I just spent an extra 5 hours in Cleveland

Yes I did! On Saturday I flew home from Florida on Continental Airlines. I was with my 17-year old daughter and her best friend. We flew on time from Fort Myers to Cleveland and that is where the fun started.

We were scheduled to fly to Manchester at 1:40PM. The weather in Cleveland was blue sky and clear for 20 miles. The weather in Manchester was overcast with a little precipitation but the airport was fully open and almost 100% of the flights inbound and outbound were on time (which in airline lingo means within 15 minutes of on-schedule).

Oh, and did I tell you the plane was at the gate and ready for boarding at 1:15PM? Yes it was. So why did we not take off until after 6PM? Because they were missing a flight attendant. The one we were supposed to have was on another flight to Houston. So they (the airline) had to call “Operations” to find another one who was supposedly on “Airport Standby” for just such a situation. Well lo and behold they really don’t have “Airport Standby” anymore so we had to wait until a flight from Nassau arrived at 5:45PM and steal one of their flight attendants.

The problem with airlines today is far more than the price of oil, although I admit that is a factor. But to make over 60 people wait for a plane just because it was missing a flight attendant…don’t get me started. It’s not like we were going to be fed a big meal on a 70-minute flight!

One of the gate agents told me the reason there were no extra crews around was because airlines have cut everything to the bone and they don’t want under-utilized staff hanging around. Never mind good customer relations! I sure hope they haven’t cut any mechanics for “standing around” –don’t you?