Disclaimer: I never flew for business purposes but always "pleasure". I flew my first time when I was 16 (1970) and have flown almost yearly since. It used to be a treat and enjoyable instead of a dread and the beating it is now. I have 2 stories . . . not life threatening but both have affected my view on air travel negatively.

Both involve Delta Airlines (in the news right now for not being able to clear the computer glitch from last week). Both also involve LaGuardia (LGA) Airport, NYC. I avoid both now.

--- First issue was in 2018 on a return trip from Can. and we were connecting through NY (LGA) to go to Houston (IAH). Late July, hot day. Our flight was scheduled for departure around 1330 hrs. Well they oversold the flight and had a hard time coaxing someone to take their offers and we were later boarding. Finally left the gate around 1400 and sat in line for a while, we were probably 10-12 back. Well were getting close to being next and the captain pulls out onto a siding and we sat there for around 3 hours. It was hot and stuffy on the plane. Finally pulled back and unboarded the whole plane as they cancelled the flight. We were put up in a 2 suites (one for us and one for our 3 pretty well grown kids) finally getting to our rooms about 2100 and ordered delivery pizza. We caught an early morning flight so were up at 0300 and at LGA at 0400 departing at around 0600. What a PIA but it was an isolated incident as far as I was concerned even though we had a flight cancelled there a few years earlier and caught a flight later that evening but it was Delta and LGA again. The whole issue was the weight of the plane, hot temps, not enough runway. Apparently not enough lift when it's hot.

--- Then after Canada's Chyna Flu shutdown of their country in 2020 they finally reopened again in the fall of 2022 we booked flights from IAH into Bangor, Maine (BGR) to drive into Canada to visit Mrs RayBob's family. Delta had the most favorable schedule and, of course, through LGA. We took it. Left IAH arrived LGA on time, 2 hour layover but at the boarding time(1330) nobody was at the desk so obviously not boarding on time. Well they came to the desk and announced "we're waiting on the crew". In fact they did that until 1700 2 more times. Then they stated the weather caused the crew to be late. Finally cancelled the flight around 1900 hours. No room provisions this time as they were blaming weather not themselves or airport. No immediate refund. Unable to get us on a flight the next day. We picked up our luggage, slept in the baggage room. Made reservations out of Newark for a 0600 flight to BGR caught an UBER to Newark at 0330, and boarded and reached Bangor with no more issues. Highlight of the night in the airport at LGA was an old drunk wino walking out of the bathroom with his pants down to his knees and his junk hanging out. The other repercussion was paying 2.5 times the cost of a ticket for the Newark flight.

Needless to say both Delta and LGA are on my no-fly list.

Any aggravating stories from y'all?

None. All my flights are great...

Sarcasm there. Have taken 8 flights this year. Six of those were delayed and not by 20 mins. All by more than 2 hours, one of them was 6 hours. Just cancel the damn thing at that point.

BTW San Diego has the worst airport for a major city in the US. I am sure of it.

It involved way too much Absinthe during 3hr layover in Leipzig,Germany while on a DoD charter flight home to a cheating ex wife after 9 months in Iraq. Great times.

Agree with cancelling. Airlines don't care about the customer anymore. Connecting is the worst.

And for sure I have had late flights but in both the above cases I felt mistreated. I did have Delta hold a flight about 20 minutes at the gate for me in Detroit when the first leg of my flight was late getting in. That was 20 years ago though.

My hats off to you Dan. I despise all the airlines. Currently trusting United the most. I've never flown through or into SD. Driving into IAH is really messy right now due to construction. Atlanta Hartsfield sucks too.

I’ve flown quite a bit in my lifetime. Honestly, every time has been good. Even the cheap “spirit” airline was ok…kinda like riding in a dart bus. Haha.
“I’ll have the 3oz Diet Coke and the 1-1/2” x 1-1/2 square bag of Chex mix!”

In 2014 I was flying out of Houston Hobby, The TSC pulled me aside and Manually pat me down. Then that agent took some pads and rubbed my clothes. It turned blue. He told me that that was positive for Nitro Cellos (Gun Powder) I explained that I had spent the morning at a indoor gun range. Anyway a hour later and a cavity search I was allowed to board the plane back to Midland. I hate airports.

Flying home from Colorado Springs. They had flagged one of our bags for some reason and had to open it and literally pull everything out by hand, my drawers my wife's drawers and I was pissed. They had a spot out in the middle of everything where everyone that wanted to look, could look. It wasn't long and security had me surrounded. I decided it was best for me to walk away.

