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Travel Day #2
Jan. 28th, 2009 11:01 amLast week when I mentioned to my dad that I was posted to my journal with titles like "Hawaii Day #1" and "Hawaii Day #2", he said, "So, did you have a Travel Day #1 before those?" I explained that I'd just called it "Travel Day", perhaps out of some blind optimism that I wouldn't have to subject myself to another day of planes, trains, and cars (or more likely, just because I waned to forget the same).
Sadly, 'tis not the case. Yesterday we left my dad's house at about 8.50HT (or 10.50PT) and we arrived home at about midnight PT. So, chalk up another 13 hours on the road.
Here's a big lesson from my two travel days: United Airlines Sucks.
I've already written of the two separate mechanical problems that delayed us for three hours when we were flying to Hawaii. Would you believe they did it to us again on our flight back?
We took Hawaiian Airlines between Honolulu and Lihue, both ways, so we didn't run into the massive fuckedupedness of United again until we hit Honolulu on our trip back. So there we are, sitting in the plane in Honolulu, as the clock ticks toward 1.45--our supposed departure time--and past it.
Then the pilot comes on and explains that we're going to be waiting, get this, because there's another plane that might need one of our plane's parts more than we do. Which is wrong in so many ways, namely:
1.) How sucky is United's maintenance program that their planes are constantly breaking apart on the tarmac, and what does that say for your safety in the air? It certainly doesn't give me any confidence.
2.) What kind of half-assed airline thinks that the right way to fix airplane #1 is to take a used part off of airplane #2? And does this contribute to problem #1?
3.) What kind of an airline prioritizes one of their planes in such a way that they're willing to put another, working plane out of commission? I assume that means that they must have passengers on that other plane who they think are, in some way, "better". (But with the increasing classism on airplane flights between the types of passengers, I really shouldn't be surprised. I love their newest spiel about keeping the uncouth economy and business passengers out of the first class restrooms.)
Even better, the pilot said their operations center was still "making a decision" on all this. The idiots aren't actually doing anything! A few minutes later the pilot comes back on and says that they've put off the decision until 2.45. So we sit.
Kimberly says to me, "If we have to get off this plane too, I'm never flying United again." Now I'm mad as hell too, but a bit more realistic. If United continues to offer a notably cheaper air fare to Hawaii, we'll take it, but if United offers the same fares as another airline, or one that's just a little bit cheaper, we'll never fly United again.
The semi-good end to the story is that at 2.30 the pilot announced we could leave, and we were taking off by about 2.50. Still, United wasted another hour of our time due to their mechanical incompetence, for a total of four wasted hours over two flights.
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. There were less screaming children and less sniffling passengers then on the trip out (or, at the least, they were all further away from us). Because our flight was only one hour longer than it should have been, I didn't get quite as antsy on the flight as I did on the trip to Hawaii.
Another thing I learned on the trip: turning down the brightness of an iPhone notably extends its battery life. Roll and Lock was the game that I played most on the flight. Fun game, but some bad interface choices, which I may talk about on my iPhone blog.
By the time we got back to Berkeley I was ravenous. It was 11pm by then, so we stopped in one of the few eateries actually open: Nations. Kimberly got pie, I got bacon and eggs (a rare treat).
When we got home, we saw (now surprise) that the cats had clearly been lonely. The older cats both understand the whole trip thing, and are eager to see us when we return, but not overly traumatized. Lucy, contrariwise, was very skittish when we got home, hitting the ground at any noise. She seems better today, though she obsessively followed me around this morning, then jumped back into bed with Kimberly.
(All three cats were in bed this morning, very clearly happy to have their people back.)
Whenever I return from Kauai, that distant and beautiful island seems like a dream. Its tropical heat, its vibrantly colored landscape, and its warm oceans are so far from the reality of life that they seem almost impossible. This morning I feel once again that it exists only in a picture frame, though I was still on those verdant shores just 24 hours ago.
Sadly, 'tis not the case. Yesterday we left my dad's house at about 8.50HT (or 10.50PT) and we arrived home at about midnight PT. So, chalk up another 13 hours on the road.
Here's a big lesson from my two travel days: United Airlines Sucks.
I've already written of the two separate mechanical problems that delayed us for three hours when we were flying to Hawaii. Would you believe they did it to us again on our flight back?
We took Hawaiian Airlines between Honolulu and Lihue, both ways, so we didn't run into the massive fuckedupedness of United again until we hit Honolulu on our trip back. So there we are, sitting in the plane in Honolulu, as the clock ticks toward 1.45--our supposed departure time--and past it.
Then the pilot comes on and explains that we're going to be waiting, get this, because there's another plane that might need one of our plane's parts more than we do. Which is wrong in so many ways, namely:
1.) How sucky is United's maintenance program that their planes are constantly breaking apart on the tarmac, and what does that say for your safety in the air? It certainly doesn't give me any confidence.
2.) What kind of half-assed airline thinks that the right way to fix airplane #1 is to take a used part off of airplane #2? And does this contribute to problem #1?
3.) What kind of an airline prioritizes one of their planes in such a way that they're willing to put another, working plane out of commission? I assume that means that they must have passengers on that other plane who they think are, in some way, "better". (But with the increasing classism on airplane flights between the types of passengers, I really shouldn't be surprised. I love their newest spiel about keeping the uncouth economy and business passengers out of the first class restrooms.)
Even better, the pilot said their operations center was still "making a decision" on all this. The idiots aren't actually doing anything! A few minutes later the pilot comes back on and says that they've put off the decision until 2.45. So we sit.
Kimberly says to me, "If we have to get off this plane too, I'm never flying United again." Now I'm mad as hell too, but a bit more realistic. If United continues to offer a notably cheaper air fare to Hawaii, we'll take it, but if United offers the same fares as another airline, or one that's just a little bit cheaper, we'll never fly United again.
The semi-good end to the story is that at 2.30 the pilot announced we could leave, and we were taking off by about 2.50. Still, United wasted another hour of our time due to their mechanical incompetence, for a total of four wasted hours over two flights.
The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful. There were less screaming children and less sniffling passengers then on the trip out (or, at the least, they were all further away from us). Because our flight was only one hour longer than it should have been, I didn't get quite as antsy on the flight as I did on the trip to Hawaii.
Another thing I learned on the trip: turning down the brightness of an iPhone notably extends its battery life. Roll and Lock was the game that I played most on the flight. Fun game, but some bad interface choices, which I may talk about on my iPhone blog.
By the time we got back to Berkeley I was ravenous. It was 11pm by then, so we stopped in one of the few eateries actually open: Nations. Kimberly got pie, I got bacon and eggs (a rare treat).
When we got home, we saw (now surprise) that the cats had clearly been lonely. The older cats both understand the whole trip thing, and are eager to see us when we return, but not overly traumatized. Lucy, contrariwise, was very skittish when we got home, hitting the ground at any noise. She seems better today, though she obsessively followed me around this morning, then jumped back into bed with Kimberly.
(All three cats were in bed this morning, very clearly happy to have their people back.)
Whenever I return from Kauai, that distant and beautiful island seems like a dream. Its tropical heat, its vibrantly colored landscape, and its warm oceans are so far from the reality of life that they seem almost impossible. This morning I feel once again that it exists only in a picture frame, though I was still on those verdant shores just 24 hours ago.