Flying: Getting There in One Piece and Enjoying It
News updates, how to choose an airline, airlines we'd rather not fly, airlines we like, airline food: good and bad, and airports we've visited.
A TIP FOR ALL YOU FLYERS We're sure you've heard about the United airlines flight going from Japan to Hawaii that experienced bad turbulence and a number of people were injured. Do you know why they were injured? BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT WEARING THEIR SEATBELTS!! Whether or not the seatbelt sign is lit, you should ALWAYS wear it when you are in your seat! The pilots can't always predict turbulence well in advance.
PLEASE STOP USING OVERSIZE CARRY-ONS! Do yourself and others a favor and CHECK IN YOUR LUGGAGE!!! It's not fair to the other people on the plane with you who also have carry ons if you take on a bulky oversized bag or bags and spend 15 minutes trying to smush it into an overhead compartment it obviously won't fit in, at the same time crushing and/or breaking the stuff in someone else's carry on sharing the same compartment. If it doesn't fit in the size boxes located everywhere in the airport, then you must check it in. And the airlines are getting stricter, too. If you try to bring a carry on that's too large on the plane, many times, they will take it away from you and check it in anyway, which results in more delays, wasting the time you thought you were saving by not checking it in in the first place.
GOT THE FARE WARS BLUES BECAUSE YOU'VE ALREADY BOUGHT YOUR TICKETS? HERE'S HOW TO GET A REBATE FOR THE EXTRA FARE YOU PAID! Yep, you read right! With fare wars erupting all the time, you've gotta be careful about when you decide to finally buy your airline tickets. However, there's a little known secret that the airlines don't ever advertise. We were just lucky we heard about it on the news one evening. If you've already bought a ticket, and the fare gets lower, there's a good possibility you can get back the extra bucks you paid. Call your airline if you see your destination at a lower fare, give them your information, and if you qualify (most people do), they will give you a voucher (for use on a future ticket purchase) for the difference. Cool, huh? If you have e-tickets, they will probably mail you the vouchers. If you have paper tickets, you might need to go to the airline's ticket office (or the counter at your airport) to exchange the paper tickets for new ones, and they'll give you your voucher there. There's a way to get cash instead, but it's a better deal to take the voucher. To get the cash, they've got to cancel your reservation and start over again, which means you get less because of the penalty they will levy. They don't care so much about vouchers, so you get the full amount if you want one of them.
LEAVE MY BAGS UNLOCKED? NO WAY!!! The latest airport security measures involve having to leave all of your luggage unlocked. The "bomb detection" xrays aren't all they're cracked up to be, and some luggage still has to be hand checked. The TSA says that since they can't hand check all the luggage in front of the owners, they want any luggage you check in to stay unlocked. First of all, if the owner of the luggage is on hand while the luggage is being hand checked, wouldn't they be able to arrest the person on the spot if they actually found something, whereas the person will have already run away if the luggage is checked behind the scenes? Second, we've all seen the 20/20 and Dateline NBC reports showing airport workers stealing stuff out of luggage. I'm really not fond of having someone paw through my underwear, but if it's going to make things safer, that's fine. All I ask is that it be done in front of me, so that I can relock the bag once they're done. I do not under any circumstances trust airport workers that get the bags from checkin to the cargo hold of planes. There have been numerous instances of bags being opened and rifled through. I don't care so much about getting to my destination-I can, it's coming home. I don't want souvenirs that I won't be able to get again stolen from me. This latest rule has pretty much given a license to steal to dishonest airport workers. If this rule stays in place, the airlines will lose more business than they already have. Our suggestion is to lay all your things out on the floor and make a videotape of the contents of your luggage before you pack, that way you've got a record of what might get stolen.
Choosing an airline
We highly suggest you read the new book, "Flying Blind, Flying Safe", by Mary Schiavo, former Inspector General of the US Department of Transportation, with Sabra Chartrand. Believe us, this lady knows what she's talking about. She's the IG that resigned about a year ago, after 6 years of fighting the FAA tooth and nail to get airline safety improvements. Even if you don't read the whole book, at least read the 3 chapters dealing with airplanes, airlines, and airports. These chapters could save your life one day. They're chock full of data on airline accident ratings, ageing planes and which planes to avoid, and airport safety. We bought a copy of the book, and now, whenever we plan a trip, the first place we look is at how many accidents and near misses the airline has had compared with others. IS IT THE REAL THING? One thing to be very careful of is just exactly what airline you're flying on. There are major carriers, and then there are the regional carriers run by small commuter companies which may or may not be as careful safety wise as the major carrier. These regional carriers are paid by the major airline to carry their name (and passengers) on short hops. Most of the time the connection is in name only, so don't go by the major airline's safety, repair, or accident ratings. For example there's Shuttle by United, US Airways Metrojet, American Eagle, Trans World Express (taking the TWA name), and Northwest Airlink. We didn't have a good experience on US Airways Metrojet, and you can read about that below.
