The Penalty Box

Malko

Malko

Why…..? It’s so tiring. 🤙
Staff member
Had an 1130 flight yesterday out of EWR to MSP and had my first experience with penalty box.

We boarded on time and pushed back for taxi. Started to taxi to 22L when all of a sudden we made a couple of right hand turns by the international terminal. At first I thought we just had to circle to let someone get ahead of us but nope. We went a little further and stopped so the pilots could trouble shoot a couple of 'switches'.....

Fifteen minutes later we taxied back to the ramp and were told it would be at least an hour if the fixed this plane or we may get another plane altogether. Grab the bags and off we go. We were sitting around the terminal and 15 minutes later they had a plane. No big deal........

But people, when they say wait in the terminal, they mean WAIT. We had two people in our group go out and grab a smoke. Guess what, they darn near missed the plane. I am surprised they did not just push back w/o them.

All in all a great job by Xjet! Why do people get so upset with mechanical issues? It's a plane, it is going to break. If it ain't working right, I don't want to fly.
 
They're not upset. They just know that, for their $60 ticket, all those complicated moving parts on that little jet of theirs should work perfectly. Anything less than that is a conspiracy by the airline to screw them over.


:D
 
JEP said:
All in all a great job by Xjet! Why do people get so upset with mechanical issues? It's a plane, it is going to break. If it ain't working right, I don't want to fly.
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Quite simply, most folks aren't as enamored with the prospects of aviation travel as alot of the folks on these BB's. It's simply a mode of transportation to get from point A to B. Many people nowadays are under tight time lines and they see it as though the airline's time is wasting their money.

I have to admit that over the years few things "irk" me more than after I spend hundreds of dollars for a service only to be hassled by the TSA, snubbed by an overworked and underpaid ticket agent as if I just parked in their "employee of the month" parking spot, led like cattle into the airplane and being greeted by Atilla-the-Hun flight attendant who's having a bad hair day, wait for the "First class" late arriving passenger(s), sit in the ever increasing "Congo line" for takeoff and then to discover there's a mechanical, Wx or ATC problem and we need to return to the gate to start the absurdity all over again.:banghead: All the while the public knows they have very little recourse and are treated anyway the airline feels inclined to do so, usually negatively . No thanks! I'll drive!

I'm old enough to remember the good ole' days of air travel and they certainly are missed.

Sorry for the rant...this subject hit a nerve.


BTW...EWR sucks any way you slice it! The controllers do a great job and are some of the BEST in the biz..GOD bless'em! You couldn't pay me enough to do what they do on a daily basis, however, you can't put 10lbs of potatoes in a wet 5lb bag every day and not have it come apart..EVERYDAY!
 
JEP, I've had three of my flights that I've flown end up in the Penalty Box. One was for two hours in ATL because of a ground stop in........................wait for it..........................















ORD. :rolleyes:

The other two were IN ORD and both lasted approximately 45 minutes each because the alley was jammed with both Eagle & United aircraft ..... who were all delayed of course....

You should see the "dance" that goes on in the penalty box when one aircraft FINALLY gets out. Just think of "Student Body RIGHT" and you've pretty much got it. ;)

A300Capt: Well said.
 
GaTechKid said:
C'mon...you love the fox alley....:D
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Ahh crap. I have my first trip out of ORD next month--it's a 3-day with one 6-leg day. I'm not really looking forward to it, but I guess it's like getting your wisdom teeth out...it's got to happen sometime. At least the captain is a good guy, really laid back.
 
You'll get nostalgic about the ATR on routes like ORD-AZO, ORD-ATW, ORD-GRB, ORD-CWA, ORD-PIA, ORD-SPI, ORD-SBN, ORD-FWA, ORD-GRR, ORD-MLI, and the ever popular ORD-MKE.

"Chicago Departure, SKW 5898 1,600 for 5000."
"SKW 5898, Chicago Departure, radar contact turn left 020 radar vectors ILS 19R Milwaukee."

:D
 
We left someone at the gate today. We were an hour late and had to get boarded and outa there, otherwise we would be late the rest of the day. Well luck has it that after waiting for 10 minutes while a new gate agent and new rampers fussed over trying to locate this passenger that had been there for 3 hours, I walked in and said "we're closing the door in 20 seconds, with or without him." He was probably either at the bar or in line at the bagel place. The line at that place rivals Six Flags.
 
Wait a second, Stan...how is is possible that you've been based out of DFW for over a year and you've never been to the box there? :D That was a weekly occurrence when I was commuting through DFW (but that was all on mainline).

I get sent to the box in LA on a biweekly basis--usually for gate availability, but a couple of times for maintainance as well. LAX usually runs pretty smoothly, but if you get there at 8-11pm when every asian airline is trying to repo their 747's to the gates, it gets really messy.
 
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