Flightster Friday: The Delay Debacle

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More often than not when I’m working a flight that’s delayed I spot some unhappy passengers as the news is conveyed over the PA on the plane or through the terminal. For the most part, that reaction is truly unwarranted. In the airline industry when a flight is delayed is usually means that something is wrong, somewhere. Generally, you’re delayed because the airline cannot get you to your destination safely at the present moment, but is working through the issue.

There are various types of delays and each one comes with its own set of issues and problems and sometimes the fix is out of the airlines control and all you can do is sit and wait.

To see a description of the most common flight delays, continue reading this post at Flightster.com. Click here.

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  • http://jetsetbachelorette.blogspot.com Elena

    People ask me the best time of year to fly to avoid delays…there isn’t one. Every season & part of the country has its own set of problems and at the end of the day delays are no fun for all involved…but you have to make the best of it.

    -The Flying Bachelorette

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SNKKNIMMVCPMUBLGXXMJD24I3I DonK

    In 45+ years since my first flight, I suppose I’ve had more than one of every kind of delay there is, so I’ve learned not to stress about it. Delays and cancellations happen, so if you’re flying to meet a cruise ship, don’t cut it too close; fly in the night before or even a day early and enjoy some free time in your embarkation port. If you’re flying on business and you’re not on the company plane, then face it, you’re just not that important – you can be a few hours late.

    The frustrating thing about delays is when you get no information either from the gate agent or the captain (depending on whether you’ve boarded or not). Information helps reduce the stress of a delay.

    On one flight DTW-NRT we had boarded, and about 20 minutes after scheduled pushback the captain came on and said, “You’ll no doubt have noticed we’re not moving yet. The reason is there’s a light on the instrument panel telling us we have a problem with the brakes.” Well, that gets my attention. By all means ensure the brakes are working before we leave the ground. It took a couple of hours to determine the problem was in the light and not in the brakes, then replace the light, to the point where we didn’t beat the Narita curfew by much, but the captain kept us informed the whole time. That (and the continuation of the pre-departure beer and sparkling wine in C class) made things much better.