Only one, and it barely counts as worst. More like entertaining.

Flying from Michigan to California for work, layover in Denver, Colorado. I was on a red eye coming home. Sitting in the middle between a drunk and a woman. Well the flight started to hit some pretty rough turbulence and the plane was practically falling out of the sky then getting lifted back up. Basically an airline version of a carnival ride that takes you up several stories and drops you.

The drunk, he freaking slept through most of it. Not sure how, but he did. The woman, she began to weep, grabbed her purse, and rifled through it looking for her blackberry. Realizing she was on a plane and powering it on could result in more airline issues she put it away. I was trying my best to keep her calm. I was cracking jokes and asking her to tell me about her family. About that time the pilot comes on and says, "folks you can tell that we're in a pretty good patch of turbulence. We're being diverted to another airport. Unfortunately, it's smaller and may not be able to support some of your transfers."

Long story short, she freaked, the drunk woke up and bitched to the stewardess, and I sat back and was happy we were alive.

worst i had was a fly to boston with a layover in baltimore when we landed a storm blew in and they canceled our flight put us up in hotel and we left next morning. worst was a frontier flight from denver to dfw supposed to leave at like 6:30pm but the toleit seat was broken in a restroom and it took 4 hours to fix.

Seeing your chonies is not something I would care to see either. Funniest thing I've heard of being found by TSA, was a double sided fist toy. Yep, they stopped the folks because it created a "red flag" and TSA had the people pulled aside asking WTF???

flew into Buenos airies last year on our annual dove hunting trip......landed early morning at international airport,transferred across the city to the domestic airport to catch two hour flight to Tucuman in northwest argentina....big storm hit,delayed all flights finally about 8pm they cancelled our flight....fortunately we called our outfitter 700 miles away and he arranged for van to carry us back across town to a charter flight that got us to the lodge about 2:00a.m. (it cost us cost us about $400.00 after refund from our cancelled flight)
if you fly into foreign countries on a hunting trip,it is comforting to know you have an outfitter like Inti Malal that will come to your aid in the middle of the night...

https://olsenfamily.com.ar/inti-malal/

Wife and I spent the night at DFW after a missed flight to Corpus, which caused me to miss the sign in for the Sharkathon tournament on the island. Sat on the tarmac for three hours in Chicago, then the pilot missed the runway in Dallas, which cost us another hour. First class were comped rooms, the rest of us slept at the various gates. We were comped some meal tickets, but most things were closed at 2 a.m. I threw mine in the trash and bought a beer. A custodian brought my wife and I a couple of blankets. We arrived in Corpus the next morning at 10:30 a.m. I called the Sharkathon people and they let me sign in at their home on the island. So I did get to fish one night of the tournament. While in the service, i spent 48 hours at an AFB in California because of late flights. I went into standby, and it took two days to get to Hawaii. But that was military. It was always hurry up and wait.

I have many stories concerning some sketchy international airlines, but I did have a Southwest incident. Flying from Albuquerque to Love Field our plane was struck by lightening. They had us land in El Paso and we changed planes. From the terminal, you could see where it hit. Left a mark about 2 feet below the copilot window. It was kind of a non event, but it was my only lightening strike in hundreds of flights.

I’ve had a few overnights in ohare, I got stuck in San Diego for two days because of a snowstorm in DFW.

On SW flight and pilot announced one engine was not working and he was going to run the plane down the runway to restart it. The lady next to me brought out her rosary and was very loudly prying. I felt like I was in a disaster movie but everything went well.

I can’t recall what year, late 90’s early 2000. We did a Black Bear hunt southeast Alaska. I walked up to the airline counter in Anchorage, Alaska to check baggage. I set a large fish box on the scale. Airline lady said what’s in the box, I said a frozen black bear skin. Back then and may still be common to bring hides and fish back from Alaska. She said a few choice works about killing animals. Grabbed her sign that said closed, plopped it down in front of me, said we are not checking anybody else in for the flight and walked off. It was about 30-40 minuets early for her to do that and there were at least 10 people behind me and not just the guys in my hunting party. Regular people trying to check baggage. People were pissed.

We callled the airline and raised he….ll, they got us lined up for a flight really early the next morning. It gets worse, cab service supposed to pick us up at the hotel never showed, we couldn’t get a ride to the airport and missed our flight. Cost everyone of us a 1200 dollar one way ticket back to Houston. We had a layover in Las Vegas. One of the guys headed straight to a slot machine at the airport. I said what are you doing. He said going to win my plane ticket back. He didn’t win the whole 1200 bucks but he won 6-800 bucks on a slot if I recall.

