Nov 18 2006
On Making the Best…
…Making the best of a bad situation… that was the name of the game on our cross-country flight back from San Francisco. I have never had a bad airport/airplane experience, so I guess we were due.
We arrived with plenty of time to spare at the SFO airport - it takes about an hour to drive south to San Francisco from Napa Valley, and we did hit some morning rush hour traffic, but as Beltway drivers in DC, this was “old hat”. The weather was foggy and overcast. A harbinger, perhaps? We sat and chatted with family members on the cell phone and ate brunch before going to our departure gate.
The first sign that something was wrong: only two crew members from our flight were on time - and neither one of those two was the actual pilot or co-pilot. Evidently, their earlier flights had run into the fog and had a delayed arrival, causing our Baltimore-bound plane to have a delay as well. When the crew showed up, there were a few disgruntled passengers, but Kris and I were not among them, as we had just had a fabulous vacation, and were content to read and knit the time away.
Right after take-off, we noticed a very bad electrical/chemical smell. It was quite strong, and not the kind of smell you want to encounter when you are 37,000 feet above the earth’s surface. They narrowed the problem to the personal entertainment circuitry - which means no in-flight movies, or sound. However, due to regulations, they had to make an emergency stop for a mechanic to assess the situation. All in the name of safety.
We were diverted to Reno (I thought of you Nessie!) and sat on the tarmac for two hours while men in flame-retardant suits evacuated the first-class cabin to check on the circuitry. There was talk of switching planes, or possibly spending the night in Nevada, but things appeared to be fixed. By this time, there were some crying children and rumbling stomachs. The Reno airport was small, and could not handle an influx of 185 people descending on the one fast-food restaurant that happened to be open. A few passengers made a mad dash - Kris and I waited like good little citizens…
One of the attendants said they ran out to a discount store and bought granola bars for everyone. It was a nice gesture, but did not really alleviate the situation. Right before we left Reno, they made another announcement :
“We are going to be stopping in Denver. Due to FAA regulations, some of our crew must get off and be replaced by new crew members.”
So, we stopped in Denver. I completely understood the need for a replacement crew. Unfortunately, other passengers got rude, and began booing. The crew did the best job possible, and I was very impressed with their level of service.
After an hour of sitting on the tarmac in Denver, I began wondering what Cathi, and Wanda, and the other Mile High Knitters were doing… I want to go back to Colorado under better circumstances!
Needless to say, it was a bad situation. Our flight was supposed to get into Baltimore at 9:01pm. We got in around 3:00am. My parents were SO amazing, and came and picked us up in the middle of the night. They were even smiling, and greeted us with a warm hug. Thank you so much, Dad and Mom!!
And despite the rude woman in front of me who reclined her chair back all the way (she even had two feet of room for her legs because she was in an exit row! I seriously could have knit her hair - she was that close) leaving me only about 8 inches of room to maneuver, I managed to knit. A LOT. It kept me calm and collected. It kept me nice and sweet considering the jerkies that were all around.
I left San Francisco with one Kolsva sleeve, completed entirely on the flight west. On the flight going east, I completed another sleeve, and 9 inches of the body! And I even managed to “cut” my yarn from the sleeve with a plastic knife… no scissors allowed!
Sleeve one and two in the upper left corner, and the body in the foreground. I have three more skeins for the remainder of the back, the front, and the cowl.
Looks like I just may make Norovember!
I flew the friendly skies, and while it was not exactly a pleasant flight, it could have been so much worse… thank goodness for knitting!
Have a crazy air travel story to tell? Go ahead, entertain me! 
Wow! What an experience. I’m impressed you were able to stay calm about it all. Welcome home. I hope you’ll return to SF soon!
