Why do people sleep in airports? I always see these people on the news...

Richard wrote:

"Peter Lawrence" wrote in message
. net...


I always wonder why in this day when almost everyone travels
with a cell phone, why many people will stand in long lines to
rebook a flight at the ticket counter. Just phone the airline's toll-
free 800 number to rebook.

If you're travelling then there's a good chance that you're roaming and your
cell provider is going to rape you on airtime charges even if you call a
tollfree number.

Richard

It depends on your contract. In my case continental US to the same is
on the minutes.

Richard wrote:
"Peter Lawrence" wrote in message
. net...

I always wonder why in this day when almost everyone travels
with a cell phone, why many people will stand in long lines to
rebook a flight at the ticket counter. Just phone the airline's toll-
free 800 number to rebook.

If you're travelling then there's a good chance that you're roaming and your
cell provider is going to rape you on airtime charges even if you call a
tollfree number.

Richard

Then just use a public payphone. Most airports still have quite a few
of them. Toll-free numbers are still toll-free on payphones.

- Peter

DevilsPGD wrote:
In message Peter
Lawrence wrote:

Sarah Banick wrote:
It's especially bad at holidays, when families have scraped up just enough
money for four tickets to go see grandma. There's no budget for cabs or
hotels.
Unless they got stuck while trying to catch a connecting flight, the
usual solution to this problem is just to go back to grandma's house and
stay over an extra night.

Unless you're a three hour drive from grandma's house at that point.

Then just rebook for the same flight for the next day. You'll then have
24 hours to go back and forth from grandma's house, have a couple of
nice meals and a good night's rest. That sure beats sleeping on the
floor at the airport, especially if you're traveling with kids.

(Of course, if it takes three hours to get to the airport, it would be
prudent to call ahead and find out the status of your flight before you
head off to the airport.)

- Peter

On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 12:48:27 +0100, "tim....."
wrote:


But there is liklely to be an alternative flight to a destination
that is more suitable than spending 24 hours in an airport
waiting for a flight.

timn

If I'm going from ATL to BWI for example, and BWI is not operating
because of a blizzard, how would it help me to go to Miami? Other than
it being better weather?

If the connection city is closed, then yes there may be alternatives
but not if the problem is in the destination city. We were in
Portland, ME last week trying to get to BWI. The flight was a
turnaround and couldn't leave BWI. Flights to DC, Philadelphia and the
New York area were cancelled.

We were fortunate to get out albeit 4 hours late but if our flight
which was the last one of the day (of 3) had been cancelled, what
would our options have been? We didn't get far enough down the road to
check hotels but what if they had been full?

What if the bad weather had been in Portland?

On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:21:11 -0700, Peter Lawrence
wrote:


(Of course, if it takes three hours to get to the airport, it would be
prudent to call ahead and find out the status of your flight before you
head off to the airport.)

- Peter

I've been in airports where they say the flight is on time when it
hasn't left where the plane is coming from and there is no way it
could be on time.

On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:21:11 -0700 Peter Lawrence wrote:

:DevilsPGD wrote:
: In message Peter
: Lawrence wrote:

: Sarah Banick wrote:
: It's especially bad at holidays, when families have scraped up just enough
: money for four tickets to go see grandma. There's no budget for cabs or
: hotels.
: Unless they got stuck while trying to catch a connecting flight, the
: usual solution to this problem is just to go back to grandma's house and
: stay over an extra night.

: Unless you're a three hour drive from grandma's house at that point.

:Then just rebook for the same flight for the next day. You'll then have
:24 hours to go back and forth from grandma's house, have a couple of
:nice meals and a good night's rest. That sure beats sleeping on the
:floor at the airport, especially if you're traveling with kids.

Lose a days work, school, etc.

Why not simply lease a jet?

:(Of course, if it takes three hours to get to the airport, it would be
:prudent to call ahead and find out the status of your flight before you
:head off to the airport.)

You really are quite clueless.

It is rather rare that an airline will admit that a flight is delayed - even
an hour ahead.

--
Binyamin Dissen
http://www.dissensoftware.com

Should you use the mailblocks package and expect a response from me,
you should preauthorize the dissensoftware.com domain.

I very rarely bother responding to challenge/response systems,
especially those from irresponsible companies.

Binyamin Dissen wrote:
On Mon, 18 Jun 2007 15:21:11 -0700 Peter Lawrence wrote:

:DevilsPGD wrote:
: In message Peter
: Lawrence wrote:

: Sarah Banick wrote:
: It's especially bad at holidays, when families have scraped up just enough
: money for four tickets to go see grandma. There's no budget for cabs or
: hotels.
: Unless they got stuck while trying to catch a connecting flight, the
: usual solution to this problem is just to go back to grandma's house and
: stay over an extra night.

