Greenville-Spartanburg Airport. |
I'm not the kind of guy who bitches
incessantly about traveling in general and Delta – my airline of
choice – in particular. Although, if you read this blog with any
regularity, you might conclude otherwise.
In truth, I complain less now than I
used to, but I used to fly 120,000 miles in an average year; now I
fly around 75,000 to 80,000. I guess that could explain my more
accepting attitude. I'd like to think I've mellowed in my declining
years, but that's probably not the case.
I just completed my fourth Delta trip
between Greenville and Atlanta in less than a week (I had a trip to
San Diego 7 days ago that caused me to change planes in Detroit
rather than Atlanta or it would have been my fifth Greenville/Atlanta
slog.). In any event, I just completed my fourth 25-min flight to or
from Atlanta.
These four flights involved six planes;
half of which were broken, causing a delay. The worst experience was
six days ago on my San Diego return. My original Greenville flight
would have got me home at around 3:30 p.m. I have some Delta status,
which means, among other things, that occasionally I get upgraded to
first class. I was among the lucky first-class lottery winners for
this flight. I was all the way down the jetway and could see the
first of our group beginning to walk through the plane's door when
one of the crew stepped into the doorway motioning us back into the
terminal. Apparently the pilots discovered a fuel leak of some stripe
and called for maintenance.
If this was the Wagon Queen Family
Truckster station wagon, the fix would have involved some duct tape
and a prayer that it would stem the fuel leak until some future day
when it could be driven to the shop and fixed. This isn't how it
works with planes. Whatever operation was required to permanently
repair the problem had to be performed before the plane could fly. I
don't have an argument when the issue is mechanical even if it does
inconvenience me. My benevolent nature, however, doesn't cover
non-mechanical issues that have no bearing on safety; say, like a
burned out light bulb, which grounded a plane I was scheduled on from
West Palm Beach to Atlanta earlier this year. Some officious snot
from the FAA or some other alphabet federal agency in the course of
performing a surprise inspection found the felonious bulbs and
grounded the plane for two hours while the issue was resolved. Our
tax dollars at work.
In the case of the fuel leak last week,
the flight was delayed for about an hour as the leak's source was
found, deemed not fixable at the gate and a replacement plane
secured. Our departure gate was changed and in mass, 100 or so
passengers adjourned to the new gate where we waited for the
replacement plane to arrive and disgorge its passengers. No sooner
had the last passenger walked into the gate area than the gate
attendant announced that, you guessed it, this plane was also broken
and the delay would be at least 45 minutes and probably longer.
When the original delay was announced,
I phoned Delta and backed myself up on the next flight that was
scheduled to leave around 4:45. With the announcement of the second
broken plane for the same flight, I walked out of the gate area and
headed to the gate for the 4:45 flight. I even retained my
first-class upgrade. Delta does get some things right. I wound up
arriving around 5:30, dumping me into the I-85 rush-hour traffic jam
between Spartanburg and Greenville.
Concourse B at Greenville-Spartanburg Airport. |
That was on Tuesday. My
Wednesday-to-Friday flights to and from San Francisco went off
without a hitch. My luck didn't hold, though. This morning as I
waited for my flight to Atlanta kicking off a three-flight trip to
Reno, a mechanical issue delayed me once again. Fortunately, it was
only about 20 minutes. I baked almost a three-hour layover into my
Atlanta stop; so, I wasn't concerned other than it was another broken
plane.
I have no clue why mechanical issues
are such a regular element of these uber-short Greenville/Altanta
flights, but I find it worrisome. With Delta's change in the way it
will compute its Sky Miles status levels in coming years, giving
greater weight to money spent annually, I am forced to tack the
Greenville/Atlanta flights onto more tickets to drive up the money
spent, rather than driving over to Atlanta's airport as I
historically have. In doing so, however, it appears not only am I
flying more miles on planes that don't seem to be in good repair, but
I take the chance of missing connecting flights. A rock and a hard
place? You bet.
With the specter of flying more between
Greenville and Atlanta, I expect to grow less and less happy with
Delta and the condition of its regional fleet.
The down side for you, dear reader, is
that my complaining is bound to increase. Consider this fair warning.
I just want to know why you didn't have a giant Steeler logo on that beautiful gold Kia Soul?
ReplyDeleteLeft it in my other suitcase.
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