I’ve had the WORST luck with return flights lately. My last three trips ALL had issues with the return flights.
It started over Christmas for our flight back from Ft. Lauderdale. I got an email the night before saying our flight was canceled. That’s never a good thing. I called JetBlue and they did get us on a flight 3 hours earlier. However, when we got to the airport, that flight was delayed. We ended up taking off roughly the same time as our original flight. Basically, had to spend a few extra hours in the airport with a 2 year old and a 6 month old. In this case, the cancellation/delays were weather related (huge snowstorm in the northeast) so not really something that the Airline could be faulted for.
The flight back from The Server Side Java Symposium in Vegas on the 20th also ended up being delayed. I had specifically grabbed the 11pm red-eye from Vegas to Boston so that I could be back home by 9am on Saturday to take my kids to swimming lessons. However, the plane had a “water leak in one of the Galleys” and it didn’t end up taking off till about 1am. Didn’t get back in time, kids missed their lesson. 🙁 To JetBlue’s credit, they DID send out a travel credit due to the delay not being weather related.
Then, last Friday, I was flying back from Emerging Technologies conference in Philly and, once again, delay. I had planned to get back home right at 8:30 which is when my kids go to bed so I could say good night. That didn’t happen. This was a “two part” delay. The plane was late getting there due to weather conditions someplace. However, even after it got there and we boarded, we ended up sitting for another half hour or so because the “safety seal” on the Fire Extinguisher has broke and we had to wait for maintenance to swap it out. Ended up getting home at 10:15. Not a thing from US-Air, possibly because the original delay was weather related.
So, if you are planning to travel someplace, make sure you and I aren’t on the same return flight. 🙂