I ain't got shit to worry about -- I'm still cozy in bed at home. The kids, though...
I used to fly 2-3 days per week and never think a thing of it. Now, when my kids fly, I get a little nervous.
Life
€650 each free and clear, €50 in food vouchers at the airport, and hotel covered in SF since they are going to miss their connection to Hawaii. Business class upgrade SFO-HNL if space is available. If the flight would have been outright cancelled, they would have received 150% of their airfare refunded by United, along with the rebooking, hotel, etc...
United scares me, well lately they all scare me. But I’d probably chose a delta or American flight first at this point. And I’ve seen/been aboard some crazy American flights!
I hear ya. I've made the flight stateside to/from HI many times, and I think there's been more equipment delays than any other airline I've flown. Unfortunately, if you want any sort of flight beyond your first stop, United is pretty much the only option unless you change airlines mid-stream. :/
This is truly frightening!
I used to be a “road warrior” service tech, and traveled the entire U.S. upwards of 80% of my calls. So, my ”commute” was by commercial airlines to the tune of 2-6 flights a week. I never minded the equipment delays. I didn’t care if it was a burned out light in the shitter. I wanted everything on that plane to be working as it should so that my flight du jour made it to where I was going!
One aspect of my job when I was in the Air Force (kind of like a department within a company) was working with aircraft maintainers to coordinate airlift. During that time I learned a lot about what is critical to keep an airplane in the air, and what just keeps the red ink off of the write-up logs. Like you, I usually have zero personal problems when a flight is delayed for equipment issues. I also understand that a commercial airline's first concern "should" be to the hundreds of passengers who will be confined within the aluminum tube hurtling through air at 500 mph 40,000 feet above a really hard landing. I'd much prefer the better safe than sorry approach, but it's still a little disconcerting when the jets delay more than they fly because of maintenance issues.
Really reassuring of the captain on that one, eh?! :O Glad everything turned out alright, obviously. I think my only other really interesting story is when we were flying Frankfurt - Dublin on Aer Lingus a bunch of years ago. Everything was normal as we bussed to the jet on the ramp, boarded, closed up, started, and then taxied to the runway. We turn onto the actual runway, hear and feel the engines power up... and then almost instantly cut out back to idle. We then turned and taxied off the runway and back to our hardstand. We were met there by an ambulance; it seems that right as we were preparing for our roll out, one of the pilots began experiencing a "cardiac event". Not sure what ever came of that, physically, but hope he was ok. We were delayed a few hours whilst awaiting a new pilot to fly in from Ireland on an inbound flight, but everything was nominal after that.
