December 23. Departing Philadelphia, connecting in Cincinnati, final destination Nashville. Thanks to surprisingly prompt security, I’m in the terminal about three hours early. But between the monitors, the announcements, the little boards at the gates, and the general fury in the air, I have no idea what’s going on, where my gate is, or what’s up with my flight. I decided to just walk up to the least busy gate and ask.

As soon as I walked up, the guy just looked up and said “Let me see your boarding pass.” I handed it over. The guy looked at it and said “Right now your plane is four hours late. [pointing to another gate] That plane’s going to Cincy. If you don’t get on that plane, you’re not getting home for Christmas.” Admittedly dumbfounded, I just said “okay.” He printed out new boarding passes, stuck them in my hand and said “Go!” and I ran over and got on the flight.

The guy turned out to be absolutely right — less than an hour after the new flight left, PHL shut down until the middle of the next day. With weather delays all over the place, I probably wouldn’t have got home for at least another day. (Cincinnati was its own adventure, what with the fire, and having to walk across the tarmac in the wind and cold to my plane, but I digress.) That gate agent pretty well saved Christmas for me and my family. I wrote down his name (I don’t remember it now) and as soon as I got home I wrote an e-mail to the airline’s customer service to sing his praises. I never got a reply… I hope he didn’t get fired for it.

Immediately, a few people jumped up and rearranged so that the mom and son could sit together. Then everyone spent the rest of the flight punctuating their conversations with “Well, life’s tough!” followed by hearty laughter. The rude guy came off the plane looking like he was gonna cry.

However, about 30 minutes outside of Denver-where we were to change planes-the pilot informs us of a snow storm which has blanketed Denver Int’l (the old one). Visibility was ten feet, or some unholy measurement, and the crew had taken care to arrange an alternate landing site (in Cheyenne, if I recall) so as to avoid ending our trip in a large fireball.

As many passengers began the obligatory cursing and moaning under their breaths as a result of this certain kink in their travel plans, the pilot quite enthusiastically announced that we would not be diverting to our alternate airport. In fact, in his own words, this professional hitman–excuse me–pilot, tells us: “Folks, we’re going to go ahead and give it a shot and try to land in Denver.”

Read it again. “Give it a shot” and “TRY TO LAND” I swear he said it, and the collective gasp that arose from the cabin gave this self-professed nervous flier nothing but utter confidence that I would not live to see the Cubs win another World Series… ok, bad example, but you get my point.

That 20 minute approach was easily the most horrifying experience of my life to this day. My kid brother (a much more nervous flier than I have ever been) made it quite clear to everyone in the cabin that ‘we are all going to die’. That went a long way in calming down my mother who was already a complete wreck.

Obviously, we made in one piece. Lucky for us, we had the extreme pleasure of hopping right onto another plane to take off right through the heart of the same storm.

I’m proud to say that I’ve overcome my “issues” with air travel. In fact, I fly two or three times per month these days, but it was eight years before I got on another plane after that trip.

Flight back on….leaving sometime between 830-9pm (waiting for plane to arrive from Detroit which was delayed due to the weather in Dallas).

Went to discuss situation with flight attendant. Explained that by the time we were scheduled for take off, my connecting flight (the last one for the day) would have already left and I would most certainly be stranded in Detroit. Requested to stay in Dallas with friends. I was informed that staying wasn’t an option-the airline had to get me “as far as they (could)”.

Board plane, arrive after midnight in Detroit. Make plans to shuffle to airport and find needed luggage. Arrive at hotel around 2am. (note, hotel was Best Western, had I stayed in Dallas, I would have been staying at a Westin!). Wake up call for 6am so that I could make my flight (offered to take later flight, but again policy is apparently to get you on the earliest flight-even if you have less than 3 hours of sleep!)..

Definitely not the first problem and most assuredly no the last!

Several years ago I was flying to see my girlfriend and was going to ask her to marry me that weekend. My flight was cancelled and the next flight was quite full. We had dinner reservations that night where I was going to pop the question.

I had asked the gate attendant as nicely as I could about ten times over an hour what she thought my chances were of getting on the flight. By about time number seven I could see she was getting exasperated as I approached the counter. Finally, about the tenth time, so said through clenched teeth “What is so important about making this flight!”

Without saying a word I reached into my pocket and pulled out the box with the engagement ring, opened it, and showed it to the gate agent. Her eyes were the size of salad plates. “Oh my God!” she said and then in front of my eyes began bumping everyone ahead of me off the standby list. I was the first name called, made the flight, and got engaged that night.

