Travel right now: FAIR WARNING!

[iloveyoga]

We drove in our car today from Iowa to Rapid City, SD. Great scenery! On to Mount Rushmore in the morning.

[ivinsfan]

Part of these staff shortages fall directly on the shoulders of the airlines I personally know 3 Delta workers who took very generous buyouts during Covid from airline government bailout money. The airline could have kept paying them probably for less total money. Delta gambled they could get rid of older, higher payed workers and replace them for less money when Covid slowed down. They lost that bet and now the public pays the price.



So IMO travel insurance should cover this issue because at this point the airlines are playing catch up yet still falling behind. Or the insurance should quit insuring trips.

[explanade]

I wonder if you buy insurance through the airline, the same time you buy the plane ticket offers better coverage.

But I think the carriers are typically the same as the ones you'd get if you enrolled through Squaremouth.com or Insuremytrip.com.

[Bamaman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by explanade Yeah it sounds like most of the flight cancellations are domestic? I took three trips to Europe last summer and two so far this year. I believe they said domestic flights in the US in summer 2021 was over 100% of domestic flights in the summer of 2019. Europe flights from the US were not at 2019 levels. This summer though, fares are higher so that may reflect higher demand, even before they dropped the test requirement to return to the US.

We returned 2 weeks ago from a trip to London, Athens and Venice. We flew into and out of London Heathrow without incident on American Airlines connecting through Charlotte.

Going over, the flight on a Boeing 777-200 was 100% full, and the flight attendants said it was like this virtually every day right now. Our return flight may have had 6 unused seats, and the flight attendants used them to take breaks/naps.

The long haul flights often have flight attendants and pilots that are high seniority, older employees. They seem to show up for work because they can get their maximum monthly work/hours completed in two weeks.

The AA food was good, and service level was great. Our only negative was with the Charlotte Airport and the TSA security staff there.

[Katsmeow]

We plan to go on a trip a little later this summer (checking out an area we may want to move to) that is roughly 1200 miles away. We had debated a bit about whether to drive or fly and had tentatively decided to drive. These flight cancellations make it certain we will drive unless things clear up really soon.

[Gremlin]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iloveyoga We drove in our car today from Iowa to Rapid City, SD. Great scenery! On to Mount Rushmore in the morning.

You are in our neck of the woods. Enjoy your stay!!!

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by iloveyoga We drove in our car today from Iowa to Rapid City, SD. Great scenery! On to Mount Rushmore in the morning.

Oh yes. Beautiful country.

In an RV trip some years ago, we also visited Wind Cave NP to the south, and drove the State Route 87 loop. There's a lot to do there.

[jollystomper]

We hope not to fly again until after Labor Day. The combination of airline pilot/flight attendant shortages with every rushing to fly due to (a) the summer peak vacation time, (b) loosened covid travel/masking/gathering restrictions, and (c) fear of another spike happening to bring back those restrictions means a huge amount of people trying to travel and airlines "just in time" crew scheduling for flights failing miserably.

We will stick to road trips for the summer... though in our neck of the woods we are already rumblings of "intentional" road/traffic disruptions this summer due to, I will just say, "circumstances".

[meridiver]

A friend of mine was flying from LAX to Chicago this morning. Finally boarded her plane 5 hours late, then was stuck in front of someone whose dog was right under my friend's seat (she has severe dog allergies). However, she was able to move to a middle seat in the back of the plane and otherwise, everything went smoothly.

[madatrub]

I travel for work fairly regularly (10 flights in the last 2 months). 8 of the 10 have been delayed. 2 of the 10 has been cancelled. Its a total mess right now.

[unclemick]

Nothing like the OP starting this thread. We just got back from a wedding. Drove from Kansas City to Cleveland and back. No problems with Hotels, food, etc. Some mental pain with gas prices. However - other relatives flying in from Cal., Nevada, and Washington State had some long waits and interesting re routing? Not like the OP but er - interesting. They all got here more or less on time.

Any planed travel this summer will be by car.

Heh heh heh -

[Montecfo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Hopefully us road trippers will be OK.