Lolly,
I am so proud of you for persevering and not becoming one of the rabble raisers! I honestly don’t understand why people can’t make the best of a bad situation that, quite obviously, was not done intentionallyagainst them. I have never heard anyone “boo” a crew! That is just amazing to me. In a society that seems to want instant gratification, people are becoming more and more impatient and self-centered. Don’t you think they would have been better off if they all had had a knitting project to keep them content? LOL
Have I got a story for you! This summer my husband and I flew from Baltimore to London with our 19 and 21 year old sons. We were going to meet up with my parents, celebrating their 50th anniversary and flying in from Florida, and my sister and her family flying in from Denver to go on a cruise of the Baltic Sea. We had a car problem on the way to the airport, and my husband could not steer or brake. Security would not let us wait with the car until AAA could arrive to tow it, so my husband drove it off the airpport ground, all the while hoping to live through the event. Meanwhile I was trying to check in our luggage. We couldn’t do this because not only did my husband have to be present, but the cruise line had cancelled my 19 year old’s airline ticket. It took about 45 minutes to get that straightened out. Meanwhile, my husband had left the car at a gas station, but had no way to get back to the airport. Two off-duty cabs refused to help him and the airport limos that were gassing up said that they couldn’t pick him up from there. Finally a private limo driver took pity on my husband and got him to the terminal…and refused any payment…what a sweetie. As my husband walked up the airline rep said that our son’s problem had been solved. Fast forward to our bags going down the chute to baggage are. As the rep told us what gate to go to, he said “uh oh, you’re not going to like this.” Our flight to Philadelphia would be arriving at BWI after the flight from Philly to London had taken off. Next flight….tomorrow. We would be missing the first part of the cruise (three day to the first port) which would be the most important part, as the ship would be passing the pier in Germany that my parents emigrated from. Our German relatives would all be there, and this was the reason for this particular cruise being chosen. I’d had enough and the stress just got to me, so I just burst into tears. The long and short of it is that because I had stayed nice and understanding (tears not-withstanding) they drove us up to Philly in a taxi. They even pulled our bags back off the belt so they might make it. We made it with three minutes to spare in order for the bags to be allowed on a trans-continental flight. THen the plane was delayed because the caterer forgot to put forks with the meals. That 20 minute delay caused us to miss the window of opportunity before a major storm came throu, which delayed us by 1 1/2 more hours. When all was said and done, we made the cruise with 25 minutes to spare…after what we thought was going to be a few hours! Friends think we should write a movie….that it would be a best-selling comedy! Oh, and did I mention that the seats were 17 inches wide, but my butt is 19 inches wide (and my husband’s is a little wider?!) Gotta love flying!
i was flying to russia 1993, on aeroflot air of course…need i say more??? so my plane broke and i flew out on another plane, the new plane had a guy i had met on it. so that was nice. major turbulence, goat something to eat. then when we got to moscow aeroflot managed to loose the luggage! not at all good for a recent hurricane andrew survivor… this was the beginning of 2 months in estonia. hurray for dollar to kroona exchange rates and cheap clothes, toiletires, well except for the guys we were with…there was no male deodorants in the country that we could find!
after all that, at the end of the summer i met up again with that guy i knew from the plane… we have now been married 12 yrs.
oh my gosh, what a terrible experience! I’m glad you’re back safe and sound. I bet your doggies missed you!
In 1994, on a nearly empty Vietnam Airline flight from Bangkok to Saigon (brand spankin’ new Airbus plane with a French pilot), I had placed a small carry on under the seat in front of me. The Vietnamese flight attendant politely told me I had to place it in the overhead bin, which I did. Not 2 minutes later, she came through and told me to place my bag in the overhead bin–referring to the bag belonging to the passenger BEHIND me. It took quite a bit for her and the person behind me to understand that the problem was not mine.
Fast forward to 2002 and a crowded Thai Airlines flight from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia. My traveling companion and I decided to carry on our full backpacks. Going through security we were searched and wanded twice but never told to check our backpacks. Boarding the plane we realized it was a tiny twin prop puddle jumper–with no gate check, no ground personale at the bottom of the boarding stairs to check our packs, and no way they would fit into the tiny overhead bins. All the flight crew smiled and greeted us as we carried on these huge packs, half-shoved them under the seats in front of us, and flew the whole way with our feet propped up on top of them! Needless to say, we checked them on the return flight…
Good for you for keeping a cool head! Have you ever watched the A&E show Airline? I think it should be required viewing for all those about to fly to show you how NOT to act on a plane or in an airport!! Rebecca is right, when things go wrong it is not intential. Believe me, the crew doesn’t want to give bad news! And I’m ok when things are done in the name of my safety (like switching crew that have been in the air too long!). Glad you made it bad to MD safely.
I spent two months in Italy this summer and Alitalia lost my bags going both ways. I have a better story than that, though.
