Two weeks ago I flew from BWI for a business trip. It seemed that the entire populace of the region was flying that Sunday and I ended up missing my flight due to long check in and tsa lines. Imagine me, shoes unlaced,running up to the gate and seeing my plane backing away. First time this ever happened to me.
Four hours later, having spent the morning eating breakfast at the Silver Diner and enjoying a sightseeing tour of concourses A B and C, I saunter over to my gate and find the flight is leaving from another, at the other end of the airport, natch.
I go over there and find out that our plane was coming from Boston. It was supposed to be a through flight but they were transferring the pax. Then they told us they were waiting for the pilot from the Boston plane before we could board. He finally shows up looks the pane over and calls the maintenance people. We could see him through the window in a very animated discussion with a mechanic, pointing at one of the engines. Finally after some fiddling around involving rotation of the turbines, they boarded us. I don't begrudge them the delay, I overheard a crew member saying something about an "oil leak". As the saying goes, "better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than be in the air wishing you were on the ground." The flight was about 30 to 40 minutes late. No problems in flight other than a bumpy ride over the Appalachians.
My colleague, who came out on a later flight, had it much worse. It took the third plane they used to be considered airworthy enough to take off. He arrived at 2AM, more than 4 hours late.
It occurred to me that being a half hour late for a there hour flight is the proportional equivalent of being 5 hours late for a 30 hour train ride. And being 4 hours late for your flight is proportionally the same as arriving 48 house late for your 30 hour train ride. Even Amtrak at its worst isn't that bad at least not in my experience.
By the way the flight home was a breeze. Traveling on Saturday makes all the difference.
Four hours later, having spent the morning eating breakfast at the Silver Diner and enjoying a sightseeing tour of concourses A B and C, I saunter over to my gate and find the flight is leaving from another, at the other end of the airport, natch.
I go over there and find out that our plane was coming from Boston. It was supposed to be a through flight but they were transferring the pax. Then they told us they were waiting for the pilot from the Boston plane before we could board. He finally shows up looks the pane over and calls the maintenance people. We could see him through the window in a very animated discussion with a mechanic, pointing at one of the engines. Finally after some fiddling around involving rotation of the turbines, they boarded us. I don't begrudge them the delay, I overheard a crew member saying something about an "oil leak". As the saying goes, "better to be on the ground wishing you were in the air than be in the air wishing you were on the ground." The flight was about 30 to 40 minutes late. No problems in flight other than a bumpy ride over the Appalachians.
My colleague, who came out on a later flight, had it much worse. It took the third plane they used to be considered airworthy enough to take off. He arrived at 2AM, more than 4 hours late.
It occurred to me that being a half hour late for a there hour flight is the proportional equivalent of being 5 hours late for a 30 hour train ride. And being 4 hours late for your flight is proportionally the same as arriving 48 house late for your 30 hour train ride. Even Amtrak at its worst isn't that bad at least not in my experience.
By the way the flight home was a breeze. Traveling on Saturday makes all the difference.
