Silly reasons that your flight is delayed.
 

Recently I have done alot of flying on a variety of airlines. Most of my flights were delayed. When we are scheduled to leave, the first officer comes on the PA system and gives us the reason why we are not leaving the gate. The funny thing is that each time I fly they have a different explaination reason why the plane is not leaving as scheduled.

I suspect that the stated reason for the delay is just made up to sound good so people will not complain. Usually they use some big words so no one will understand what they are talking about and will keep quiet. They keep a list of silly excuses to trick the passengers.

So what is the stupid reason the flight was delayed on your last flight?

my flight from Phoenix was delay - they said it was because of the weather so they could claim no responsibility; however, I heard the captain on the previous flight in say to the captain of my flight there was a delay b/c the toilet was broken - one more reason why I hate US Air - they lie.

Once we pulled to the side of the runway before taking off... the pilot said to do some "paperwork". Grrrr, I always made my kids go before we left home!

I don't think there are silly reasons. If there are silly excuses from the pilot its to calm down the morons who think everything in life should go as scheduled. Watch "Airline" on A&E Monday or Sunday nights. There are too many Stupid passengers.

One time I was about to board a plane which was to leave on time. They started extending the jetway out to the plane, and somehow the fool who was operating the jetway crashed it into the open door of the plane. It hit the door of the plane so hard it messed it up and they could not close the door, so they told us they would have to bring in another plane. It took over well an hour to get the new plane to our gate.

No silly reasons? How about this: My flight from Anchorage sat for nearly five hours because the full flight crew didn't report. Northwest ended up flying in 757-qualified pilots from Seattle before the flight could leave.

Of course, at first the delay was described as ``mechanical.''

Here's another one--One time I was to fly from Seattle to Hong Kong. After we boarded the plane, they told us that one of the light bulbs on the wing was burnt out and buy law they cannot fly without a good bulb. They told us they were brining a new bulb and we would be leaving soon. About 3 hours went by and they kept assuring us the light bulb was on it's way. Finally they told us they don't have a light bulb, but one is being flown in and the flight will leave the next day. So they put us up in a hotel, bought us dinner and breakfast, and we left the next day. I thought it was ridiculous that we had to miss a day in Hong Kong over a stupid light bulb. Why don't they keep those more handy? Or maybe my question should be, "how many airline employees does it take to change a light bulb?"

I fly AA almost weekly and rarely arive at my destination late.
They build in a cushion so if they are a few minutes late departing I generally still arrive ontime.
No big whoop.

Sat in our seats for 90 minutes as the pilot kept announcing that we'd be off and running as soon as a "minor mechanical malfunction" was taken care of. FINALLY a mechanic came onto the plane, scotch-taped one of those seatback tray-tables that wasn't staying up, and we took off.

I think they take every mechanical issue -- no matter how small -- very seriously. I've had flights delayed for something as small as fixing a bracket that holds the fire extinguisher in place.

My favorite was a flight from Chicago to JAX last Christmas. I should preface this by saying I don't know that this necessarily was the reason for the delay (since virtually every United Express flight I've ever taken has been delayed), but when we got out to the plane we found that the flight attendant had spent some of his pre-flight prep time decorating the galley with garland and Christmas lights.

And the delay that could have been, but wasn't: The pilots of a flight from Chicago to Phoenix a few years ago decided to go on (a three-hour flight), even though there was no running water on the plane.

I think it is silly when things go wrong that any reasonable person should have handled BEFORE the flight was scheduled to leave, so we could leave on schedule. It is called efficency!

For example, why wasn't the light bulb checked and replaced the night before the flight was supose to leave?

You see, I know everything.

When something a Captain reports has broken and needs to be replaced, because I know more than the Captain and First Officer, I know they are silly reasons. I know they aren't important.

Heck, I can build an airplane from scratch.

Airlines love to piss off the flying public. They can do this for no reason because they are all so financially healthy.

Yes, airlines just love to ground planes for absolutely no reason.

Well, GoTravel, thanks for bringing down a fun post.

Last fall, we had a 45 minute delay flying from Amsterdam to Milan. The reason? Someone had checked a container with fish in it and the container was leaking. According to the captain, that was "not a good thing".

How did I bring down a fun post?