It’s like 1992 and my family is moving to Japan. I was about 9 and my brother was 18 months old. We had a straight flight from LA to Tokyo and then a short flight to Nagasaki, in the south, where somebody was coming to pick us up. My mom is one smart lady, especially as she’s travelling with one smallish and one very small kid, so we pack carryons with 3 days worth of clothes and bathing suits and all the other things we need.
We flew from Dallas to LA, spent the night, and the next day got on the airplane to Japan. Really, really long flight, by the way. Everybody’s on, all is going well, we taxi down the runway and *boom.* Not a big boom or a scary boom, but a boom nonetheless. The flight attendants tell us it sounds like a flat tire and they’ll be able to fix it in about an hour.
So we sit on the plane. For a long time. Turns out that it was not a flat tire, but was an ENGINE. One of the four, so it isn’t like we would have crashed or anything. Anyway Airline X puts us all up in a hotel for the night.
The next day we all board the plane again, after a bunch of fine technicians have fixed the engine. Taxi down the runway, and *boom.* Same noise. After another long wait they tell us that *oops* same problem, same engine. So they put us up in an even nicer hotel. We got to go swimming there, because we had our bathing suits.
On the third day we’re the only ones with clean clothes, pretty much, out of this huge crowd. This was one of those enormous planes. They put us on a new plane, with four working engines. We taxi down the runway, and *boom.*
Flat tire.
An hour or so later we *finally* got in the air, but you can bet we never flew that airline again.
I am sure I would have lost it, but I have two children and they would have been losing it first. My only bad travel story had to do with someone on the trip with me. I took a study abroad trip to Senegal in 2000. While in the airport waiting for our very late flight (same sit. as you actually, except they needed to re-fuel for a 7 1/2 hour flight) we discovered that one of my classmates only had a student visa to be in NYC and should not have left the country. After sending her many dirty looks while we waited for them to tell us whether she had to stay in Afica (meaning we all had to stay) they announced that they would let it be a problem for customs in New York when we got off the plane. If we had to stay and wait for her to sort that out I’m sure she would have had a lot of homesick people to deal with.
Well, my poor dad was in Italy this past week. They (the “business”) cut his trip short to send him to San Diego for a day. While making his connection in Mpls., he got a call saying, hey you don’t have to go to San Diego, you can come home to Iowa. Apparently though, they forgot to tell his luggage, which is who knows where right now. And on Monday he and my mom have to spend two days on the road to come to my house for Thanksgiving. How bad do I feel right now?
I myself have generally had good luck flying. One flight in a bad thunderstorm, but other than that…oh wait, there WAS a bomb threat on a flight that I was on back in 1995. That was _a little_ frightening. Luckily we hadn’t taken off yet.
Well I certainly can understand that all these problems were not the crews fault; however, did they not have food to serve you? It seems this was the main problem and would have made people much happier. I normally carry some kind of snack with me even if the flight is supposed to have a meal just in case.
Oh Lolly! what a nightmare! ugh! You and Kris are troopers!
I do have some travel nightmare stories. Maybe I will do a post about one of them on my blog (since I’m trying to do a post a day). I will trackback to you when I do. It’s going to require a drink in hand to write it :). And I’m at work right now.
Impressive! Not in a good way, though. I never will understand why people freak out on the attendants. It’s not like they WANT to spend more time with the rude idjits! I was flying out of Amsterdam with my sister in November, 2001. Yup right after 9/11! All of the planes were downsized since many people decided not to travel. As a result, some planes were overbooked. My sister and I volunteered to be bumped since neither of us had anything pressing to return to. (we got in 6 hours late, BTW) While sitting around, we see a man run up to the air attendents and start to berate them because he and his wife were not seated together! He got very abusive. I was surprised they didn’t kick him out! Amazingly, the attendents got him calmed down and the rest went well enough. Amazing attendents. I would have lost my patience long before he calmed down.
Oh you poor thing! At least it meant more knitting time.
This summer, I had a connecting flight in Washington, DC. My plane got in at like–6? And my connection was supposed to leave at 8 or so. Maybe a little earlier. It’s hazy. Anyway, it was one of those small, express jets, which are NEVER EXPRESS. DO NOT BE FOOLED. Seriously every time I’ve flown a small express jet we have had to sit on the runway for like an hour for no reason. First of all, they had to FIX the plane, they didn’t know what was wrong with it (uh, just switch planes. How hard can it be to have a tiny clown car plane on reserve?) and they kept saying “half an hour….15 minutes…” Finally at 1:00 they gave up and put us on a different plane, but we had to sit in there , hot and stuffy, for an hour and a half while the pilots faxed/waited for a fax of paperwork that would say we could actually take off. It was ridiculous and I probably could have driven where I was going faster.
