Flight Report: Leaving LA

Burbank Airport

Sunset at BUR...

I ended up not getting very lucky this time around for flights. I was set to fly out on United from Burbank back to Seattle via SFO, but pretty soon it became apparent that things would take a little longer than I expected. My original flight out was delayed and finally we got the green light to board. They got all of us on board and then had to deplane everyone because there was a flow control situation in SFO.

What is flow control? Every airport has a certain capacity for accepting airplanes, which varies through the day and by visibility. Airports tend to accept fewer airplanes at night (often with a curfew to be good neighbors to the surrounding population) and when visibility is reduced they are required by the FAA to limit the number of planes that take off and land for safety reasons. San Francisco is known for fog and for being a hub for air travel and we were delayed a few hours this time around.

Everyone was ready to go and on board, literally, just before they delayed the flight

Unfortunately for me, my connection was only an hour and a half. At this point, I'm not very happy with the way that United is treating their customers and this became an example of that. A few other frequent fliers I was talking to on the flight were standing in line and told me that they had stopped bothering to try and call the new United because the wait times were so bad. That mirrors my experience since the merger with Continental as well, to the point where I've the new United has literally refused to take my call to customer service (all that I get is something like the message: "We have a high volume of people calling right now. Please try again later. Goodbye." and then an audible *click*). I can't believe that that is acceptable to them and while the official line is that this is something new with the merger, I clearly remember a couple times pre-merger where I have been unable to reach Continental during an emergency. I've recommended United in the past, but  my stance is shifting.

In total, they offered to maroon me in San Francisco, if I wanted to fly up there that night, but wouldn't provide a hotel. That wasn't an option. When I told them I had a place in Los Angeles, but would appreciate a $15 shuttle ride there, since it was now 9pm and my friend couldn't provide a ride, they said they couldn't do it despite providing that to other passengers who had to get to LAX for a reroute. They weren't interested in a single day of rental car as a solution either, so I could get there and back. I think overall my requests weren't that unreasonable, especially since afterwards it took about 1.5 hours to get back by bus because it was so late. That's a huge inconvenience and it put me with my baggage in Hollywood late at night. While places like that don't usually concern me, people had been drinking and a fight broke out across the street from me while I was trying to transfer to my next bus. The $15 shuttle ride would have been a very appreciated gesture, especially since that was all I was asking for.

...and back again the next day.

In the end, I came back the next day for my new flight: A direct flight from BUR to SEA on Alaska Air. At the start of the year, I had status matched with them and to my pleasant surprise I was welcomed with a first class seat, despite the fact that my status as a paid Alaska passenger was dubious. In IROP situation, airlines can put you on other airlines if they need to. Burbank was as trouble free, in terms of security, as ever. Even with it being lower on the priority airport totem pole, I still like it better than the other options around LA.

We had a very nice stewardess in the first class cabin who was on her first day. She was very nice and she took great care of us, but you could see that she was a little green. Because I like to take photos, I asked if I could swap seats with someone at a window seat for the climb and she asked if it was my first time on a plane (No, not quite). It was refreshing to see someone at the brink of starting a new adventure and her enthusiasm was really quite infectious. I could see that the rest of the people she was working with got a little caught up in it as well: The pilots offered a couple kids (who were on a plane for the first time) a chance to sit in the cockpit and everyone else on board seemed pretty positive.

Want more like these photos? Keep reading after the break! I've got more photos from the flight, including the inflight meal, and some really nice shots from our approach to Seattle.

Keep Reading!

Flight Report: Challenging Copenhagen Connection Complications

Flying back from Sweden gave me a chance to experience something new: A fully missed connection with no later flights to my final destination. In the past, a delay has meant a couple of extra hours and maybe a rebooking to a red eye, but this time around the flight I missed was the last one of the day and the flight that was delayed by three hours was the last one out of Copenhagen to the US. In other words, I’m not getting home today. Here's what happened...

The first plane of the day

The day started out well enough: One of my friends gave me a ride to the airport in exchange for a Starbucks mug with “Stockholm” on it, and the first flight of the day was a quick hop to Copenhagen: A true bread and butter flight on a trusty 737. It was a wet start from Stockholm and we were quickly on top of a steady blanket of clouds which would be the scenery for the flight. On the approach the cloud cover gave way and revealed a bit of the countryside of southern Sweden, and the landing itself was in some pretty gusty cross winds. Once on the ground and in the airport, this is where the fun started…

After the break, the full story, lessons learned, and another example of a Kosher meal in flight, this time on SAS.

ARN-SEA Flight Report: Update 1: Escape from Europe!

As mentioned in my previous post, getting out of Europe over the last few days has been extremely difficult. There have been major problems with snow and ice in Heathrow (LHR) and Frankfurt (FRA), which has stranded thousands of passengers and made getting to flights, even if they are running but at a different airport basically impossible. In my case, it was a true escape from Europe situation and I am very lucky to not be stuck back in Stockholm! Here's my flight report, plus what happened to make the report possible.

I was originally supposed to be flying in to FRA, but my flight was canceled the night before. After a "quick" call on skype to Continental (CO) and the Lufthansa(LH), I was rebooked on a flight at 6a with LH. I was not looking forward to the 3:30a bus that I would need to catch to get to Arlanda (ARN), but at least I had a seat. The next day after a night bus and train to the airport, I was checked in (no baggage) and sitting down in the lounge when my flight's status went to the dreaded "Inställd" status. The flight was canceled.

There was one shot left to get to FRA, which was a SAS (SK) flight at 9am but nothing was certain at this point. If that flight flew and if I was on it, I would be able to make the connecting flight, since flights were still leaving from FRA, but nothing was landing due to ice on the runway. An even "quicker" (50 minutes on hold) call to CO later, I wasn't really any better than I started. They weren't able to get me on any flights until Friday and didn't even see that I was booked on a LH flight that morning! They canceled the segment that was on my ticket to FRA so I could check in if I got to FRA, but that was it.

I manage to get put on the SK flight to FRA, but that too soon went from "On Time" to "Nytt besked 0900", which means "New information at 0900". When that shows up, it's never good. That flight wasn't leaving anytime soon (and didn't leave until 3pm that day!).

At this point, I'm looking for options. There was a CO flight to Newark (EWR), but I couldn't get standby on that. There was a flight later in the day to Istanbul (IST), which then put me in Chicago (ORD) the next day. And finally, there was a SK flight to ORD that left in 45 minutes. The very nice agent in the lounge put me on standby for that, but had to help other people to get on the same flight so couldn't get me a spot to SEA right then. I would have to get to ORD and then figure out how to get to SEA in the end.

A dash to the gate and through border control, and now it was a waiting game. Would I get on? Continued in the next post...