« DOH! | Main | There's No Place Like Home »
August 02, 2007
My New Fears in Flying
People were always shocked to learn that I didn't fly on planes, back when I didn't fly on planes. Then I started flying on planes and I was shocked that other people didn't avoid flying either, although not for the same reasons as I had. I couldn't believe that people actually tolerate the treatment that they receive from airlines! The video above, shot by Robert McKee and originally posted on Überzine, illustrates just how lousy an airline experience can be.
The flight (flight 6499, JFK -> DFW) of a Delta subcontractor, Shuttle America, was held on the tarmac at JFK for seven hours, while the passengers were lied to and denied food. The latter was attributed to 'company policy,' which reasoned that they should not be served food while stuck on the ground for seven hours since the flight was not scheduled to provide food during the three-hour flight. Before you chalk this up to being just one bad, isolated experience, note that this comes after the Jet Blue incident in January, and another Delta issue (Comair Flight 5637) where a passenger was so annoyed that he stormed the cockpit seeking answers from the pilots after being held on the tarmac for over four hours. Recently, Northwest Airlines has had an epidemic of cancelled flights.
Shawn and I lived through our own similar situation earlier this year when we were at DFW and a tornado passed through the area, requiring evacuation of the terminal and delay of all flights. Luckily for us, we had not yet boarded the plane, so at least we could move around, use the bathrooms, get things to eat. I'll have to write up a blog entry about our experience with that sometime. Maybe I'll get the chance when we fly back to Mexico on Sunday morning. I just might get lucky and our flight might be delayed.
Posted by crispy at August 2, 2007 06:54 AM
Comments
Fear of flying being replaced by the fear of not flying.
Posted by: jrc at August 10, 2007 02:13 PM