Well, that was crappy, but if that’s as bad as it gets, I’ll take it, you know ? Better than crashing in a fireball of death or being harassed by a seatmate (although I did sit to a really stinky old guy one time who stared at what I was doing the entire flight…. I pretended to take a nap.)
Also, worst airport to be stuck in ever, because there was nothing good nearby… just the ubiquitous news stand and like a hot dog place or something. If only they’d told us we weren’t leaving until 1:00 I could have gone to the Fuddruckers in another part of the airport and had a liesurely lunch, but we were warned not to leave the gate area OR ELSE.
I have 2- luckily they didn’t happen to me, but to my coworkers.
One flight was on on of those tiny commuter planes. They told the passengers that because they expected such bad turbulence, they weren’t going to be serving any beverages. That’s when you need to drink the most!!
Another flight was on a large plane. First they were delayed on the runway for an hour because they couldn’t get the door to close. Then, after landing, they were stuck on the plane because they couldn’t get the door open.
Glad you had a great vacation- it looks like you had so much fun!
Wow, I’m glad you guys kept your cool after that experience, how frustrating.
I had some frustrations on our Northwest flight back here after our Seattle vacation. First of all, their customer service was so bad and they were trying to rush us through the check in line so quickly that my suitcase never ended up getting checked through, and didn’t come until the next morning. I would have carried it on, too if not for the stupid liquids rules.
Then, one our connecting flight home, I overheard one of the flight attendents talking about how someone tried to, and I quote, “Jew him down” on the price of something!! I was disgusted. Can you imagine someone working in such a public job and another ethnic slur? Ugh. I never even formally complained, either. I still should.
thank god for knitting indeed!!!
it would have been horrible if you DID NOT have your knitting!
good thing everybody is safely at home.
Glad you made it home safe and sound. Love the colour of your Noro yarn - so pretty!
oh dear, sorry for your bad expenrience, but you pull it very well, so cool and patient. I think I would start making complains after the second stopover. Cross finger, until now I haven’t experience any bad flight. Anywhere, it get you home safely, that’s the most important.
I’ve flown with knitting for many years. Since the scissors have been banned, I’ve learned to take a small container of dental floss. The cutter will cut your yarn with no trouble. I just got back Thursday night from Las Vegas to Virginia and used my trusty dental floss to cut my knitting yarn. Try it!
So sorry you had such a bad experience! It’s good to know you guys were able to stay calm and make the best of it!!
I’ve only had two plane flights in my whole life.. so I haven’t gotten any bad ones yet.. except for the time we flew from Denver to Atlanta for xmas right after 9/11 and my son was 6 months old - I had to drink a sip of his soy formula from his bottle to prove it wasn’t anything hazardous! Bleh!
Wow! Thank goodness for your knitting! Glad to hear you made it back safe and sound.
When I was little my Dad had a single engine plan. We flew to Florida a lot to visit my Grandparents. I can remember once having to stop at this little airport somewhere, because we spotted a small tornado in the clouds.
Lolly, I really feel your pain on that trip! Seems like this stuff happens more often these days—I USED to like flying, now I try to avoid it! I could really relate to your situation with the lady in front of you having her seat reclined the whole trip! Maybe you should have caught the occasional little hair and gave it a little ‘pluck’ (evil laugh…).
A couple of years ago we had to fly to So. Cal because my dad was in ICU. They had giant ice storms up her in Pacific Northwest the day we were to come home, so our flights were cancelled for two days straight, and we had to keep going back and forth to airport, standing in line, only to find no flights each day—planes were all stuck to tarmac in Portland!! After two long days in tiny little airport in Ontario, CA, we finally got on the last plane at MIDNIGHT of the second day (which they almost cancelled as well!) There is nothing in that airport—closes at 8pm! I was never so glad to see Seattle at 5am in my life!
Glad your trip was so much fun, though. Thank goodness for knitting, otherwise I would go crazy on someone in those planes! LOL!
That’s how to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear Lolly….just keep knitting thru all crisis!
