Flight Delays, Etc.

Above, Saturday at G-FEST.

It is strange that during the past few years whenever I have flown to a destination for a vacation trip, those flights have been without any problems. But when returning home, my flights have either been canceled or delayed. Usually, they have been weather-related. I had to stay overnight twice due to flight cancelations. It happened at G-FEST in 2019 and Salt Lake City in 2020.

The trip going to G-FEST in Chicago has been the same. The flight there was on-time and without any problems. But coming back, my flight was delayed for three hours. I don't actually know the reason for this, but it would be safe guess it was also weather-related. I had a 10:00 flight on Sunday. 

We did have a thunderstorm come through Chicago Saturday night and it rained Sunday morning.

It looks like others who attended G-FEST had travel problems as I did. Yesterday, one was diverted to another Florida airport due to weather. Another had a flight delay going to North Carolina.  

Next month, I am going on a cruise to the Bahamas. Hopefully, the flight from Albuquerque to Miami (and back) will go without incident. I'm not counting on it.

Flight Cancellations: What To Do

Above, stuck at the Rosemont, Illinois
Motel 6 due to a flight cancellation.

During the past few years, it seemed that air travel had gotten worse with flight delays and cancellations.

With the exceptions of my recent trip to Los Angeles and last year's trip to Dallas/Fort Worth, flying had been a hassle. Generally, the problems arose when I would be trying to get back home rather than heading to the planned destinations. 

In those cases, one has to thank God for cell phones with Internet access to reschedule flights when one's flight had been cancelled. Twice, those flights caused me to stay an extra night as the next available flight would be the next day. I ended up getting rooms. This happened to me in 2019 when I was trying to get home from G-FEST and when I was trying to get home last year from Twin Falls. Both were weather-related.

Travel + Leisure has posted an article on what to do if one's flight is cancelled.

They begin with:

Between extraordinarily high demand from passengers, airline staff shortages, and standard summer weather delays, flights have been delayed or canceled left and right. And while any unexpected schedule changes makes flying a hassle, it shouldn't completely discourage you from traveling.

From rebooking to hopefully getting a refund, travel expert, Scott Keyes, the founder of Scott's Cheap Flights, shared his tips and insight with Travel + Leisure for navigating these hectic times in air travel.

 To read more, go here.

Russia Bans Flights From 36 Countries In Retaliation

Above, Asya is stuck in Denmark due to flight bans. Photo courtesy of Asya Lipovetckaia.

This afternoon, I was chatting with Asya on WhatsApp and she said her flight to St. Petersburg from Copenhagen had been canceled due to the sanctions imposed by European Union countries and others. She can't go back home now, she said.

Lousy timing.

According to Reuters:

MOSCOW, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Russia has closed its airspace to airlines from 36 countries, including all 27 members of the European Union, in response Ukraine-related sanctions targeting its aviation sector.

Some of the banned countries had already been identified, while others were named by the aviation authority Rosaviatsia for the first time on Monday following the punitive measures imposed over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The flight bans are expected to hurt airlines that fly over the world's biggest country to get from Europe to Asia. They are likely to force them to find new routes.

They said the countries affected are:

It listed the countries as Albania, Anguilla, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, British Virgin Islands, Germany, Gibraltar, Hungary, Greece, Denmark, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Jersey, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The listed countries have previously banned all Russian airline flights. The U.S. hasn't made up its mind on what to do (great leadership, eh?). 

It's funny, I had mentioned to her a week ago that the invasion of Ukraine affected my investment accounts, which forced me to move my investments to a safe haven. Now it's her "turn" to be affected.

To read more, go here.

Who's to Blame for the Reclining Seat Fights?

Above, a display of ANA's Premium Economy seating at the L.A Travel & Adventure Show. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Two blog posts ago, I reported on the seemingly growing problem of in-flight fights over reclining seats.

Condé Nast Traveler has a new article on this subject, but from the point-of-view of a flight attendant.

She starts out with:

Recently, a reporter contacted me to find out if flight attendants were purposefully not getting involved in the war against reclined seats. It’s no surprise that the media is focusing on the crew’s role in the recent passenger spats over reclining seats: Is the crew doing enough to keep passengers calm? Are they overreacting? Did they really need to divert that flight? But I’m sick of being the seat recline police.

 To read what she has to say, go here.

Flight Diverted Over Reclining Seat

The U.S. airlines have a major p.r. problem these days with high prices that are loaded even more with all kinds of fees (along with taxes piled on by the government).

Now, they are also having a problem with seats being shrunken in size so that more can be squeezed in. This has led to incidents when a person reclines their seat, causing the person behind them to go ballistic.

The latest is from Travelpulse.com:

If you thought planes being diverted because of a reclining seat fiasco was an isolated incident and not an apparently rampant problem, you would be mistaken. Yet another pilot was forced to land when a passenger couldn’t make it an entire flight without acting like a child. For those keeping score, this is the third such report TravelPulse has brought you in the last two weeks. 

CNN’s Katia Hetter reports Delta Air Lines Flight 2370 left LaGuardia Airport on Monday night but didn’t reach its West Palm Beach, Florida destination on time because of another reclining seat debacle. Instead, the flight was diverted to Jacksonville, Florida. 

WPTV spoke with Aaron Klipin who witnessed just the latest uproar caused when one passenger decided to sit back in their chair.

The woman raising the ruckus demanded that the plane land. You'd have to read the full article (and see the news video) to believe it.

I wonder if this is something more prone to domestic flights (although one diverted flight was an international one). I had no problem on my recent United flight to Japan regarding legroom. A reporter with the Associated Press thinks "shrinking cabins and redesigned seats may be at fault for growing frustration amid passengers"

To read the full article, go here.