleaned out the bendix, and
reassembled.

Was it that long? Didn't seem like working on the plane took
that long. Must be because you stopped to gobble down BBQ Pork Loin
or whatever carnivorous material y'all were devouring, fresh salad
which actually had flavor, topped off with the (in)famous brownies.
Catch that being served on an airline during a mechanical or wx
delay

Cheers,
Sydney

H. Adam Stevens wrote:

AIG blows. "How 'bout we cobble something together at the wreckong yard for
$170K?"

Unfortunately you're not the first person I've heard sing
that song .

A few years back there were a pair of Cardinal owners who had
accidents fairly close in time to each other (mechanical failure
being involved in each case).

One had AIG, the other had USAIG. Two letters, and all the
difference in the world in how the claims were handled.

Good luck,
Sydney

ackatyu (Wdtabor) wrote in message ...
snippage
If I scheduled so that eveything had to go perfectly or
the whole day went to ****, I would run like US Airways too.

Unfortunately, most airlines operate with zero slack in their
schedules. Your horror story is repeated on most airlines every day.
I haven't set foot on an airliner in 4 years, and truly dread the day
I have to do it again.

And that is the point. They didn't just have a single problem flight. Every
flight on my itinerary was a problem. They were consistently incompetent and
didn't give a damn.

Quote snipped from another thread, but it seems quite appropriate
here :

But Candace Kolander of the Association of Flight Attendants union says the
airline industry has become too obsessed with pleasing passengers.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

Long ago I flew from Austin, TX to Burlington VT in a lovely Seminole I
owned at the time.
N2196B; Is she still at Palwaukee?
Two colleagues from work went commercial (I was giving a talk at a
scientific conference).
I beat them. By 10 hours.
More recently my daughter left Richmond on some damn airline; At the same
time I left in my P Baron.
She was 11 hours later than me and my 58P.
Airlines suck. Buses suck for the same reasons.
Excepting Southwest and Quantas and one or two others.
Maybe. Once-in-a-while. Like when you want to go to Australia.
H.
N502TB

"John Galban" wrote in message
om...
ackatyu (Wdtabor) wrote in message
...
snippage
If I scheduled so that eveything had to go perfectly or
the whole day went to ****, I would run like US Airways too.

Unfortunately, most airlines operate with zero slack in their
schedules. Your horror story is repeated on most airlines every day.
I haven't set foot on an airliner in 4 years, and truly dread the day
I have to do it again.

And that is the point. They didn't just have a single problem flight.
Every
flight on my itinerary was a problem. They were consistently incompetent
and
didn't give a damn.

Quote snipped from another thread, but it seems quite appropriate
here :

But Candace Kolander of the Association of Flight Attendants union says
the
airline industry has become too obsessed with pleasing passengers.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)

In article , "G.R. Patterson III"
writes:

Dylan Smith wrote:

Train: turn up at the station, buy a ticket, get on, go. No need to arrive
at the station more than 10 minutes early except at busy times.

Flying Delta from Newark to Atlanta takes 2 hours and 17 minutes. Add 1.5
hours for security, and the whole thing is about 3 hours 45 minutes each
way. A round trip ticket costs $285.50 if you book the flight a week in
advance. Decide to go today, and it'll cost you $437.50.

Unless you go US Airways, in which case, your flight is cancelled and you are
rescheduled for the next day so it takes you 18 hours each way, counting time
spent waiting for them to actually fly an airplane. And it costs you a day of
your vacation and a day's pay, respectively, on each end.

The train from Newark to Atlanta takes 17 hours and 51 minutes and the
return trip takes 17 hours and 15 minutes. Add in the 10 minutes you need
to make sure you don't miss it, and we're up to 18 hours. A round trip ticket
costs $406.00 if you book the trip a week in advance. Decide to go today,
and you'll have to fly - they're booked solid for the next several days.
Sleepers will cost you extra and are even less likely to be available.


Perhaps US Airways would be more comfortable running trains.


--
Wm. Donald (Don) Tabor Jr., DDS
PP-ASEL
Chesapeake, VA - CPK, PVG