Las Vegas to Chicago - 30 Pax on a 733

Back in Chicago, 20 mins early, again thanks to SWA. I've noticed this early evening departure (leaves at 5:50 pm) is very light, tonight only 30 people.

And that makes it nice. You get the whole row to yourself. Thanks to Bose for providing me peace from the two engineers in front of me who talked about micrometer spacing for two straight hours. Guys, you are off work now, leave it alone.

On to BWI again Sunday night, SWA as usual, as they are so reliable.

As February draws to a close, I've flown 14789 miles in two months. And that is actually below average for me. March will be much higher. One of the trips is to Hawaii!

Turkish Air 737-800 Crash at Amsterdam

I've only been writing a blog for 2 months now, yet already 2 crashes (3 if you bring in Continental's incident at Denver in December). What bothers me about Turkish is that this is a B738 which is state of the art, flying into AMS which is a leading hub facility in Europe. And apparently the weather was good.

It takes a while for the facts to come out. Although this is a Turkish and Dutch issue, I am confident that both governments will get to the bottom of the issue. Not sure the NTSB will be brought in, but it would be nice.

Again, I don't ever think about this stuff when I'm in the air for some reason. It just never crosses my mind.

A pic of taken at the scene is attached.

ORD to Las Vegas - That Old Delta Magic Returns!

I was afraid I was going to fill this blog with routine posts which might make you think that legacy airlines have it together.

Well, today, out at ORD, it all came crashing down.

Involuntary downgrade to coach - This is always fun for a high mileage guy. When my boarding pass rolled out of the printer at home this morning I saw the coded abbreviation you don't want to see if you have a first class upgrade; the term EQP. This is airline jargon for "we could not fly the route with the type of aircraft that we sold it as." And typically, that means substituting a single cabin airplane. And that is exactly what happened. To their credit, the people at the Crown Room wanted to give me drink coupons. I have too much of a head cold to drink it away. They knew I was upset.

What gets me is that I would have never booked this flight on DL if I knew a single cabin was gonna make up the trip. Why? Because coach at SWA is certainly nicer that being sqeezed into any kind of Canadair regional jet. I have heard that the CRJ concept stemmed from a design for a business jet. I know Bombardier makes business jets and I'm sure they are nice, but they day they started masquerading as airplanes for commercial use, well. . .

So, a total of 10 of us got this downgrade. The lady beside me, was less composed than I was. It is this kind of bush league nonsesne that makes me look at third parties carriers (in this case Skywest) as simply unprofessional.

Weight and balance issue causes delay - At least the captain was honest. After the door was closed and the jetway pulled back, we just sat. Here we go again. I see the door open and the strairs come down and the American captain who was seated in the jumpseat glumly leaving. And the captain grabs the mic and unceremoniously says "OK, if you are a non-rev, I'm throwing you off". Nice tact?

Now we have to wait for the ramp guys to find all these bags and off load them. It seems the weight and balance issued was caused by the equipment change. It makes you wonder if they can't figure this stuff out before you close the door.

So, on that high note, I'm in Las Vegas for the next 5 days. Southwest out of here back to MDW, so no chaos/EQP/balance issues.

Cincy to ORD - Defying the Odds (again)

I must change the name of this blog. If a person were flying with me in 2009 you would think that all flights are on time. Of course it is not that simple; but today, as luck would have it, the work finished early. I hustled out to CVG and noticed that in 45 minutes a Delta CRJ9 was on time to ORD. And the snow that I had been dreading had already hit; about 4 inches.

However the kiosk allowed me to change to this flight, it accepted my upgrade request, and when I got to the gate, not only had the upgrade cleared but the flight was ready to board. My only complaint was that three people also cleared who celebrated terribly in the cabin. Thank god I had the Bose headphones on and Santana playing. (I can't stand listening to loud inane dumb comments in first.) To these three folks, please, act like you have done this before!

So, I'm sitting here in Chicago watching the snow fall. Off to Las Vegas tomorrow via SLC. The travel just keeps on and on.