Wow - you have the patience of a saint! I haven’t ever had a truly awful travel experience. Just a lot of waiting in airports for delayed flights. Thank goodness you could knit!
No scissors? I’ve never had a problem with carrying them on board - so long as the blades are under 4 inches long.
Glad that you were able to make the best of it & the sweater parts are looking great!
Bad travel experiences…hmm…with the all the flying I’ve done for work in the last 10 years I’m sure there are quite a few but nothing is jumping out right now.
P.S. My last blog entry has a VERY belated soctoberfest post/mention.
I’m very glad you are both safe even if a little tired. Too bad you got stuck on a plane with so many rude people. I always find it so funny that the very people who loudly complain and sulk about having to put in more than 8 hours to get a job done, expect others to put in crazy hours without complaint. A pilot is the last person you want dozing off for a minute or two and the hours some of them put in are far more than most people’s shifts. Same goes for the remainder of the crew and the maintenence crews.
Glad to hear you got through that okay! Once again, knitting does a little to save the day!
I’ve only got stories about incredibly drunk people sitting beside me on flights…
After our wonderful trip to San Franciso last summer, we had a close-to-nightmare return journey. I thought travelling with a 15 and an 18 year old would be the worst bit, but the kids were awesome. We had screaming babies, turbulence and some headwinds on the flight from SF - not too hideous for seasoned travellers, but I found it a bit much. The headwinds caused a big delay in getting to Toronto and we missed our connection from TO to Ottawa. Not what you want to hear at midnight! The terminal was virtually desserted, we couldn’t find an airport employee to even get us to an information desk. The three staff that we did find wound up frantically trying to book us into hotels but a convention and (I think) the Rolling Stones concert had left virtually no rooms, it was after 2:00am by then anyway. The apology/restitution we got was a $10.00 voucher for snacks at the single snack bar that was open. Hmm-m-m, 10 bucks for 4 adults at the 3am leftover cafe, yummy! The four of us wound up pulling some plastic chairs into a wagon circle with our luggage and curled up head to toe. It was freezing, and being summer, none of us had even a light jacket, and the air-conditioning ran full blast all night, I was tempted to go nap outside. Worst of all, I had NO knitting with me! I know, who would believe that?! Fortunately, the kids faced it with grace and good-humour and we now have a great airport war story to tell :).
I’m so sorry that you had such a bad experience- I wish you had my number, I live about as close as anyone to the airport! I hope you’ve been able to relax and recoup from the trip!
I have no travel story for you, but I just wanted to say “Good for You!”. I think it’s so incredibly rude of people to act the way some of them do in a bad situation. It’s not like the crew wanted these delays; it wasn’t their fault. Good for you for acting like a civilized human being.
It doesn’t surprise me that you remained good natured during the ordeal. You just seem so sweet and un-ruffleable!
Yikes! I can’t beat that story . . . at least that horrible experience can be overshadowed by a wonderful trip!
I’m surprised that´s allowed to bring knitting needles on board. Here in sweden, they stop you at the security check, and no needles are allows on board.
No metal needles, no plastic needles and no wood needles..
Oh, that’s not good. I’m glad you both could keep good hunor about it. The “best” story I have is one that actually happened to RM, not to me. He used to travel all the time on business, mostly by flying around the country. On one trip home, he’s waiting at the terminal when he sees his plane taxi up. As it approaches the gate, one of the engines starts blowing flames out of it. He and the rest of the passengers to be just stare at it in shock. Needless to say they were delayed.
Wow, I’m impressed that you could keep your cool and knit while there was a chair in your face! I’d be spewing, I’m pretty sure. I’ve been lucky and have not had too many bad plane experiences (I don’t fly a lot). But glad it all turned out OK and you made it back home.
Thank goodness you were able to knit. Glad to hear you got back safely.
i won’t bore you with my plane stories because i have YET to take a flight where the service wasn’t abysmal and completely incompetent. really, they even managed to screw up our FIRST CLASS flight for our honeymoon! ridiculous. i have the worst time flying.
but, i did want to say that if you fly and knit, use nail clippers to cut your yarn
works like a charm.
oh, and i HOPE to even cast-on for my norovember project before november is over
talk about time flying! where did the year even go?
Good for you for making the best of a bad situation! I’ve had numerous experiences with delays, missed connections, lost luggage etc., but they all worked out in the end and that’s what matters. (But they were certainly frustrating at the time!)