Keep this in mind and all the rest makes sense.

During 5 years flying in the Navy – shut down 10 during a 3-year tour. Being cleared for take-off as we discovered all 4 engines leaking oil (they for got to put the caps back on). Taking off with a minor paperwork error that put us 10,000 pounds over max weight – mislabeled destroyer gearbox. Losing all electronics and navigational instruments with fog over the entire Iberian peninsula and landing visually under a 200′ ceiling. Numerous flight students landing simulated single engine at night for the first time.

During 15 years as a commercial pilot for a major airline – taking a 30% pay cut leaving the military to fly for a major airline. Losing hydraulic systems twice. Having a mechanic ask me if I “really” wanted to write that engine stall up in the log book. Losing an engine over the North Atlantic. Diverting off the tracks for an ill passenger who forgot his epilepsy medicine. Over flying our international destination due to an ice storm, sitting on the plane for 16+ hours and having a passenger storm into the cockpit demanding if we knew how long they had been on board the plane – then taking off again to get him/them to their destination. Dodging thunderstorms while explaining to an ATC controller that I won’t take a vector through one for his traffic flow pattern. Flying over Africa/South America in the middle of the night, non-radar/radio contact. Taking a 50% paycut and losing my retirement while a former CEO and his cronies pocket tens of millions in retirement and bonuses. Having a passenger tell that it’s Ok because I must still love what I do … I still do but that doesn’t mean I like doing it for 50% less.

Look, the old saw – “you get what you pay for” applies to the airlines too. Many “over-qualified” pilots are leaving the industry. The incoming replacements have minimal experience and qualifications. At some point the limited experience level and the demands of the cockpit will intersect and people are going to get hurt. I hope on that day the pilots in the cockpit are the “over-paid” and “over-qualified” ones I have always read about instead of the minimum wage wonders the airlines want to hire at bottom of the barrel wages.

I had already booked my flight for this week, but will miss the flight from LGA to ORD since I’m already in Chicago. In order to rebook my flight back to NYC (the originally booking will be canceled when I don’t board the outbound flight) they want to charge me $100 change fee.

Under what logic is it better for them to try to rebook me on crowded flights (when thousands of others are in the same predicament) than to simply let me skip two flights and call it a wash? Why discourage this behavior by charging a %100 penalty?

I had my return connecting flight reservation from London Heathrow to Washington Dulles 2 weeks ago. The Virgin Atlantic Airline arrived late by 13 minutes from India which compressed my total connecting time to 1 hr 32 minutes from the time it landed at the London airport and the time BA flight takes off. Now anyone who has international travel experience knows how much time it takes to get out of the plane, walk thru long airport terminals, transfer to another terminal by bus that too in London and pass through painful long security checks imposed particularly in UK and US who has the most ongoing fear of terrorism. If you are traveling with kids and have to undergo this process after 8 hours of a long flight, it’s a real challenge. My kids cooperated so well that we reached BA checkin counter in 30 minutes but we were 5 minutes late from the British Air’s 50 minute guideline. The BA check-in clerk flatly refused check-in and allocated our precious 4 seats to passengers in waiting and indicated that flight was full (Ironically, next BA flight took off 1 hour late without any announcements for delays and check in continued beyond 50 minute guidelines but I guess, that didn’t matter). I was amazed with the cold response with no empathy that if a passenger is already in-flight that passenger would require to be on the connecting flight and 5 minutes delay should not be a hard stop particularly when airlines delay their flights frequently due to various reasons. BA tried to pass blame to Virgin Atlantic that they should have escorted us to the BA terminal knowing compressed connecting time or we should have moved faster. Virgin Atlantic tried to defend and made their 1 hr 30 minute policy is sufficient for any passenger to catch a connecting flight. If their flight would have been delayed by another 5 minutes, they were ok paying for the lodging even if we were the last passenger to get out of the plane. Clearly this is a flawed policy. Ultimately both airlines refused their responsibility to pay for hotel lodging/meals, transportation. Virgin Atlantic was more reconciliatory and ready to accommodate on their first flight next day, if BA agrees to issue a voucher to pay to Virgin Atlantic. BA initially refused to consider our request for their first flight next day but then agreed to counter Virgin Airline’s offer. In the whole process, we spent over 3 hours moving from one terminal to another since Virgin and British airlines are not on the same terminal. Ultimately we spent a night at Heathrow Airport with kids without any assistance from both airlines.