Knoxville to Cincinnati - Delta Again

As always, Delta metal out of Knoxville is not Delta, but rather third party commuters, in this case their vassal known as "Freedom Air".

Although I have always looked at "regional" airlines as bush league when it comes to customer service, give them a good weather day like today and they will get you there, in this case, 10 minutes early. The worst thing was the encounter we had with wake turbulence when we were on final for 18L. This is a subject I will address at some point, it is never something I enjoy.

When I checked in for this flight today, I notice Delta had placed a link to the following on their web site:

Northwest Airlines Flight #2, traveling from Manila to Narita on February 20, experienced severe turbulence upon approach to the Narita airport. The plane, a Boeing 747-400 with 408 passengers and 14 crew members on board, landed safely. Approximately 45 people were taken to a local hospital for medical care and five people remain hospitalized. There were no fatal injuries.

I suppose when you buy another legacy carrier, you double the issues, and in this case, the issue of controlling the PR and the spin (helping to reduce lawsuits).

Tomorrow will be a terrible day, flying from CVG up to ORD. They are calling for heavy snow tonight and tomorrow in Chicago. I am preparing myself to possibly never make it to Chicago. On to Vegas Sunday.

Just livin' the dream!

Late addition: Just settled into the room here at CVG and see where the airport police had to haul a guy off an RJ today for starting a fight. Too many drinks it appears. Here is the link: www.wcpo.com/news/local/story...2Cj-cqBkw.cspx

Sick on the Road - Never Fun

I've been traveling constantly since 1990. And there are no sick days in my job; in consulting you have to show up for the job. With all the money at stake with the travel costs, you better show up no matter how you feel.

In the 19 years I've traveled, I've been sick 3 times but showed up to work anyway. But yesterday, here in Knoxville, I thought I was going to die. I got hit with a stomach virus at about 6 AM and had to be in front of the customer at 8 AM. I won't go into details, you can just imagine.

And when it was over, all I could do was fall in a bed and go to sleep. Which I did, for 16 hours. Then it was time to do it all over again today. I felt better, but it feels like I've been hit by a freight train.

On to Cincinnati tomorrow. I might drive it, just not sure yet.

BWI to Knoxville - Delta - Bringing Back Bad Memories

Well, tonight we were late out of ATL on the connection up to TYS. I arrived only 30 minutes late but that was due to the fact that we zipped out of the gate to the taxiway and when we got to the end of runway 26L we were number one for takeoff.

But the delay brought back so many flashbacks of when I used to fly Delta constantly. I am so used to Southwest now; their serious commitment to on time performance, that I just can't believe how Delta can accept being so average out of ATL.

The following happened:

Gate agent announces delay. She says it's just delayed, no time of departure mentioned. She then leaves gate and goes to the jetway, and stays.

She eventually comes back and says that there will be a flight, but she is unsure of the departure. I am convinced she is telling the truth.

I look at the window and see a super tug pulling a CRJ 900 up to the gate. Now we have to wait for the crew to board.

As we finally board, this gate agent forgets to hand out the pink valet baggage tags. Since I'm the first pax down the jetway, the flight attendent stops me at the door, as she should, saying I gotta valet check the bag. Of course by this time there are 30 others in the jetway and some of us have to back out of the door of the airplane to drop these bags off. As you can imagine, this was not fun.

Inside the hull several of us remark that we have no claim checks for the valet bags and we are concerned about this. Of course the flight attendent can do nothing.

The door is close to closing and the gate agent comes down to do the seat count that ATL is so famous for. It takes her three times walking through the cabin to get it right.

Finally the door closes and the captain comes on and says that he is sorry about the delay, and in a rare moment of truth, admits that they have no excuse for the delay at all. And he states he will not attempt to make up an excuse.

When I got to TYS, I got online and learned that this trip was operated by Pinnacle Airlines which for years has been a Northwest third party commuter. Now they are part of Delta.

