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Liveblogging Air Travel Misery: My Night at Chicago Midway
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Please indulge me for a moment to share an anecdote that embodies everything that’s wrong with domestic air travel in America today and the powerlessness that can overcome even the most seasoned traveler when things go wrong.
Tonight I was scheduled to fly from Reagan National (DCA) to Chicago Midway (MDW) on ATA Airlines (as a Southwest Airlines codeshare), connecting to a Southwest flight to Los Angeles International (LAX) for the Thanksgiving holiday. I arrived at DCA two-and-a-half hours in advance of my flight, and was told even at that time that my 7:05 PM flight would be at least 40 minutes late due to fog and rain in Chicago. The late inbound flight ultimately made us an hour-and-a-half late.
I was supposed to have an hourlong connection at MDW (arriving 8 PM for a 9 PM flight). ATA gate agents claimed to have been coordinating with Southwest here in Chicago, and the lead flight attendant insisted that the cascade effect of delays would make my flight late as well and that Southwest would take care of us.
Such assurances do not mean much in the current airline regulatory environment. By the time we got to MDW at 9:39 PM, the flight for LAX had already pushed back at 9:16 PM. A helpful Southwest gate agent rebooked me on the first flight tomorrow morning, at 6:55 AM, but let me know that I would not be due hotel or meal vouchers or any other form of compensation. That’s because the official reason for my flight’s delay was weather, and, according to US Department of Transportation regulations, passengers affected by weather delays are entitled only to onward passage but nothing else.
So I’ll be spending the night on a cot, provided to weather-delayed passengers courtesy of the City of Chicago. (I even get a pillow and a blanket!)
Due to the incompatability of the reservations systems of ATA and Southwest, the Southwest agent here could not print my boarding pass for the morning, but said I could go to the ticket counter to attempt to do so. All I had was a card summarizing my reservation and the events of my misconnect. The ticket agent also could not check me in, meaning I will still have to obtain my boarding pass in the morning.
But the agent also could not guarantee I would be allowed back through the security checkpoint to get to the cots, since I was not in possession of a boarding pass nor an authorizing security document (which she was unable to print as well). She personally escorted me to the checkpoint, where the screener checking boarding passes and IDs called for a supervisor. Several minutes later, I was cleared to go back into the sterile area. But for training purposes, the screeners nearby wanted to study my Southwest-issued “misconnect rap sheet!” Of course I obliged in the name of national security.
I must extend major kudos to the Southwest and Transportation Security Administration employees who did everything in their capacity to make me a little more comfortable tonight.
Now I sit, alone in the din of piped-in holiday carols singing to no one in particular, cleaning crews meticulously erasing the detritus from a busy travel day, and other stranded passengers staking out places to camp.
If anything, this episode makes me extremely grateful for the shelter that awaits at home.
It also illustrates the dysfunction that can plague any transportation system during irregular operations, especially when the standard contingency plan is Fend for Yourself. This situation would be an even worse burden for a family than for a single passenger. All I know is that I won’t have to go through this particular episode again: ATA is pulling out of DCA altogether, abandoning the Washington, DC market the very day I fly back next week.
I also know I’d much rather endure a long delay from the comfort of an Amtrak train or in accommodations that Amtrak reliably provides in the event a guaranteed connection is missed. Wouldn’t you?
Goodnight from Midway, and a happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Stay safe out there.
--Matthew Melzer
NARP Communications Associate
Posted by NARP
Tags: air travel, airlines, usdot,Thanksgiving Travel Postmortem: Amtrak Sets the Bar
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Many of you have been wondering how my air travel fiasco last week resolved. Last Tuesday night, I slept for two uncomfortable hours on the cot at Midway, and awoke to the sights and sounds of early Wednesday morning travelers gawking at those of us who were living something out of The Terminal. (I also developed the first symptoms of a cold that night, and am just now getting over the bug.)
The Southwest Airlines flight I ultimately caught to LAX was smooth; I enjoyed an empty middle seat next to me, another hour of sleep, and a view of the morning light hitting the Grand Canyon. We arrived into LAX on-time, which is to say our 9:25 AM arrival made me 10 hours late—10 hours tardy on a trip that should have taken seven hours total. To my knowledge, no Amtrak delay is ever that severe and rarely that unpleasant.
