Fourth of July Air Travel

then “made me feel like an idiot” for leaving needed medical supplies
in a checked bag.

Well, she wasn't wrong there.

I am flying early tomorrow morning and dreading it. Flying home on Saturday though, so hopefully that is better. SEA is always a mess, and I know tomorrow won't be any better. I need to pack my sanity.

Travel is expected to peak on Thursday with more than 52,500 total flights

Subject to weather and how much Canadian smoke blankets the NE and slows airport operations due to reduced visibility.

I agree with CJean, although the agent could/should have kept that thought in her head and not verbalized it.

SEA is always a mess

I disagree; just went through on a trip to Hawaii and it wasn't 'a mess' ; sometimes are better than others.

Joe--That is good to hear. I had to fly every week from Sept to Dec, and now usually every few weeks. I always dread it, even with Clear etc. I wish I could go out of Paine as it is a 15 minute drive from our house, but unfortunately it doesn't work for my plans. I fly again in a couple weeks, to Iceland, and after that I am homebound until December due to TKR.

Rebecca, what was your daughter supposed to do? Just go online for answers or call someone?

I have a flight BUD to IAD on 4 July. G-d help me.

SEA is mobbed this morning. Vehicles were backlogged to the freeway just trying to get to departures. Checkpoint one had lines snaking through. I used Clear there which was nice. Long line for the lounge even before they opened. Then you would have thought many of these people had not eaten in days. I fly out of the C gates which are always busy , so will wait it out in the lounge as long as possible.

Today (June 29) and July 5 are supposed to be the near record-setting travel days. I'm hoping that flying July 3 is sort of the sweet spot.

Hitting a traffic jam is super stressful when trying to make a flight. You just don't know.

mikliz97, at least you're at the airport. You've won half or more of the battle.

Big Mike—yes but I had to be up at 3am ugh. My driver got me at 4am. Two cappuccinos and I’m still tired.

I have a son that lives in Seattle and daughter in Hawaii. I've been to and through Seatac frequently. Maybe it is not always a mess, but I would say it often is. When we connected thru Seatac in March the train to one of the terminals (I think N or S) wasn't working. There was a HUGE line of folks waiting to be bused to the terminal. The train is the only way to get to that terminal. Flight crew couldn't get between terminals and the flights were all delayed. Often TSA lines are long, and I feel like the most surly TSA agents are at SeaTac. When the TSA agents are yelling orders, we always say between us, that they need some "Minnesota Nice", training.

...flight in Newark was canceled...agent wouldn’t let them retrieve their bags...– they would have to pick those up at their final destination, New Orleans.

Dumb question I know, but if the flight was canceled,how were the bags going to get to New Orleans? Thought one's bags had to fly on the same plane for security reasons (?).

"Rebecca, what was your daughter supposed to do? Just go online for answers or call someone? "

She did both....went online for answers....and called someone. To no avail. No answers online, no help. Going online for help isn't always as satisfactory as you would assume.

She was standing in front of the podium, thinking to herself "Good, I'm next in line to be helped." when the gate agent walked away and never came back.
Actually standing in front of the guy when he left.
Now you know why I mentioned it.
Just go online for answers or call someone........
She did that while she was standing in a long line to see the gate agent.

I hope you have a trouble-free trip to Scotland, whenever your date to fly out is.
Best wishes, Rebecca

Alright. Thanks, Rebecca. I hope things worked out okay, at least eventually. Goodness. Whatever airline that was I'd write a letter to the CEO or president. She might just get a voucher?

We're leaving Dulles for Montreal and then EDI July 3. Minimal drama would be nice.

Minimal drama would be nice.
Yes, totally agree.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/passengers-react-faa-joking-twitter-widespread-flight-cancelations-faa-get-act-together

"FAA get your act together!" said Debby who had to sleep on the floor overnight with her husband as they tried to travel to Iceland. "They should be helping us, not making fun of us."

"I was ticked!" she said about hearing her flight was canceled. "Just seems like they could be better organized."

"There's nothing puzzling about bad behavior on a flight - it doesn’t fly and can cost you big [money] or jail time," the FAA tweeted Tuesday afternoon with a picture of a Wheel of Fortune puzzle spelling out "unruly passengers."

