Laura_Evans's Blog

Happy Holidays!!  How about spending an agonizing several hours at the airport, in long lines... waiting.... waiting...   maybe even getting stuck sitting on an airplane in the middle of the tarmac with no food or water.  Remember that one? -- Passengers stuck on a Jetblue airplane for up to 8 hours.  Oh traveling just isn't as fun as it used to be.... that's not news.... what IS news is that it JUST KEEPS GETTING WORSE!!!

Now... the airline industry is reporting an estimated 27 MILLION people will be traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday (up 4% over last year).  It's such a shame that we all have to grin and bear it.   I keep blaming 9/11-- justifying the horrors of travel on the great efforts by our government and the airlines to keep us safe.  However, I'm starting to wonder if the airlines can simply do better. 

On a flight to California just a few weeks ago, United Airlines told us the flight was delayed because of weather in San Francisco.  Ok---understandable...  the fog and low cloud ceiling is often a problem at SFO.  We waiting an hour at the gate.. then we were told to board the plane.  Before pushing away from the gate, a man grabbed his bags and got off the flight, saying the plane wasn't going to leave for another hour.  We all looked around incredulously, thinking the guy was crazy.   Turns out, that guy was a pilot in plain clothes, on a personal trip, but he'd gotten the tip.  We then pushed out onto the tarmac to sit and wait.  no access to food or water. We sat out there for an hour.  Clearly the pilot of that plane knew what was about to happen... and didn't notify any of us.   I had my 3 month old on the flight with me...  it was very upsetting to me not knowing how much longer we were going to be there.

Thankfully, I'm not traveling for Thanksgiving... but Christmas is just around the corner.  How much longer can we all take this?  When are we going to get so fed up we all give up and just stay home???