Airlines we Like
VIRGIN
(9/00) Our new best friend! Too bad they don't do domestic flights in the U.S. The flights we had from D.C. to London and back again were unbeatable. They really pamper you on this airline. Compare their economy service to a domestic first class flight (without the legroom or seat width, however.) Meals are terriffic-there's even a printed menu, something you don't see anymore. Drinks (including alcohol) are free. Headsets and movies are free, too-and there's a pretty good selection on your personal seatback video player-use your remote to choose from 6 movies, loads of tv shows, or even to play Nintendo games, all at no extra charge. The flight attendants are very attentive and make the flight quite enjoyable. They were pretty good about on time departures and arrivals, and the lines at the check in counters were pretty quick. On your seat when you get on the plane is a nice little packet of comfort items, including a pair of socks to wear if you want to take off you shoes during the flight, an eye mask and ear plugs to help you sleep, toothbrush and paste, and some other neat stuff. All in all, we give this airline the highest recommendation-there economy service is great, as you can see, and from what we've heard of their premium economy and first class compartments, they've gotta be heaven.
AIR FRANCE
(5/03) For flights to Europe, a step below Virgin. THE BAD: In the Tempo (economy) class, the seats recline pretty well (more than most domestic carriers), however, they are a bit skinnier than Virgin's economy class seats, so for those of us who don't weigh 98 pounds any more, they're a bit squishy. Also, if you are traveling with someone, it's usually nice to put the armrest up to make more room. The armrests go up, but not far enough, so you usually end up hitting your head on them once in awhile. Also, the flight attendants aren't quite as attentive as the ones on Virgin. A couple of hours into the flight, the drinks kind of become self service, and they don't check on people as much as the Virgin attendants did. You can go in the back galley and get what you want, but it's a hassle if you have a window seat and have to ask people you don't know to keep getting up. THE GOOD: As on Virgin, there is great seatback video, with lots of choices, including 6 movies, tv shows, a kids channel, music, video games, and a map that keeps track of where the plane is and how fast you're going. And the most fun is that you can toggle between French and English language on all of it. It's a good chance to practice your French skills before you get there! Another plus is that it seems to be consistent that all international flights do include alcoholic drinks, so they've got all the standard stuff and you don't have to pay extra-even a mini bottle of wine is included with dinner. The food is pretty good, too. See our food section further down the page for a complete review.
UNITED
(written 9/97)The best we've been on. The service is great, the food is great, and out of 4 flights, 3 took off on time. There was one leg of our trip where the flight took off 20 minutes late and, believe it or not, we COMMEND United for this. The reason is that a passenger checked in and checked in luggage, but never got on the plane. The reason for the delay was that this passengers luggage was pulled off of the plane due to the new security rules. If someone out there reading this is named S. WRIGHT and checked in on a flight from Honolulu to Chicago at 4pm on September 20, well, first of all, WHERE THE HECK WERE YOU??!! And secondly, SHAME ON YOU for trying to squeak something past security.
A couple of things that did bother us, though: When we checked in at Honolulu for our flight home, one of our bags was mislabeled because the counter agent had a leftover sticker from the previous customer. Had we not noticed this in our receipts when we arrived in Chicago, our box of pineapple could have ended up in Atlanta, instead of Baltimore. A lot of people standing in the line at Honolulu after us probably had the same problem because of this ditzy counter agent. The other thing that bothered us is the way the entertainment was handled on the DC10 from Honolulu to Chicago as compared with both legs going from Baltimore to L.A., then L.A. to Maui. On both planes from Baltimore to Maui, you paid for the headsets for the movie if you wanted to see it, and it was shown first, then they gave out the headsets to everyone else after the movie so they could listen to music and watch the short subjects. On the way from Honolulu to Chicago, they sold headsets up front again, however, all of the short subjects were shown first, then the movie was shown, so anyone who didn't pay got screwed. Why the difference?
Update as of 9/99-Still the best! The nicest service and they're the best when it comes to on time departures. The counter service was quite slow at the Maui airport when we were leaving to go home, but other than that, everything was fine. They're so good our luggage made it home before we did!
FRONTIER
A very small airline, but a very friendly one. We tried them when we took a trip from Baltimore to Las Vegas. One thing about them is that no matter where you go, you'll always have to stop in Denver-no nonstops here, folks. It makes sense in a way-they are based in Denver, so all flights originate there. It also precludes using them for alot of travel, however. If you want to go to Florida from anywhere on the east coast, you'll still have to fly to Denver first. Otherwise, it's a nice airline. They are replacing their fleet with brand new Airbus jets, which have seatback video for all passengers. (For $5, you get 35 channels of DirecTV satellite programming.) The employees are friendly, and the planes are clean. Their maintenance record is good, and they're pretty good about being on time. We would fly them again if we are going to Las Vegas or anywhere in the west.
US AIRWAYS
(If you want to know about US Airways Metrojet, please see the "Airlines we'd rather not fly" section.)
We liked this airline when it was US Air. We still like it now that it's changed it's name. The flight was on time, they didn't lose any of our baggage, and the stewardesses were nice. The only complaint is that if a flight is 2 hours or more, it would be really nice to at least get headsets to listen to music with, even if there isn't enough time for a movie.
Airlines we'd rather not fly
ALOHA
One of the 3 airlines that you can hop between the Hawaiian islands with. According to many sources, including the Schiavo book, most of these types of airlines buy old planes from other airlines and BOY DOES IT SHOW. Everyone running the airline is nice as pie, but it didn't make us any more comfortable about riding in a plane at least 20-25 years old. Keep in mind, this is the same airline where the top of the plane came off on one such island hop, killing a stewardess. We kept our seatbelts tightly fastened the whole time. If you're asking why we flew when we knew this stuff, it's because no major airlines have flights between the Hawaiian islands.