I guess we got the wrong person at the check in counter that day, the airport in Anchorage is full of Hunter spring and fall. Would think they would be used to it.

I've seen where TSA missed an RPG on an international flight. I have also personally seen many things they did not miss. I was the baggage handling system administrator for a very large airport for about 6 years. NOT one bit sorry I no longer have that job duty.

Riding a KC-135 to Panama. Troop seating with a spare jet engine in the middle. Box nasty with cold chicken, warm coke, and stale bread. At least we could smoke.

Air travel has been a PITA lately. Really too many to list, most minor inconveniences, but this one takes the cake a few weeks ago

SWA: Had a layover in Denver. We were 30 minutes getting into Denver, but still had 30-40 minutes before flight left for Lovefield. As I am walking to the gate, get a notification on my phone that the departure time has changed to 4 hours earlier. I keep going to the gate to find highly upset folks. They canceled that flight immediately and I was rebooked on the next one out, which was the last flight out of Denver that night. That flight cancelled after being delayed. My rebook took me from Denver to KC to Orlando to Lovefield over a period of 2 days. Finally got to a gate agent, who was polite, but she said that was the best they could do. They did refund me the ticket; I went to Enterprise and rented a car and drove to Lovefield, got my truck and headed home. I had a coworker who was also stranded in Denver and I made it home before he got out on another flight to Houston.

Wasn’t bad but odd - coming in from Denver to DFW arrival time 11:30ish pm. As we got close to DFW area pilot said we were diverting to Austin due to storm backups at DFW. Right after that pilot said we were landing and I knew we weren’t near Austin and looking out window knew it was not DFW Airport. We landed at Alliance Airport (FW) and waited on the runway there for about two hours. Then took off and flew all of 20 miles to DFW Aiport.
Shortest connecting flight ever.

Here's a funny one. This happened in the early 1980's.

My ex worked for a structural steel company in sales and had a big customer at the Texaco refinery in Port Arthur (not Texaco anymore) and this guy wanted to take a buddy down to Lake Guerrero. He'd been down there before over 20 times but wanted to show off a bit for his buddy. Wife got the boss to OK a trip on his private Lear Jet with me and I got a buddy to go with me. Went to the Texaco guy's usual outfitter and really had a great trip but here's the catch. We flew into Brownsville from Beaumont, got clearance to go into Mexico so hopped the river over to Matamoros, land, and we sit, and sit for about 45 minutes. No other air traffic seen on the ground or in the air. Finally the pilot came back and said it would take a few more minutes, took a handful of $20 bills and 2 - 6 packs (Coors I think) , went up to the tower and was back in 10 minutes and we took off landing in CD Victoria by the lake. Coming home he just took a single 6 pack up and there was no delay.

I’ve traveled a fair amount for work over the years. Spent nights at O’Hare and Hartsfield. Most recently got to spend an “extra” night in Richmond and then routed through Logan to get back to DFW. All airlines suck.

I have soooo many memories of bad flights and bad airport problems. I’d be writing for an hour. But…I do have one fun memory. Wife and I got on a plane to go to Hawaii. Wife had the window seat and they stuck me in the middle seat. I was grumbling about that, when I see this super hot blonde in the aisle. She sat next to me, much to my happy surprise. The wife glared at me, but it wasn’t MY fault she had that seat. Her guy was in the aisle seat across the aisle. Nice guy. I asked this goddess where they were going, and she said they were on HIS honeymoon. Turns out that his fiancé ditched him at the alter, so he asked his favorite stripper to go with him. Well, it was a long flight, so we talked till we ran out of words and then it was dark and everyone dozed off. The goddess was asleep and snuggled into my right shoulder. I thought my wife’s head would explode when she saw that. I guess that made up for a few bad flights.

no really bad trips... but about 10 or 12 years ago was on SW airlines flight from FTLaud/Hollywood to Dallas and after everyone was seated, we had an hour long weather delay before takeoff. Found out the nervous young lady next to me was Herb Kellers grand niece, from Boca Raton. She was flying to Dallas to spend the Christmas holidays with him and other family members. She was telling me all about him and how she didnt like flying when she got a call from him. He (mr keller) knew she didnt like flying and called to reassure her everything would be ok.

