This weekend saw more than ten thousand flights canceled across the country, leaving thousands of people stranded at airports thousands of miles away from their homes. Ten thousand flights. It is almost impossible to comprehend.
You can read my travel-hell tale from Thursday night. I was one of those people who was delayed and had to rent a car to drive 12 hours to pick up my children. My children could get the COVID vaccine, a tattoo, and possibly abortion. But they wouldn’t be allowed to check into a hotel without an adult.
Today (Sunday), it seems that we are in double jeopardy. Our flight to Los Angeles was canceled and we don’t have any way to get back. The airline has a two-day best offer.
It’s one thing driving from NYC to Savannah; it’s quite another to drive 35 hours from Savannah to California. Although we were able to get seats on another carrier’s flight, they weren’t cheap.
JetBlue and other airlines made a mockery of Thursday’s weather cancellations. This was nonsense since the weather in New York (NY) was perfect. They would never do that. They don’t need to pay for meals or your hotel if they can say it was the weather. (Yes, there were scattered thunderstorms throughout the country. It was difficult to cancel 10,000 flights.
They’re recognizing other issues than the weather for my second flight cancellation in three days. The possibility of a reimbursement hotel room is a distant possibility.
However, these cancellations can be costly. We have to pay extra for hotel stays and meals, as well as the hotel that we booked for Friday night. The unbudgeted expenses will almost certainly reach the thousands.
This mess is causing great pain for many people. A man says to me, “I shut down my business for several days in order to take my son on his very first trip.” “I’ve lost thousands, and we’re not on vacation, so now I have to come up with more to find a place for tonight.” A woman next to him cries.
How is this possible? (By the by, it was no less of an emergency over Memorial Day weekend).
It’s mostly due to staffing shortages in pilots, crew, or air control. The Biden Administration mandated vaccinations for pilots and other personnel. Many of them quit or were fired because they refused to comply. Joe, you don’t need pilots to fly planes.
Business Insider:
Staff shortages, like many other industries, were a problem that existed for a long time before the pandemic. However, the pandemic made the situation worse because airlines had to furlough workers or let them go in their thousands.
But don’t worry, Pete Buttigieg (Transportation Secretary) is there to save the day. He had not shown any interest in the topic until Friday’s cancellation of his flight, which forced him to drive four hours from DC to NYC. (It’s funny that Transpo Sec had his flight canceled.
What’s Buttigieg’s solution? You must punish the airlines
Buttigieg said that the Department of Transportation is still monitoring the performance of airlines over the Fourth of July. If the standards for consumer protection are not being met, it could take enforcement action.
He said that he would fine the airlines if they didn’t hire more employees. Pete, where are these magic people? He suggested that airlines undergo a stress test to determine how they do. This weekend and Memorial Day weekend were stress tests and they failed utterly.
The Biden Administration is quick and furious to take the blame. It’s the weather. It’s COVID. And it’s Putin. It’s also likely Trump’s fault.
It is clear that another disaster is unfolding under the watchful eye of this administration. This is not the America we are used to.