I did say I knew everything :-D

My favorite was the time we were flying from Naples, Florida to Miami on a 32 passenger American Eagle where we were to connect to AA to London.
We kept getting delayed and delayed from boarding, although we could see the plane right there and much conversation going on. Finally they announced they needed 16 volunteers not to fly. It ended up that the pilot that came in as a substitute was only to licensed to fly 16 passengers, even though he could fly that plane. We were delayed over an hour while they got their 16 volunteers. We missed our flight by minutes to London Heathrow, but they put us on another flight to London, Gatwick, bumped us to first class (from free business tickets) and also gave us tickets on BA to continue to Dublin, since our own non-refundable tickets to Dublin on Air Lingus were from Heathrow, not Gatwick where they were taking us. We also got extra FF miles for that BA flight.

Another time was Quantas flying Sydney to Los Angeles. We were delayed at Sydney nearly 9 hours waiting for some "mechanical problem". When we finally took off the very Australian pilot came on and announced that he knew we were upset about the delay, but considering the option was taking the plane they had which didn't have a functioning engine, he felt we too would have opted for the delay. He was very funny and everybody (despite our anger) applauded.

While it's easy to bring up those incidents caused by the airline, the flying public bears equal, if not greater responsibility, for many delays.

I can't tell you how many times we've needed to stay at the gate or are prevented from moving out onto the runway because someone decides that the "please stay in your seat as we're on an active taxi-way" doesn't apply to them.

Or the delay caused by the guy who decides he CAN put his bag in the overhead even though it is far to big and he's the last one on the plane. Or those who STILL can't grasp the concept that seats START with the letter A and go to the left from there, as you're heading down the aisle. When I worked at an airline, we liked to call them "spinners."

Perhaps the most asinine reason I've been delayed recently was the four passengers on a flight from Newark to Chicago who flat out refused to allow the plane to leave because of the very tall, olive skinned, gentleman who was wearing a long black robe and had a full black beard. They demand that HE be asked to get off the plane so that they could fly to Chicago. Ten minutes later, the pilot finally gave the four of them the ultimatum that either they get off the plane voluntarily, or the police would assist them. I imagine if the four of them had paid more attention, they would have noticed the Eastern Orthodox cross he was wearing.

Sure, airline cause delays. But, if took the time to actually keep track of it, I'm sure at the end of the year, passengers would have caused me significantly more delays.

We missed our connecting flight in houston after the continental flight could not open the door at the gate. They blamed it on new security measures and no one knew the combination etc...had to stay overnight since it was the last flight from Houston to Tampa. We were stuck on the plane for over an hour.

My last flight to Montreal was delayed because the on of the baggage trucks ran into the rear of the aircraft!!

About "paperwork" as a delay. In at least two cases I've witnessed, that "paperwork" was a mismatch between luggage and passenger's names -- in other words, there was apparently a piece of luggage on board that didn't belong to any of the passengers. Absolutely FINE with me if they want to check and recheck stuff like that.

Oh, I just remembered the flight from Raleigh that was cancelled when the guy guiding the "gangplank" out to the plane hit the nose and dented it. We spent the night in Raleigh, and they replaced the entire nose cone of the plane.

Patrick, that's almost like my first story. Maybe it was the same guy operating the jetway, or gangplank as you call it. He needs to get a new job. :-)

We were delayed an hour on the runway last Friday when the plane blew a fuse. I'm a nervous flier and was perfectly happy to sit there except that the person they got on the plane to solve the problem looked like my great uncle Herb, was not wearing a uniform and could be seen reading what looked like a car manual while standing in the open cockpit door. We did take off, they gave us free drinks, etc. I would have been much happier however if they had taken us off the plane and then lied to me that it was a totally different plane.

A very obviously drunk man(how he got on, was a another question) could not find his way back to his seat :-(. They had to take him off the plane and off load his luggage...took a whole hour, because we were just getting ready to push off.

I just flew USAirways from Philadelphia to LAX. The flight was delayed for one hour because one of the flight attendants was missing. He eventually showed up.

Well, I just was overjoyed at the Portland OR airport last October when we were told go from the fartherest gate to the nearest gate-so walked backed toward security again. Than suddenly our flight to Sacramento was cancelled. Why? Because Alaska Airlines decided to use the plane that was suppose to be flying to Sacramento (which was my flight) to fly passengers to LasVegas. The passengers to Sacramento were told " the plane that WAS going to fly to Las Vegas will be your plane to Sacramento BUT there are mechanical problems. We have ordered the part,, when it arrives we will have it installed blah blah blah. Hours later we left for Sacramento. If I had arrived five minutes later in Sacramento the last Super Shuttle that I was planning to use to get home would have been gone. Fortunatly I was not stuck in Sacramento. The Super Shuttle driver waited while I ran back to get my luggage and all was ok. Did get home that night. But still wonder why getting passengers to Las Vegas (it was their plane that had the mechanical problem) were more important that the passengers that were flying to Sacramento. Especially since about 50% of them were business travels, went to Portland for the day and than planned on returning to Sacramento that evening.