Without going into detail, a couple of years ago my 7 hour direct flight to Anchorage on American took 48 hours on United and Delta through Denver (where we spent the night) and Seattle. Wouldn’t have been as bad of a deal if we didn’t have two days worth of wasted rental car and VRBO that we were paying for without being able to use them.

To make matters worse, 50% of our parties’ luggage was lost and one guy’s didn’t show up until it arrived at his house 3 weeks later

Ha . . . great story !!!!

I flew domestically for 20 years for work... Once or twice a month and the worse thing that happened to me was spending the night in a hotel after my flight was late and my connection was the last flight to that particular destination... Missed the meeting the next morning so I worked a deal for a $250 flight voucher and headed back home the next morning... My wife flew internationally for 30 years and I asked her... She got stuck in Florence, Italy for 2 days... Said she had a great time on the company's dime... Expensed it all... Dan

Sitting on the taxiway at Laguardia on a fine July day waiting for takeoff when I notice many emergency vehicles. We taxied out to the end by the river and then suddenly powered down and all the emergency vehicles converged on our plane. At first they wouldn't tell us what was going on and then after several minutes calmly told us there had been a bomb threat on our aircraft and stay seated. Sat there another 30 minutes while they unloaded the luggage and cargo, no power no air, people are sweating and irritable as hell. It was another 30 minutes of that before they finally said we could get off and a bus would be there to pick us up. AA managed to get us on another plane and in the air after a few hours. Later they said the person that made the threat was located and arrested and made threats before. Overall AA handled it well as can be.

Watched 2 guys get in a fight on a SWA cattle car flight. The seats were so close you couldn't read a paper without the paper hitting the guy in front of you. The guy in front asked once for the other guy to stop it and then after the second time it was on like donkey kong.

American Airlines.
We were going to my son's graduation in Raleigh. He was receiving his PhD.
We arrived at wonderful DFW on time and took a seat. We were in the C group. They never called the C group. We asked when we could board and they told us that we should have boarded with the B group and that "we don't actually have to call your group".
They sold our tickets.

So, they sent us to Chicago with an overnight lay over. No luggage of course, it was in Raleigh.
They flew us from Chicago to Raleigh the next morning. We got there just in time to make the event.

American Airlines. - "Let Good Take Flight"

Mr Keller was a class act for sure. Always a staple at club Smitz or however it was spelled. Shared a table with him dozen or so times when it was packed.

I would have been PO'd

A long time ago, Continental from Houston to I don't remember where. Plane was apparently carrying a load of frozen shrimp in the luggage compartment. On landing, pilot had to go into an emergency stop for some reason. The shrimp landed on the luggage, especially my garment bag. By the time I got my luggage, the shrimp had thawed and the stink was awful. That was my first and only experience with an emergency stop, airplane brakes are amazing.

If you ever wake up one morning and tell yourself you want to get on the worst flight in your life, then get on a plane with me. Seriously.

Run off the end of the runway, TWICE.
Caught in wind shear and close to face planting. TWICE
Tire blowout on runway, THREE times, once on fire.
Gravy maker will not ever get on a plane with me again. Not ever.
There's a lot more, it's got to be more than a 15 hour drive before I even think about getting on the silver tube of death.

I never flew for business.. But was fortunate enough to go on some good vacations..

And if you were ever in my party, I would always warn you of the Bendele Airport Curse.. Cause it was gonna happen a high percentage of the time..

Personal worst was a trip to Argentina.. Had a group going with me from San Antonio to ATL to Buenos Aires and onward.

The only time in the history of the San Antonio International airport ever having a bomb threat.. Guess who was past security. In a bar near the gate drinking Shiners. Till they evacuated the airport.. Us included of course..

Took off three hours late.. Missed the flight to BA by minutes.. Could not get on another flight to BA till the next afternoon.. Via Chicago.. Not exactly in the right direction..

Told them to get me on the next thing smokin back to SA..

Spent the night in ATL and flew back home the next AM. Baggage made it back about three days later via BA..

Working in Augusta Georgia in the mid 80's i would fly home to Houston about once a month out of Atlanta on a cargo flight for $59.00. With it being a cargo plane it only had about 20 seats on it. My very first flight home a mechanic gets on board carrying a tool box and sits down across the isle from me. As we are taxing out for takeoff i asked him if he was flying home from a job and he says no I work for the airline. Said that they had been having trouble with one of the rear hatches staying locked during the flights and he was there to fix it if it happened again. I never knew if he was F**king with me or not but I didn't unfasten my seatbelt until we landed in Houston.

What airline?

