I hate American Airlines

ITLP Annual Conference,
originally uploaded by Helen Norris.

Last week I went to Chicago to a conference. It was a good conference, and on the last evening, we went into Downtown Chicago to the Chicago Blues Festival. A group of us stayed out pretty late (like 3 a.m.) and so the last thing I needed the following day was a six-hour delay at O'Hare. But that's what we got. Our flight was supposed to leave at 6:30, but there were high winds in Chicago, so it was delayed by an hour. That seemed plausible. Then it got delayed by another hour, with the gate agent saying it was because the plane flying from Chicago to SFO had just arrived from Frankfurt and needed to be cleaned and clear Customs etc. etc. So the plan arrived at the gate almost two hours late, and the flight crew got on the plane. About 20 minutes later, however, the crew deplaned, as they had become "illegal". They can only be active for a certain number of hours at a time, and because American didn't get the passengers on before the witching hour or something, they turned into pumpkins. So they had to locate another flight crew, which they did, however, that crew was actually in St. Louis, and we had to wait until their (late) flight arrived. Most frustrating. My colleagues and I eventually went to the bar to drink while we waited to depart. We finally did so after midnight (flight was supposed to leave at 6:30), and we arrived in San Francisco at 3 a.m.! And the plane was uncomfortable. it was terrible.