I luckily have not had anything that bad happen to me. There was one flight last april where we sat on the runway for 2 hours for a trip that usually takes about an hour to an hour and a half. I have been at the airport when all the flights to my destination were cancelled even though the weather was clear where I was and where I was going. And the worst was christmas 04 where they put the luggage on the plane next to mine instead of my plane. Because of bad weather I didn’t get it until 3 days later on Christmas day at 6pm. Luckily I had shipped most on my gifts, so I just had nothing to wear for 3 days.
Hi,
Thank you for being one of those calm people on the airplane. It always seems when something goes wrong everyone has to turn so mean.
I don’t have a really bad travel story yet (I have some unpleasent ones, like when we missed our connection on my birthday & spent 12 hours waiting for the next flight). I do have an ongoing story though. I’m going to Friday Harbor (Washington State) in January & flying back to Michigan is proving rather difficult. I couldn’t get back to the airport till around 5 or 6 & there were no flights leaving that late, so I’m staying in an hotel for the night & leaving in the morning. I just found out that my second connection got rescheduled to leave 4 hours earlier which is before my first connection even leaves. I.E. I’m being stranded in Ohio. The airline refuses to fix it till the week before my flight because “more schedule changes are likely” , so I’m quite in limbo.
That sweater is so yummy. And yes I concur on thanking you for being one of the polite passengers. The ones who boo’d should just have been kicked off: “Thank you have a safe trip HOME FROM HERE!” >.> I’m not bitter. =D
I was flying home from Chicago once and we hit storms or something and had to stop somewhere in Ohio. What was a two hour flight turned into closer to a five hour flight/tarmac adventure, and at some point the pilot or co-pilot or both went out and bought hamburgers at some place in the airport for as many people as they could; we leet the hungry cranky kids have them first, and then some other random people. I just fell asleep sitting between two strangers (and not with my dad) with my head on the back of the seat in front of me. When I woke up it was still stormy and dark and raining, and I got pretty upset until I realized we had taken off and landed in Baltimore while I was asleep. That was a fun trip. ^_^
I know this won’t make up for a bad flight, but I saved this story just because it dwarfs every travel problem I ever had: http://snipurl.com/12lk4
“Virginia and I invade the airport with enough luggage for a three-month Holiday on Ice tour. I march up to the counter, put the tickets down and announce we’re checking 54 bags. No one moves. No one offers to help. They don’t look at each other. Each one is staring at me as if they were pythons and I was a crippled, 200-pound chicken that dropped from the sky to land in front of them.”
“Finally, one comes forward and looks at the ticket. She reads it, looks at me, reads it again. ‘You’re at the wrong airport,’ she says.”
Oh you poor thing-traveling accross the big ocean all the time, I see all sorts of stuff, so I know what you went through. Thank goodness for knitting, is all I can say!! I’m also glad you’re home safely!! For that, it was all worth it.
Donna reminded me, I forgot about the time I booked a ticket and I had to get from JFK (in New York) to Newark in 3 hours to catch a connecting flight. 4 trains were involved and I had never been to new york OR new jersey before….or been on a train by myself.
Needless to say I am super careful every time I buy a ticket now to make sure the connection is in the same state.
I’m all for knitting while flying. It kept me calm for my extended stay in O’Hare last week-end!
What an awful way to end such a great vacation! I’m glad to hear that the two of you kept your cool and didn’t give the crew a hard time; having worked in retail, I try to treat people in these kinds of service occupations with sympathy and respect.
I also had “adventures” in air travel last week–you can read my post if you have time!
Sorry to hear you had a crappy return home but thank god for knitting right!
Wow, that’s a lot of setbacks! I’m impressed you could stay calm, especially when that woman was reclined during the whole long flight. Don’t people realize how little room that leaves the person behind them? We were delayed once in Chicago for 6 hours because of weather. Since this happened in April it was totally unexpected. I had homework due that night but knew I would have enough time after we got home to type it up and submit it. Ooops! My teacher was understanding after I showed her proof of the delay. I was in two classes and since we got in so late I didn’t have enough time to turn in my homework due the next day - that teacher didn’t ask for any proof. But the silver lining on the delay was I got to met Cat Cora! Her flight delay was linked to ours even though we were going to different destinations. She was very friendly and signed my ticket jacket
Sorry about the bad experience, that’s quite a story! At least you got lots of knitting done
Oh sure, plenty of bad travel stories here, but nothing beats flying Aeroflot into Moscow when it was still the USSR - there were screws visibly missing from the hardware inside the plane, and when we landed, everyone’s luggage went sliding (well, crashing) to the front of the plane. I was 11 years old, too young to be freaked out by something I just thought was super cool.