CONTINENTAL
It's no wonder they have discount coupons in the Entertainment books. They stink, according to friends that flew them to Hawaii. They NEVER get anywhere on time. Why? Because their turnaround times are WAY too short! This happened to our friends on every leg of their trip. With a stopover in Houston on the way to and from Honolulu, this means 4 times out of 4. Their flight took off from Baltimore a few minutes late, but it was even later than that getting into Houston, which left them with only 10 minutes to get to their flight to Honolulu. They were lucky to make it. Of course, once they got on the plane it was 15 minutes late taking off anyway. Par for the course with Continental. On the flight to Honolulu, the bathroom broke, so they had to make an unscheduled stop in L.A. to have it fixed. This made them 2 hours late getting into Honolulu. It's a similar story on the way back. Taking off from Honolulu late, then taking off late from Houston back to Baltimore again. Here's where I come in. While waiting to pick them up at the airport, I noticed that the same plane they were to come home on was supposed to take off again for Houston 40 minutes after it lands. ARE THEY NUTS?? Naturally, their flight was 10 minutes late coming in. With such short turnaround times for their planes, how can anyone possibly check them out to make sure their working O.K.? It's just barely enough time to fuel up, unload luggage, then load luggage. You can bet they took off late, though I didn't stay to find out. Another comment from our friends is that most of the stewardesses and ticket agents seemed kind of nasty. Between everyone in a bad mood and all the tight scheduling of flights, Continental is an accident waiting to happen. All the coupons in the world wouldn't get me (or my friends again either) on Continental. They sound just like TWA to me. Unfortunately, we didn't find out until after we'd booked a trip to Las Vegas on America West that Continental either owns them or they've merged. Read the America West review above to find out what happened.
AMERICA WEST (AMERICA WORST!!!!
(written 9/98)We figured that since they've hooked up with Continental, there would be trouble, and we were right. On our trip from Baltimore to Las Vegas, we found out that THEY STINK!! We'd fly TWA again before we'd fly America West! Problem 1: You can't always get you're seat assignments in advance. When our documents came in, seat assignments weren't made for all portions of our 2 flights. Not to mention that the assignments that were made weren't window seats. We called a couple of weeks before we were to leave, and they STILL wouldn't give our seat assignments for Columbus to Las Vegas. When we checked in at BWI in Baltimore, we found out that on that 2nd leg and they had assigned us across the aisle from each other!!!??? We booked this trip 6 months ahead, we both have the same last name, and we're married, but they didn't think we wanted to sit together?? How retarded. Problem 2: Perpetual delays. We got to Columbus about 10 minutes late, which is fine, but when we got there, we were told that our flight to Las Vegas would leave an hour later than they originally said. Problem 3 ties in with problem 2: They lie through their teeth. We were told that our flight from Las Vegas to Baltimore was a direct flight. To us that means that there aren't any stops. Apparently, wording counts double with them. When we complained in Las Vegas about the stop in Phoenix on the way to Baltimore (which we didn't find out about until we got to the airport), the lady at the counter explained the difference this way: "DIRECT" means that the plane will land, but you don't have to get off and change planes. "NON STOP" means that it won't land anywhere on the way to your destination. Well, "direct" doesn't sound very direct, does it? Technically, you could get on a plane in Chicago, and if you're destination is New York City, they could stop in Los Angeles first and, as long as you don't have to change planes, it's "direct". HA! As it turned out, we landed in Phoenix and had to change planes anyway, which infuriated us, especially since we had to wait an extra hour before takeoff. We complained and asked why the need to change planes and the extra delay when we were told the flight was "direct". The way it was explained to us is that "they do it all the time!" What kind of an explanation is that? At least tell us there was something wrong, not a simpleminded answer like that. Since we had lots of time to walk around the airport, we took a look at the board listing all of the America West departures for the rest of the day and at least half of them said DELAYED. Gee, what a surprise. NOT! Needless to say, this is one airline we'll never fly again. They really need to work on having on-time departures.
UPDATE as of 5/99: Nothing has changed. In fact, it's gotten worse! They are still trying to turn planes around too quickly. Our flight from BWI to Las Vegas (stopping in Phoenix, so this was one of those "direct" flights. HA!) was delayed in taking off for 20 minutes because the plane got into BWI late from wherever it came from. The plane was unbearably hot when we boarded due to a problem with the auxiliary power unit. Why they still used the plane was beyond us. The worst part was the stop in Phoenix. The same A.P.U. problem, which they must have suddenly decided to fix, meant that instead of taking off again in 45 minutes, we were delayed in boarding an extra 1 1/2 hours. This extra delay made it so that the original crew had to be released and a new crew called in to take us the rest of the way to Las Vegas. This resulted in another delay of 1 1/3 hours because the crew wasn't even due to check in until after we had finally been called to board. Their paperwork and plane checkout procedure was the cause of that delay. Needless to say, spending an extra 3 hours in Phoenix due to a crappy plane which should have been replaced instead of delaying us to fix it made this trip on America Worst even worse than the last one. As compensation, all we were offered was a free cocktail. Big deal. Since it's only a 45 minute flight to Las Vegas from Phoenix, we could have driven there faster and more comfortably. WE ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY WILL NEVER FLY AMERICA WEST AGAIN AND THIS TIME WE MEAN IT.
UPDATE as of 12/2000: UM, we can't pass up a good offer on a trip to Las Vegas, right? Well we found out a secret to flying this airline. Take a red-eye flight non stop to your destination. Wasn't half bad actually. We've decided to use this information and take another trip from Baltimore (BWI) to the dicey city of Las Vegas. April would like to live there...but we'll limit it to the occasional visit (ecch, scorpions).
