ski-air travel stories

It will be interesting to see if a) the federal investigation against Southwest will result in real penalties, and b) their currently affected customers stay away from them long-term. I suspect that the answer will be no for both as the news cycle changes and the public tunes into a new controversy. Remember that Southwest had a similar but comparatively smaller incident in October 2021 that allegedly cost them $75 million and apparently they did nothing to address their antiquated scheduling systems and staffing challenges.

Before they centralized their NYC/NJ operations at LGA at the end of 2019, I used to fly Southwest a couple times a year and anecdotally never had any problems other than disliking the boarding process, the "flying bus" ambiance, and no partner airlines. My Denver-based brother flies them on business several times a month and always raves about their "tight as a drum" operations. I'm curious to see if the current mess will cause him to rethink his allegiance.
 
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jamesdeluxe said:
"flying bus" ambiance
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If you think Southwest is flying bus ambiance, you should try Frontier, Spirit or Allegiant. SW is pure luxury by comparison to those 3 in the US (and other's in other geo-locales)...

SW has grown into one of the largest mainline airlines in the world and has not been a 'discount carrier' for a long, long time. They have nearly 770 active aircraft (compared to American which has the largest commercial fleet in the world at 916 currently). So they really have no excuses to act like and upgrade systems like any large modern fleet operator.

I concur on no real long term affects to them. They will give dramatic mea-culpas to congress and tout all the changes they are going to make and it will end up as a one time Q4 earnings hit.

I've never quite understood why some of the public has such a love affair with the brand. They are almost always MORE expensive out of Denver when I check (even with bag fees if you don't have status on United), and the boarding process is annoying, etc... Not a bad airline, but not worth any additional loyalty at all either, IMO. Especially now that they are so large they are having the exact same issues with schedules, labor and operations as every other large airline for several years now.
 
EMSC said:
If you think Southwest is flying bus ambiance, you should try Frontier, Spirit or Allegiant.
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Hah, I haven't flown Frontier since they were a "real" airline in the 1980s.

A month ago, my younger brother had to fly last-minute to spend one day each in Los Angeles and Berkeley, so his only option without spending a fortune was Spirit: EWR to LAX to OAK and back to EWR. An entire cross-country trip on Spirit Airlines! He mentioned upgrading to their Big Front Seat for $150 on each of the long flights.

Because they charge for both check-in and carry-on luggage, Spirit and the others mentioned above are definitely a no-fly zone for skiers.
 
I won't even fly Spirit - period, full stop. My brother tried them once and will never fly them again either, lol.

Summer (low baggage count) less than 3 hr flight I have considered but only ever booked like once 5 years ago on Frontier. The seats etc... are just so painful and horrid, etc... Not a fun time, but they do, most of the time, get you there.
 
EMSC said:
I've never quite understood why some of the public has such a love affair with the brand.
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My theory is that there's something comforting to many Americans about Southwest's suburban box-store vibe: a perception that it's like a well-run Walmart.

They are almost always MORE expensive out of Denver when I check
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I've had the same anecdotal experience a majority of the time. I'll give them credit for never instituting change fees (which, thankfully, the rest of the industry finally adopted during the pandemic) or charging for checked-in baggage; however, we see the chickens coming home to roost with the current disaster. One wonders if all that lost revenue could've been redirected toward updating their systems -- or it's possible that one has nothing to do with the other.
 
I don't want to go down the rabbit hole of describing unnerving in-air experiences on ski trips but while flying back from Geneva yesterday, when we were 20 minutes from landing in Newark, the pilot warned us that due to the current storm system in the northeast our approach to the airport would be spicy and to gird our loins. He wasn't kidding; at one point I almost reached for the bag, which has never happened in 50 years of flying. It culminated in us bouncing hard off the runway after which the plane rotated several degrees to the right.

I believe that jets generally course-correct when that happens -- from a physics standpoint it's pretty much impossible for them to go into a sideways slide -- but for about three seconds I was concerned/several people audibly gasped.
:icon-eek:
 
jamesdeluxe said:
at one point I almost reached for the bag, which has never happened in 50 years of flying. It culminated in us bouncing hard off the runway after which the plane rotated several degrees to the right.

I believe that jets generally course-correct when that happens -- from a physics standpoint it's pretty much impossible for them to go into a sideways slide -- but for about three seconds I was concerned/several people audibly gasped.
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Sounds like some very strong cross-winds relative to the runway direction. You can watch lots of aviation videos online showing just how that looks from external observer viewpoints. One of the hardest 'normal operation' procedures for pilots to learn. Occasionally resulting in a go-around (I had one of those this past summer at DIA though we never got lower than ~500 feet).