: Unless you're a three hour drive from grandma's house at that point.

:Then just rebook for the same flight for the next day. You'll then have
:24 hours to go back and forth from grandma's house, have a couple of
:nice meals and a good night's rest. That sure beats sleeping on the
:floor at the airport, especially if you're traveling with kids.

Lose a days work, school, etc.

The question, if you remember, was about why people stay overnight at
the airport. So the premise is that one probably will lose a day of work
or school because of a canceled flight. One might not lose any more
work days if one stayed over at grandma's house versus sleeping on the
floor at the airport.

Of course if the family's original flight was a late night flight, and
they were able to rebook on an early morning flight, then duh, it might
not be practical to go back to grandma's house. But I already explained
that scenario in an earlier post.


Why not simply lease a jet?

Maybe if you had better reading comprehension, you would already know
the answer. But because you obviously don't, let me explain it to you in
detail. I was responding here to Ms. Banick's hypothetical scenario
where a family had "scraped up just enough money for four tickets to go
see grandma. There's no budget for cabs or hotels."

So if this family didn't have money for a hotel, they wouldn't have
money for a leased jet.

(Yes, I know you were being sarcastic, asshole. But I decided to
explain it do you anyway.)


:(Of course, if it takes three hours to get to the airport, it would be
:prudent to call ahead and find out the status of your flight before you
:head off to the airport.)

You really are quite clueless.

No, I'm just not a cynic like you.

It is rather rare that an airline will admit that a flight is delayed - even
an hour ahead.

Of course, there are times that flights are delayed within minutes of
departure, or even after everyone has boarded the flight and you get
stuck on the tarmac waiting to take off.

But we were discussing not flights that are delayed, but flights that
get canceled. (You really should work on your reading comprehension
skills.) Most airlines (unless they're JetBlue) cancel flights at least
a few hours before their scheduled departure. Of course, there are
still occasionally last minute cancellations that do occur and they can
be a real pain in the butt. Still, it doesn't hurt to call ahead --
except for cynics like you it seems.

Have a nice day.




- Peter

J. Clarke wrote:
Icono Clast wrote:
J. Clarke wrote:
"telephone". Perhaps you might want to familiarize yourself
with it.
What good would that do?

Allow you to determine if there is a room available and to obtain
directions of course, so that you would no longer "have no idea
where it is or whether there's a room available".

I would still have no idea in a place with which my unfamiliarity was
total. Nor would it matter if I was going only to crash and then
return to the airport. The travelling time to/from the airport would
be important.

If someone in a place strange t'me tells me where something is,
it's meaningless. In another forum we're venting our rage over
hotels who claim to be where they're not thus defrauding
travellers who know no better.

Uh, how would a hotel that is not where it claims to be "defraud
travellers"?

By not being where it says.

I don't know about you, but if I go to where the hotel claims to
be and there's no hotel there then they're going to lose my
business.

Well, yes, if you have a specific address and are familiar with the
town. We're talking about particular hotels one of which claims to be
at Union Square but is actually farther than a mile from it and
another that claims to be in the Financial District but is also
farther than a mile from it. In San Francisco, these are significant
distances and the neighborhood of one of those hotels is one of no
interest to tourists and of dubious safety for those with such concerns.

You're the one who seems incapable of contacting a place of
lodging.

Of course I am.
--
__________________________________________________ _________________
Un San Francisqueño en San Francisco.
http://geocities.com/dancefest/ --- http://geocities.com/iconoc/
TouringSFO: http://geocities.com/touringsfo/ - IClast @ Gmail.com


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

In message Peter
Lawrence wrote:

But we were discussing not flights that are delayed, but flights that
get canceled. (You really should work on your reading comprehension
skills.) Most airlines (unless they're JetBlue) cancel flights at least
a few hours before their scheduled departure. Of course, there are
still occasionally last minute cancellations that do occur and they can
be a real pain in the butt. Still, it doesn't hurt to call ahead --
except for cynics like you it seems.

I can't speak to most, but I have never had a flight cancelled on me.

My brother has had two, both times it wasn't cancelled yet when he
arrived to the gate, and in one case wasn't cancelled until about 10
minutes after boarding should have begun.

So I would suggest that it is certainly possible for a flight to be
cancelled hours before it leaves, but it's also possible for there to be
no notice at all.

--
If quitters never win, and winners never quit,
what fool came up with, "Quit while you're ahead"?

Brian Morris:
I've been in airports where they say the flight is on time when it
hasn't left where the plane is coming from and there is no way it
could be on time.

Not necessarily: they could be putting on a separate plane for passengers
joining the flight at the city where you are. I had that happen once.

Of course, that was in 1977. I don't imagine it happens much now.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "The singular of 'data' is not 'anecdote.'"
| -- Jeff Goldberg