Recorded in the beautiful home office Chateau’ Relaxo.
If you traveled by plane over the past few weeks, hopefully, you have been reunited with your luggage and you finally have made it home.
In case you didn’t hear 2022 Christmas air travel was a dumpster fire and a winter storm ignited the fire on Friday, December 23rd, and the havoc from that continued for almost the entire next week.
Because I’m a data nerd here are some numbers.
Tuesday, December 27th Over 20,00 delayed flights and 5100 canceled flights.
Wednesday, December 28th Over 11,000 delayed flights and 4475 canceled flights.
Southwest Airlines took the brunt of it by canceling over 2500 flights on both Tuesday the 27th and Wednesday the 28th. Southwest owned up to what it could by calling its own performance "unacceptable." In case you didn't know the word unacceptable, offers no help if you’re trying to get to your destination and retrieve your luggage.
So what did Southwest do to gain all this attention? Let me grab my logistics clipboard and try to explain. Southwest doesn’t use a hub system like Delta or American Airlines. Southwest bases its routes on a point-to-point system. This means they fly directly to the destination instead of being routed through a central hub. This is one of the reasons I switched from Delta to Southwest when I relocated to O-Town. Every Delta flight I took had me going through Atlanta, one of their hubs. If I needed to go to Nashville I had a layover in Atlanta, same with New Orleans and Newark.
Point-to-point isn’t a bad system…. Until something like this storm takes place because the planes have nowhere to go since their destination, is their destination and there’s no giant plane parking lot to hang out in for three or four days.
As one that appreciates creative marketing, this travel debacle provided the perfect on-ramp for marketing directors. Case and point, dateline Las Vegas, Nevada. Larry Flynt’s Hustler Club is advertising that anyone who can show proof of having a canceled or delayed flight at Harry Reid International Airport can call them for a free ride to the club, and also receive a free cover, a drink, and a lap dance ( insert your own turbulence or bumpy ride joke here). In the spirit of research, I visited the Las Vegas Hustlers Clubs website and it appears that the free cover charge, a drink, and a lap dance is a $60.00 value, not including the free ride to the club. Not sure if that’s a fair trade for a flight delay, but the value is up to the recipient.
To sum up holiday travel I leave you with this. Up until 2020 the CEO and I normally got on a plane during the holidays and I don’t recall ever having a travel disaster. Possibly a delayed flight but never to the point of being stranded.
Onto the December crazy travel roundup.
Let's open with an update of sorts. The running joke for the better part of 2022 centered around Hertz rental cars and whether or not you’d be arrested for not returning your rental car even if you had never rented from Hertz.
From the Hertz website.
On December 5th Hertz announced the settlement of 364 pending claims relating to vehicle theft reporting, bringing resolution to more than 95% of its pending theft reporting claims. The company will pay an aggregate amount of approximately $168 million by year-end to resolve these disputes. The company believes it will recover a meaningful portion of the settlement amount from its insurance carriers.
On the surface, this sounds great, and without knowing all the details the rough math indicates this could mean several hundred thousand dollars for each of the 364 claims. What isn’t addressed in the statement is what has been done, or what is being done to prevent this from happening again. Hertz has taken a sizeable hit to their credibility and I imagine that somewhere in that insurance company payout there will be some verbiage addressing the prevention of just that in the future or at least limiting the insurance company's liability if it does happen again.
The last time I mentioned the Hertz fiasco was during the October crazy travel roundup and I summed it up with this - “Hertz this has been going on a bit too long. You’ve had plenty of time to resolve your software issues…. Maybe it’s time for a new CIO.” Fast forward to December 2023 - and so far I haven't received any LinkedIn messages indicating that the position is open.
Our first Thank you Florida story comes to us from Fox 2 Detroit - Man and father-in-law kicked off plane leaving Flint airport for saying 'penis'
Jayson Bauer said he and his father-in-law were flying down to Thank You Florida to help them move when they were approached by Allegiant Airlines flight staff. Bauer said no reason was given for the removal until they were brought off the flight.
"Finally the Flint police and the airport authority came over and said we were removed because I said the word ‘penis’ on board an airplane," he said. "I meant it in no derogatory (way). I mean, it's part of the male anatomy and we were literally kicked off an airplane in Flint.
Bauer said his wife had to come and pick him and his father-in-law up as a result.
A spokesman with Allegiant Airlines said two passengers had become disruptive and verbally abusive after boarding the plane. "When crew members instructed them to cease their unruly behavior, the passengers failed to comply. As a result, both were deplaned and reaccommodated to other flights,"
According to Bauer, they weren't the only ones kicked off the flight. There was another person who was intoxicated while a fourth person also threw up.
In the end, Bauer and his Father-in-law drove to Florida.
This story hit most of the travel blogosphere websites and this one comment nailed it head-on.
Alan wrote - An uplifting story for travelers. Allegiant is facing stiff competition, but they still gave them a hard time and got them off the plane. However, they were able to rise to the occasion and found their way to Florida without winding up in the hole.
So to sum it up.
The other two unruly passengers were Mike Johnson and Dick Hertz.
Apparently, Allegiant Airlines has a very rigid behavior policy.
For most of my life, I’ve been someone that didn’t require much sleep. My internal alarm clock typically goes off between 5:45 & 6:00 AM regardless of the time I go to sleep. That being said there are those who view sleep as a precious resource requiring 9+ hours each evening as well as hitting the snooze button multiple times in the morning.
