Comments on: How bad is it out there for travelers? Very, very bad http://www.elliott.org/blog/how-bad-is-it-out-there-for-travelers-very-very-bad/ The travel troubleshooter. Sat, 20 Mar 2010 19:48:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: you don’t have to go far « transient travels http://www.elliott.org/blog/how-bad-is-it-out-there-for-travelers-very-very-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-13205 you don’t have to go far « transient travels Tue, 08 Jul 2008 10:42:55 +0000 http://www.elliott.org/?p=5038#comment-13205 [...] Christopher Elliott’s blog [...] [...] Christopher Elliott’s blog [...]

]]> By: Robert J, Marsh http://www.elliott.org/blog/how-bad-is-it-out-there-for-travelers-very-very-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-12721 Robert J, Marsh Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:43:33 +0000 http://www.elliott.org/?p=5038#comment-12721 My wifew and I have just encountered a major problem with our travel plans with British Airways (BA.) Reseravtions made/paid for last December for Aug. 2008 travel Baltimore,BWI, to Edinburgh via Heathrow were turned upside down when BA switched to the new arrivals terminal. BA chnaged our connecting flight to one arriving too late for us to join our tour group. With no other BWI or connecting flights available, we had to switch to a Philadelphia departure. Initially BA wanted to charge us for the change but supervisory personnel ultimately agreed to absorb the fee. It has taken a couple of weeks to get tickets re-issued and upon receipt of the e-tickets today I can see why. They did make the change on the outbound leg (PHL-LHR) for free but kept the returning flight to Baltimore instead of Philadelphia. I has specifically requested confirmation in our earlier calls the "seating was available on the chnaged flights to/from Philadelphia." BA is refusing to "extend any further courtsey." on the matter and I have no choice but to pay the change charges and take it up with BA's Customer Service after the flight. Customer Service will not become involved until the flight is completed. We are seasoned travellers who have used BA since the 1990's with a small group normally of 5 or 6. Our current plans for a tour of the Lake District next year will not include BA. My wifew and I have just encountered a major problem with our travel plans with British Airways (BA.) Reseravtions made/paid for last December for Aug. 2008 travel Baltimore,BWI, to Edinburgh via Heathrow were turned upside down when BA switched to the new arrivals terminal. BA chnaged our connecting flight to one arriving too late for us to join our tour group. With no other BWI or connecting flights available, we had to switch to a Philadelphia departure.
Initially BA wanted to charge us for the change but supervisory personnel ultimately agreed to absorb the fee. It has taken a couple of weeks to get tickets re-issued and upon receipt of the e-tickets today I can see why. They did make the change on the outbound leg (PHL-LHR) for free but kept the returning flight to Baltimore instead of Philadelphia. I has specifically requested confirmation in our earlier calls the “seating was available on the chnaged flights to/from Philadelphia.”
BA is refusing to “extend any further courtsey.” on the matter and I have no choice but to pay the change charges and take it up with BA’s Customer Service after the flight. Customer Service will not become involved until the flight is completed.
We are seasoned travellers who have used BA since the 1990’s with a small group normally of 5 or 6. Our current plans for a tour of the Lake District next year will not include BA.

