Cris and others....

Come'on ... 48hrs in Jamaica isn't hell.

How about:

Remember the storm of the century? March 1994 (11/12th) Hell is returning to the states from a week at CCV in Roatan with a group of 12. The 737's couldn't land at RTB due to the high x-winds so a quick hop on a Beech 19 to San Pedro Sula, transfer to a 737 and a short jaunt to Belize City and then on MIA. We should've known something was up when the customs guy asked us where we were off to in such a hurry and he replied: NOT THIS WEEKEND. Not only was travel clogged up the entire eastern corridor (for days) but Miami's largest latin street festival was in full swing (calle ocho). Can you say NO rooms.

I found 2 rooms (yup for 12 of us ) in north Miami Beach .... I used Useless Air's 800# to make reservations for our group on BOTH Monday and Tuesday which were eventually cancelled (oversheduled crews, wrong equipment types etc)the best USeless Air could do was promise to get us back by the NEXT Friday (March 18th). I had to get their station manager to assign the tickest over to AA ... we finally made it back to DC on Wednesday evening.

Oh....and it was the COLDEST march on record in Miami (clear skies with the temps in the high 50"s).

Compensation: None of course, it was an act of God. You at least had comped accomodations and a minimum food allowance. Thank God for ATM's, noone in our group won the 100+million dollar lottery that week.

Bob

Interesting trips.....On our first extended dive trip my husband and I went to Bimini. Of course this was 20 years ago, so leaving from Tucson we had to go to LA first. In LA we turned right and went to Bimini.....and our dive gear turned left and ended up in Hawaii. Delta assured us that the bags would arrive on the next flight and be sent over to us. So, now we are in Bimini without dive gear, including our masks with prescription lenses in them. There were no ATMs at the time, credit cards were not generally accepted, and you didn't even think about using personal checks. Our extra cash was mostly used up on expensive long distance calls to Miami to track out lost gear, let grandma know we would be late getting home, and pay for extra nights at the hotel. We didn't have enough cash to rent gear, and really didn't want to waste dives without our "glasses" anyway. We ate sparingly and went for long walks on the beach. Eventually, our bags caught up with us and we had a wonderful time. Sounds mild compared to some of these other stories, but we did learn to always be prepared to handle the unexpected. Now, our masks are in our carryon and we make sure we have financial resources to take care of most anything.

Here's hoping our trip to Bonaire is uneventful!!

OK, I'm just gonna get preachy for a moment:
We live in the "free" First World, and have
I-don't-know-how-many-times more money
than most of the people who live in these
gorgeous places we travel to for VACATIONS,
and when things aren't as efficient as we're
used to, or our convenience gets impinged
upon, or even our own First World airline
companies screw up -- what do we do? Get
very stressed out and complain - a lot and
loudly. Is this what it means to be free and
fortunate enough to take vacations? Hey, I get
kinda agro and stressed out, and complain
too, but I'm beginning to think life is way too
short for that and that my breath could be
better utilized generating something that
would benefit others, rather than tear apart
whatever seems "wrong". Breathe. Breathe.
Breathe. And be thankful we get where we are
going, are alive, and got to enjoy some other
beauty the world has to offer. It's cliche, but
there really are times to "don't worry, be
happy!" Phew! This rant was brought to you
by nancy, and is not meant to personally
offend anyone in particular - lol.

Nancy, I agree with you to an extent. Traveling is always an adventrue and you MUST factor in the potential for disaster, however you define it. Where we disagree is that if an airline, for instance, is going to say we will get you to X by such a time, they should be reasonably close. Or they should say, we will get you ther within 24 hours of when we say we will. Some of the airlines spoken of here have a long history of delays, and major delays at that, and yet they continue to promise on time or close to on time running. Why, because if they gave the whole picture, no one would fly them. I have been stranded in some of the least hospitable places, I always got home, but I had to endure discomfort and inconvience that was not my fault and was in no way compensated by the party whose fault it was. I think that either the compensation has to be better or the disclosure more complete. That way people can be better informed when they plan and will have less justification to complain when things go wrong. If I did to my customers what some of the airlines have done to me, I would be out of business. Just my 2 cents.
David

Both great rants, and like an argument between a Liberal and a Conservative, the right answer is in the middle. Nancy's correct that we should look at the big picture and David's right that airline can be jerks. Maybe the right answer is that when we get jerked around by an airline don't take it out, right then, on the poor clerk but stay calm, control the rage and take it out, when you write the letter to the airlines when you get home.

Excellent advice, Cecil. We did just that very thing when delayed for 12 hours in Salt Lake coming back from Bora Bora last year. Steve wrote a letter to Delta upon return, and they reciprocated by sending us complete vouchers which enabled us to go to Bonaire this year. The clerks, desk personel, etc. can only do so much to help, and if you make them angry, they will either take it out on you, the next customer, or their family and pets at home.

David and Cecil ~ I heartily agree with both of
you. Complain to someone who can do
something about it, and be as skillful and
humane as possible with the folks who can
do nothing, but work for the company.

Actually, I had a bad situation of United
Airlines almost making us miss a flight to the
Cook Islands, and then not getting our
baggage to us for 1 whole week - the duration
of our stay on that particular island. My friends
had to go to the top with a few roadblocks
along the way before UA would compensate
us with travel vouchers, but they finally did. Of
course, they also had to pay for us to get
clothes to live in while down there!

It's always good to get a good conversation
going on this newsgroup! Thanks gentlemen,
and lady Hazel.

P.S. Cecil, you nailed me with the "liberal"
label, but I am willing to take sound advice
from a wise conservative any day.

Nancy, I very happy to say all my Conservative friends think I'm a tree hugging, panty wasted Liberal. All my Liberal friends think I'm a nazi, I must be doing something right/wrong to piss off both sides.