UPDATE as of 10/2002: So much for the Las Vegas secret, as described in the last update. We bought tickets to go to Las Vegas this December from Baltimore (BWI), once again booking the late night flights round trip. An email requested we call reservations due to flight changes, and guess what? The 8:30 PM nonstop flight from BWI to Las Vegas no longer runs, so now we have to get to the airport for the 6:40 PM flight, which still ends up getting to Las Vegas at 10:30 PM, the same time as if we'd taken the nonstop. This is because there is a stop in Phoenix, our most hated America West destination. (Read this entire section on "America Worst", and you'll see why.) Of course, the ticket agent wasn't going to bother telling me about the stop, she must have thought I'd just fallen off of the turnip truck-like I'd believe it would take an extra 2 hours to fly nonstop to Las Vegas all of a sudden. When I said "This is stopping somewhere-what happened to the nonstop flight?", she said it's stopping in Phoenix, but you don't have to change planes...sorry the nonstop no longer is in service. Yeah, I've heard the "you don't have to change planes" from these guys before. The last time they said that, we landed in Phoenix and all of a sudden had to change planes due to a mysterious problem. Of course they kept us waiting for the new plane for close to 3 hours. AMERICA WEST SUCKS ONCE AGAIN! Watch here for an update after we actually go on the trip in December.
Update 12/2002-We'll try to steer clear of America West from now on, unless we can be positive about nonstop. There were no incidents of inconvenience on the flights we had from Baltimore to Las Vegas, and back again, but the evidence of cost cutting measures is obvious. There was no meal service on a 5 hour flight. Also, the flight we were on was supposed to go on to Los Angeles, after the stop in Las Vegas, and the passengers wanting to go on to L.A. were screwed again. Remember, above we told you about the "you won't have to get off the plane" story, which happened to us more than once? That's what the L.A. bound people were told, too, and wonder of wonders, as we get to Las Vegas, they were told that they would have to change planes after all. The bottom line is, don't let them tell you that you won't have to change planes. You will, and it could be a much longer layover than you expected.
SOUTHWEST
They have a great safety record, the line to check in was super quick, and they're cheap, but the problem I had was that there are no seat assignments. Get there early, or else you'll end up sitting between 2 people, or worse...if you're travelling with someone, you won't see them for the entire flight because you won't be sitting next to them.
UPDATE as of 5/2000: If you read this page regularly, you'll notice that we've moved Southwest from the "Sort of O.K." rating to the "We'd Rather Not Fly" rating. The above review still stands, plus an extra warning if you are departing from the Orlando airport. The normal Southwest routine (at any airport) is that you check your bags at the front desk, then you must check in at the gate and get a number (which determines your place in line to get on the plane and pick a seat). This is normally fine at most other airports, but here's the thing: Just about all airlines (including Southwest) have a policy of letting parents with small children on the plane first, so they have extra time to get settled. We normally don't mind this, except that when there aren't assigned seats, and you're in the amusement park capital of the world, 99% of the people getting on the plane will be parents with small children. DUH! This means that if the plane is full, and you are a married couple without children, good luck getting seats together. Southwest needs to change their policy and start assigning seats. It couldn't cost that much more, considering they do things ass backwards in that you have to check in twice (once just for baggage, again at the gate to get your number). Assign seats, check in once-it'll save time and aggravation on the part of people like the 10 out of 120 passengers on our flight from Orlando to Baltimore who had to wait until the very last to get on the plane. What's the point of having a supposed number in a line if it becomes void due to pre-boarding rules? Sorry, Southwest, your cheap fares just aren't enough to encourage us to fly your airline again, especially since we don't feel like being discriminated against just because we don't have children.
UPDATE AS OF 5/2003: We think they've changed their check in policy-you get assigned a number at your first check in, so you don't have to check in again when you get to the gate.
TWA
Avoid it like the plague. We learned this before any of the flight 800 problems. When we last went to Las Vegas in June of 1996, our outbound trip was interrupted by a storm over St. Louis (you have to change planes in St. Louis with TWA for almost any destination). So instead of flying in a holding pattern and waiting to land, we had to land in Kansas City, MO for more fuel! More fuel? Shouldn't they have filled up before they left Baltimore? The rest of the flight was okay. On our return flight we found out that we didn't have seats together. Now if you were assigning seats and you saw two people with the same last name that had made reservations some 6 months in advance, you'd seat them together right? WRONG, and the woman at the ticket counter was being the bitchiest of bitches! If we didn't cause a ruckus as we were about to be seated and if a kind gentleman didn't switch seats with us, we would have been 14 rows apart from each other! Well, it doesn't end there. While we were taking off from the Las Vegas airport, the landing gear got stuck and the plane levelled off too early. The pilot said we may have to make a landing if he couldn't get the gear up and he then ordered the crew to the cabin. I don't know about you, but we get worried when something doesn't close properly...we worry that it won't open again. Aside from that experience, the service on board the plane was lousy, we were consistently 20 minutes late in departure (they so graciously build a buffer between flights for their patrons connecting in St. Louis, but what if you were switching airlines?) The food was bland at best and when you ask them for the entire 12 oz can of soda or drink, you'd think you'd just asked them for a major organ. My God, can one person drink 12 whole ounces of soda? Can they drink it in 2 hours?