]]> By: Joe Farrell http://www.elliott.org/blog/how-bad-is-it-out-there-for-travelers-very-very-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-12380 Joe Farrell Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:32:53 +0000 http://www.elliott.org/?p=5038#comment-12380 Ok, I'm gonna piss off everyone who travels by air - but it was GREAT today to be a pilot. We spent the weeked in Baltimore at the Red Sox / Orioles series. Flew in Friday evening and went to the game F/Sat/ Sun. We left the ballpark in Baltimore at 3.35p - at 7.30p, 3hrs and 55 min later I am sitting in my easy chair, typing this blog entry shortly thereafter. Plus, we needed to walk 15 min to the hotel, go to the bathroom, get the bags from storage, take a cab to the airport, get a briefing and then take off from BWI, fly home, put the airplane away and drive home, the flight distance was 326nm, about 350 miles away. If we drove, google says it would be a 6 hour drive. Sure, on a sunday evening driving around PHL, NY into CT. While taxiing for departue I was listening to all of the airline departures being ground stopped into other airports in the northeast [there were some T-storms today] and Chicago. Airliners had 20, 30 and 45min holds in the penalty box and I was taxiied to the runway, in front of the airliners and took off. I did not keep a single airliner from departing. Sure, we needed to a dodge a t-storm on the way north, and we needed to circle once south of NYC for spacing and traffic, but we made if from a ball park in Baltimore to my house outside Hartford CT in less than 4 hours. You could not drive it and could not fly it commercially in that amount of time. If convenience truth in travel and fun is more important to you, go check out http://beapilot.com or http://flighttraining.aopa.org/projectpilot/ and see what it takes to fly yourself. Flying yourself cost less, takes less time and is less of a hassle than the airlines. Assuming you are motivated it'll cost $10k to learn to fly and get an instrument rating so you can fly in bad weather [within reason] and thereafter an airplane [which can be shared with others and costs you from $100-175 hour to operate including all expenses. If you assume 4 people flying for a weekend trip, it'll be $1000 for 4 tickets now, say from Hartford to Washington DC, Norfolk or that area . The other expenses, hotels and cars / taxis will be the same. Our trip was 4 hours at $155 an hour. Thats about $650 to operate the airplane. We saved $400 by not flying the airlines. It is hard to convince people, but when 4 hours ago I was sitting in Camden Yards, it can't be beat. Ok, I’m gonna piss off everyone who travels by air – but it was GREAT today to be a pilot.

We spent the weeked in Baltimore at the Red Sox / Orioles series. Flew in Friday evening and went to the game F/Sat/ Sun.

We left the ballpark in Baltimore at 3.35p – at 7.30p, 3hrs and 55 min later I am sitting in my easy chair, typing this blog entry shortly thereafter. Plus, we needed to walk 15 min to the hotel, go to the bathroom, get the bags from storage, take a cab to the airport, get a briefing and then take off from BWI, fly home, put the airplane away and drive home, the flight distance was 326nm, about 350 miles away. If we drove, google says it would be a 6 hour drive. Sure, on a sunday evening driving around PHL, NY into CT.

While taxiing for departue I was listening to all of the airline departures being ground stopped into other airports in the northeast [there were some T-storms today] and Chicago. Airliners had 20, 30 and 45min holds in the penalty box and I was taxiied to the runway, in front of the airliners and took off. I did not keep a single airliner from departing. Sure, we needed to a dodge a t-storm on the way north, and we needed to circle once south of NYC for spacing and traffic, but we made if from a ball park in Baltimore to my house outside Hartford CT in less than 4 hours. You could not drive it and could not fly it commercially in that amount of time.

If convenience truth in travel and fun is more important to you, go check out

http://beapilot.com or http://flighttraining.aopa.org/projectpilot/

and see what it takes to fly yourself. Flying yourself cost less, takes less time and is less of a hassle than the airlines. Assuming you are motivated it’ll cost $10k to learn to fly and get an instrument rating so you can fly in bad weather [within reason] and thereafter an airplane [which can be shared with others and costs you from $100-175 hour to operate including all expenses. If you assume 4 people flying for a weekend trip, it’ll be $1000 for 4 tickets now, say from Hartford to Washington DC, Norfolk or that area . The other expenses, hotels and cars / taxis will be the same. Our trip was 4 hours at $155 an hour. Thats about $650 to operate the airplane. We saved $400 by not flying the airlines.

It is hard to convince people, but when 4 hours ago I was sitting in Camden Yards, it can’t be beat.

]]> By: Regina http://www.elliott.org/blog/how-bad-is-it-out-there-for-travelers-very-very-bad/comment-page-1/#comment-12330 Regina Wed, 28 May 2008 21:40:01 +0000 http://www.elliott.org/?p=5038#comment-12330 Maybe I've just been lucky, but I haven't had any problems over the past year. The headlines screamed about the horrors of flying over the Thanksgiving weekend of 2007, but everything went smoothly for me. I've flown a few times since then and had no problems, even though every time I turn around I read something about how bad it is. So I don't stress about it any more. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I haven’t had any problems over the past year. The headlines screamed about the horrors of flying over the Thanksgiving weekend of 2007, but everything went smoothly for me. I’ve flown a few times since then and had no problems, even though every time I turn around I read something about how bad it is. So I don’t stress about it any more.

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