Delta

Bassturds in American Airlines changed my gate 15 minutes before boarding. I looked at the wife and said Uhoh. I hope the luggage switches.

It didn’t.

My dress uniform was in there. I was going home for my mom’s funeral. Not happy.

They actually had the gall to ask me several times if I was sure I didn’t want to go to the airport to pick it up. This was a couple days later. I said eff no. My mom’s funeral was earlier that day. Deliver my shizz to me.

It was on the porch the next morning an hour away from the airport.

Your story doesn’t check…

2009 and was headed to Anchorage for work. Flying out of ATL, storms came up and flight delayed for an hour. Storm slacked off & we boarded & it intensified 2 fold as we taxied out. Got held on tarmac for 2 hrs...that was back when they would do that. Missed my connection in Denver & airport was shut down. Slept in airport till they opened next morning...got a flight to Seattle & connected on Alaska Air as they had flights in & out of Seattle to Anchorage on the hour. Got to Anchorage & got picked up but had to wait 2 days for my luggage to get there.

I had been working the deep night shift at the Gulfstream Aircraft factory for 3 weeks. Six pm until six am, seven days a week. Finally, they said I could go home to DFW, and they scheduled me a flight out of Savannah for 8:00 am. Well, after my last 6am shift, I should have gotten to the airport. But mistakenly, I thought, "I've been here for three weeks and have yet to see any of the city. So I rescheduled a flight from Savannah to Atlanta, to DFW, to depart Savannah about 7:30 pm and arrive about 10:30 pm. Plenty of time to sleep and then go to work the next day. And out I went into Savannah, Tybee Island, and Ft. Polaski.

Caught the flight out of Savannah okay. Got to Atlanta and boarded the flight to DFW. Pushed back about 10 feet from the gate and stopped. Pilot finally comes on and says " We are in a hold because of a weather front over DFW. We are going to hold for a while until the weather clears. About two hours later he comes back on, "Well the storm front seems to be stalled over DFW, but we're going to go ahead and take off, in hopes that the front moves before we get to DFW." Off we go.

As we get over Texas, the pilot comes back on, "Well, the storm front is still over the DFW Airport and we're not getting in. Any Nobody else is getting in either. So we're going to orbit out here over East Texas for a while and see if the storm moves on." And we orbit for a good while.

Mind you, by this time it's in the middle of the night. Everyone's asleep on the plane, except this one guy who's been working the night shift for three weeks. I"M WIDE AWAKE.

After a good while the pilot comes back on, "Well it's still a mess over DFW, but we're going to make a run at it and see how bad it is. If we can't land, we'll go on to our secondary destination on Austin." So we head in .... I don't know how low we got to the airport ...or how close we got to the runway .... but I know that we got the ride of our lives, bumpier than all get out. Finally, the Pilot powers up pulls in the flaps and gains altitude. "We'll, we're not getting in, so we're heading to our secondary destination of SAN ANTONIO." And off we go.

We land in SA and start taxiing to the terminal. "We'll folks, we're going t pull up to the gate and have them refuel us, and then we're off to DFW. Everybody just stay onboard and as soon as we get gassed up we'll be on our way." By this time, it's close to 2:00 am, we've all been sitting, strapped in our seats for quite some time. And we sit ...... "Finally the pilot comes on and says, "We realize that you've been in this plane for awhile. We're going to open the terminal and allow you to get out and walk around for a bit. Most everything in the airport is closed, but you can stretch your legs while we gas up the plane. So we all get off, and as soon as we exit the plane I turn to my left and there's a big glass window pane where I can look out at the 757 we just flew in on. I'm watching the storm front start to move into SA Airport, and see a guy in a yellow rain slicker walk out under the wing and open an engine cowling. Uh Oh .... they don't put the gas in there! So I found a pay phone and call the wife. Hey, I'm in San Antonio. Don't know when I'll be back. After a while we all stumble back on the plane and take our seats. And we wait. After awhile the pilot comes on, "Well folks, seems like we have an issue with the thrust reverser, but we have a mechanic working on it, and as soon as he's finished the repair we'll get the log books signed and be on our way back to DFW." Heard that part about the log books three more times, every half hour or so.

