A couple of weeks ago, a door flew off of a Spirit AeroSystem plane–an aircraft built by the Boeing Company.
The door. Flew. Off.
This happened MID-FLIGHT because the bolts weren’t secured.
Since then, US regulators have been investigating Boeing’s manufacturing lineup.
This highlights a safety concern that coincides with a customer service issue with flying that makes me insane: if you’re even half a second late for a flight, they’ll slam the door in your face and essentially mouth “fuck you” from the cockpit.
But if THEY fuck up, you basically are at their whims because, well, what other choice do you have?
I used to say that, when you have connecting flights, you should always talk to the airline the New York minute your first flight is delayed by even a little bit. I advised this even if you think you *might* make it. If the estimated arrival is more than half an hour past the original ETA, you could miss your connection.
With the way my last several flights have gone, however, I’d say that you’re likely screwed either way.
We were supposed to fly into Denver, stay for an hour and a half, and then take off for Kauai.
We boarded the plane and everything…and then they de-planed us, saying our new ETA was less than 10 minutes from our boarding time in Denver.
SO we jumped on the phone, where we received the worst customer service ever (dude was literally chewing into the phone and grumpy).
- We could wait for the next flight, which would push us further into the day when arriving in Denver, where we would have to SPEND THE NIGHT because there wouldn’t be another flight to Lihue airport. We would then fly from Denver to Hawaii the following day, and I’d lose another day of work because you can’t snag internet over the Pacific Ocean
- We could book a 3-pronged flight that would navigate through Houston and then San Francisco, dropping us into Kauai at 9pm–about 6 hours later than we were originally going to be there.
We decided to roll with option 2, hoping to avoid a hotel stay and going through the checking-in process all over again (or worse: spending the night at DEN).
When I tell you that the mad-dash to hop onto the new flight nearly gave me a stroke–the dude on the phone was about to process a bunch of our stuff when he dropped the call (accidentally? Maybe. He was a jerk). We ran to the desk and had them do everything manually from there, where we were told that we actually had to go to the original desk to get our bags to follow along with us.
The lady (far nicer) took down our baggage information and slid us in at the last moment.
Since then, we’ve been sitting on the tarmac of our new plane, which apparently is also having difficulties. Now they’re gassing us up, pushing a delay on THIS flight, which will drop us into Houston far later than originally expected. That means we’ll miss our connection to San Francisco.
So, now we are arriving in San Francisco 20 minutes AFTER our Hawaii flight takes off.
So, should we have taken option 1 and waited, spending the night in Denver? Maybe? Because while that flight was further delayed after we made the switch (they’re lucky, they’re looking at an ADDITIONAL 4 hour delay), we’re probably doing an all-nighter, anyway.
It’s now 10:32am in Orlando and we still haven’t left the ground, despite arriving at the airport at 6am. We have no idea when we’ll arrive in Hawaii.
…all because a switch wasn’t replaced before boarding the original flight.
So, thanks Boeing, for another fantastic example of quality assurance. Keep doing you.
My advise now?
As for United Airlines? Their customer service continues to be trash, but then that seems to be true of many airlines these days. Until airlines–which, in 2021, were issued a collective $54 billion bailout–are held accountable, I don’t see any of it changing.
So here are some tips from a pissed off traveler:
- Don’t work from the plane if you have to clock-in somewhere. You don’t want a situation where you’re expected to be on a call or have a deadline, but you’re not online because you’re too busy running to a new gate you didn’t know you’d have to get to. Take a personal day and then log on when you get to your hotel.
- Eat before your flight so you’re not hungry or (in my case) dealing with low blood sugar because the layover you thought you had is now gone. Meal vouchers mean nothing if you don’t have time to actually use them.
- Bake in an additional day for travel before whatever big plans you have. It’s more expensive, but at least then you won’t miss out on important moments.
- Check to see if the flight you’re booking is a Boeing airplane and, if it is, book a different one. This particular issue wasn’t BECAUSE of Boeing, but plenty of other issues are and, until officials declare them safe to use, I say we don’t trust them.
- Buy the stupid travel insurance. It used to be sort of a “whatever” purchase, but with the way these flights have been going you’re almost guaranteed to need it…and none of these companies will help you if you don’t buy it.
- Book direct flights whenever humanly possible. You still might get delayed, but connecting flights (while sometimes cheaper) are so much more stressful the second something goes wrong.
- Bring stuff to do on the plane, even if you *think* it’s going to be a 2 hour flight. I recommend bitching in your travel blog. It’s good for the soul.
- Invest in a travel credit card. Some of them–like Venture, Chase Sapphire, or Amex Platinum–offer lounge access. My Amex Platinum will get me into Centurion lounges, which sometimes have showers. If you’re in the same clothes for more than a day, that can come in handy
- If you’re checking your bags, pack one change of clothes in your carryon or backpack. You never know how long it’s going to take for the rest of your stuff to arrive (and, since I’m 4’10”, I always check my bags so I don’t have to ask for help getting stuff from the overhead bin and hold up the line).
- Travel with someone who balances you out or, at least, will drink a stiff whiskey with you the second you have time to get to a bar.
Cheers.
Kara Adamo is a globe-trotting ex-bartender, booze nerd, and booze writer. She is the author of Fancy Grape Juice: De-Snootifying the World’s Snootiest Beverage; Artimals: Coloring the Whimsical Wild; and Brews & Hues: A Coloring Book About Beer.
Adamo is a digital nomad, working as a UX writer and UX designer.
She is writing her fourth book, Layers of Cake.
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