To top all of this off, just one month after our flight, TWA flight 800 crashed off of Long Island. It has yet to be determined what happened. (That's the OFFICIAL line of b.s. they're giving, anyway.) After all the problems we had on our flight, this just clinched our decision never to fly them again.
US AIRWAYS METROJET
Yes, we do have a listing for US Airways in the "airlines we like" list. BEWARE! US Airways Metrojet is not US Airways. The big thing nowadays is for small regional carriers to hook up with large airlines and do some of the work for them, while getting the benefit of the larger airline's name recognition-this is true of Shuttle by United, US Airways Metrojet, American Eagle, and a host of others. These are all small airlines owned and operated by others that just happen to share a ticket counter with someone you've heard of. (as explained in the "choosing an airline" section.)We flew them from BWI to New Orleans and it was a small bit of hell. Here we go: A small problem we'll mention before we bring out the big guns is that they do not serve meals, no matter how long your flight is, but you can fix that by bringing your own, which we did. Now for the major problems, and the main reason we probably won't fly them again if possible. Problem 1: The US Airways website has a function where you can pick your seats, but it either doesn't work or the regional carrier doesn't pay attention to it. When we got to the airport and checked in, we ended up being seated in the very last row, which does not have reclining seats, not to mention the fact that we had our 80 year old grandmother with us and it was a pain in the butt for her to walk all the way back there. Luckily, some people a couple of rows forward switched with us so that our grandmother could recline her seat if she needed to (she has knee and back problems and walks with a cane.) This was even worse on the trip back. We got to the airport for our return trip late, and the seats we had supposedly picked didn't exist, either. Consequently, since US Airways Metrojet doesn't seem to bother to give people their seats until they check in, all 3 of us ended up in a different row, in the middle seat, and 5 rows separated each of us. Noone seemed to want to help us, including the stewardesses, who didn't bother to ask anyone if they would switch seats so at least one of us could be with our grandmother, who spent the entire flight (2 1/2 hours) alone. She didn't even eat the sandwich we had brought for her dinner, because she didn't want to bother the stewardess for another drink to wash it down with. (Believe us, as much as airline tickets cost, had one of us been with her, she'd have had another drink-a lousy can of coke isn't going to break them.) Only one person volunteered to switch without asking, but it didn't really solve the problem. The two of us got to sit together, but it still left our grandmother 10 rows ahead and all alone. We thought it best not to try to get her to move back (and neither one of the jerks next to her offered to switch-the stewardess should have asked!)-she's unsteady enough when the floor isn't moving. So, in a nutshell, when you buy your tickets, don't bother using the online seat assignment feature. Call the airline and try to get them to assign your seat, and failing that, make sure you get to the airport good and early to get the seat you want. Problem 2: Random luggage checks. We appreciate the fact that they do their random luggage checks (your luggage goes through an especially strong x-ray, rather than the regular one), and it wasn't a problem with our flight to New Orleans, but on the way back it was a major problem. We were already late checking in because we ran into heavy traffic driving to the airport. We decided to use curbside check in because it should be faster, but instead it made us even later. We got to the counter after waiting in a small line, started check in, only to find out we had once again been picked for a random luggage check. BAD TIMING. We only had 1/2 hour to the flight to begin with. The curbside check in agent informed us we would have to go inside and wait in the regular check in line (thank goodness there wasn't a line after all) and check in there. What would posess someone to take this extra time checking someone in when there was so little time to the flight? Someone had to bring around a wheelchair for our grandmother or else we would never have made it to the gate. Problem 3-Naturally after all of this, they lost a piece of our luggage. There was a flight after ours that (with a connection) would have gotten it to Baltimore about midnight. When we called the baggage claim hotline about 8:30 am to find out the status, they told us that the luggage ended up not getting into Baltimore until 8am (over 11 hours after we got there.) They said the luggage delivery service would pick it up about 9:30 and we should see it by 1:30 because there is a 4 hour delivery window. We only live 15 minutes from the airport so there's no way we'd wait that long, right? Wrong. It got to be about 12:15 and we called the airline again, wondering where the bag was and explaining that we only live 15 minutes from the airport. They said they'd call the delivery service. Miraculously, the bag appeared 30 minutes later. We asked the man who delivered it what happened and he said he didn't know, he got the call to pick it up and deliver it only 20 minutes before. It was the only bag he was delivering. In other words, the delivery service had it for almost 3 hours before they bothered to deliver it, and that only because we called and complained. Why didn't they deliver it as soon as they'd picked it up, since we weren't that far away? Had we known, we'd have driven to the airport and picked it up ourselves at 9. It would have been a different story had it been on a truck with lots of other bags that was making a round of deliveries, but a single bag sitting in an office or whatever for 3 hours is inexcusable. When we called US Airways to tell them of all the troubles we had, they said they were going to send us 3 $100 travel vouchers-probably because we told them we already had bought our tickets to Los Angeles in September and were considering asking for a refund because we were so displeased.
Sort of O.K., if you've gotta fly...
AMERICAN
It was o.k., but not teriffic. The first leg of April's flight was from Indianapolis to Chicago on a plane called an Embraer. She couldn't WAIT to get off once it landed. It was very cramped and very weird. The cabin setup was one seat on one side and 2 on the other, with only 18 rows. Takeoff was O.K., and the stewardesses were nice, except that if they want people to pay attention to the safety demonstrations, they should come farther back in the plane so people can see them. Landing was a different story. It SUCKED. They just barely landed on the edge of the runway, very bumpy and the plane seemed to be swerving all over the runway when they were slowing down. The 2nd leg of the flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C. was less eventful. This plane was a Fokker 100. Not bad, but keep in mind that if you want a window seat, do NOT sit in the last row. There aren't any windows there.