Finally they let us off the plane again. People are by now looking for alternative ways out of SA. I thought about renting a car. But in the gate next to us, some activity started building as gate attendants were showing up for a 6:00am flight of an MD-80 to DFW. Everyone from our plane lined up, hoping to catch that flight. Finally, the gate attendant got on the microphone, "People, I know where you are from and what has happened, but there are more of you, than this little plane even holds." So most of us just stand in ine, in a kind of stupor. Then I notice that the line is getting shorter ... From The Back. People are getting back on the original 757, and I follow along. Take my old seat. later the Pilot comes on "Well, we had a mechanic stow the thrust reverser. As soon as he signs the log book we're off to DFW. I thoght 'Stow The Thrust Reverser, means DISABLE the thrust reverser.' I'm glad we're headed to an airport with 10,000 ft. runways.

We landed at 8:00 am. I went directly to the office and told my boss, "You've already had me for eight hours. I'm headed home."

What type of aircraft was that? I flew Delta a lot during the 80's and I don't recall that configuration.

Not sure about worse. At 1 time I did a lot of flying. Out on Monday morning normally home Friday evening for months at a time. DFW to Birmingham or Huntsville. If there was a line the rental car company would call me the front and Guntersville Holiday Inn left me fruit baskets in my room.

Worst flight was probably to O'Hare connecting South Bend in a snowstorm. Circled O'Hare for 2-1/2 hours until we ran low on fuel and diverted to Detroit. Back then airlines stocked liquor on morning flights. They sold out. Got into O'Hare around 3:00. All connecting flights into South Bend were canceled along with busses. Went to the rental car counter. Got behind a drunk renting a car to South Bend. Lady at counter asked me where I was going. I told her I had a car reserved in South Bend. She said that is good. Why don't you ride with this guy and you can drive. I said sure I am not riding with him driving with 10" of snow on the ground. Got to South Bend about 10 and to my hotel room in Goshen about midnight.

Worse overall traveling experience was flying into Portland in a snowstorm. Only about 2" in Portland but about a foot out towards I5 were I was headed. Snow would not have been a big deal but it started heavy and wet with temps falling into the teens. We were suppose to meet a VP at plant and he got diverted to Eugene and never made it. We spent day at plant waiting for him. Drove back to Portland and booked a room at an airport hotel. Had a flight booked in the morning to DFW. Got to the airport and American told us that the Eugene airport runways were a solid sheet of ice and all their planes except 1 were stuck there. The VP we were suppose to meet was on that plane but it was booked to DFW. He said they took off from Eugene and the plane was sideways going down runway. I got on the phone and called American they said the only thing available was a Delta flight but we would never make it. I was looking at the Delta plane across the tarmac. I was looking out a window towards the north and watched Mt St Helen's blow. Minor eruption but ash shutdown the airport. Booked a morning flight and went back to hotel. We get to the airport the next morning and they almost canceled our flight because the water was frozen. We finally take off and were told halfway to DFW that it might shutdown due to ice. Fortunately did not happen. This was just days before Christmas. My boss had called the corporate office and they has authorized us to charter a flight or rent a car. Glad we did not have to do the latter because I would have been driving.

I've spent the night on the floor in the terminals @ Hartsfield, Sea-Tac, and Hobby..... not a lot of fun.... hehe. Had a couple of long waits in international customs, but, obviously no fault of the airlines. One of the worst was sitting in a snowstorm on the tarmac, then a taxiway, then back at the gate....off the plane for an hour.... than back on the tarmac.... for 7 hours..... at Dulles in DC. Severe turbulence on a few occasions (learned to keep my seatbelt fastened at all times). A few lost bags, but, honestly no biggie as they got em to me within 24 hours or less.

The worst experience I've had was a plane pull out of the gate 20 minutes early on me (filmed it on my video camera with proof of the time). I got there in plenty of time for a 6:45am flight, but, no gate agents (small airport) so I couldn't check in. I was red hot about this one, at least initially. I showed them that I'd called AA from the terminal ("where are the gate agents?") well in advance and had multiple witnesses, etc. So, i did win the "counter battle" for what that was worth. It all worked out in the end as AA gave me a nice voucher, etc.

Overall, I gotta say, they've done a great job of getting me there and back over all these decades....

Now, I have witnessed the degradation of both the service provided by our domestic airlines and also the quality of individuals who are flying.... it's like a Greyhound bus ride nowadays compared to when I first started flying. BTW, Korean Airlines has been the best to date.... by far the best. Southwest the easiest domestic to deal with in my experience.

my wife flies regularly for work. last year the flight from longview to dallas was canceled because the pilot was drunk

How many times was that the case and it was blamed on the weather??????

It’s not a true story.

i’m betting your gut is right. I’m sure the only reason she found out is because it was east texas regional.