The FAA did not respond to Fox News’ request for a comment about the tweet.

More than 9,000 flights have been canceled since Monday with another nearly 116,000 delayed, according to airline tracker Flight Aware. United Airlines alone made up 500 cancelations at the Denver International Airport, one of the busiest airlines in the world.

Who in the world is running the Dept of Transportation? This is happening way too often. And I land at IAD 4 July

Mister E, it's as if the DOT didn't see this coming months ago. A good leader gets out ahead of problems instead of chasing them.

And this finger-pointing between the airlines and DOT is childish. Someone needs to be a leader and have the major players sit down together and work out a plan, not play the blame game.

Notwithstanding the FAA's staffing level issues, there was an equipment fire that caused ground stops at IAD, DCA, BWI and RIC.

Personally I just don't ever plan trips near to holidays, and at least the family lives near by.

Hopefully this link works-- https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N938AK

Discovered recently that Alaska has a neat feature in their 'flight status' showing where the plane that is going to be 'your flight' has been and some future flights as well. I found it an interesting insight into how many different places a plane goes and how many 'flights' it is in a day. This is a part of what I would call their bigger long range use airplane. I suspect other planes have even more assignments in a day. As Alaska has just over 6% of the domestic market, it is not hard to extrapolate what happens for the BIG 4 ( each with about 15% share) when there is a problem 'somewhere'

It is frustrating to be stuck at an airport, but it is not a plot to make folks miserable. The planes make money only when they are flying so they have to fly, a lot. Bad weather or some other glitch at some seemingly unrelated location has a significant ripple effect to schedules. There are regulations for safety reasons on how long the crew can be 'on duty', so if a flight has a weather delay and has to circle for 2-3 hrs its unlikely that crew will be able to fly the plane to its next destination. So it is stuck until a qualified crew can get to it.

Do you want a pilot who is fatigued and just a bit slow in decision making driving, or do you want to be sitting safely ( albeit miserable) at an airport?

BigMike, I was expecting better. After all the head of the the DOT was once the mayor of the city where Studebakers were made.

joe, good thoughtful post. Thank you.

I'd imagine pilots and the flight crew are more tired than the passengers after a long flight.

We were ones stuck in Denver on Tuesday. Yes, I had to try to sleep on the floor. Hubs slept in a chair. They cancelled so late in the evening. All the comfy seating area and cots were already taken. No room in hotels and no rental cars.

Flight home on Wednesday but it was delayed due to getting a 2nd flight attendant was late. She was dead heading on southwest.

Kim

Thankfully it wasn't bad at the gate and boarding etc. I lucked out and the seat next to me was empty, in premium.

When I landed in OAK and walked past security, the lines were long and they had one TSA line, that was all! Really, on the busiest day of the holiday weekend???

Yesterday flying home though, OAK was super easy. Arriving back to SEA was fine, but returning home usually is.

Jules--LOL at Minnesota Nice;) One time at SEA we had aa TSA guy just yelling at people in line, and when we got close to him he had a big tattoo on his forearm that said "POWER". Ironic, coincidental??? Although in April there were 2 TSA ladies that were nice as could be. I had a tin for mom, and of course that didn't get past them, but they were very good about it and had a sense of humor. I was stunned actually, but it nice to see.

Kim, tragic to hear about the flight attendant death on Southwest. This helps put things in perspective.

United’s app has a similar feature to Alaska. It not only tells you the airport your plane is coming from, the planned and actual take off times, estimated arrival and a link to a real time map (FlightTracker I assume) that shows you exactly where it is. This allows me to usually be more aware of the arriving flight status than the gate status e-board or agent.

Oops. Didn’t proof read…. Writing on phone. Lol

She was not dead…. It dropped my wording “dead-head”. She was fine! Just flying on southwest to get to our plane. Lol

Sorry for the misunderstanding!

Who in the world is running the Dept of Transportation?

An inept politician. Or is that redundant?

Frank, you're stating the obvious. And so much that is reported as news isn't news to anyone-it's just the norm.

And in 15 hours I depart for IAD. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?

I fly back on Wednesday. I'm not worried. Why? Because there is nothing I can do about anything until it happens.