Comments on: The night the crew saved my flight from hell

By: tripso.com | The night the crew saved my flight from hell - Find Restaurants

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:44:45 +0000

[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptSome people headed to a restaurant. Others went to the bar. Some remained in the waiting area while members of the Red Carpet Club walked back a few gates to make phone calls and continue talking business or vegging out in front of the TV. At the appointed hour, …. There was a couple sitting right behind us with a baby and rambunctious 2 year old who kept running up and down the aisles….no biggie until he barfed in the aisle right near me. Finally the pilot came on and … [...]

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 03:25:39 +0000

When we boarded for the third time, the crew maintained its graciousness. Clearly, everyone was fading but we were going and what was supposed to be a late flight had morphed into being a ‘red eye’ since the flight didn’t land until 6 a.m.
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From a crew perspective, that was a flight from hell. It didnt land until 6am!!!!!!
That means, the crew had to stay awake through the entire night, but had originally expected to be at it’s destination after midnight. OUCH. Basically, they were up almost 20 hours.
I’ve done a few of those in my day. It’s hard on the body and usually, after a delayed night of sleep, you continue your trip. It’s tough.

By: Ann

Ann — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:09:35 +0000

I’m not sure I would call my flight a trip from hell, but I’ve endured “inconveniences” in the past. Last September my boyfriend, our 9 year old daughter, and I flew from LA to Dubai, via Atlanta. We had about 5 hours in Atlanta, so we took a trip downtown, ate dinner, and headed back to the airport. The flight was supposed to leave around 9:30 p.m. We all boarded the plane and sat in it for about 2 hours while the crew informed us maintenance was being performed. There was a couple sitting right behind us with a baby and rambunctious 2 year old who kept running up and down the aisles….no biggie until he barfed in the aisle right near me. Finally the pilot came on and said although the plane was fixed (navigation software needed to be installed) there would be another delay because too much time had passed and due to the long flight ahead, federal regulations required a new crew to fly the plane. He was extremely apologetic and said he had never encountered this situation during the whole time he flew the Atlanta-Dubai route. So all of us had to deplane while we waited a few hours for a new crew to arrive! Suffice to say, I was impressed how well this situation was handled by everyone – the employees and passengers. We were fed snacks and drinks in the boarding area, and there were no temper tantrums or raised voices. We ended up departing after 2 in the morning, but the long flight went by quickly with no turbulence. Best of all, that couple with the kid who barfed ended up staying in Atlanta and luckily I had a very calm contractor sitting behind me. So it all worked out well in the end…….

By: Scott mcmurren

Scott mcmurren — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:40:52 +0000

Nice commentary, Karen. Although it’s easy to pick on the airlines as a group, I can identify at least one flight on EVERY airline I’ve flown where there were heroes on staff that made the flight a pleasant one.

By: Hapgood

Hapgood — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:35:26 +0000

This doesn’t quite sound like a flight from hell. As you noted, the crew acted like professionals and treated passengers with respect, including keeping all of you fully informed. It would indeed have been a flight from hell if they had acted in more typical fashion, keeping the “self-loading cargo” sitting on the plane for two and a half hours without telling you anything other than “sit down and shut up,” then ordering you off the plane with no explanation, and then kept you waiting at the gate without explanation until they ordered everyone to immediately board the second plane.

The SNAFUs and the unexpected redeye surely were unpleasant, but it could have been much worse. The lesson (which most airline CEOs aren’t interested in learning) is that treating passengers with respect through rapid dissemination of information makes an enormous difference.

By: Kévin Byrne

Kévin Byrne — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:58:11 +0000

Within the last month I had one of those flights that started off innocently enough. I was scheduled to fly from New Orleans to OKC for the day on a Southwest flight. After pushing back from the gate, the pilot let us know we had a small weather delay from traffic control in Dallas, our intermediate stop. Our 6:20 am departure turned into 7:30 then 8 and finally when we left, we were routed to fly out to San Antonio to fly around the storm and into Dallas. This was the day both DFW and Love field were closed for the wicked storms that had slowly moved over the area. We never made it to Dallas that morning, we had to land in Austin and were grounded there until the afternoon. Needless to say, I missed my noon meeting in OKC. So, I waited until we could get to Dallas so I could grab a flight back home in N.O. Got home about 5 pm that evening. This was the third flight for me in that week and I had just flown home the night before from Seattle.

All in all, I had spend more time on a plane than not that week. And with that all, the crew (pilots, flight attendants, gate crew and service managers) were outstanding. The pilots kept us informed the whole time – even when they didn’t know much. The attendants joked and helped us to relax; the gate crew were understanding in Austin and in Dallas with the disruption; and the service managers proactively worked to get each of us to our final city. I cannot say enough how THAT builds loyality to an airline. I made sure I let them know it before I left the plane.