I was delayed at some airport, though for the life of me I can't recall where, and the reason given was that the cleaning crew hadn't arrived yet to clean the plane.

Had a flight from Vegas to Chicago that they had to split into 2 groups to go on 2 smaller planes - "will take off 10 minutes later". Knew that wouldn't happen because there was no plane at the gate. Plane was still in LA, then in route discovered they forgot the food. What, bags of peanuts? They went back to LA for "the food". Needless to say we took off 3 hours later.

How about a not so silly reason. Several years ago on a Frontier Airlines flight out of Omaha I was on a commuter propeller plane which was very large. Just before take-off a nose cone shot off of one of the propellers and struck the airplane. Then we all got a complimentary drink back at the airport lounge, then hearded back into the same plane. Oh was I a fool for acking like a sheep. I was young, dumb and invinsible then.

USAir, a cold day..arrived late at Philly, flight had not yet boarded. Put on bus to the plane. Sat in bus a long time...flight attendenat stuck her head out of plane and yelled " I am freezing my *** off in here. Where is everybody?" Turns out the crew had all gone home and we had to wait until somebody came back to fly the plane.

Another time: delay because somebody reported seeing a snake on the plane.

I remember another one. It was the more or less typical Friday afternoon chaos at the United and American ticket counters at Laguardia. Both airlines had cancelled some of their flights to Chicago, and all the others were running late. There were hordes of people running between the two airlines' counters trying to get on the earliest flight available.

I asked agents at both airlines what the trouble was this time, and both told me it was thunderstorms/bad weather in Chicago. So awhile later, after I got rebooked, I called my husband to give him my new flight information. I said, "so, it must be pretty bad there this afternoon." He says, "What are you talking about? It's 80 and sunny, and not a cloud in the sky."

ms_go, are you sure they didn't say Chicago had delays due to bad weather?

Chicago is a major hub which can easily be backed up due to bad weather anywhere in the country. I saw nearly the same misunderstanding on "Airline" where the customer got all bent out of shape. He thought the bad weather was in Chicago where he was at the time. the bad weather was where his flight was coming from to land in Chicago to pick him up.

And I really doubt that agents from two different airlines would lie to you.

I suppose the MOST stupid reason for delaying the pushback is the wait for those passengers who insist on bringing ALL their worldly goods onto the plane and are still standing in the aisles trying to stuff said goods into an overhead bin.

Of course, if the airline personnel would simply enforce their own carry-on rules things might be better.

No "big" words and no "made up" explanations required!

Sometimes Chicago itself is free from storms but there's a serious line of them obstructing normal approaches. Have been stacked up over Janesville WI nosing through thunderheads, waiting to land in sunny ORD.

I spent hours at the airport waiting for my connecting flight to Mexico and no one from the airline would tell us what was going on. It turns out that someone accidentally inflated the emergency exit chute and we had to wait for them to get it packed back up!

Coming back from the fatherinlaw's funeral in Tucson, AZ United told us that our flight was delayed because of a mechanical missing part!!! I found out that there were only 12 people on that flight and we all got bumped onto another flight leaving 2 hours later only to find out that because that flight was too full we had to wait another 2 hours for the next one. What a joke. We haven't flown with United since and never will. This is their way of saving money. They don't want to fly their jets out unless there are enough people on them. We did not get home until after midnight and after a terrible trip this was not what we needed. Do you think they could have provided us with a free flight in the future or refund and put on onto another airline. No way! Thanks customer service for you!!!

Snowwhite. This is typical of United. I use to fly with them from SFO to Santa Barbara. The last time I did there was a 6 hour delay. Why? Because not enough passengers for my flight and the one after mine. This had happened every time usually a 2 hour delay but 6 hours was it! They also always pulled this with their Santa Barbara flight to SFO. They are famous for cancelling flights when they do not have enough passengers, especially when they are dealing with small airports.
I will never fly with them again.