Indeed, fortunately, Amtrak was the highlight of my Thanksgiving weekend. On Saturday, I took northbound Coast Starlight train 14 from LA to San Jose. The on-board service crew was a pure delight, and the turkey special dinner in the diner was one of my most memorable Amtrak meals in recent memory. We also arrived San Jose a very tolerable six minutes late.
Last night, I used the Amtrak Capitol Corridor to get from San Jose to Oakland Airport, to catch my return flight on ATA Airlines (OAK-MDW-DCA). The OAK-MDW flight departed slightly late, but schedule padding ensured that I comfortably made my 35-minute connection in Midway. The senior flight attendant on the MDW-DCA flight was the same as on my ill-fated flight the other direction last week. He immediately recognized me and asked how the connection to LA turned out! I gave him the bad news and he profusely apologized.
In any case, the captain announced that today is ATA’s final day of operations at Reagan National. As the New York Times noted over the weekend, margins on domestic economy tickets are razor-thin, and “financial challenges” at ATA have apparently doomed this service.
It is probably safe to say that much larger shifts are in store for the domestic airline industry as unrealistic public expectations for low fares further the degradation of service quality and threaten the viability of certain carriers. A more extensive passenger rail system would undoubtedly provide an attractive alternative in many markets. But horror stories like mine—situations that pillows and peanuts could not remedy—are bound to repeat as working folks traveling cross-country to visit family for the weekend continue to put up with the weather, ground congestion, and other issues plaguing an ailing system that make air travel unreliable and even downright nasty. A robust, well-maintained transportation system will still fail from time to time due to external factors.
There’s no doubt that the time to repair our nation’s transportation infrastructure was yesterday. It is our job as advocates to advance the expansion of passenger rail as a high-value investment and an attractive adjunct to any Band-Aid approaches that might not necessarily save our roads and air facilities from reaching the breaking point in the long run.
--Matthew Melzer
Posted by NARP
Tags: air travel, airlines,Holland Sentinel Readers Confident in Amtrak
Thursday, December 20, 2007
In an unscientific readers’ poll, the Holland Sentinel (MI) asked, “How has the Amtrak [Pere Marquette] train crash in Chicago November 30 impacted the likelihood of you riding the train in the future?”
Check out these astonishing results:
Not only are the majority of readers confident that the train is safe, there are more folks who would ride Amtrak after the crash than those who would avoid it! As they say, all publicity is good publicity. And for the safe mode of train travel, good publicity is well-deserved, even if the rare incident is regrettable.
While commercial aviation is also, for the most part, a safe mode of travel, I submit that a scary, non-fatal situation in the air is much more likely to draw strongly negative reactions. On Sunday, my return trip from Miami was on American Airlines. As we descended towards Reagan National Airport, strong winds in the area contributed to severe turbulence, the kind that makes the wings visibly flap and causes even iron stomachs to drop. Perhaps a hundred yards from touchdown, the captain engaged full throttle and we aborted the landing. At this point, several people were crying, a few were vomiting, and a woman behind me was in the grips of an uncontrolled panic attack. We circled around for another landing attempt; the captain threw in the towel at about 1,000 feet and announced that dangerous 40-knot crosswinds were not worth the risk for our Boeing 737-800.
We were diverted to Dulles International Airport, where we landed nearly an hour late. However, we parked on the tarmac and awaited paramedics to board to treat the sufferer of the panic attack. Passengers were eventually allowed to exit onto the unique IAD people movers ("moon buggies"), which incidentally will soon be replaced in normal service by an intra-airport automated train system. American chartered coaches to get everyone back to DCA, and by that point we were two-and-a-half hours late.
The incident with our flight apparently made the local news, along with an earlier MIA-DCA flight that day which was also diverted to IAD, due to mechanical reasons.
Even if air travel is safe, the perceived perils are rightfully greater than that of train travel. Let’s also not forget that over 45,000 people die each year on the road; 15.5 deaths per 100,000 population is greater than the murder rate in many major cities.
