I had some first-hand experience with the recent craziness involving Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR). Living just a half hour away, I have grown familiar with travel to and from EWR, and most of my airline experience has been positive. I have marveled at the fact that I can pack up my bags, drive to the airport, and then find myself emerging from the cabin door on the other side of the planet.
Great write-up, hits the sweet spot: funny, honest, and easy to roll with. Feels like something out of Reader’s Digest back when it still had some bite. And the Newark stuff? Nailed it. Runway closures, ATC handoffs, the whole mess – thanks.
The EWR mess started a year ago when they moved the approach airspace from N90 to PHL and it has only gone downhill from there with no light at the end of the tunnel.
Glad to hear your persistence paid off through it all and you guys finally had your Caribbean vacation!
I still have several STD’s that need to be addressed (Still To Do’s - no bucket list for me) for the eastern seaboard like the Air and Space Museums, Kitty Hawk and a few others, hopefully next year, so I’m hoping for the best but ready to roll with whatever may come when we likely use the airlines and our great airports and ATC out there.
It’s embarrassing that we have such unprofessional first officers, bad staffing, lack of backup systems, and airlines that need to stop using the word “schedules”. No one in the system has ownership or accountability, or any ability to make it better.
All the passenger inconvenience are now just dismissed as “oopsie”.
All the passenger inconvenience is just that, inconvenience.
It’s quite remarkable that we can go most of the way around the world in reasonable comfort in less than a day for a price that most people can save up and afford. The air travel system isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty darn good.
Just a few generations ago, the only way to get to St Lucia would have been by wooden sailing ship, and it would have taken weeks. You would sleep in a hammock, eat salt pork and hard tack, and drink river water that was kept in a barrel from wherever you left. And there was a small chance of the ship getting caught in a storm and sunk, leaving you to die at sea without anyone ever learning your fate.
Even professionals forget things once in a while. Also, for any given airline flight, there are a LOT of variables that must align for a flight to go out on time. Small wonder the overall on-time metric for airline flying is as good as it is considering the number of variables that are outside anyone’s control.