[450knotOffice]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

If they hate it so much why did they lobby congress to make it legal to make us sit on the tarmac for up to 3 hours before taking the plane back to the gate? They have an incentive to keep us out there or they wouldn't do it and they wouldn't have spent money on lobbyists to make it legal.

If they get out of a long line like that (I have had to do that), the flight will be cancelled. This is absolutely true. Why? Because a plane does not just get its spot back in line. It heads back to the end of the long line, at which point the flight is no longer viable. Cancellations are bad. Most people, when given the choice, would rather sit, than head back to the gate, only for it to be cancelled. Three hours gives the airline a fighting chance of actually completing the flight on one of those massively delayed days. Three hour conga lines are not too uncommon at ORD or JFK.

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I was in the 4th row on the last leg of the flight yesterday and every seat within sight was just like mine. Maybe they put business class in the back of a CRJ 200?

So, the seat was big enough to fit a 300 pounder without him spilling over into your seat? I don't believe that. In fact, I know it's not true, and it was one of your stated wants. And, as far as leg room goes, which airline has CRJ's with legroom near 36 to 37 inches? I know of none. Normal seat pitch on all airliners is 31-32 inches. The extra legroom rows near the front have 36 to 37 inches. If you want that kind of legroom from front to back, the only way will be to pull rows, which will cost revenue, which will cost the passenger.

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Someone is going to have to go up and down the isle looking for storage space. It seems to me it would be better to have the passengers sitting and the crew checking the bins than to have 150 to 180 people in the aisles looking for an empty bin.
In the case yesterday, the "helpful" crew member put his hands behind his back and leaned on the wall and said, "You'll have to try to find space up front."

And he's right. You bring that thing on, YOU find space for it.

It is not his job to haul your bag around, nor should it be. He is not a Valet, as much as you might want him to be.

Here's an honest suggestion - I do it every time I get on a jet as a passenger (and usually one of the last as a non-rev) - when you are getting on the jet, assuming you're not one of the earlier ones on, but rather a later passenger getting on an already crowded jet, place your bag in the FIRST open spot you find as you are walking down the aisle. Don't wait until you get to the back, only to find out there's nothing left and you then need to schlepp your bag back to the front.

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

I'm skeptical. I knew 7 days before the flight that it was supposed to leave at 5:35. Somehow it was a surprise to US Air and they forgot to send a flight crew. We had to wait an hour for them to round someone up to fly the plane. Scheduling a flight without scheduling the crew seems pretty short sighted to me.

I run a business myself. When someone complains, I listen and try to help. I want my customers to be happy. Your "Screw you you're just a customer and this is as good as it's going to get" attitude is typical of the airlines and it's part of the problem.

Your skepticism is unfounded. There is NO reason why an airline would WANT to be late. Don't be ridiculous. It costs them money to be late.

The USAIR flight didn't forget to send a crew. There was likely a misconnect with the crew (most crews don't fly just one flight in a day, rather two or three), or one or all of them were not legal for their departure due to FAA mandated minimum crew rest issues - usually caused by being late inbound the night before due to weather, a mechanical, a late airplane for THEM the day before, or whatever. Maybe one of them called out sick, or was pulled to fly a different flight that was late due to a missing crew member for the same reasons.

Airlines do NOT somehow forget to crew a flight. Most flights are already crewed by about the 20th of the previous month. The rest are filled by Reserve pilots usually a day or so before the flight. However, as I illustrated, circumstances can arise to cause a crew to be late to the jet or to have been re-assigned to another flight.

I understand your complaints, however, just because you complain or don't understand how complex the entire business of moving thousands of airplanes and hundreds of thousand of passengers each day is, given all the variables involved, doesn't mean that we don't care. We do. Most of us genuinely try to do our best, and the vast majority of passengers are great, with loads of patience in sometimes trying circumstances. It's the self righteous, loud mouth, all knowing me me me passengers that never ever seem to hear us, but rather just put their fingers in their ears and continue to complain.

I TOTALLY agree that flying these days, at least as a coach passenger, is a miserable experience. The security lines are a mess. The cost of parking is astronomical or totally inconvenient. There are lines inside the secure area for EVERYTHING - bathrooms, coffee, the bar for a beer or wine, every crappy place to eat at the food courts. The airplanes are FULL FULL FULL with wall to wall bodies. The seating is cramped. Some passengers are surly. It's no fun. I know that. I spend a lot of time in the passenger cabin deadheading or commuting, and I dislike it. However, I realize that flying has become the 21st century equivalent of taking a us to get from point A to point B, with millions using the system every day. The crowds and the chaos will never go away. Airport terminals remind me of the hustle bustle of urban subway stations at rush hour. THAT really is the worst part of it, and unfortunately, we are stuck with it.