Travel During the Summer of 08

I don't travel much and the previous few trips I did take all had direct flights. So when I flew last week (and had a connection each way), the number of issues that came up reminded me how frustrating air travel can be. And while I don't mean to just complain, the delays I experienced have me thinking that I'll need to evaluate the whole experience before booking any flights going forward.

All four flight segments of my trip had problems, when I arrived at the airport to depart for each flight, the computers weren't working. The second flight of the first segment, a smaller plane arrived for the flight and suddenly there were more passengers than seats. Luckily a number of passengers from City Year took the airline up on the offer of a free ticket, but it still took over an hour to find and issue new seats.

On the second leg of my return flight, the plane experienced a malfunction during take-off. So the plane went back to the gate and the airline found another plane for us. The delay impacted the flight status of some of the crew, so another delay to find replacements for those crew members. Weather caused an additional delay as the flight waited to get in queue to route around thunderstorms through Canadian airspace. In total I lost 7 hours to delays.

Ironically, as I sat in the airport on Friday morning for that return flight, the news playing at the gate was all about new fees for luggage and beverages. On the face of it, the unintended consequence will have to be delays at check in, security, and boarding. The passengers who check a bag now have a credit card transaction to complete, slowing down check-in. A certain percentage of passengers who would otherwise check a bag will now try to carry more on the plane to avoid the fee.

So even though I participate in a lot of web meetings, I can expect to get in one or two more through the rest of the year. For those instances that require being there in-person, I'm just going to have to pack lighter.

Michael Caton, Collaboration Evangelist, WebEx

Comments

[caravan blogs]

Hi,

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