On Time My Ass

So this one is not that new to many of you that fly... I get to the airport about 50 minutes from the departure of my flight, check in at the kiosk, and everything looks fine. I grab my ticket and as I walk by the depatures board I give a quick glance to my flight and everything is on time at 3:40pm. What caught my eye was the fact that the Delta flight to Atlanta was delayed 60 minutes, and my USAirways flight to Atlanta at the same time was showing right on time.

I went through security and took off my shoes for those of you that read my previous post. As my bag was going through the x-ray, I heard my phone start ringing and when I grabbed it on the other side, a person that I was meeting in Atlanta was calling to tell me that he was on a two hour ground hold in DC on his way to meet me in Atlanta. OK, now I have a Delta flight from Pittsburgh delayed an hour and his flight delayed two hours, so I check the board agian... mine is right on time.

I grab a piece of pizza and head to the gate. Yep, the board says that I am on time at 3:40. I walk up to the counter, and ask if we are delayed -- they ask why I ask that and I give them the facts above. They ask that I "keep quiet" while they are checking with the pilot, and I am fine with that. After about 15 minutes they do confirm that we will be delayed, and post 4:00pm departure time on the board at the gate.

Now I don’t know the data the pilot had, but if other flights are being delayed for 2 hours, what makes him think that he is going to get us out of there in 20 minutes. About 15 minutes later they push the time back to 5:30pm, which is what they should have done the first time.

I don’t know what they are trying to acomplish from delaying the flight a couple of times, when they could just say we believe that we will be leaving at the time they have clearence for or a time that is more reasonable. They always put the caveat on the delay annonucemnet anyway, “Please stay close to the gate because if we get an eariler clearence we will board quickley.” Are they afraid that if the put the truth out there you are going to go rent a car and drive te 500 miles?

Airport Security

My job takes me across somewhere via airplane each week. Ever since the creation of the TSA back in 2001, I am amazed at the inconsistencies across the country each week. Take a simple example -- shoes. I decided to keep track of where they require shoes to be taken off, and where you can go through the airport with them on.

Being that I live in Pittsburgh I go through the Pittsburgh Airport each week, so that was my benchmark. Since Pittsburgh is not a real high profile place, I was not surprised that you could keep your shoes on when you go through security there, but at Washington National you must take them off.

So a few weeks ago they told me at Pittsburgh that you need to take the off as part of new rules that went into effect, so I figured that now I need to do it on the way out of town and the way back, and chalked up the "free passes" that I was getting in Pittsburgh to a thing of the past.

However, I just went through the Philadelphia Airport and the Chicago Ohare in the past week, and they both let me through with my shoes on. What gives? How hard is it to set a policy for all airports and enforce it?

Don't even get me started on the people that seem to take 20 minutes to put there shoes back on while they stand by the X-Ray machine holding up the line...

One last thought, there is free WiFi access at the Pittsburgh Airport -- saves you $9.95 vs. Cingular.