I have not had my stress level rise much in the last year as I have flown almost exclusively SWA. What few times I have flown DL was through CVG or SLC where they don't have nearly the problems of their famous "WorldPort" in ATL.

And yet this one trip, after all that time, elevated my blood pressure to old familiar high levels.

The details will still matter to me, and a big legacy outfit like Delta really seems to struggle with them. Southwest makes them look like they are running amateur hour.

Baltimore

I made it to BWI, a trip I make about twice a month. Coming from MDW via SWA it's usually easy. BWI is a hub for Southwest, as is MDW so there is plenty of lift between the two cities. And again, Southwest was on time tonight. No delays to complain about but the usual dumb passenger behavior when it came to lining up in the A/B/C groups. I don't know if this is stupidity or rudeness or both. Probably about 70% stupidity. I sat next to a nice young guy who was only on his second flight in his life. He asked a lot about my life on the road; it was nice to speak with him.

I'm so sorry for my Venezuelan friends who are very distraught over the "Si" vote that took place today. I imagine the middle class will continue to leave the country. This is a shame as I have traveled there and found the people to be charming and affable.

On to Knoxville, Tennessee again tomorrow night

The Thin Line Between Life and Death on the Road

Saturday, Valentine's Day, and I'm recovering from flying nearly 5000 miles on 5 separate days. I can not take credit for the name of this post, it comes from the excellent work done by Joe Brancatelli at his website.

Out of respect for Joe's work, I'm not going to paste his thoughts here, but he is making a valid point. Those of us who fly for a living look at a jet in the same way most people look at a car; it's a piece of metal that gets you to and from work every day.

In light of the Colgan Air crash in BUF, Joe makes a wonderful point. Life is very fragile and can be erased so quickly even when doing something as "routine" as flying home from work. Of course this can happen in a car as well, but aviation disasters are always more magnified.

I know that every road warrior has thought more than once in the last 72 hours about Buffalo. And all of us will again fly to work tomorrow, in my case MDW to BWI on Southwest.

And now on to Valentine's Day.

4694 Miles in 5 Days - Back in Chicago

It's snowing tonight in Chicago, but even that did not prevent Continental from getting me back here from IAH 20 minutes early!

If this keeps up, I'm going to have to drop the word "delayed" from the title of this blog. This was a tough week; I flew 7 segments in 5 days, for a total of 4694 air miles.

And the worst thing that happened was losing my mp3 player in the SWA jet.

However I did see a lot of people running in IAH to catch flights tonight. Let me recover from this week and I"ll talk a bit more about hub meltdowns and the stress that travelers endure when this happens.

Next week, Baltimore, Knoxville, and Cincinnati.

Continental Express - Colgan Air

Another commuter air disaster in Buffalo last night.

It looks like icing was the issue. God rest their souls. And I have to fly Continental tonight, but not on a Dash 8. Here is a photo of the actual ship that was involved.

Beating the Odds from Pasco, WA. to College Station, TX

I learned a long time ago that trying to work in two small cities on consecutive days can be almost impossible due to flight issues. And this is really true when you are flying from the Pacific coast as I did today to a small place like College Station.

I've been to CLL many times and starting flying into Houston Intercontinental instead of CLL. And today I pulled it off again, Delta from PSC to SLC, and again from SLC to IAH. This is a long trip. SLC to IAH alone is almost 1100 miles.

But I beat the odds again, and now I'm sitting in the Hilton in CLL. But I'm wiped out. And I have to stand in front of another group tomorrow bright and early. Then back down to IAH to fly Continental back home to ORD.

I'm hoping the luck holds!

Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones - A Life Saver

I'm still really upset about leaving that mp3 player in the SWA jet. I did call them today and they have not found it.

I've already given up on it and ordered a new one. The worst thing is the time it will take to upload over 1300 songs to it.