Good for you (and Kris) for being ‘normal’, understanding passengers! It always boggles my mind that people think that getting snippy is really going to somehow improve the situation.
Oh my - that certainly beats any bad airline travel experience I have had! At least you both made it home in one piece, and look at all the knitting you got done! Beautiful!
My worst experience: Planes, Pains and Automobiles
I too have always had good flying experiences. How funny that my first bad experience was also on take-off from San Fran - bad chemical, electrical smell and emergency landing. The pilot said a helium ballon got in the engine? Didn’t realize those balloons could rise 37,000 or so feet. Coincidence? Flying has never been very relaxing since then. Glad you made it home safely after an great trip!
I sat next to someone who threw up 4 times. I had to borrow bags from another passenger. it was terrible for both of us!
glad you are home safe! Knitting soothes and keeps you busy!
Glad you’re back safe and sound - and that you had your knitting to keep you “grounded”! We hit a HUGE flock of birds once (got sucked into one of the engines I guess) and it wasn’t a pretty thing - we had to land so they could clean - ick.
PS - I took a pair of kiddie scissors (the ones with the blunt, rounded tips) on the plane a few weeks back - just as long as they are small and blunt. No water, but you can take scissors!
I’ve had so many “flights from Hell” that I could write a book. Knitting certainly does help to keep your cool though! The scariest was a seemingly uneventful, short flight from Cleveland to Chicago O’Hare right up until the wheels of the landing gear were almost, but not quite, on the runway. Suddenly the pilot gunned the engines and practically stood the plane on it’s tail and we shot back up in the air. There was another plane taking off on the runway we were landing on, a major OOPS on someone’s part. We had to circle O’Hare for 45 minutes since we missed our “turn” to land, sort of adding insult to (almost) injury. Then there was the Christmas flight home the first year I was married. We were scheduled to fly out on the 23rd from Boston to Pittsburgh. A horrible blizzard hit the Boston area, closing the airport overnight and so of course our flight was cancelled. They rebooked us for the next day, Christmas Eve. They managed to re-open the airport, but it was still snowing and not all the runways were open. We sat on our plane at the gate and on the runway most of the day. The wings were de-iced at least three times. Finally they ran out of de-icer. The flight crew was from Pittsburgh and I think they really wanted to get home for Christmas. We were on the runway when the pilot told us the wings were iced up again and there was no more de-icer. He then proceeded to taxi the plane into a heated hangar to thaw the ice off the wings and told the flight attendants get out the beverage cart and give everyone drinks on the airline. Everyone was almost merry by the time the ice melted and we were finally able to take off. We finally landed in Pittsburgh about 10 PM and were home for Christmas after all.
What a bummer! I guess everyone is due a bad flight like that sometime if you fly enough, but wow! Glad you were able to keep a good attitude though. There is nothing worse than when everyone starts getting crabby and out of sorts.
Good for you. I don’t understand why the grumpies think that making themselves and everyone else miserable will get anything acomplished.
I guess someone needs to teach the grumpies to knit…then they might be happy for the extra time to work on a sweater!
What an adventure!
When I was pregnant, David and I went to Hawaii for one of his conferences. Since I could not go to the sulpher pits near the volcano (due to pregnancy), David brought me back one of the rocks to show how different the area was. It was raining and D slipped it into his jacket. It did not rain the rest of the trip and he forgot about it.
What we did not know is that if you take a rock from the volcano off the Big Island, you will be cursed. (Everybody but us knew this.)
We flew to Oahu and David went to his conference while I flew home to teach.
My flight was delayed 14 hours–but in 45 minute spurts so I could never leave the gate basically. We finally flew to LA, arriving too late to fly to DC for another 12 hours so they told us we would stay overnight in a hotel in LA. BUT, the landing gear did not come down so they foamed the runway and had 6 firetrucks out. ETC.
When I finally got home, I called David, still in Oahu. He has rented a car and had an accident (the first in his life), thrown up for 24 hours, etc.
