When it sucks to fly

[Donald]

Returning from a great two week cruise in Caribbean.

1) I had looked to quickly and booked 9 PM vs 9 AM. Tried standby no luck. Wife was a trooper and dealt with my mistake. 12 hours at airport.

2) Towards the end of the cruise I picked up a sinus infection. Not FLU or COVID. We brought tests. Ears did not feel right. Plane takes off and ears began to hurt. Plane lands and it's worse. Took over a day for most of the ear pain to go away.

At Dr today right ear had been punctured with small hole and that was healing. Drop of blood in the area.

Aside from the train not much else I could have done.

Ask pilot to fly just over the trees and not raise cabin pressure?

 

[Astro14]

Returning from a great two week cruise in Caribbean.

1) I had looked to quickly and booked 9 PM vs 9 AM. Tried standby no luck. Wife was a trooper and dealt with my mistake. 12 hours at airport.

2) Towards the end of the cruise I picked up a sinus infection. Not FLU or COVID. We brought tests. Ears did not feel right. Plane takes off and ears began to hurt. Plane lands and it's worse. Took over a day for most of the ear pain to go away.

At Dr today right ear had been punctured with small hole and that was healing. Drop of blood in the area.

Aside from the train not much else I could have done.

Ask pilot to fly just over the trees and not raise cabin pressure?

I’ll happily fly at treetop level if you’re willing to pony up the extra $50,000 in fuel cost for me to do so, and you don’t mind being a couple hours late because we went so much slower at that height….

I can’t believe people still treat flying as if it was the same as hopping in their car, when you’re getting in a pressurized metal tube traveling nearly 600 miles an hour, 6 miles above the surface of the Earth.

Yeah, there are some physiological implications to that form of travel, and yeah, you should assess your condition to get on the airplane before you engage in it.

Might’ve been wiser to take the train in this case.

 

[BISCUT]

Oh man! A few weeks ago I had an amazing trip to Tenefire, Spain. Started off harsh with Iberia sending BOTH my checked bags to another country during our layover. The airline was horrible to deal with and outright lied to us. To make it worse, I was planning on getting engaged and had the next day planned out. That was altered!! Bought new clothes and Ritz let me know my luggage was coming to the property in the morning.

One of the best trips I've ever had with my Queen and we've had more than a dozen. Ritz really took care of us and gave us a great location, private and with a sunset at no cost. I became friends with the manager and hope to host him soon in NY.

Now to my commiseration. Time to go home! Iberia sent us a boarding pass email and we noticed the boarding pass time was moved to 1625. Original flight was scheduled earlier. I'm relaxed but the boss is psycho so we got to the airport like 4 hrs early. We asked an Iberia rep and she looked at our boarding pass email and told us you are too early and have to wait until XXX and this is your line. Ok!

We were second in line to get our boarding passes....online wasn't working....and for a reason! Iberia tells us your flight was moved and we said yes, we saw that. They then told us we missed our flight and your booking agent was responsible not us. POUND SAND! My Spanish is weak but my old lady is fluent. I've never seen her so upset with the rude women (3 different reps) she spoke to asking for help. Useless and an eye opener to you are on your own.

I knew we had to get off the island or just go back to the hotel and stay a few days more. I found a small, local airliner that had a flight for us to Madrid that was an hour and a half from taking off for 225 EU. Ok, done. I THOUGHT hey, get off the island to Madrid and there will be options to get home. The little airline was really everything an airline should be. Friendly, decent wine and cheese.....solid flight and **** smooth landing, like silk.

We get to Madrid and wow! IMO, a dump of an airport. We ended up with a Delta flight that had only 4 seats left. We had to spend about 11hrs, overnight, in the entry area of the airport. Everything closed by IIRC 8pm? We weren't allowed past the security check until the next morning so we had to fight the homeless they allow to sleep in the area we had to stay in. Ok but things got sketchy around 1am. Two times I had to get up and literally threaten different individuals to get the F away!

I'm retired LE and I hate to say it but the "security" in Madrid airport is beyond a joke. In that overnight stay, we saw four airport security members with a boss once around 9 to 10pm. Never saw them again until around 7am when they came to kick the homeless out. I saw a new boss in the morning and I spoke to him. He ensured me I was sleeping and wrong and that the detail passed me multiple times. I asked my Queen to politely tell him he was woefully wrong and that maybe he should check the cameras. I understood his answer and had to say "estas leno de mierda!!"

