Hello, everyone. <BR>What is the strangest, most ridiculous or most laughable excuse you've heard from a reservation agent, gate agent or anyone associated with an airline? <BR> <BR>

I think the best one I heard was in Salt Lake City. We were already behind schedule, so I asked the agent for an estimated departure time. <BR>He said something to the effect that as soon as the crew got done cleaning and loading food we could board. <BR>There was one slight flaw in his story: <BR>there was no aircraft at the gate!! <BR>I just laughed. It is not good form to call people liars even when they are. <BR>

The worst for me (because we had to stay in Newark, NJ for 24 hours instead of flying to Ireland) was that our plane couldn't take off from Baltimore because it couldn't land in Newark because the runways were so crowded with planes that couldn't take off from Newark because there were thunderstorms in the Midwest.

PS - The connecting flight from Baltimore to Newark was just a puddle jumper that probably could have landed on the parking lot.

From the now defunct Kiwi Airlines <BR>(a U.S carrier), <BR>Our 10 hr delay was due to <BR>1- there was no plane, it had "disappeared" at it's take -off point. <BR> end of explanation. <BR>2-The airline finally found us a plane, a UPS cargo carrier, that was converted with seats and windows , to accommodate us. <BR>When it landed with all the tired, angry passengers, and it's crew; <BR>We , waiting passangers, knew we were in trouble when the crew also debarked, and said to us <BR>"Good Luck" as they walked past us. <BR>It turned out that this crew now had too much airtime to fly anymore! <BR> and the airline had to fly a crew in from the midwest. <BR>Then, said crew arrived, and went off to eat a relaxing restaurant dinner. <BR>So, first there were passangers with=out a plane, trying to make their way to Florida, and a crew. <BR>then , there was a plane, but no crew. <BR> <BR> Meanwhile, we passangers sat at the gate, being admonished by the airline rep, <BR>to not upset this crew, because if they got angry at us, <BR>"they would leave without us!!" <BR>It got to be a joke, but a not too funny one. <BR>One interesting feature was the growing number of police who accompanied this rep. <BR>Each time she appeared, to chastize us for our impatience, and tell us the latest developments, she had one more police person with her! <BR> <BR>I truly think this airline expected a riot. <BR> <BR>By the time we finally got to our destination, we could have hired a bus, and driven 3/4 of the way <BR>(and this was a 1600 mile trip!) <BR> <BR>Once, in Trinadad, my husband and I sat for 12 hrs, because the airline <BR>"gave our plane away " to tourists going to Barbados. <BR>These tourists were all caucasians, from Europe. <BR>We, although caucasian also, were on a flight , filled with all islanders, going to St. Vincent. <BR>It was really astounding to me, that the airline did something so blatant; <BR>hold up one group of travelers <BR>(local islanders), to get another group of travelers (well-to-do tourists)to their destination. <BR>We, the ones without a plane, were told that our plane was having "difficulties" <BR>Right. <BR> <BR>

On an end-of-workday flight from NYC to Chicago, we landed in Milwaukee to wait out the rainstorm that had disabled O'Hare. That was the story. But a dozen or more businessmen on that flight got on their cell phones, called their wives to alert them to the rain delay and were assured, one and all, that Chicago was perfectly sunny. At which point a planeload of don't-&%#@-with-me execs, tired after a day's business in NYC, demanded the truth and the crew, which was sworn to secrecy, started handing out free top-shelf liquor. <BR> <BR>Turned out Chicago's entire air traffic system had gone down. Why the airline thought a planeload of drunk passengers speculating about terrorism was better than a planeload of sober passengers who knew the truth remains unknown!

After waiting four hours in Miami for a plane to the Bahamas, I finally asked the ticket agent why we were waiting so long. She said our plane had been hit by lightning on the way to Miami and the nose had been blown off, but they would fix it before we boarded. I prayed a lot on that flight.

On a flight from the British Virgin Islands last month, we landed in Miami and were going to resume the final flight leg home on the same plane and had 45 minutes to deplane and stretch our legs... <BR> <BR>After THREE hours I asked why it was taking so long... <BR> <BR>"Oh! No big deal, the plane you came in on...they discovered a hole in the cargo hold and it is unsafe to fly now." <BR> <BR>(No kidding here) She added, "We have to wait for another plane, 747's don't just fall out of the sky you know, these things take time!" <BR>Sigh. <BR> <BR>Eight hours later I flew home at 2 a.m. <BR> <BR> <BR>

Hour after hour our flight was delayed between Atlanta and Jacksonville, Fl. The excuses included the usual bad weather, etc. The final straw was when the desk agent told us the flight was finally cancelled because...THE PILOT WAS SO PISSED OFF WITH THE DELAYS THAT HE WENT HOME. No pilot no flight. Can you believe it, we gave up and drove the 5 hours to Jax. <BR>A.M.

What I thought was the most laughable excuse actually turned out to be true. Years ago, my TWA flight from Paris to the USA was delayed for more than two hours "because of bunnies on the runway," according to the gate agent. When we finally did take off, I looked down, and you could see swarms of rabbits in the grassy areas surrounding the runways. I've since learned that the bunny population at CDG is indeed a problem and sometimes causes plane delays. But you have to wonder why the rabbits don't just scatter when the engines fire up - also, what kind of a problem bunnies on the runway could be for planes landing! You hate to think...

Dumb bunnies!

We got delayed by a cow one time. It was in a small one runway airport and some cows broke down the fence and came into graze. It was pretty funny watching the airport personnel try to round up the cows with their cars!

I was delayed 3 hours once, on the tarmac, because the handbrake was stuck on. <BR> <BR>Unfortunately, in fixing the handbrake, they had to fiddle with the hydraulics which is why it took so long - a lot of that time was spent checking that the hydraulics were OK so that we could fly safely. The flight was only supposed to be three hours, but we spent over six hours on the plane.

We'd been sitting on the plane for 30 mins at Heathrow waiting for a take-off slot when the pilot told us they'd noticed a crack in the windscreen! <BR>I'm quite glad they 'noticed' it when they did really! I'm not in a hurry to fly with Garuda again.

"We have no crew; they're flying over from London" (this is at Logan Airport) <BR> <BR>"Fog"...in San Francisco. We were picked up at SFO by friends who said it had been the sunniest day that year.

"The crew is giving a birthday party for one of the attendants."

United called us at home to say our afternoon flight out of Dulles would be delayed due to weather, although skies were clear. But they called us at 8:00 a.m., so how did they know the weather would be bad by afternoon? <BR> <BR>Perhaps due to the imminent arrival of Hurricane Poppycock.

Cindy - maybe your flight was delayed on its inward journey, that is the plane for your flight was coming from somewhere else where the weather was bad?

On an Alitalia flight from Chicago to Milan: "The plane, she is not well." (I love those gendered articles) <BR>Went home, rented a couple of movies, crashed for 5 hours, went back to the airport and it was smooth flying from there. Except of course it's Alitalia, so there is always something wierd going on...

You guys, I know the story I'm about to relay seems utterly outrageous, but I promise it's true. Flight from Detroit Metro airport to LaGuardia was delayed about 45 minutes. The pilot was late getting to the airport & received a speeding ticket on the way to Metro. (I won't mention which airline I was flying.) Anyway, the gate crew told us this & told us he got off the hook on the traffic ticket by telling the cop the truth: his wife's ovulation test came out favorably & he had to stay & make her pregnant! <BR>BC