Comments on: Top 10: What NOT to do when flying http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/culturefashion/travel/top-10-what-not-to-do-when-flying/ Movies, Music, TV, Video Games, and More Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:56:07 +0000 hourly 1 By: CarlyErin O'Neil *author* http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/culturefashion/travel/top-10-what-not-to-do-when-flying/comment-page-1/#comment-13885 CarlyErin O'Neil *author* Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:24:23 +0000 http://blastmagazine.com/?p=29869#comment-13885 I can't say I wholly disagree with you, reader, BUT in this situation they lied. And they made up for all those times *not* lying to you. I can state for the record that I have no affiliations with any airline, so I come from an unbiased, trial and error system. The facts are thus: We were told planes weren't flying into Dallas, to pick us up and go back to Houston. We were told there were massive thunderstorms and winds in the area delaying flights. We were told, by friends and family living in Houston who called, concerned, that there were blue skies and sunshine, calm winds all day (the same weather we were experiencing in Dallas). Mind you, this is Texas in Christmas- we don't have thunderstorms that often in the winter. It's a spring thing. The first class passengers received hotel rooms. Us lower classmen- a shaving kit, denied access to our luggage, no food or drink (as this is now well into the night everything has closed in the airport/hotels). I was agog the next morning as I sat disgruntled already, and read the headline on the Houston Chronicle outlining the tower failure, and inside the weather report- it had been a beautiful day. I sincerely doubt that a newspaper, meteorologist, and several Houstonian neighbors, friends and family were all lying. "Honey". I can’t say I wholly disagree with you, reader, BUT in this situation they lied. And they made up for all those times *not* lying to you. I can state for the record that I have no affiliations with any airline, so I come from an unbiased, trial and error system. The facts are thus: We were told planes weren’t flying into Dallas, to pick us up and go back to Houston. We were told there were massive thunderstorms and winds in the area delaying flights. We were told, by friends and family living in Houston who called, concerned, that there were blue skies and sunshine, calm winds all day (the same weather we were experiencing in Dallas). Mind you, this is Texas in Christmas- we don’t have thunderstorms that often in the winter. It’s a spring thing. The first class passengers received hotel rooms. Us lower classmen- a shaving kit, denied access to our luggage, no food or drink (as this is now well into the night everything has closed in the airport/hotels). I was agog the next morning as I sat disgruntled already, and read the headline on the Houston Chronicle outlining the tower failure, and inside the weather report- it had been a beautiful day. I sincerely doubt that a newspaper, meteorologist, and several Houstonian neighbors, friends and family were all lying. “Honey”.

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]]> By: John O'neil http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/culturefashion/travel/top-10-what-not-to-do-when-flying/comment-page-1/#comment-13882 John O'neil Fri, 09 Oct 2009 09:20:10 +0000 http://blastmagazine.com/?p=29869#comment-13882 As a business traveler who has flown over a million air miles over the past 3 years, I take umbrage to your suggestion that we not fly Continental Airlines. My experience with Continental has been 95% positive. Airlines do not, as a matter of course, lie to passengers. Most times it is the passengers who do not like the answers they here. Weather and air traffic control combine to make, by far, the reasons for most delays. Passengers cannot do much about those things but complain loudly anyway. The rules laid out by the airlines clearly state that they are not liable for delays beyond their fault. The wise traveler always has a backup plan. Continental has gone out of its way many times to take care of me - and my family. I don't know about the other two airlines you cite, but I will say this. I don't know how many times I've heard,"I'll never fly that airline again!" Well honey, there are only so many airlines to go around, and those words have been spoken by passengers of EVERY airline. My experience is that it's truly the airline's fault about 10% of the time. The rest, it's just whiny, ill-prepared passengers wanting compensation. As a business traveler who has flown over a million air miles over the past 3 years, I take umbrage to your suggestion that we not fly Continental Airlines. My experience with Continental has been 95% positive. Airlines do not, as a matter of course, lie to passengers. Most times it is the passengers who do not like the answers they here. Weather and air traffic control combine to make, by far, the reasons for most delays. Passengers cannot do much about those things but complain loudly anyway. The rules laid out by the airlines clearly state that they are not liable for delays beyond their fault. The wise traveler always has a backup plan. Continental has gone out of its way many times to take care of me – and my family. I don’t know about the other two airlines you cite, but I will say this. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard,”I’ll never fly that airline again!” Well honey, there are only so many airlines to go around, and those words have been spoken by passengers of EVERY airline. My experience is that it’s truly the airline’s fault about 10% of the time. The rest, it’s just whiny, ill-prepared passengers wanting compensation.

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