You have probably seen air travelers wearing those Bose noise canceling headphones. Let me tell you that they are life savers in a jet. They allow you to retain your personal space. When I'm wearing mine, I can't hear anything; not even the engines. I know I sound jaded; but I am riding this jet to work, so I really don't want to hear your conversations; I want silence. These headphones are not cheap but they seal out the rest of the world. They are very comfortable; I have worn mine on transatlantic flights and it's hard to notice that they are even on your head.

But I am amazed at how many people will still try to talk to you even when you have them on!

Pasco, WA. - Got Lucky and Left Something in a Jet

The week from hell is in full swing now. This afternoon I flew from IND to DEN and on to SLC via Southwest. Stupidly, when I deplaned at Denver I left my mp3 player on the seat. This is the second one I've left on SWA. They have procedures to follow, but having worked for an airline, I'll know I'll never hear back from them. Some dude on the ramp up at Seattle is probably listening to the Allman Brothers Band on it right now and wondering who the hell they are.

I took a big chance today to get out here to Pasco, and it was unorthodox. I flew SWA out to SLC and then cut over to Delta the rest of the way, two separate records, two separate tickets. And I only had 45 minutes to make the Delta flight in SLC. The Southwest flight took a minor maintenance delay in DEN that scared me. We arrived in SLC 20 minutes late, but because it was my birthday the travel gods were smiling on me and the Delta gate was only about 3 minutes away.

After all this hassle, and losing another mp3 player, I had more than one Woodford Reserve on the DL trip.

I would never do what I did today with these flights under any other circumstances. I beat the system today. Let's see how it works Thursday when I have to do the same thing again going to Houston.

First Stop - Indianapolis

A lot of cities this week, seven flight segments in five days. This is the kind of week I should never agree to.

But I'm off to a good start, thanks again to Southwest, made it to IND(y) a bit early, and now I'm downtown at the Embassy Suites. Gotta get to bed, working here tomorrow and then off to Pasco, WA., flying SWA from IND to DEN to SLC and then our friends at Skywest from SLC to PSC. The entire evening is spent in jets.

Today is also my birthday. And I have spent the last 19 of them on the road.

Southwest Airlines Boarding Procedures - Not a Showcase for Adult Intelligence

If you have ever flown Southwest, you know everything is different with these folks, and in most cases certainly more efficient. These guys are on time and take on-time performance seriously. But the reason for this post is to just pass on an observation or two concerning their boarding procedure. The process is simple but forces one to think a little. When you check in for the flight, you will be assigned a boarding group which is always lettered, "A" "B" or "C" and a number will be printed beside the boarding group.

For example, my boarding pass tonight for my flight from MDW to IND(y) says "A17". This simply means that I line up in the "A" line and make sure I am in front of whoever is holding A18, but behind A16.

This is where the chaos starts. I would love to have a video camera out when these groups try to line up. I have never been on a Southwest flight where everyone has this figured out. There is always someone who stands in the boarding area completely dumbfounded by this. It's just amazing. If you can get them to at least get up with their appropriate group, that's outstanding, but getting everybody numerically sequenced would be an miracle. Southwest has even been forced to upload a little Flash video presentation called Southwest Boarding School.

I'm amazed at how overwhelmed people seem to be when you confront them with a letter and a number in the same sentence. I should know, my consulting business is centered around federal regulations which are always written in a legal code involving letters and numbers.

I hate to say it, and you may think I'm just too negative, but travel will convince you quickly that this country has not gotten more intelligent in recent years. Just go to the nearest Southwest boarding gate for confirmation.

Business Travel - Graduate School

Early 2009 has been calm insofar as my schedule has been concerned. But that is changing on Sunday. In a 5 day period I will fly:

Chicago Midway to Indianapolis
Indy to Salt Lake City with a stop in Denver
Salt Lake to Pasco, WA.
Pasco back to Salt Lake
Salt Lake to Houston Hobby
Hobby back to Chicago O'Hare

This will be exhausting and challenging. One delay or blown flight will mess up everything. So if you want to know what graduate school travel is like, keep checking in next week. I'll keep you posted -- if I'm not asleep!

