American Airlines/DFW

[haltz]

I spent 24 hours in DFW before flying into Springfield Il and taking an Amtrak to St Louis. I had a ticket to come straight home at 7pm Saturday night and I just walked in the door at 1am Monday morning. Eventually, I just got on a plane with open seats that got me close and got the [expletive] out of Texas.

Fliers faced the biggest headaches in Texas. At Dallas/Fort Worth International, more than 670 flights had been canceled and another 625 delayed at Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) ... Combined, more than half of the entire’s days flights had either been delayed or canceled at DFW, one of the nation’s busiest airports and the largest hub for American Airlines.

@AmericanAir is just a string of apologies as fast as they can type them.

[SHOW]

(732) Apologies for the weather over the loudspeaker
(188.08) Points scored by my championship fantasy football team
(11) House season 1 episodes watched
(8) STL flights cancelled
(8) Hours of delays (always in 30 min increments) that ended in cancellations and sent me back into standby purgatory
(7) Boarding passes or stand-by confimations
(4) Announcements that someone had left their pet cat in the Dallas Cowboys Skybox bar
(3.5) Hours quoted as the wait time to speak to a customer service representative on the phone
(3) Hours hanging out with my brother in law Sunday afternoon who's an [expletive] that only had one cancellation to Chicago but saved my life with some nicorette
(2) Meals at a Taco Bell that doesn't have chalupas
(2) Planes boarded
(1) Plane Take-off

I swear this was a real conversation. Elderly woman comes up the gate agent with her boarding pass

Agent: Hmmm
Woman: I need to go on
Agent: Well, it says here that you already boarded
Woman: But I'm right here!
Agent: Hmmm

The frustrating thing is that if someone bought a ticket for a flight that actually left, they just walk right on. And connecting passengers get preference. Your place in the standby queue basically starts over once your flight gets cancelled. I get the logic, but someone like me could end up waiting 72 hours to get home.

[Schlich]

Amazing

[heyzeus]

I'm in DFW this week. Almost 20 people died in tornadoes Saturday night, some went right by the airport. One was an F4 that killed people by throwing their cars off an overpass. 24 hours later it was snowing. Yeah, that's gonna [expletive] some flights up.

[haltz]

I'm in DFW this week. Almost 20 people died in tornadoes Saturday night, some went right by the airport. One was an F4 that killed people by throwing their cars off an overpass. 24 hours later it was snowing. Yeah, that's gonna [expletive] some flights up.

I get that, but it was a zoo of hostile, understaffed employees and misinformation. Families sleeping on cots for two days while people walked right on flights. There was a better way to handle it.

[stlouie_lipp]

I've been there once, haltz. It sucks balls. Just saw a story on WGN about people stranded at O'Hare and Midway until possibly after the New Year. Standing in line flying standby due to no fault of your own is the worst.

[TGantz]

"'I had to sit on the runway for 40 minutes.' Oh my god, really? What happened then, did you fly through the air like a bird, incredibly? Did you soar into the clouds, impossibly? Did you partake in the miracle of human flight and then land softly on giant tires that you couldn't even conceive how they f**king put air in them?...You're sitting in a chair in the sky. You're like a Greek myth right now"-Louis CK

Seriously though, my definition of hell is sitting in an airport for any extended period of time.

[stlouie_lipp]

I've been there once, haltz. It sucks balls. Just saw a story on WGN about people stranded at O'Hare and Midway until possibly after the New Year. Standing in line flying standby due to no fault of your own is the worst.

Heard the update this morning. Saying even if you have tickets to arrive at least 4 hours before your flight. The reporter said she's never seen lines this long.

[planet planet]

Wow, haltz, that sounds nightmarish! Our travel was a breeze compared to yours, but still so taxing. We spent 12 hrs. driving and flying yesterday; supposed to get home at 4 and got home at 11. The worst was our rental car. We rented it for three days for $47. We were staying in N. Canton, but because our flight to Chicago was canceled, the only way home yesterday was through Columbus. They were going to charge us $300 to drive straight to Columbus and drop it off there instead. So we had to drive to Cleveland (totally the wrong way), make a new $110 one way reservation, only to turn around in a different car. Added at least two hours to the drive. I will never rent from Budget again.

[lukethedrifter]

I have a friend who's due to fly from Louisville to St. Louis tomorrow. I asked her if she was going through Chicago and she answered yes. Told her she might consider greyhound

[cardinalkarp]

I have a friend who's due to fly from Louisville to St. Louis tomorrow. I asked her if she was going through Chicago and she answered yes. Told her she might consider greyhound

NEVER, and I mean NEVER fly through O'Hare (or Midway to a lesser extent) and avoid it at all costs if there is ANY way possible.

I'm serious when I say it's either a guaranteed delay, missed, or cancelled flight.