Air travel in the US

This blog entry was written on Friday, August 17, 2007.

For those of you who have experienced internal air travel in the US, you would know that flight delays are pretty common. The delays are mostly caused by bad weather conditions. Even if the city that you are in has the most perfect weather, if your plane is flying in from another city that is experiencing bad weather such as a thunder or snow storm, be prepared to wait....

The time is 813pm CT. I’m writing this on the plane to Fort Lauderdale. Will be joining Tim who has already been there for almost a week, and Zing and Neo who arrived earlier this afternoon as they took the 110pm CT flight earlier today. I was originally scheduled to leave Houston at 345pm. Tim had asked me to try to go on the same flight as Zing and Neo. But because I had to show face at the office for at least half a day so that I didn’t have to use my precious leave, I felt uncomfortable leaving that early.

As luck would have been when I left for the airport at 2pm, the weather couldn’t be more perfect. But soon after I checked in, my flight got delayed for about 25 mins as the inbound plane from New Orleans had not reached Houston. I thought to myself then that 25 mins is still pretty ok, I can live with it. Soon, the 25 mins turned into 45, and at that point an announcement was heard over the PA system.

“Dear passengers, the air travel authority has just closed the Houston airport due to bad weather conditions. At this point, we have no idea when it will reopen. As such, the inbound plane is unable to land even though it is already in Houston’s air. The plane will just make donuts in the air for as long as before it runs out of fuel.”

I couldn’t believe my luck. Just an hour ago, the weather was so beautiful compared to the day before when we experienced tropical storm Erin. And now the airport is closed. There was nothing I could do except to wait, wait and wait to see if the rain would stop.

About 15 mins after the announcement, another announcement came on. The plane has now flown to Hobby airport to refuel and wait out the storm. I thought to myself at least Hobby is just about 15 mins away from IAH by plane so it will not be as bad as if it had flown to Austin which would take even longer for it to fly back. Tentative departure time was 625pm.

At about 5pm, the sky began to clear. The departure board indicated that the plane will only take off at 655pm, 5 mins shy of the departure time of the next plane bound for Fort Lauderdale. I still had 2 hours before departure, so I started doing some work. At about 6, I decided to go get some dinner.

At 615pm, while eating my Wendy’s burger, I received a trip alert call from Continental to inform that the gate has changed from E19 to E17. I was excited. Could that mean that the plane has confirmed for departure? A check at the Departure timing board proved disappointing. The flight was again delayed. 815pm would be the departure time. I was getting annoyed. It would depart later than the 7pm plane which means I would reach FLL past 12 midnight ET. Additionally, it was not even confirmed that the plane would definitely take off at that time.

Upon seeing that the 7pm flight would be on time, I rushed to that plane’s gate to request to get on the standby list. By the time I got there, there were already a few people in the line. Everyone was frustrated.

There was a lady passenger standing at the counter talking to a lady attendant while her two girls were running about. At one point, they even walked on top the chairs. The other attendant, a fifty plus years old man, then told the lady passenger that if her children were to fall, they will not be responsible for any injury. This really pissed that lady off and she shouted for her two children to come sit on the counter which of course didn’t please the attendant. They almost got into an argument if not for the lady attendant who was attending to her. That attendant has an excellent attitude and was really patient with the lady passenger.

When it came to my turn, I was served by the male attendant who told me that there were already 50 people on the waiting list. Also, even though the plane was in the airport, the plane crew was still not in yet. As such, the plane was definitely not going to take off at 7pm. But it was still better than my original flight as that plane had not even touched down at IAH. So I insisted on being put on the waiting list since I had nothing to lose. If I managed to get on to the 7pm flight good, if not, I would still have my seat reserved on my original flight.

While he was putting me on the standby list, the lady attendant served an Afro-American lady. This lady shouted at the lady attendant as she claimed she had been at IAH since 6am this morning. She had missed her connecting flight to FLL as her plane from Sacramento to Houston arrived late. Again, the lady attendant was extremely patient although I knew she must be cursing and swearing at the passenger in her heart.

At about 655pm, the attendant started calling out names from the standby list randomly. The passengers’ faces literally lit up when they were called. Everyone else who was still waiting was secretly happy whenever a passenger who was called did not turn up.

Alas, 20 mins later after about 30 standby passengers had already boarded the plane, my name was still not called. I was about to give up hope when suddenly I heard my name. Oh mine, was I excited?!! I was thinking this is as good as striking TOTO!

After I boarded the plane, I realized that the plane was still not full. Apparently, many of the connecting flight passengers who were supposed to be on this flight did not make it. As such, almost all on the standby list could board this plane. Luckily, I insisted on being put on standby. If not I would have to wait for the 815pm flight which probably would be further delayed with so many connecting flight passengers not being able to make it for this one.

Just as I was all relaxed and comfortable in my seat, I heard an announcement. Being an elite member, I was invited to upgrade to First Class! What a pleasant surprise! At least there is a silver lining from all this bad encounter with flying.