Long winded but sorry you had issues. Happens a lot when you travel. Roll with it as best you can. Life is way too short .... The headaches were worth the experience for us.

 

[GON]

Oh man! A few weeks ago I had an amazing trip to Tenefire, Spain. Started off harsh with Iberia sending BOTH my checked bags to another country during our layover. The airline was horrible to deal with and outright lied to us. To make it worse, I was planning on getting engaged and had the next day planned out. That was altered!! Bought new clothes and Ritz let me know my luggage was coming to the property in the morning.

One of the best trips I've ever had with my Queen and we've had more than a dozen. Ritz really took care of us and gave us a great location, private and with a sunset at no cost. I became friends with the manager and hope to host him soon in NY.

Now to my commiseration. Time to go home! Iberia sent us a boarding pass email and we noticed the boarding pass time was moved to 1625. Original flight was scheduled earlier. I'm relaxed but the boss is psycho so we got to the airport like 4 hrs early. We asked an Iberia rep and she looked at our boarding pass email and told us you are too early and have to wait until XXX and this is your line. Ok!

We were second in line to get our boarding passes....online wasn't working....and for a reason! Iberia tells us your flight was moved and we said yes, we saw that. They then told us we missed our flight and your booking agent was responsible not us. POUND SAND! My Spanish is weak but my old lady is fluent. I've never seen her so upset with the rude women (3 different reps) she spoke to asking for help. Useless and an eye opener to you are on your own.

I knew we had to get off the island or just go back to the hotel and stay a few days more. I found a small, local airliner that had a flight for us to Madrid that was an hour and a half from taking off for 225 EU. Ok, done. I THOUGHT hey, get off the island to Madrid and there will be options to get home. The little airline was really everything an airline should be. Friendly, decent wine and cheese.....solid flight and **** smooth landing, like silk.

We get to Madrid and wow! IMO, a dump of an airport. We ended up with a Delta flight that had only 4 seats left. We had to spend about 11hrs, overnight, in the entry area of the airport. Everything closed by IIRC 8pm? We weren't allowed past the security check until the next morning so we had to fight the homeless they allow to sleep in the area we had to stay in. Ok but things got sketchy around 1am. Two times I had to get up and literally threaten different individuals to get the F away!

I'm retired LE and I hate to say it but the "security" in Madrid airport is beyond a joke. In that overnight stay, we saw four airport security members with a boss once around 9 to 10pm. Never saw them again until around 7am when they came to kick the homeless out. I saw a new boss in the morning and I spoke to him. He ensured me I was sleeping and wrong and that the detail passed me multiple times. I asked my Queen to politely tell him he was woefully wrong and that maybe he should check the cameras. I understood his answer and had to say "estas leno de mierda!!"

Long winded but sorry you had issues. Happens a lot when you travel. Roll with it as best you can. Life is way too short .... The headaches were worth the experience for us.

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Sorry, that happened to your lady and you. Flying can be quite depressing at times- I tease my Wife after I retire, I am never setting foot on a commercial airliner again. But I know I will.

Your post trigger a memory of a old Jerry Clower comedy routine discussing TWA, lost luggage, and the Pope. Video is two minutes- maybe it will make you laugh a bit.

 

[Leo99]

12 hours at an airport?? Wow, that's brutal. Are you saying that you got the airport ready for a 9am flight and it was actually a 9pm flight? I'd probably leave the airport and go find something to do.

 

[supton]

I caught a cold in London a couple days before flying home. Recovered enough that I didn’t think much about flying… until I was. Ear would not pop. Managed until the descent into Boston. Thought I would die. About the most pain I have ever felt. I’ve broken a couple of bones and they didn’t hurt as much.

 

[BISCUT]

I owe Donald a big apology. I was actually posting while waiting for my Son #2 to get home from baseball practice as I am 300 miles over on his 3.6 Outback oil change. I wrote too much!.

