Jon Sampson

Just two more airline stories

empty073027.jpgI’m moving on from the American Airlines posts, but this one is just too good to pass up.

A few months ago, I went to the Burbank airport to pick up my mom, who was flying into town for a visit. As I was standing in the baggage claim area with about 30 or 40 other people waiting for people, I get a flight status notification update on my cell.

“Hello, this is a flight status update for American flight number 9384. The flight has been diverted to another city. Please call American Airlines at 1-800-something and ask to speak to a representative for more details.”

What?

My first thought was either (1) the plane has crashed and this is a nice way of getting you to call someone, or (2) there’s a bomb threat at the airport where I’m standing and they cannot land the plane. Maybe they’re in Seattle or something.

Turns out, it was high winds. Burbank has short runways and the size of planes American flies can barely stop in the amount of space they have. They passed by Burbank and landed in Los Angeles, taxied around their for a little while, and eventually flew back to Burbank. (While I went and got a little work done at Starbucks.)

I thought that was odd, but what happened today takes the “Really? No way!” prize. Erin, one of our friends from Texas, came to town for Grete’s birthday. I dropped her off at the airport this morning for her trip home. The plane looked to be on time, so I was surprised when I got a text message from her an hour and a half later, when she should have been in the air.

Turns out, she was in Ontario, California (about an hour away from Burbank).

The plane had stopped for gas.

Jon

3 responses to “Just two more airline stories”

  1. Grete

    To add to that, she just text messaged me and said they stopped in Abilene because it was too stormy to land in DFW!

    Reply
  2. RC of strangeculture

    Oh my goodness…that’s CRAZY. Yea, American is not looking to good on your blog.

    Dear American Airlines PR people…please contact Jon and send him hush money…because his honesty about your poor services make AA look really bad.

    Reply
  3. Erin

    And then I waited in Abilene for THREE hours without being able to get off the plane. This would have been ok if the flight had food or a screaming two year old was not sitting right in front of me. Or perhaps things would have been ok if the plane had running water. The restroom sinks did not work (wet wipes…fun) and the only water was bottled water for purchase.

    In American’s defense, the employees were so nice. The stewardesses went around twice and offered cups of the bottled water to everyone (Did you know that while a plane is on the ground they turn the AC off…yuck). Then the pilot bought everyone pizza from the airport so that each passenger had a slice.

    We finally took off three hours later and landed at DFW. When we arrived we were told our gate was occupied and we would need to wait 30 minutes. Our pilot told us he would make all the calls he could and 10 minutes later we had a new gate. The best part was when they listed all the connecting flights that were canceled. The stewardess informed us that if we were connecting to LA the flight was canceled. If you were connecting to LA from a Burbank to Dallas flight then you are an idiot.

    Next time I fly 10 hours I better be in another country!!

    Reply

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