Home from China

[fbhjr]

My flight home didn’t leave Shanghai until 5:30 in the evening. So, I slept a bit late, lingered at breakfast and caught my ride just after noon.

The folks who had left at 9 sent reports of the fog being so bad they closed the highway and it took them 4 hours instead of the normal 2.

At noon there was no more fog, even if the air quality was pretty bad and it looked like there was.
My drive took about 2 1/2 hours as the traffic in Shanghai was quite bad, even for a Sunday afternoon.

I got to the airport, through security and to the gate all without problem.

The flight to Detroit went well. Bit tailwind so it was just under 12 hours instead of the 15 going over.

But, Detroit to Boston was horrid.

The immigration and customs was fine. I’ve signed up for the electronic fast lane so I was through and into the terminal before almost anyone else.

The Detroit terminal is about a mile long. So, they have a train that runs from one end to the other.
Although I had 2 hours, I took the train.
It broke down.

We just sat there for a while before it started moving again, but very slowly. You could look out into the terminal and see folks walking faster than we were going.

I got to the gate and it said that we were all still on time.
I got some dinner at a place that sadly added cheese to my sandwich when it was not a listed ingredient. But, I was able to peel most of it off and avoid the rest.

Then, back to the gate where they said my flight would be 1/2 hour late due to the crew for it not arriving on time due to the snow.

The gate agent held a trivia contest giving away frequent flier miles to people with the right answer. It made it a bit better.

An hour after we were supposed to take off, the crew arrived. Then, they had to prep the plane. Once we were all on board they had to deice the plane as it had sat too long in the snow.
So, our 9:30 flight took off about 11:15.

They made up some of the time in the air. But, we still landed at 1:02AM.

And, sat there.
And, sat there.
And, sat there.

After about 15 minutes the pilot came on and said that due to the storm all the planes had been late and they were all trying to unload at the same time. We were waiting our turn, but he had no idea how long it would take.
Until then, the lights would stay off, everyone had to stay seated and people weren’t allowed to use the bathrooms.

The sitting there resumed.

After about an hour, a guy got up and used the bathroom. The flight attendant tried to stop him. I don’t know what he said to the flight attendant, but he got out of the way and let him use the bathroom. Several others followed.
While the third was in the bathroom, we finally started to move.

Meanwhile, the state police had told my wife she couldn’t wait for me at the terminal anymore and set her to the cellphone lot.

I finally got my luggage at quarter of 3 and my wife came back to the terminal and got me. We got home just before 4.

Not a fun time. I really don’t like my time being wasted. And, not figuring out how to unload planes quickly does not impress me at all.

The trip in December I took Cathay Pacific: Shanghai to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Boston. No domestic flights.

Next time I go, I’m going back to that. The domestic flights are just too much of a mess.

I know there was a storm. I understand that.
But, I’ve been flying around for more than half a century, and it is worse than it was.
The problems were all logistical.
Crew very late at one airport, no backup that could take over.
Gates not ready for extra traffic at the airport, no backup plan to deal with high traffic.

If you have a system that only works if everything goes right, you have a bad system.

You may notice I have a Delta tag here. It's got a lot of stories like this. I'm skipping them for a while...

Comments

[palusbuteo]

Holy crap.

Well I'm glad you're both home OK

[taz_39]

Oof. This is a shame...Delta is my favorite (major) airline (and not just because of the trading cards.) I know that there have been a lot of changes--to our government and elsewise--that have changed how airlines operate. Not that that's an excuse, just that I wonder how that ripples down to impact all of us.

Glad you got back safe.

[fbhjr]

Delta international is fine. But, the domestic has done this kind of thing to me several times.
And, several times their attitude has been "well, that's too bad".
One time when they just outright cancelled my trip they literally said to me "you should have planned better".
That's the stuff that gets to me.
I understand that things go wrong. Especially in winter when there is a storm.
But, telling me it is my fault for picking their airline? There is a solution to that.

[chris_warrior]

but hey, at least the domestic air carriers' CEOs made a ton of money, right?

*sigh*

[brittdreams]

It's frustrating that they've prioritized profit and dividends over having any redundancies in the system.