When he realized he had the cursed stone, he gave it to someone on her way to the Big Island. All was fine for both of us from then on.
His friend who took the rock, however, did not fare so well. Her luggage was lost. She had forgotten to drop the rock. Her luggage was not found and delivered to her house until the day after she mailed the rock to an acquaintance on the island!
i’ve had lots of flying horror stories — getting stuck in airports because of snow, having to run from one end of an airport to another to catch a connecting flight, lost luggage, sitting between big fat men wearing fur for 7 hours, losing tickets before the era of e-tickets, getting stuck behind someone who can’t follow the rules in security, bomb scares …..
but i’ve always managed to make it home safely and in the end, that’s what’s most important.
glad you made it home.
I’ve been very lucky flying (which means my luck is about to run out) with only having a few delays. I was shocked at how RUDE people can be waiting. When we were in California getting ready to check our luggage, several people in line made rude comments about how slow the line was progressing. Seriously!? How do these people function in the real world?
I have TOO many nightmare stories. I have been stuck on the tarmac for hours on end several times, had to stay overnight a few times (once due to mechanical problems, once due to “weather” after they kept us on the plane for 3.5 hours away from the gate. It eventually came back in, but they didn’t officially cancel the flight because, although there was weather, they had no crew to replace them and would have had to put everyone up for the night and most people has already given up and ebooked for the next morning. The worst one was a trip to Alburquerque where we were meeting up with my brother-in-law for a trip to my in-law’s place. (We were flying from Chicago, and he was flying in from North Carolina and our planes were due to land at roughly the same time.) Our plane taxied, but stopped when a red light came on in the cockpit. Obviously, we came back. As we were waiting, I asked a flight attendant if there were any other options since we were going to miss our connecting flight in Dallas. She went out to the gate and came back and told us that there was a non-stop flight to ABQ, and if we got off the plane quickly, we would make it to that flight. (This was pre-9/11, so things were more lax.) We thanked her profusely, and as we exited, we checked with the gate staff to see if we needed anything to get on the next plane. She said not, and that we were “guaranteed” to get on but we needed to hurry. We raced to the next gate and explained that we had been told to get off our plane and that we’d get on this one, only to be told that the plane was full. I explained that not one, but two X Airlines employees had (a) told me to get off the plane I was on, and that (b) I would get on the plane they sent me to. They insisted that it would not be possible. I just kept repeating, over and over again, that we had been told by airline employees that we would be getting on the plane in question, but the gate agent told me is was “not her problem.” “Actually, ” I said,” “once I was told to get off my original plane and come over here, I did become your problem because I was acting on instructions given by X Airlines employees.” Then I asked for a supervisor. He also told me that the plane was full. I once more, and more emphatically, repeated that we had been guaranteed seats on the plane and that we had essentially been lied to by airline employees when were were told to vacate our original plane and promised we would get on the second. I was not backing down. They eventually went on the plane and paid two volunteers to get off (I have no idea how much) and we got on. Quite stressful, but the airline needed to be held accountable for its employees’ actions. I did not raise my voice, and did not become beligerent; I just repeated the same (true) set of facts over and over again until they fixed the problem that they had caused.
I’m so sorry you had this experience! I don’t know why some people think that being rude is going to help an already trying situation.
Scissors are allowed as long as the blade is 4″ or shorter. I always check the tsa site before I leave to make sure things haven’t changed. http://www.tsa.gov. I’m always careful to because I have to go through all sorts of special scaning proceedures with my prosthetic leg.
Sorry you had such a bad traveling experience. I had one when I was coming back from Scotland and due to a late flight to London we missed the flight over the ocean. It was a very long day because of that, and by then end I had been up for over 24 hours on about 3 hours of sleep. Not fun. At least you had knitting to help get you through it.
Wow, that was a lot of drama on the plane ride back. It really doesn’t do any good to get upset, because what does it solve? Besides the crew was obviously trying to do whatever was possible to get the plane back up in the air as soon as possible and as safely as possible. I’m glad that you made it back in one piece, safe and sound. I hope that you do make it back to Denver under better circumstances! Then we can meet ya!
[...] I started this one on the five-and-a-half hour flight to California, and the bulk of the knitting progress was done on the l-o-n-g flight back from California (remember?) I bought this book specifically for this pattern last December, and I am happy to say that it is now a part of my wardrobe. [...]