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Delta and the art of making airplanes faster than a bus (25th July 2011)

25th July 2011
Today is the third time i travelled by Delta Airlines on the New York - Pittsburgh route.
The perennial optimist in me had thought that after the disasters of last two occasions, the law of averages would finally catch with the airline and prevent it from messing it up again.
Before i get on to today, let me narrate the experiences of the last couple of times-

Its a hot May day, and i have just landed in New York from the other side of the world. Rush from one terminal to another, to land up finally in Terminal 3, from where my flight is scheduled to depart at 16:30 hrs (4.30 PM). After being in a long queue to clear the security and other formalities, i am inside the terminal at 3.40; heaving a sigh of relief at having made it.

On time- Gate 23 announces the board, and i am there in a few minutes. I ask the lady at the boarding gate about my flight. We should be boarding in 20 minutes, she says.
All is good. I get an ice tea. Ordered through an i-pad, where the restaurant at Terminal 3 has i-pads installed on every seat, wherein you choose and order.
Ice tea consumed.
Soon, it is 4 Pm. Nothing happens.
Some other flight's departure is announced from Gate 23. It is to Boston.
Board changes departure of my flight now to 5.30.
The lady says boarding will not start at 5.
I stroll. Look around the place. People. This doesn't look like an airport. Is more like a bus stand. No chairs to sit. Chaotic announcements. The bazaar feel.
It is 5. No announcement.
It is 5.30. Nothing again.
5.40, board now shows departure time as 6.30. Boarding to be at 6.
It is 6.15, nothing happens. The airline announces the crew has arrived, boarding will commence in 5 minutes.
At 6.40, boarding starts.
Finally....
It is a small plane, i think a 54 seater. Passengers are all on board by 7.
Captain apologizes for the delay. Procedures efficiently done.
It seems we are now ready to pushback, when the captain announces there seems to be a problem with the Auxillary equipment, and in the 'interest of safety', we have to wait longer.
About 20 minutes later, he says we are done and should be on our way.
We push back, all heave a sigh of relief.

We join in the queue of about a dozen aircraft waiting to take off.
As we are slowly nudging our way forward in the queue, captain announces that he has received a weather update about storms in Pittsburgh and in the region. Saying this, he says we will have to return to the airport. We head back to airport. Same place. Gate 23. People manning the gate smile at us. As if to say, "idiots, back again".

As we trudge back into the terminal, i check the internet for other flights to Pittsburgh. It shows Jetblue. Flight departing in another 45 minutes from JFK.
I rush to the Delta guys and confront them. "Is the weather any different for the other airline"
The response stumps me, "Sir, we cannot comment on their standards of safety".
I don't have an answer to carry this argument further.

So what now, ask scores of passengers from our flight.

Delta says the next flight on which they can put us on to Pittsburgh will be 'day after tomorrow', as no more flights to Pittsburgh today, and 'tomorrow' all flights are full because of the upcoming long weekend.

There has to be a way out.

A group of Passengers, me included, raise our voices.

Had this been India,there might have been slogan shouting like 'Air India Hai Hai, Air India shame on you', what i had witnessed at Delhi's swanky T3 terminal a few months ago. when a group of harassed passengers, coming all the way from Toronto, had to wait 11 hours for their connecting flight in what was supposed to be a 90 minute wait connection.

But here, at JFK, i was also a little worried about protesting too much, lest my looks, which resemble, to quite an extent, people from a neighbouring country, land me in unrelated trouble.

However, i do make a polite suggestion- manage to send people to Pittsburgh, either by connecting through some other destination, or through some other mode of transport like rail or road.

Finally, it seems a solution is reached. Delta says we will get a bus to ferry the passengers to Pittsburgh. Eight hours would be the journey time, someone informs me.

Huff !
But we have a solution.

About 45 minutes later, no sign of the bus.

Then, almost an hour and half from then, we are told that the bus could not be arranged. So, instead, they have got a fleet of taxis, to move in a caravan to Pittsburgh.

It is about 1 in the night. The passengers fill up a fleet of taxis. I pity the drivers too. SOme of them appear to have been woken out of their sleep.

Each taxi has 4 or 5 passengers on it, depending on the type of vehicle.
A helpful co-passenger in the taxi i am in asks the driver to have a coffee before we start off.

We are on our way.
Finally.

When i speak to my wife on the way, she says, "oh- it might be a good way to see the american countryside".
"Babu, it is 1.30 in the night here, i inform her". But i admire her positive intentions.

The driver is a guy from Guyana, and his name is Ravi. No, he does not know any Hindi, but he is a great driver.

And Delta Airlines, manages to put me in Pittsburgh at quarter to 10 (AM), my course begins at 10.
Thereafter is the familiar hustle bustle last minute rush, but make it......at the stroke of the 10th hour.

Thank you, Delta.

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The next time is about a month later; this time again, i am booked on Delta Airlines from JFK New York to Pittsburgh.
I was conscious to book an earlier flight this time, lest a problem similar to last time occur, then there would still be some other options.

Similar story as last time, the starting script.
Scheduled time. No announcement. About half an hour later, a delay of an hour.
We board.

All seems set.

The captain comes on to the radio.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we seem to have a problem with the air conditioning equipment.
We have tried to fix it, but it seems we will be unable to fix it anytime soon.

So we have to de-plane and await further instructions.

We are back again, at JFK terminal.

In about an hour, an announcement says, we are readying an alternate aircraft.

Hope.

Finally, we board an alternate aircraft after another hour, spend about 45 minutes inching up the queue of planes awaiting take off, and this time, we actually take off.

And i make it to Pittsburgh in about 7 hours in all. A substantial improvement over the 16 it took last time.

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It is only fools who do not learn from the mistake. And to commit the same mistake over and over again, smacks of lunacy.

Surely, i do not fall in that category, I told myself.

So, after the experience of the last two times, i analysed.
I figured out that since the aircraft were small airplanes, and were also not operated by Delta, there was a problem. THe kind of problems are unlikely to happen in a long haul airplace.

So, i booked the only long haul airplane flight from New York to Pittsburgh. I checked the aircraft type of all available planes. And i found one which is a Boeing 757, book in it. I am happy.

Sure enough, i am at the departure terminal, and it says, 'ON TIME'.

Boarding is completed before time.

I pat myself on taking a good decision to book myself on a big aircraft. All seems set.

Pilot comes on radio, welcomes everyone.

Then, about a minute later, comes back on radio again.

'We have a problem with our landing gear', he announces.
And adds the ubiquitous "S" word- on account of safety, we would have to disembark all passengers.

We get back to boarding area.

I use the menu on the restaurant ipad again. This time a hot chocolate.

(How to do it: look here http://www.airlinetrends.com/2010/12/03/delta-jfk-food-gate-ipad/ )

A couple of hours later, we board again. The same airplane.

And we are off in a few minutes.

And as a bonus, this plane has a wi-fi enabled. With the internet service provider called gogoinflight wireless. A few screenshots from that can be found on www.gogoair.com

And this time, my total journey time has shrunk to 5 hours.

In effect, the summary of the last three trips has been-

Journey 1: time taken 16 hours
Journey 2: Time taken 7 hours
Journey 3: Time taken 5 hours

To put in perspective, a bus would take 8 hours, end to end. So on an average, i end up doing marginally better, not mega better than the 1 dollar i could have done on http://www.megabus.com/