cyrano | (no subject)

(no subject)

American Airlines canceled over a thousand flights Wednesday due to FAA concerns over wiring issues. Between that and weather, I believe over 450 flights out of DFW alone were canceled.

Somewhere in all that mess is my bag. The nice lady on the telephone at AA said that she understood there were over 100.000 bags at DFW unscanned and unsorted.

There's no guarantee tomorrow will be any better.

I see some shopping and saving receipts in my immediate future.

I'm not entirely certain there will be an airline to fly me home in two weeks.

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I feel your pain. Or at least part of it, since we (thankfully!) didn't have bag issues.

If there's anything I can do from Detroit (and believe me, I can do a lot as long as it doesn't require a physical presence), let me know.

Your offer intrigues me, although I am wary to test the limits of your powers.
At this point, it appears to be clothing and toiletries (which the airline will reimburse at the rate of $25 a day) and medications (which they will not, but which are not a crisis point at $300 a shot) that are missing.
If it were something that nagging could help, it'd be different, but they're just overwhelmed.

Those poor, poor airline workers. (And poor you, for getting caught in the fallout.) Stupid, stupid AA for not keeping up their planes properly.

One of the things you learn pretty quickly when you live in Alaska (where flying is often the only means of getting from Point A to Point B, and weather cancellations/delays happen more often than not) is to Not Put Anything In Checked Baggage if you can help it. I know for a two-week trip that's tough to manage, but if you're visiting a friend it sometimes works best to mail clothes and things there ahead of time, especially if you're going on a multi-leg trip.

Yes, yes, I know, the advice is a bit late. But seriously. Wow. That's some shitty luck. I'll be sending good energy your way in hopes of balancing it out...

Yeah, I rarely check luggage if I can manage to leave unimportant things (like my passport or clean underclothing) behind and cram everything else into checked baggage.
And it's not just American. The FAA pretty much spent the past few years telling all the airlines "You know, if you just tell us that all your planes are safe, then we don't have to actually perform any of those time consuming inspections."
Because, as we know, government oversight is just the meddling leftist way to annoy corporations and reduce profit.

Yeah, I've been reading up on the situation. Apparently the FAA recently discovered fatigue cracks in several of Southwest's 737s, went "Holy crap, we could be liable for all kinds of issues if we don't get up off our arses", and are working like gangbusters to try and make up for their previous laxity. Which, in turn, is causing numerous airlines to scramble like crazy to make sure they're in compliance. *sigh*

Isn't reactivity fun?

From something I saw this morning, the latest groundings are because in responding to the AD (airworthiness directive) from last week, they didn't space ties holding bundles of wires together EXACTLY an inch apart. I'm all for maintenance and complying with directives that are targeted at weaknesses in specific planes, but I also have a hard time conceiving of this being anything other than a big FAA 'look how careful we are!' jerk-off in response to the flak they got over the Southwest thing. So now we have 'safety theater' on top of 'security theater.' Joy.

Yeah, that's kind of what I mean about reactivity. They slack off for several years, then once they get in trouble, go "Oh shit!" and try to make up for it by going entirely too far in the other direction. By its very nature, reactivity doesn't lend itself to finding the optimal balance for things; unfortunately, however, it's much easier to simply react than it is to actually sit down, think, and make an informed decision. *sigh*

Forbes.com seems to think that American is "grounded but not out", so at least one financial news source thinks you'll have a flight home in two weeks.

As for the limits of my powers: I know someone who lives a few hours out from Dallas. If you bag is locatable in DFW, it might (and I stress "might", as I have not actually run this past him) be possible to bribe him to go pick up your bag and mail you the most important contents of it. Or all of it, if you're willing to pay for that much postage.

But if he wouldn't do it, I bet I could find some sort of service that would....

I admit that I was concerned about how to get the bag out of DFW if that's where it ended up being stuck. I'll keep this in mind.

oy vey.

E. Gad.

*hugs*

Rent a car and bill it to the airline.

I have no doubt there will be an airline for you to fly back on. Whether that experience will be tolerable is another issue entirely.

But as others have alluded to, this whole debacle has nothing whatsoever to with safety. You got caught in the crossfire between the FAA and Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn. (Transportation Committee Chairman) The Congressman decided now would be a good time to go on the jihad against FAA-airline schmoozing and the FAA has decided to retaliate by making every airline passenger miserable. (Maybe Mr. Oberstar is a fellow traveler; I certainly hope so, but doubt it.)

I guess the only solace anyone can take from this is that it is happening now rather than in June when many, many more people are flying to summer vacation spots.

Don't go quoting me, but I think the airline has to mail you your stuff should they ever find it. Considering it might be at Dulles, Hell will probably be experiencing flurries before this happens.

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