Members Lucky Posted December 30, 2010 Members Posted December 30, 2010 Can you imagine finishing up a long flight from Hong Kong to JFK in New York and then having to wait on the plane for 11 more hours? It happened thispast weekend. Here is a sample of the linked story: "The Port Authority said that at least 28 international flights were stuck on the tarmac with long delays. That included Cathay Pacific Flight 840 from Hong Kong, which arrived at 2:15 a.m. Tuesday and was not able to get to a gate until about 1 p.m., nearly 11 hours later, Mr. Coleman said. China Airlines Flight 12 from Taipei, which stopped over in Anchorage, arrived at Kennedy at 8:37 p.m. Tuesday and was not able to unload at a gate until 5:47 a.m. Wednesday, more than nine hours later. For passengers who started out in Taipei, the total duration of the trip, including the wait on the tarmac, was more than 25 hours." My link Quote
Guest zipperzone Posted December 30, 2010 Posted December 30, 2010 That must have been awful - but it pales in comparison to sleeping on a cold concrete floor in some terminal for four days. There is no valid excuse for travellers having to put up with crap like that, snow or no snow! Can you just imagine the screaming kids running up and down the aisles for 11 hours. That would do me in totally Quote
Members Lucky Posted December 30, 2010 Author Members Posted December 30, 2010 Airport Hell Link I don't know why my link above doesn't work since I used the link box above. But you can read it now. (A Shorter version) Zipperzone, focus on these words: “People were walking around, moaning, yelling. Children were screaming. People were complaining about children screaming.” Quote
Members RA1 Posted December 30, 2010 Members Posted December 30, 2010 Not sure that "rule making" would have solved this problem but it could not have hurt. I would like to think that those flights could have known about the problem and diverted to another airport where the passengers could have gotten off, gone through US customs and found their way to NY, later, rather than sooner. The airlines and some US officials seem stuck on the idea of having the passengers clear customs at their original destination. I have no idea why that would or should be so, customs should be customs. Once cleared, the folks could continue to their ultimate destination without further hindrance, other than the TSA and various vagaries of domestic flights. The above description seems so out of place and other worldly to me. I cannot think of the US being this far degraded in our thinking and delivery of "services". Best regards, RA1 Quote