DELTA
April flew Delta on her trip to the south. (Washington Nat'l Airport thru Atlanta to Baton Rouge, LA; then Austin, TX thru Dallas, TX back to Washington Nat'l.) The flights went off without a hitch and the customer service end of this airline seems to be run very well. However, we can't overlook the fact that in the Schiavo book, it doesn't get a good rating safety-wise. Among 10 major carriers, it ranks close to the bottom when it comes to accidents, near misses, and the like. The book further goes on to list a long list of accidents and problems that happened in 1996 alone. They appear to have straightened up in the past 11 months, but it might not be a bad idea to keep an eye on them.
NORTHWEST
Not really teriffic. They don't even pay attention to their own check-in luggage restrictions. This family of 4 on our flight checked in a total of 20 items, yet for some reason it was a piece of OUR luggage (the 2 of us only checked in 3 items) that got kicked off and had to follow us home on a different flight. The flight itself wasn't too bad.
Food, Glorious Food...
A general opinion extending to most airlines: This latest trend of airlines deciding on the times people would want food is getting ridiculous. Unless you are on the plane at times which they consider "breakfast" (approx. 7-9 a.m.), "lunch" (approx. 11-1 p.m.), or "dinner" (approx 5-8 p.m.) times, you get nothing, even if you're on the plane 6 hours! As much as you pay for an airline ticket, it's really stinky that they can't even spend a lousy buck to give you SOMETHING to eat, and we don't mean pretzels and soda! Next thing you know, they won't even offer a soda or juice anymore. And the latest is that not only have the airlines been offering less and less food, and sometimes nothing, but now they have food, you just have to pay for it, sometimes as much as $10 for a lousy sandwich. They've caught you at your worst, and since your desperate, you'll cough it up. It's just another way for the airlines to make a buck. Why don't they just tack the $10 onto everyone's ticket and keep giving it out the way they used to??? But hey, before you give them more of your money, remember there's no law against....
TAKING YOUR OWN FOOD..There's no rule against it. Most travel tips sites and magazines suggest it, in fact. (There was one article we read where the reporter was griping about it, such as "the smell bothers people, and it's messy". We figure this person was just mad that they didn't do it too, and they were hungry and jealous of the people that did.) The only thing they ask is that loose items be secured during takeoff, so if you're taking something with you to eat, put it in a closeable bag you can shove under the seat in front of you for a couple of minutes. Your best bet is to either pack your own stuff from home, or grab something from the airport fast food joint nearest to your boarding area. The cheapest is to bring your own from home, no doubt. No need to scarf it down in the airport. Enjoy it on the plane and make everyone else wish they had done the same! A caution against liquor, though: according to the airline magazines, federal law prohibits consuming any liquor other than what they sell on the plane, which sounds really bogus to us, so if you're going to take it on, hide it in something else.
AIR FRANCE...International flights still treat you right. The food was pretty good, in fact, this is one of the few times you'll get a menu with CHOICES, just like the old days. On the overnight from DC to Paris, dinner was a caesar salad with chicken, a choice of beef bourguignon and noodles or tilapia with rice pilaf as your entree, cheese, bread, yogurt, and pear cake. On the 10AM flight from Paris to DC, lunch was chicken brochette with carrot salad, a choice of sauteed beef and rice or curry pasta for the entree, cheese, bread, fruit, and chocolate cake. It's an 8 hour flight from DC to Paris, so a couple of hours before you land, you'll also get a light breakfast or lunch type snack, such as yogurt, orange juice, and a pastry.
AMERICA WEST...Worse than stingy-nothing! On nonstop flights from Baltimore to Las Vegas, and then back again (5 hours!) they gave us nothing except drinks and peanuts. Make sure you take something on the plane with you to eat. We understand that they've got to cut costs somewhere, but they need to make sure passengers know there isn't meal service-some obviously didn't, and if you're diabetic, or hypoglycemic, or something and need to eat frequently, you're way out of luck here.
AMERICAN..Stingy. Not even a hot breakfast on a 2 hour flight. A banana, a mini yogurt cup, a nutri-grain bar, and an orange juice. It was enough for April, but still dissapointing considering how much you pay for airline tickets.
CONTINENTAL...So-so. According to friends, all the food on the way from Baltimore to Hawaii was fine. The food on the way back sucked. One low point was that the cartons of milk for the cereal on the way from Houston to Baltimore were FROZEN SOLID.
DELTA..Nothing fancy, but substantial and tasty. Looks like they're trying to cut down the flight attendants work load, though. On lunch flights, they've instituted a fairly strange practice of putting a large bin of bag lunches (consisting of a turkey sandwich, chips, cookie, and container of water)in the hallway just before you get on the plane, leaving it up to you to get it. Naturally, a lot of people ended up going hungry because they didn't see the bin before they got on the plane. On a breakfast flight, however, they do give it out on the plane. I was dissapointed to find it wasn't even a hot breakfast, though, and it was a 3 hour flight! Only cold cereal and milk, a fruit cup, and a piece of poundcake.
