re: American Airlines is dog shite!!!!

quote:

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quote:
I can drive 8 hours in less time than an airline can get you there.


Want to bet?

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If you live any distance from the airport and have to connect, he is correct.

For example, my last flight was 3 weeks ago to Houston and back. That is a 10.5 hour/640 mile drive for me.

On Thursday I left my house at 4:30 am, made my 1.5 hour drive to the airport and got there 1.5 hours before my flight. The 7:30 flight to Dallas was on time, and we made it in about 2 hours. They didn’t have a gate ready so we sat on the tarmac 30 minutes. So i am now at 5.5 hours of travel time. Get off plane and run to my connecting gate; because of the delay I am cutting it close. Get to my gate to find that flight is delayed and I needn’t have stressed. In my hustle to get to another terminal at DFW I had missed the notification on my phone that the flight was delayed. We made it to Houston International a little delayed. After an interminable wait for my bag, and a 35 minute ride to downtown, I made it to my hotel at 2:30. So, 10 hours of travel time from my door to my hotel room. I saved 30 minutes.

Getting home was another story. I got to Houston International at 4 pm for a 6 pm flight. We get to Dallas on time. But plane was broken. Eventually, after they rounded up another plane and changed gates 3 times, we took off about 3 hours late. I made it home at 3:30 am. So my travel time was 11.5 hours, an hour longer than driving.

To make it even better, on the delayed flight, the person in the middle seat beside me was too large to fit between the armrests. So, it was not a very enjoyable 2 hours.

The cost of the plane ticket and baggage fees was a little over $800. It would have cost about $650 to drive. I would have been better off driving. I would have been no worse off time wise, would have saved a little money, and most importantly avoided a lot of frustration and discomfort.

Anything I can drive in less than 7 hours, I drive. No question. I am going to now consider 10-12 hours if there is a connection involved. Even if everything had been on time for my flights, I was still looking at 9 hours of door to door travel time. A 10.5 hour drive that I control appeals to me more than being at the mercy of an airline.