Comments

1. Reminds me of the time American (I know, it was my only option that wasn’t a stayover in O’Hare, which I don’t do ever not even in summer nope not happening or Dallas, and I avoid Texas) offered me $25 to change my flight to a different day.

   A $25 *flight credit* that is.

   (I was going to a conference. My dates were not flexible. They could have offered me $2500 and I wouldn’t have taken it, but $25 to change dates, like a week out, was actively insulting).

2. Several years ago, my husband and I came home from the UK at IAD – non-peak travel day, non-peak travel time, with nothing to declare (and the world was fairly geopolitically stable at that point, to boot). We went to the Global Entry kiosks…which informed *everyone* using Global Entry that we all needed secondary interviews.

   There was a single agent processing all the GE arrivals, and he was apparently cosplaying one of Bob and Ray’s Slow Talkers. Because it took 45 minutes to get to the head of the increasingly long line, and then we had an infuriatingly slow and full interview. He was also minutely examining passports as if he was looking for fakes – we were seriously looking for a prank-show filming crew somewhere, it was that extreme.

   We had a clear view of the regular CBP lines while waiting in ours – they were about 2/3 empty and fully staffed, so people were just whizzing through in 10 minutes or less! My only consolation was we had put off our connecting flight to the next day so a delay wasn’t going to trip us up, but we let a few people with tighter connections go in front of us.

   We still had no idea WTF was going on, but we are pretty committed to not flying back from international travel via IAD anymore.

3. Serious question – why on earth do flight attendants randomly insist on empty overhead bins? This has happened to me multiple times on TAP intra-EU.

4. How is it we citizens allow our government to make such a mess like that at IAD, and turn passport issuance into months long delay, yet let people by the thousands room free across our northern and southern borders??? The law abiding people getting shafted. Disgusting.

5. IAD is such a shit show that I refuse to return to that airport from overseas. Fly into SIN, HND, DXB, AUH and you’ll see how easy it could be with e-gates. The bloated US government is so far behind it’s an embarrassment. Even Germany has e-gates. They never work, but at least they tried it.

6. You’re flying Frontier. When IRROPS hit you get the shaft. Not even a little surprising they’re rebooked two days later. Educate yourself on the TRUE cost of that $49 fare next time sweetie.

7. I have not read of highly level elite status flyers ever getting bumped
   or denied overhead bin space. Seems this is a unheralded benefit of
   being in Group 1 boarding.

8. @Jennifer P. I see your comments a lot. My question is why do avoid Texas? You also mentioned Dallas. I haven’t avoided Dallas, Texas all my life and I’m ok. It’s home to me.

9. I flew in and out of the U.S. several times this summer, with Global Entry, and sailed through. Others didn’t seem to be doing badly either in the regular lines. However, I agree that sometimes it is really horrible, and it is part of a general apathy and indifference in the government toward service to the public, which is actually part of their task. Compare to miserable passport delays, inability to get visa interviews done in some places for years, antiquated rules for screening, and the general haughty and disdainful demeanor they display. I don’t actually need genuine cheer and helpfulness; just a bit of competence and courtesy would suffice.

10. I once flew on Us airways right after the American merger took place, but before any changes had been made. I had a connection in CLT and then a tiny Embraer ERJ145 or similar where they asked people to check their luggage at the gate. I didn’t since I was flying with my tiny rollerboard that can even fit under the seat if necessary. But when I actually boarded they said I had to check it on the jetbridge because the flight wasn’t licensed to carry baggage in the overhead bins. Only time I’ve ever heard of that.

11. IAD 20 years ago, 10 years ago LAST year

    Complete shitshows for people US Passport, Global Entry, Green Card. Its rude, slow and remarkably intrusive.

    US Citizen here Global Entry, Same for my Spouse. Spouses mother a Green Card Holder. we are always diverted to secondary.

    All of us, each and every time through IAD to the point after the last time I have sworn off any fare, that includes arriving at IAD

12. I’ve flown into ORD and IAD multiple times in the last few years and almost every time I went through Chicago it was sluggish. Maybe a couple of times I blew through regular customs with the quickness but it’s ironic that I actually prefer IAD! Not one time did customs + screening ever take beyond 20 minutes.

    Flew in at night and during the day, didn’t matter.

13. The more I read of these tales of woe and irritation, crowded conditions, aberrant passenger behavior, airlines that no longer believe customer service is a thing, the more I am a confirmed non-flyer. If I can’t get there by passenger car, I won’t go. Life is too short to waste it getting stressed by traveling by air when it’s possible to get there by car and in a much more relaxed manner.

14. @SkydivingJesus… If you’re a confirmed non-flyer why do you read a blog that’s primarily about flying? Life is too short to waste on trolling blogs too, don’t you think?

15. It’s getting to the point that there is NO decent way to get from point A to point B. Greyhound Bus is even worse than airline travel. The company has set up a communication system that sends even its own employees to a phone bank in India and people who have automated instructions that send caller down myriad rabbit holes that never contained a single rabbit. On top of schedule nightmares, break downs, luggage disasters, and things like forcing passengers with disability designated tickets to cram their wheelchairs into standard seating — Greyhound uses parts and products in its busses that are BANNED IN THE US DUE TO OFFGASSING OF TOXIC CHEMICALS. As the reviews constantly state, “Hitch hiking is a better option than traveling by bus.” I am stuck symptomatic from instant sickness upon boarding a Greyhound bus: muscle spasms in my feet and calves, headache, nausea, and bizarre skin lesions. No end in sight. Even though CDC gave it an investigation number, ALL public health services are underfunded, understaffed, and OVERWHELMED with crisis that are escalating due to business profits and greed, and political support of such putting human welfare at the very bottom of current concern of the powers that run everything American.