GA is strong for me. My wife and I are trying to get to Hawaii today. We booked what eventually (through several schedule changes and phone calls) became a one-stop itinerary on Delta, leaving early in the morning from an airport 2 hours from our home. This involved spending almost $300 on a hotel to catch the early departure. We got to the airport this morning and the flight was delayed 5 hours, with no prior notification. They wouldn’t even take our checked bags until 2 hours before the delayed departure time. So now we are stuck roaming around town with two weeks’ worth of luggage all morning, for a flight that will probably also not happen, going to connections where we are almost guaranteed to miss the plane and/or lose our luggage. On the bright side, we have a few hours to say a final goodbye to our favorite suitcases and all the things inside them. (Or at least the latter. Mom informed me that the gift she got me for Christmas was stolen from her checked bag en route this week.)
In the course of a full hour of refusing to do anything for us and saying that our new itinerary (with 30 minutes to get across MSP and 40 for LAX) is the only way Delta can get us to Hawaii at all, the Platinum Medallion phone support supervisor also told me 4 different lies about the reason for the delay not being their fault. The plane’s altimeter is broken and needs maintenance. The airport weather is too bad. (Clear and >10 at that time with slower than typical winds for here.) The altimeter setting wasn’t reported at the field. (AWOS reported 29.73.) Finally, the airport radar was out of service. (There is no radar at this airport.) Meanwhile, their earlier also-delayed plane was taking off. Had we been allowed on that one, we would be having breakfast at MSP near the gate for the nonstop to HNL, on which we had purchased a first class upgrade. If we have a seat at all (neither the app nor the kiosk will issue a boarding pass), our MSP-LAX leg will be downgraded to steerage and we will have to hold our carry-on bags on our laps for 5 hours.
I had considered flying myself the ~3 hours to a hub and then taking a mainline-only trip to Honolulu. I decided against that because of the uncertainty of weather in November. Huge mistake. My 50 year old piston engined non-FIKI unpressurized airplane has better dispatch reliability than Skywest and at least when I have a problem I don’t get lied to about it. I recently logged me 1,000th hour and I only remember one trip where I had planned to fly GA and couldn’t, compared with my string of abysmal airline luck over the years.
I think that the reality here is that some member of our flight crew wasn’t able to satisfy the 8-hour rule until 12:00 today. Or just didn’t show up for work. And now, instead of Hawaii, I anticipate spending my hard-earned vacation at a series of airport hotels in random cities. All because I chose to fly with an airline at which I am on track to million-mile status instead of flying myself.
In conclusion, GA is growing stronger every day, relative to commercial travel options in America.