It bears repeating: However you may be traveling this holiday season, stay safe out there!
--Matthew Melzer
Posted by NARP
Tags: air travel, airlines, amtrak, news media, pere marquette, safety,Malaise in the Airline Industry: Safety, Fuel, and the Economy
Thursday, April 10, 2008
This lead in today’s Financial Times says it all:
Chaos gripped US airports for a third straight day on Thursday as the government’s top transportation watchdog called for changes to airline safety oversight, citing an “overly collaborative” relationship between airlines and their regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration.
Calvin Scovel III, the US transportation department’s inspector general, made his comments before Congress as American Airlines cancelled 900 flights to perform safety checks, stranding thousands of air passengers.
American has canceled over 2,400 flights and counting this week due to potentially faulty wiring in its MD-80s, which comprise one-third of its fleet and form the backbone of its medium-haul domestic fleet. At least 250,000 passengers have been affected, far more than when Southwest Airlines grounded dozens of 737s last week. Disruptions are afflicting other airlines as well, and further groundings are likely as the FAA responds to the harsh light being shone on its inspection standards.
On Tuesday, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show responded aptly:
Stewart’s money quote:
It’s all sort of ironic, when you think about it. When you fly, you are inspected quite thoroughly, whereas the plane itself is, perhaps, occasionally vacuumed. See, with this administration, if a passenger blows up a plane, it’s a failure in the War on Terror. But if the plane just blows up on its own, eh, that’s the market self-regulating!
Yes, that’s hyperbole (Jon Stewart is a comedian). But if the aviation system is generally safe, why on earth would federal regulators start down the dangerous slippery slope of cutting corners, glossing over potential problems, and creating the appearance of impropriety in dealing with the airlines they’re supposed to regulate?
Meanwhile, external economic factors have eviscerated the viability of several airlines, while many survivors are trimming their capacity (for more coverage, see last week’s Hotline). Yesterday oil prices (Nymex West Texas Intermediate) surged to a record $112.15 a barrel before settling at $110.87, even though US demand over the past four weeks was 0.4% below the same period a year ago. Oil was $52 a barrel in January 2007. Here is a quick list of airlines that are now history, a list that is bound to grow:
December 26, 2007 – Maxjet Airways (offering London-USA business class service) files for bankruptcy protection
March 31, 2008 – Aloha Airlines ends passenger services after more than 60 years
March 31, 2008 – Champion Air (Minneapolis-based charter operator) announces flights will end from May 31
April 3, 2008 – ATA Airlines ends service, files for bankruptcy protection
April 5, 2008 – Skybus, start-up low-cost carrier which had 65 new Airbus A319 jets on order, ends service
April 9, 2008 – Oasis Hong Kong, budget carrier, ends service after 17 months
So far, Amtrak revenues do not appear to have been hurt by the economic downturn (or recession), and fuel prices probably are driving some business to Amtrak. This will likely hasten as airlines are forced to raise fares and further reduce capacity to stay in the black.
Intrepid blogger Aaron Donovan has noted that passengers trapped in the current nightmare at American’s hub at O’Hare have the option of Amtrak’s hub at Chicago Union Station, an easy ride away on the CTA Blue Line. Even taking a leisurely-paced long-distance train would be a faster option for many people than waiting for the next available flight, whenever that might be. And some passengers are indeed taking advantage of the train option.
[Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy] Connell says ridership has gone through the roof out of the Chicago area because of all the cancellations at O’Hare Airport. Some of its trains have seen up to a 60 percent boost in riders.
Amtrak has seen a spike in passengers since the flight cancellations began earlier in the week, especially in the Northeast, spokesman Cliff Cole said.
“Our ridership was heavy yesterday, is heavy today and is likely to be heavy tomorrow, based on our reservations,” Cole said Thursday.
Once again, Amtrak is proving its value and relevance by providing redundancy in a fragile transportation system.
--Matthew Melzer
Posted by NARP
Tags: air travel, airlines, amtrak, multimodalism, news media, oil, safety, the daily show,©2006 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
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