FRONTIER..Now that most airlines aren't giving you anything at all, and calling it a cost cutting measure, these guys are surprisingly generous. If your flight is longer than 2 hours, you'll get a HOT bagel (yes, they actually were HOT!) and some other snack items at breakfast, or if it's afternoon, you'll get a sandwich and a bag of chips. Nice! (They do need to be careful about their sandwiches, though-if you don't like or can't eat cheese or eggs, you won't be eating the sandwich. The steward did say he'd mentioned that to their meal planners before, hopefully they'll do something about it.)
NORTHWEST..Extremely stingy. Sometimes even an hour and a half flight doesn't even rate a bag of peanuts.
SOUTHWEST..Since this is a no-frills airline, you don't get much in the way of food. The snack they do provide tastes good. It's not a meal by any means, but it's a little bit more than a bag of peanuts. It was a bag of peanuts, a bag of pretzels, and a drink. Of late, they've become even stingier with the sodas, though. They used to give you the whole can without asking, but now they only give you a cup with lots of ice and little soda, so be sure to ask for the whole can. They do sell liquor if you're one of those people who just can't seem to get through the day without having a beer every 5 minutes. Friends of ours flew nonstop from BWI to Las Vegas and they got lots more of the same snacks. Pretzels and peanuts just aren't enough for a 6 hour flight.
USAIR(WAYS)..They're a little stingy when it comes to feeding you. For some reason, they were under the impression that you'd want to be fed on a 2 hour flight leaving at 7 a.m., but you wouldn't be hungry if it's a 2 hour flight leaving at 10 p.m. What gives? Breakfast was enough if you're not a big breakfast eater. (Rice Krispie treat, banana, croissant)
US AIRWAYS METROJET..Remember, they're not the same as US AIRWAYS. No food at all. (Unless you consider a granola bar substantial). Cheap on the drinks, too. Ask for the can with your soda, or all you get is a cup of soda with lots of ice in it.
UNITED..They improved all coach class meals beginning May of '97. Good news folks! They hired a culinary professional to design recipes that people will actually eat. We confirmed this on both our trips to Hawaii. We got a taste of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks between all the flights we were on. The food is by far the best coach class food, and we'd bet that it's better than some other airlines first class food!
Update as of 9/99-Still the best food. They give you tons of food-a snack on United is a sandwich, whereas a snack on any other airline is a bag of peanuts.
VIRGIN..YUM! Not many airlines give you a nice menu with choices in the economy section, but they still do. They also use metal utensils and nice teacups and wine glasses, not cheap throwaway plastic. On the way to London, there was chips and salsa, bread, tarragon chicken breast with potato salad and vegetables and chocolate cake with vanilla mousse. Besides the drinks we'd already gotten, they offered us a mini bottle of wine with our dinner, and after we'd finished, Bailey's for an apertif. And don't forget the tea-there was always lots of tea. Breakfast was juice, fruit, and a muffin. The service was the same on the way back to D.C. Tomato salad, bread, chicken curry and rice that was really good, lemon lime muffin, cheese and crackers. Wine with dinner again, and also the Baileys apertif. Lunch before landing was a tuna sandwich that was pretty good and cake for dessert. Overall, the food is the best we've ever had on an airline-they give you lots and it tastes really good. This is one airline where you don't need to bring your own stuff to supplement.
Airports We've Been To
First, a general complaint about airports. Why arent the gift shops open 24 hours a day?? We've passed through many airports at odd hours and it would have been nice to buy a souvenir or some local type of product from that city while we were waiting for our connecting flight.
Atlanta, GA: All we can say is: weird. This is one of those big, multi terminal airports, so in order to get our connecting flight, we had to get on a monorail to another terminal. From what we heard, there isn't even any parking right at the airport. You have to park somewhere else and take the MARTA (their subway system, we suppose) the rest of the way to the airport. Hope you're not luggin' lots of luggage!
Austin, TX: Small, nothing special.
Baton Rouge, LA: Really small, but not as small as the Maui airport. It's only got 2 luggage carousels!
Baltimore: Baltimore/Washington International. Home sweet home for us. They've just renovated, so it's a nice airport to fly to and from. Plenty of parking. If you have time, check out the new observation deck. The Smithsonian manages it-not only can you watch the planes take off and come in, there's a whole exhibit all about airports and planes, including a whole plane cut up into pieces. A good airport to take the kids for a day trip.
Chicago: Midway: Yuck. Badly in need of remodeling and very confusing. The baggage claim area is too cramped and they couldn't even keep straight what carousel the bags from our flight were on.
Chicago: O'Hare: Way too big. If you've got connecting flights through this one, be sure to leave PLENTY of time between them. If the gates are far enought from each other, it could take quite awhile to get there. The food at the snack bars is a little pricey, too.
Columbus, OH: A smaller airport, but clean. Not too much in the way of food, either.
Dallas, TX: Dallas-Fort Worth Airport Kind of a medium-small airport.
Denver, CO: Overdesigned. It's too big and dumb looking. You're out of luck if you have short turn around time between flights-the terminals aren't very close to each other.
Detroit, MI Yuk. If you have to change planes and your next plane is on another concourse, you might as well forget it. The concourses are entirely too far away from each other.
Honolulu, Hawaii(Oahu): Honolulu International Airport. Not really terrific. Looks like it's under major renovations right now, so there's lots of plastic hanging everywhere. It's a pretty big airport-you have to take a shuttle bus from the counter to your gate.