That's our plan. We did air travel last fall, winter and this spring. We are doing car trips this summer but avoiding the most obvious destinations.

[youbet]

DW flew from OHare to Bangor a week+ ago and is in Bar Harbor visiting friends right now. Her flight was fine. Took off about an hour late but otherwise no issues.

My concern is the return flight being cancelled on short/no notice. A friend drives her from Bar Harbor to the Bangor airport, about a 1.5 hour drive. Bad news to find out your flight is cancelled until the next day when it's a 3 hour round trip for someone to pick you up again or you need to book a room and just hang around overnight.

Cost for the flight seemed reasonable, although we booked it several months ago so perhaps it's more now. 25,000 credit card points for the round trip plus $35 to check her bag.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbet DW flew from OHare to Bangor a week+ ago and is in Bar Harbor visiting friends right now. Her flight was fine. Took off about an hour late but otherwise no issues. My concern is the return flight being cancelled on short/no notice.

Funny you should mention Maine.

I was supposed to meet a friend to do a little project on Friday 6/16. Friend was traveling back from a trip to Acadia NP (Bar Harbor) on 6/15. Got a call a day ahead that he couldn't make it. At least the airlines gave him about an 18 hr warning. We met on Saturday 6/17. When we met, he told me that was nearly at risk. Instead of an early flight out of some city in Maine (can't remember which city), they got a flight from the closest city to NC which was Baltimore. (What? That's 2/3rds of the trip.) There were no other options. They drove a rental to Baltimore and got a late flight out of there. So instead of an early morning flight, they spent much of the day driving, capped off by an evening flight that they were not sure would "stick". Fortunately, at least that flight did stick. He figured if that flight failed, they'd just keep driving the rest of the way.

This is madness.

[Teacher Terry]

I have related in a couple of other threads that I am stuck in Ireland with Covid and missed half my tour. They left me behind in the middle of nowhere. They refused to fly me out until 7/1. My friend who met me here left from O’hare airport and got stuck in London for half a day arriving in Ireland 8 hours late. I am hoping my trip home is uneventful but it a few days before July 4th.

[Badger]

We have traveled to at least 28 foreign countries over the years and although there are only a few places left where I would like to travel that require flying I think I will wait for at least a couple more years. I just hope I am still able. It just isn't worth the trouble for many reasons. In the meantime road trips within a day drive (Southeast US) will have to suffice. Otherwise we will dine under the backyard pergola, enjoy the local seafood, and walk/play on the lightly used beautiful beach that is about 260 yards down the street in our small town. That should be just fine. It is actually much nicer than most beaches that are vacation destinations. We were lucky to have settled here many decades ago. Who knew there was going to be the kind of international problems encountered in the past few years.

Cheers!

[tmm99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Teacher Terry I have related in a couple of other threads that I am stuck in Ireland with Covid and missed half my tour. They left me behind in the middle of nowhere. They refused to fly me out until 7/1. My friend who met me here left from O’hare airport and got stuck in London for half a day arriving in Ireland 8 hours late. I am hoping my trip home is uneventful but it a few days before July 4th.

Maybe you mentioned it in the other thread, but I don't remember; how are you handling the food? Is someone bringing you food? Who's paying for it?


I hope you can leave sooner than July 1st, but it doesn't sound like they'll let you.

[FlaMariner]

Congrats on making it! The weak would have given up!

We always sit out summer travel....Way too crowded/expensive in a typical year, more so now w/no one wanting/needing to w*rk now.

We travel in the spring/fall. No guarantees but somewhat calmer with more options for back up and lower prices.

Get out there...Or as they say on our favorite cruise line...Holland America Line..."Savor the journey".

Bon voyage.

[Surewhitey]

DW just returned from Newark... No problems, but who flys to Newark intentionally?

We're heading to Italy in September on miles with American (too pricey otherwise). Will let you know when we get back.

[old medic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by audreyh1 Hopefully us road trippers will be OK.

Outside of fuel prices, everything has seemed to flow good... in 800 miles we had ONE slow spot...