I truly admire people that can sleep 8 or more hours at a clip, I also admire those that can take naps during the day. If I take a nap it’s normally because I’m sick. From Live and Let’s Fly I give you our second Thank You Florida story of the month.
COT IN THE ACT: DELTA PASSENGER SETS UP HUGE MATTRESS IN GATE AREA, GOES TO SLEEP
Cot as in c-o-t, not c-a-u-g-h-t.
This took place at my home airport MCO.
This passenger is so serious about their sleep that he brought an inflatable air mattress with him to the airport. An air mattress like you have for when company stays over for the evening. If you spend any time at the airport you will see passengers exhibiting various sleeping arrangements. Lots of hoodies covering their whole head, pillows are commonplace and on occasion, you’ll come across someone with a hammock strung between two support pillars. However, this LAD took the initiative to find enough open real estate to not only set the mattress up but it was also close enough to an outlet that permitted it to be pumped up.
While it’s easy to brush this off as some lunatic Florida Man getting on a plane I believe that there was a lot of thought that went into this. This took place on December 13th, the previous day it was all over the news that MCO was on the verge of running out of jet fuel and was facing a complete shutdown, and then throw in a side order of nasty weather between Florida and Atlanta, Georgia, his actual destination.
There’s a chance this Florida Man was living in 2032, and not 2022.
One final Thank You Florida story, securing this month's crazy travel roundup hat trick.
Thank you TMZ. Miami International Airpot - AIRPORT FREAKOUT WOMAN CHUCKS COMPUTER AT AIRLINE AGENT
Five days before Christmas a woman in Miami ripped out a computer monitor and threw it at a gate agent. Yes, there’s a link to the video in the show notes.
The crazy scene played out Tuesday, December 20th at Miami International Airport, and it shows a woman going absolutely nuts on American Airlines staff in the middle of a crowded gate area ... eventually getting her hands on a computer screen and throwing it at the agent.
In case you didn’t know TMZ rarely does a deep dive into stories unless it happens inside the Thirty Mile Zone. No need to fret as the travel blogosphere sites immediately picked it up.
It turns out to the commotion was over her kids, her missing kids, and that someone should find her kids. As you could well imagine the police did show up to help, not to help find the kids but to help her into the back of a police car.
It turns out the kids had gone to the restroom and forgot to tell their mom. Maybe they were trying to run away from this lunatic.
This is a solid argument for a nationwide no-fly list.
So much for being on Santa’s nice list.
From CBOARDINGGROUP.com we have - Flight Attendant’s Commentary on Luxury Bags Gets The Plane Laughing.
This took place on a Southwest flight. If you’ve never flown Southwest, and after the holiday travel disaster some of you never will, there are a few things that stand out about Southwest.
First, Southwest flight attendants are allowed the freedom to have a bit of fun while doing their job. For instance, the safety announcement might turn into an impromptu comedy sketch, or they’ll hand out candy on Halloween flights.
Second, there are no assigned seats which can make storing your carry-on and personal baggage a bit of a challenge, which tends to slow the boarding process down.
There was a Tik-Tok video of what I’m about to describe but divine_sorrow916 who posted the video decided to make their account private.
Recently a Southwest Airlines flight attendant laid it on thick when encouraging passengers to stow their smaller luggage under the seatback in front of them to make room in the overhead bins.
He describes the rigorous testing they’ve performed to ensure that Gucci and Prada and all the other luxury bags fit easily under the seatback he then deadpans the punch line: “If they were real you wouldn’t be flying Southwest would you?”
As they say “Nailed it”.
Several years ago I had a late evening flight into Tampa and as we were crossing the Gulf the pilot knew we were flying into turbulence so the fasten seat belt chime sounded and the indicator was illuminated. The lady seated next to me was sipping on a cup of coffee when we hit turbulence and the plane immediately dropped in altitude. Her coffee came out of the cup in this brown mass, hit the ceiling of the aircraft, and then came down on both of our heads.
Ending today’s episode with this month's PSA.
“When you are on a plane always keep your seat belt fastened” even when it isn’t required”.
December 19th - At least 36 people were injured, some seriously, after ‘severe turbulence’ on a Hawaiian Airlines flight. Eleven patients were in serious condition, Honolulu Emergency Medical Services said in a statement. Among those transported to the hospital was a 14-month-old child.
The patients’ injuries included a serious head injury, lacerations, bruising, and loss of consciousness, Honolulu EMS said.
The next day Five were injured after 'severe turbulence' on a United Airlines flight into Houston.
No matter how sophisticated avionics systems are, they aren’t perfect and Mother nature can be a bitch.
Ending 2022 on a very sad note
A statement from Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama - Today around 3 pm an American Airlines ground crew piedmont employee was involved in a fatality, no additional information is available at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the deceased.
More details came forward overnight as it seems that a baggage handler was sucked into an engine on an American Airlines E175 jet.
How tragic.
There you have it episode 182, the December crazy travel roundup. 2022 is in the books and 2023 lies ahead.
If you want detailed show notes, links and pictures head over to podpage.com/travel-stories/
Or visit Substack at travelstories.substack.com/
You can also leave me a message on Anchor, or shoot me an email at TravelFrick@gmail.com.
As I always say, travel safe, stay safe, and thanks for listening.
The December Crazy Travel Roundup - Travel Stories, Episode 182