Indianapolis, Indiana: Not bad, but the area for check in was a little too small.
Kahului, Maui (Hawaii): Kahului Airport. Old and dinky. There couldn't be more than 10 gates, tops. Unlike Kailua/Kona (below) this airport is at least partially indoors. (Waiting areas and baggage.)
Kailua/Kona, Big Island of Hawaii: Keahole-Kona International Airport. Even smaller than the Kahului, Maui airport. Ever been to an airport where EVERYTHING was outside? This is it. You even have to get off the plane using stairs, since all the waiting areas are benches that are outside. Basically, the whole place looks like a bunch of huts in one place.
Las Vegas: McCarran. Wow. Another biggie, this airport seems to be busy 24 hours a day, which is par for the course in Las Vegas. Leave yourself lots of time to get from the airline's counter to the gate. Once you get to the gate, if you've still got time to kill, check out the slot machines that are everywhere. And don't believe anyone that tells you it's impossible to win at the airport. We thought so, too, but we really won!
Lihue, Kauai (Hawaii): Very similar to the Kahului, Maui airport. Mostly outdoors, with not too many gates.
London, England (Heathrow) HUGE. The check in area is quite disjointed, not like most American airports which have neat lines of check in counters. Here, they seem to be everywhere in every corner. Once you do check in, leave lots and lots of time for duty free shopping-there are tons of stores. The difference here is you can't go right to the gate after you check in-you have to wait in one general area (conveniently in the middle of all the duty free shops) and wait for a monitor to tell you you're allowed to go to your gate and wait to board your flight. When you are arriving in Heathrow from other places, be prepared for lots of walking and standing in line-it's a huge airport, so the walk from the gate to the passport desks (where there always seems to be a long line) can be quite a long one. Once past that, picking up luggage can be crowded, but what really bothered us is their way of doing customs. There are 3 lines, one for if you're declaring stuff, another one (we forgot what it said), and a third for those declaring nothing. Naturally, we went through this one, but there didn't seem to be anyone standing there checking you out to make sure you weren't trying to be sneaky. After all, we had 4 extra large suitcases between the two of us (we didn't have much in them-they were for what we intended to buy there) and noone stopped us. After this point is where it gets confusing. The common area where people are allowed to wait for people they're picking up is quite messy-it looks like it's going under some refurbishment, and it's really crowded, too, so it's hard to find anyone.
Los Angeles, CA: Burbank International Airport MUCH better than LAX. Absolutely no lines anywhere, and cheaper to fly to by a long shot. It's an older aiport in need of refurbishment, but that's not really important. It's a much easier process to fly in and out of here than LAX.
Los Angeles, CA: LAX. Big, but laid out pretty good. We had a 3 1/2 hour layover here, so a friend picked us up and took us on the quickie tour of L.A. The parking wasn't far from our gate at all. Out of all the airports we've been to, this one has the best selection of eats. Wolfgang Puck's has 2 outlets here!
Montego Bay, Jamaica VERY Rustic, but not quite as quaintly rustic as the ones in Hawaii-more of a impoverished kind of rustic. If you're arriving in Jamaica, it's fine-it's kind of a long walk to customs, but not too bad, and there is entertainment (singers and dancers) while you wait in the immigration line. Leaving is another story. Do NOT listen to your hotel when they tell you getting there 2 hours ahead of your flight is enough. Make it at least 3. Especially if you want to do duty free shopping without wanting to feel rushed. This is because all of your luggage will be opened and HAND INSPECTED, which makes the line for USAirways interminably long and slow. Not to mention that I take a lot of time to pack things just right so things don't get broken, and I don't appreciate someone pawing through my stuff. Anytime I come back from a trip my bags are totally stuffed, and someone ripping through my stuff invariably means that I won't be able to close the bag again. There must not be x-ray machines for the check in luggage. Jeez, these people are in the dark ages.
New Orleans, LA: Not too big, and not too small. Nicely decorated with lots of local shops. Gates aren't too long a walk from the counter.
Orlando, FL: Since this is a hot tourist destination, it's a given that this is a huge airport. There are 3 terminals connected by monorails. Be sure to note which terminal you are in, because when one of us went to rent a car and left the other with the baggage, he got lost and drove the car back to the wrong terminal.
Paris, France: A HUGE airport, but very easy to get around. There are lots of public transportation options to and from Paris, such as subway, busses, etc. There are many terminals, so be sure to know which one your flight is departing from-it makes a difference! Walking from check in to the gates isn't too bad-there are lots of nice duty free shops and restaurants.
Phoenix, AZ: A larger airport, with lots of shops. They've got a couple of museum-type exhibits, too.
Washington, DC: Dulles International Aiport. Weird, but in the Baltimore/Washington area, this is definitely the cheapest as far as international flights go. It's also the only one in the area where you can pick up mostly nonstop flights to major international destinations. On busy days, leave extra time for check in, because this is a very busy airport with an extremely weird way to get to your gate area. After you check in, you have to get on these weird tram car kind of things to get to whatever gate area your plane is in, which takes extra time.
Washington, DC: Reagan National Airport. Yuck. This airport has a brand new terminal and it's the worst layout we've ever seen. IF there is a sign (and there isn't always)letting you know where stuff is, it isn't clear enough to understand. If you're flying into the DC area, do yourself a favor and fly into Baltimore Washington International instead. Believe me, the extra drive to your destination will help you avoid the Reagan Airport hassle.
Email / knighton@cablespeed.com
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