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random thoughts in Cincinnati
There are no direct Pittsburgh-Chattanooga flights (not surprising). The cheapest ticket was on Delta, whose hub is Cincinnati.
Delta doesn't do Chattanooga directly; they have a partner (or perhaps an assimilated smaller airline?) called Comair that flies there. Comair apparently also does Pittsburgh occasionally, as my final leg back to Pittsburgh was Comair rather than Delta.
All three Comair flights that I took were on the same type of plane, a little 50-seater that doesn't interface with the "just walk onto the plane" style of gates. So for three of the four flights, I walked onto the tarmac and then walked up a set of steps onto the plane.
In Cincinnati, it appears that all Comair flights use this interface, though not necessarily the exact same plane type. You walk onto the tarmac and then walk up onto your plane.
While I was sitting at the Comair gates on Sunday, I noticed many people in wheelchairs waiting to board. I heard one person tell an attendant "it's ok; I can climb the steps if there are rails", this was definitely not going to be the case for some of the people I saw. I wonder how the heck they were going to get those people onto the planes, but there really wasn't an appropriate time to ask someone. Do they have some sort of lift that they can hook up to replace the steps?
Another observation: these steps are very narrow, and have railings on both sides. I definitely know people who are too large to fit. That has got to be really embarrassing.
Either Comair was having a spate of bad luck, or their ticketing practices are worse than the norm. I heard announcements -- all in about a 25-minute span -- of four flights that were oversold. They were looking for volunteers to take a different flight "for compensation". They didn't broadcast what the compensation is, though, so I don't know how expensive this overbooking is for them.
My flight (on a 50-seat plane) had, I think, 6 empty seats.
Delta doesn't do Chattanooga directly; they have a partner (or perhaps an assimilated smaller airline?) called Comair that flies there. Comair apparently also does Pittsburgh occasionally, as my final leg back to Pittsburgh was Comair rather than Delta.
All three Comair flights that I took were on the same type of plane, a little 50-seater that doesn't interface with the "just walk onto the plane" style of gates. So for three of the four flights, I walked onto the tarmac and then walked up a set of steps onto the plane.
In Cincinnati, it appears that all Comair flights use this interface, though not necessarily the exact same plane type. You walk onto the tarmac and then walk up onto your plane.
While I was sitting at the Comair gates on Sunday, I noticed many people in wheelchairs waiting to board. I heard one person tell an attendant "it's ok; I can climb the steps if there are rails", this was definitely not going to be the case for some of the people I saw. I wonder how the heck they were going to get those people onto the planes, but there really wasn't an appropriate time to ask someone. Do they have some sort of lift that they can hook up to replace the steps?
Another observation: these steps are very narrow, and have railings on both sides. I definitely know people who are too large to fit. That has got to be really embarrassing.
Either Comair was having a spate of bad luck, or their ticketing practices are worse than the norm. I heard announcements -- all in about a 25-minute span -- of four flights that were oversold. They were looking for volunteers to take a different flight "for compensation". They didn't broadcast what the compensation is, though, so I don't know how expensive this overbooking is for them.
My flight (on a 50-seat plane) had, I think, 6 empty seats.
no subject
http://www.cnn.com/2002/TRAVEL/NEWS/03/25/business.travel/index.html
I'm glad I don't have to fly between PHL and BOS on a regular basis anymore. If that were the case, I'd probably be driving, or taking the bus. (Ghu knows travel on the Northeast Corridor on Amtrak has become expensive enough, and is no faster.) Pittsburgh to Chattanooga is a short enough hop that I'd consider driving. Mapquest claims it's 600 miles and 11 hours. You'd probably get some lovely Appalachian scenery on the way, too.
Seriously, people tell me there's at least a 50% chance that a given flight will be canceled due to "underutilization" (translation: "There aren't enough passengers on this flight to cover the cost of running it, so we're putting everybody on another plane." Do this enough times and you have some very crowded airplanes, once one finally takes off.
Typically, if you volunteer to be bumped, the compensation is better than what you'd get if they had to bump you involuntarily.
no subject
The original plan was to drive (or, rather, ride down with the rest of the group, who were driving down with a carload of instruments). I ended up deciding to fly for a few reasons: (1) I wanted to maximize odds of arrival before Shabbat; (2) the car was going to be really, really cramped, which gets uncomfortable over the course of 22 hours; (3) I wanted some "unwind time" on Sunday that would have been challenging otherwise; (4) I got an ok price on a ticket. As it turned out, there wouldn't have been room for me in the car anyway, so it's just as well I didn't try. (I personally dislike driving, so wouldn't have done the drive myself.)