Next day we contacted several times BA checkin to ensure that our special meals and luggage is loaded. Promises were made that it’s automatically taken care of but we found that they didn’t load special meal for both kids and our luggage was also not loaded despite our best efforts. In the flight, I was told to contact baggage dept at Washington Dulles which was found to be closed. Many attempts to get help from British Airline staff or pager announcement failed. British Airline’s First Class Check-in clerk touted her responsibility to deal with First Class passengers only and had nothing to do with baggage dept. After waiting for 2 hours after 8 hour flight and a night spent at LHR airport due to 5 minute delay with 2 children, baggage clerk finally came in a nice happy mood even though there were several upset passengers in waiting. She said luggage will be delivered next day early morning; however, luggage was delivered in 3 different visits throughout the day with delivery man not knowing anything about other luggage pieces. A good example of grossly disorganized baggage handling process!

On our flight from Washington Dulles to London Heathrow, we had a similar experience. This flight was significantly delayed due to Hydraulic issues and BA agents gave so many different versions of the issue and flight arrangements that many passengers lost their mind and it turned into a chaos at the airport. Passengers had to recollect their luggage and pay for the porter/transportation. When BA put passengers in a hotel, they refused to pay for food for kids even though they charge the full airfare for kids over 12 years.

This whole experience exposed the British Airline’s poor quality of service, indifference to passenger concerns, unfriendly treatment towards kids, and mismanaged operations with staff not prepared to deal with unanticipated events.

Now I do about 120,000 miles a year, been on a middle seat between 300lb couples, sat in a plane on the ground for 5 hours (just two days ago at EWR), slept in airports, etc -lots of fun.

Mr. Gerard Arpey:

Let me begin by saying that we come from a family that believes in flying the friendly skies with American Airlines for the simple fact that American Airlines offers outstanding service.

Unfortunately, on January 1, 2006, my wife and I experienced unacceptable and substandard service upon arriving at Los Angeles International Airport (Lax). Our luggage was lost via American Eagle flight #4972, departing from Nassau with an American Airline connection in Orlando, Florida flight #285 to LAX.

After traveling for over five hours and arriving at LAX, American Airlines confirmed two hours later that our luggage was lost. In the interim, and before this confirmation from the airline, my wife and I were instructed by American Airlines staff to check the various baggage claim areas for our luggage. The service that we experienced was deplorable and inconsistent. Staff was rude and extremely unprofessional. We were told that we would be receiving our luggage within a period of 24 hours; we received it three days later. On January 2, I contacted the airline and was told that our luggage was actually at LAX and that it had been there the entire time. Oddly enough, we did not receive our luggage until January 3rd. American Airlines gave our luggage to United Airlines due to the fact that American Airlines does not fly into Palm Springs Airport. Our final destination was in Palm Springs and your airline did not have the courtesy to shuttle our luggage on January 2nd, instead we suffered the misfortune and had to wait. During the wait for our luggage my wife and I received inconsistent information regarding the whereabouts of our luggage. At one point in time I was told that our luggage was going to be delivered to Denver, Colorado, because a staff person assumed that Denver was our final destination.

Finally, on January 3rd at approximately 7:00 PM we received a call that our luggage had finally arrived at the Palm Springs Airport. To our surprise, our luggage was pretty much destroyed and it had also been left out in the rain. Every item in each piece of luggage was drenched and many items were ruined. So I am asking, who is at fault here? I am hoping that American Airlines would take full responsibility for this….but again; this may be far too much to ask for in light of the horrid customer service that we experienced.

Furthermore, on January 6th, I received a follow-up call in Spanish from American Airlines confirming receipt of our luggage. Does American Airlines assume that a Spanish surname means a “Spanish speaking household?” Pretty insulting!!

I kindly hope that someone over at American Airlines takes the time to read and acknowledge this letter. Quite frankly, I don’t know if we would ever travel on this airline again. The service is less than American.

Add the nagging fear of a mechanical problem or man-made threat bringing the tin can down, and the whole thing just feels wrong.

Fear of, or annoyance with, flying seems like a natural response to those conditions. It’s the people who get cozy with it that worry me. How much blind faith can one have in such a complex system when the skies get more crowded daily?

As I went to the old gate to tell my wife, i saw a flight crew. OUR flight crew. I asked if they knew about the gate change and got a “Yeah, right buddy look.”

The copilot went to the departures board, gets a disgusted look on his face, and motions for the rest of the crew to join him.

And I thought that they only get passengers in the dark!