STS-DFW-STL:STL-PHX-STS

ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
This is the happenings of 5 days of my life. In the Midwest to help a family member having surgery.
I remember a day a person could fly direct, halfway across the country. SFO-STL in 6 hours, not a big deal.
Instead, I couldn’t find a direct flight from anywhere near me. Not even an international airport.
*sighs
So I stayed in wine country and flew out of STS on American. Apparently I’m lucky to not have had my flights out canceled as was my booked return flight.
My first time at STS. It’s a super small airport. No real complaints, it was an easy experience. Only one restaurant, outside of security, and they let you take food through to the flight. So a sando to go, and knock back a double rye with a Scrimshaw on tap, and off through security.
Made it to DFW with no trouble, and no extra booze on the flight because too many stupid humans can’t behave themselves. De-planed with the mission to make it from A to C terminal for a 1 hour switch. AA changed it back to A terminal, and the flight was delayed an hour… cool… time to eat and drink!
Dickies was right in front of me… another double rye and a local draught took the edge off the power walk I just did, and a Brisket French Dip (b+ airport food, it was flipping delicious!) got me nourished for the next leg.
Caught the tram back to A Terminal with Still an hour to kill, and so I found a place to drop another double and a draught!
Boom, let’s get it it on….
The wait that is. Incoming flight was delayed, had to wait for the plane to flip, then finally board and get out, now about 90 minutes late.
Short flight, still no booze or snack served here.
Storms over STL made for a little turbulence, but no drama. Got down fine, and off to the rental car! (Now 10 hours after arriving at STS… for what would normally have been a 6- hr direct flight.) A slight detour (whiskey and beer) en route to the hotel, and I was checked in by 11:30 pm CDT.
This is when I learned my return flight through DFW was cancelled.
Sleep first.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
I was able to book a flight back home with almost the same schedule. I will be leaving here for PHX where I will have a whopping 25 min to change flights for the last leg towards home. We’ll see what happens when I check in for the flight tomorrow!

More to come.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
So I’m sitting outside the doctors office for the follow up appointment… gonna try checking in for my flight soon; got about 20 min to kill.

Here’s the thing. I fired American a while ago. AA was so crappy then it just wasn’t really worth the effort anymore. Started flying United, instead as they had a reasonable presence at SFO. As I mentioned before, I could book a nonstop (twice a day,) all for the cost of the trip to The City and an Uber from my old neighborhood about 10min from the airport (free street parking and no street cleaning schedule which in SF gets you an expensive parking ticket).
Anyway… as I’m shopping flights a few weeks back it becomes clear there just aren’t any good post-shutdown options to fly. Every Frontier flight was a minimum of 15 hours from liftoff to destination, many of them close to 24 hours and 2-3 stops in between. “#No-Fcuking-Way!”
United was running about 50% more expensive…
Bah! “Fine,” I said, “I’ll check STS” which was also always much more expensive to fly out of. But there they were, reasonable fights that fit an easy schedule and we’re right in the sweet spot costwise.
And that’s where it all began. Weird things I never experienced with other airlines started happening, from choosing seats to checking in for my first flights. Everything in their system was just wonky A.F.
I tried purchasing Priority, got through checkout only to have AA cancel my purchase upon completion. I downloaded the App only to have it completely not work; I can’t log into it! I can log into the site with no problem, but not the App. I tried calling CS for assistance, was promised a call back option so I took it: the service said “more than 4 hours!” But that was at 1:10 and I figured it wouldn’t be a big deal… until the landline started ringing at 3:30 AM… over 10 hrs later!
At this point I am completely unimpressed. I have no clue what happens in the next phase…
But I’m about to find out!
:rolleyes:
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
yeah, saw that AA has been cancelling flights and blaming it on states opening up and creating a demand. Well, what did they think would happen? They let people go and can't rehire staff fast enough and also lost so much money that they are still struggling to make things happen.
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Have you actually made it to Phoenix yet? As chance would have it, it rained last night so it's not ridiculously hot today. We've been exceeding a 115゚ for the last week and a half, up until today.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
My god. That company is horrid.
Once again it offered me priority boarding when I checked in for my flights tomorrow, only to say they were having problems and couldn’t process the transaction.
I managed, however, to finally log into the AA App after changing my password to a very derogatory statement about the company. :confused:

As of right now, I still have a flight tomorrow. *knocks on wood

So, friend @Pogre, if you look up tomorrow morning and see an AA flight coming in at 10:15 local time, just know that a very bitter, angry man is coming to town and hopefully leaving 20 minutes later.
Of course, also keep your eyes open for a desperate PM asking for a ride to audition your fine setup and perhaps sleep on your couch! :p
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Reminds me of why I don't fly commercially any more....hope all your connections work out. Would be nice to test Pogre's system, tho....
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Adding to the strange and bizarre business dealing with AA…
After they said they couldn’t process my initial payment, I received a credit notification from my credit card company detailing reimbursement for the cost of adding priority boarding to one flight and a seat upgrade to the second flight!
So they did not suspend or were unable to make the transaction and it was not my credit card company declining the transaction: they actually charged my account for the product offered and subsequently reneged.