I'm imagining a flight I had into JFK on a red-eye back 15+ years ago that was the same as you describe. Worst choppy, bouncy, violent vibration decent and landing ever for me. I don't think my stomach calmed down the whole rest of the day afterward either. While that was a January flight it involved no skiing or gear.
 
EMSC said:
a go-around
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I'm sure they're trained on simulators more times than we can count but can you imagine the guts and decisiveness it must take to pull the nose up on a huge plane just before landing with a couple hundred people sitting behind you?
 
We bitch about transfer inefficiencies at CDG and LHR but I think Sydney tops them all. We landed at 6:40am, no particular delay getting off the plane but had to wait in the following queues:
1) Kiosk to scan passport and get an entry card.
2) Gate to insert card and get picture taken.
3) Pick up checked luggage and take it through line for customs check.
4) Schlep checked luggage outside, wait in line into another building to drop it off for domestic flight.
5) Security line for domestic flights.
6) Bus to domestic terminal.

We arrived at the domestic terminal at 8:25. No gate is posted for our flight to Broome which is at 11:05. Plan layovers on incoming international flights accordingly.

We did this in July 2019 (Auckland - Sydney - Yulara) too but the lines were longer this time
 
How many countries make you pick up your luggage at the international gateway airport and recheck it to a final destination? I always thought the U.S. was an outlier in that regard, apparently not.

Tony Crocker said:
Plan layovers on incoming international flights accordingly.
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Right but I suspect that few Americans change planes to continue on to another flight inside Australia?
 
In US airports you come out of customs and there is an immediate location to drop checked bags for connecting flights. Picking up luggage and schlepping it to another building is very unusual.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
I suspect that few Americans change planes to continue on to another flight inside Australia?
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There are definitely direct flights from the US to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, and sometimes from Cairns too. On the return we checked bags in Perth all the way to LAX even though the Melbourne layover was 15 hours. Of course no country cares about inspecting bags that are leaving vs. those incoming. As for incoming, Australia and New Zealand are extremely rigorous about agricultural products, warning about fines and detention for undeclared prohibited items. I had a jar of Tahitian vanilla honey confiscated in Auckland once.

One American couple was returning to the US via a direct (17 hour!) flight from Perth to London.
 
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Will be interesting to see how well the market reacts to this new Air New Zealand offering for economy passengers: Skynest. Maybe I'll give it a try on the 17-hour JFK-AKL flight.
:icon-lol:

As the article explains, a few years ago the airline started offering Sky Couches. Over the decades, I've had good luck being able to sleep across three empty economy seats on overnight flights to Europe. It's hardly comfortable but better than sitting upright so I assume that providing a "couch experience" would be an improvement.
 
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jamesdeluxe said:
Will be interesting to see how well the market reacts to this new Air New Zealand offering for economy passengers: Skynest. Maybe I'll give it a try on the 17-hour JFK-AKL flight.
:icon-lol:

As the article explains, a few years ago the airline started offering Sky Couches. Over the years, I've had good luck on overnight flights to Europe being able to sleep across three empty economy seats. It's hardly comfortable but better than sitting upright so I assume that providing a "couch experience" would be an improvement.
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i just rode in the back of the bus on a 16hr flight from cape town to newark...it wasn't the end of the world
 
jamesdeluxe said:
Over the decades, I've had good luck being able to sleep across three empty economy seats on overnight flights to Europe.
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How often?

We had that on the redeye from Perth to Melbourne, but that is only a 3.5 hour flight. I have never had luck that for transatlantic or transpacific flights. I did once get a Delta upgrade to Business with lie flat seats from L.A. to Tokyo in 2016.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
Will be interesting to see how well the market reacts to this new Air New Zealand offering for economy passengers: Skynest. Maybe I'll give it a try on the 17-hour JFK-AKL flight.
:icon-lol:

As the article explains, a few years ago the airline started offering Sky Couches. Over the decades, I've had good luck being able to sleep across three empty economy seats on overnight flights to Europe. It's hardly comfortable but better than sitting upright so I assume that providing a "couch experience" would be an improvement.
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Air NZ allowed kids to sleep on a horizonal cushion that attached to two seats about 13years ago. Our first flight to the USA was with them. The kids lay side by side on this bed thing. Worked quite well as the kids were small.
 
Tony Crocker said:
How often?

We had that on the redeye from Perth to Melbourne, but that is only a 3.5 hour flight. I have never had luck that for transatlantic or transpacific flights. I did once get a Delta upgrade to Business with lie flat seats from L.A. to Tokyo in 2016.
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I've only scored spare seats beside me a couple of times. I have often got a 20 something stone human in the next seat though.
I think I've mentioned that I can sleep on long flights. My most recent flight back across the Pacific I managed an unbroken 7 hours plus a snooze or two after that. My method of eye mask and ear plugs and 5mg valium continues to deliver. Kylie got at least 6 hours too.
 
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