The National Transportation Safety Board

These are the people who show up as quickly as they can for most aviation accidents and incidents. Their work is very thorough and professional. Reading their accident reports provides intense insight as to the goings on in the cockpit when trouble arrives. Regarding the recent US Air incident, all signs point to multiple bird strikes. The NTSB knows their stuff. The pic I'm attaching comes from the NTSB investigation into the US Air incident. One feather was found ingested in an engine. This photo shows the professionalism and the detail this agency employs. The NTSB is one of the few agencies which seems to hold itself above all the chaos that goes on in Washington, DC.

Take a look at some of their reports. This is impressive reading.

Nothing is Automatic with Air Travel

A few days ago I mentioned that one of my biggest complaints about legacy airlines who run hub and spoke operations is that often you pull into the gate and it takes a long time for an agent to come down and attach the jetway. This has happened so many times to me I have lost count. Typically the flight is late anyway and the second the seat belt sign goes off, everybody jumps up (remember your connection is already under pressure from your late arrival). Then we wait, and we wait and we wait. This is very frustrating and yes, I've blown a connection in ATL as well over this stunt.

One of the most ridiculous things that happened to me in the last year was up at BWI where the jet way broke down just a few inches from the door. So we had to take a maintenance delay just to get off the flight! And as the delay dragged on (and lasted about 40 minutes) the pilot finally allowed us to deplane the MD-88 (yeah, this was Delta) through the back airstairs. This was fun considering it was raining and of course, TSA does not want customers walking across any airplane ramp. I better calm down; I'm starting to get agitated over this memory already!

Passengers Stop Flight After 'Drunk' Pilot Sparks Panic

Just when you think you have heard everything there was an apparent "passenger revolt" aboard an Aeroflot flight recently when it appeared that the captain might have been intoxicated. Some of the remarks quoted on this story are just hilarious. Enjoy!

Hotel Etiquette - Part II

Even though I'm working in Chicago this week, and not sleeping in a hotel, a few random thoughts about hotel life crossed my mind today.

At breakfast please do not block the coffee pot(s). Some people will stand there and pour everything into the cup; cream, sugar, etc. either before or after pouring the coffee. They seem completely oblivious to the fact that there is a line of people waiting on them to clear out, and these people are in desperate need of coffee! This always amazes me.

Do your homework before checking in so you don't have to delay everyone else by asking things like "what time is breakfast"? "do you have internet"? etc. Again, clueless people ask the most inane questions while the line behind them gets longer and more agitated. Read the web site of the hotel; everything the front desk can tell you is right online.

Turn the volume down on the TV at night. I remember my first experience with this kind of thing years ago. I was just north of Chicago, in Waukegan, IL, staying in a Marriott Courtyard. The guy in the next room decided to watch some kind of horror movie with a lot of screaming. The noise came through my wall, and woke me up. All the screaming led me to believe that somebody was being attacked in the hallway. I actually opened the door and looked out before realizing what this was about.

Always tip the shuttle driver who picks you up at the airport, and tip for the "free" drinks you get at the Embassy Suites happy hour! On the first subject, I'm amazed at how amateur travelers can't figure out that the guy in front of the vehicle is trying to hustle, he's loading/unloading your bags. You will notice that airline crews always tip the guy, as it should be. These crews travel for a living. If you don't know what to do, follow their lead. Regarding the Embassy Suites, the drinks are free. The person behind the bar is hustling as well. Leave a dollar every time you approach the bar. Getting unlimited refreshments for one or two bucks is still a good deal!

It is always the little things, the details, that separate the veterans from the amateurs.

Super Bowl Sunday

I took another chance today and got lucky; flying into O'Hare just two hours before the kickoff of the Super Bowl. But the weather was good all the way from Tennessee to ORD and that makes a big difference!

So despite all my harsh remarks concerning Eagle, they got me back here in time. Just had a great plate of pancakes (gracias corazon) and now watching the ball game. I'm working here in Chicago all week. Easy!