Wow.

Just.
Fcuking.
Wow.

(Sadly, I don’t think an emoji exists for this level of ineptitude and failure.)
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Seething in PHX
Delayed over an hour
Boarding…
Maybe…
Within minutes.
:mad:
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Alas, I am on an airplane.
Hopefully it is really going where it is supposed to. :p
Sadly I won’t be PMing @Pogre for an impromptu GTG and sleepover. :( (But also:D) I am truly eager to be back West!

1:45 flight duration.
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
I’m alive! Made it. We’re finishing a late lunch at a Mexican spot, then home.
 
D

Danzilla31

Audioholic Spartan
I’m alive! Made it. We’re finishing a late lunch at a Mexican spot, then home.
Been following glad to hear you got through it okay. Man the conditions of the airlines is crazy! I've heard like many about problems with the airlines but hearing your firsthand experience damn
 
Pogre

Pogre

Audioholic Slumlord
Alas, I am on an airplane.
Hopefully it is really going where it is supposed to. :p
Sadly I won’t be PMing @Pogre for an impromptu GTG and sleepover. :( (But also:D) I am truly eager to be back West!

1:45 flight duration.
That actually woulda been fun, but glad you made it without further incident. You somehow managed to come to Phoenix in the middle of summer, and it wasn't all that hot for the day you were here! I'll bet it hits 115° tomorrow... :oops:
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Whew. Found our boys (2 of our 4 cats) in bed napping when I got back to the spot. Sore and cranky after the flight, I just jumped in and curled up for a proper cat nap with them!
Been following glad to hear you got through it okay. Man the conditions of the airlines is crazy! I've heard like many about problems with the airlines but hearing your firsthand experience damn
Thanks, buddy. I had no clue what to expect traveling… certainly not how fcuked up, on a corporate level, American Airlines was. In fact, I was more angling for a fun and irreverent thread about being “home” for a few days and the resulting culture shock. *shrugs That and the Airport Shuffle. ;)
It became more and more clear that AA was going to be much more of an occupying factor which, frankly, should never be the case.
I want to be clear though, that in the airports and in the planes, the staff I interacted with was great. The pilots got us all safely to our various destinations, and for as rude as so many travelers have been I saw nothing but professionals on the service side of this!
For that, all I can do is say Kudos to the Front Line I interacted with. For that I did all I could which was to behave myself and thank them for their performance!
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
That actually woulda been fun, but glad you made it without further incident. You somehow managed to come to Phoenix in the middle of summer, and it wasn't all that hot for the day you were here! I'll bet it hits 115° tomorrow... :oops:
I do look forward to the possibility of meeting you and other friends here, someday! Granted, with more planning than a PM in the middle of the day, crying about being stranded! ;)
My god... does Phoenix have a hill? I didn't see one flying in! :p
And fortunately I didn't have to leave the protected environment of the terminal I was in, so I likely wouldn't have known whether it was 50º or 150º outside... unless the AC broke down. :eek:
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I do look forward to the possibility of meeting you and other friends here, someday! Granted, with more planning than a PM in the middle of the day, crying about being stranded! ;)
My god... does Phoenix have a hill? I didn't see one flying in! :p
And fortunately I didn't have to leave the protected environment of the terminal I was in, so I likely wouldn't have known whether it was 50º or 150º outside... unless the AC broke down. :eek:
Phoenix has hills. Even a good one for mountain biking....stayed at a motel near PHX and rode over to I think what's called South Mountain....
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
From the window I could see out flying in to PHX, I saw some hills off in the distance (to the North, possibly?) but all I saw other than those in the distance was flat-flat-f-l-a-t. ;)
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Flat and no significant water source....great place for a big city :)
 
ryanosaur

ryanosaur

Audioholic Overlord
Flat and no significant water source....great place for a big city :)
The only thing better would be a fault line, volcano, or other near-cataclysmic quality like a predilection for tornadoes, hurricanes, or epic floods.
Though, I guess, extreme drought checks a box.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
The only thing better would be a fault line, volcano, or other near-cataclysmic quality like a predilection for tornadoes, hurricanes, or epic floods.
Though, I guess, extreme drought checks a box.
Yeah but building a city where it's a known water issue elevates the whole thing a notch or so....or like California we can build nuclear plants on fault lines to keep the investment minimal :)
 

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