 

[BISCUT]

12 hours at an airport?? Wow, that's brutal. Are you saying that you got the airport ready for a 9am flight and it was actually a 9pm flight? I'd probably leave the airport and go find something to do.

It was rough for sure! It showed me a lot. My gal didn't want to spend the $ (it would have been my $) on a hotel and took it **** well. She also had to lose an extra day of work.... We arrived early evening...had to stay overnight until Delta opened around 8am. All credit, the Delta crew was solid...legitimately as nice as one could ask.

 

[Donald]

12 hours at an airport?? Wow, that's brutal. Are you saying that you got the airport ready for a 9am flight and it was actually a 9pm flight? I'd probably leave the airport and go find something to do.

We got to the airport by 9. The cruise ship wants you out of stateroom by 8 and off the ship by 10. I was expecting to catch a standby flight. But all booked (Southwest). You cannot check in before 4 hours before departure. All the seats at Ft Lauderdale airport are after security except about 100 if you can find them. Stuck at airport with limited seating.

 

[zzyzzx]

Tell us about the cruise.

 

[Sumboodie]

That's why using 24hr clock makes much more sense.

And writing dates 25 Feb 2025 so no confusion if 2/5/25 is 05 Feb or 02 May

 

[supton]

That's why using 24hr clock makes much more sense.

And writing dates 25 Feb 2025 so no confusion if 2/5/25 is 05 Feb or 02 May

I haven't gotten used to a 24 hour clock... it's easy enough to subtract 12 and do modulo 12 math, but I find I just keep converting back. My watch supports different time zones so I have both EST and UTC (for logging ham radio contacts). For UTC I wanted it in 24 hour time--but it forces my watch to be use 24 hour for local time. Annoying. [First world problems.] I still haven't gotten used to it and it's been a couple of years. I had the same problem years ago when I got into cycling: I wanted to get used to the metric system, so I put the bike computer into km. I found that I just converting everything back into miles and mph. Maybe this season I should try again...

At work I do YYYY-MM-DD. Tosses people for a bit. Spelling out the month works too but I like to do it this way because if I use it in a file name then all my files/folders will automatically go in proper order (sometimes I make a folder per day with the day's work, sometimes I use rudimentary version control and date stamp the file name).

 

[Astro14]

I haven't gotten used to a 24 hour clock... it's easy enough to subtract 12 and do modulo 12 math, but I find I just keep converting back. My watch supports different time zones so I have both EST and UTC (for logging ham radio contacts). For UTC I wanted it in 24 hour time--but it forces my watch to be use 24 hour for local time. Annoying. [First world problems.] I still haven't gotten used to it and it's been a couple of years. I had the same problem years ago when I got into cycling: I wanted to get used to the metric system, so I put the bike computer into km. I found that I just converting everything back into miles and mph. Maybe this season I should try again...

At work I do YYYY-MM-DD. Tosses people for a bit. Spelling out the month works too but I like to do it this way because if I use it in a file name then all my files/folders will automatically go in proper order (sometimes I make a folder per day with the day's work, sometimes I use rudimentary version control and date stamp the file name).

You need this watch…

https://www.breitling.com/am-en/wat...kkDZ5mqinh_F0NQvtMxOeMB4F9ZinBHk4iVwKgcvwXF7G

 

[slo town]

For different reasons than illness…

SBP to LAX to LHR to CPT with very short layovers in between. Ughh…

Scott

 

[Sedin26]

I've had some poor experiences flying and prefer to drive or take the train but that's usually not realistic. Usually it's long delays or almost missing connecting flights but I have also had several very overly aggressive security folks over the years. My most recent was a relatively local work trip - we had a flight booked for the trip home from a very small city in Eastern BC to Victoria. When we were about 20 minutes away from the airport I looked at my phone and was massively confused, as it indicated our flight was leaving in 20 minutes.

It turned out there are a couple of small places in Eastern BC that operate on a different time zone than the rest of the province and I had no idea. We somehow made it but if I hadn't looked at my phone we wouldn't have seen the time suddenly changing. My fault but I guess it's a common issue.

I've also had to run through airports quite a few times over the years, mostly in Vancouver, to make connections due to late flights. Really hate having to do it....

Having take the train through Europe and also across the Northern US, it's the way to go....