new record travel time TH > USA

[dab69]

Broke a new record coming back to USA from TH.
The plane couldn't land at NRT because of "wind shear"
so it diverted to Nagoya to wait it out- maybe an hour.
So, as it cleared the connecting flight was taking off at the same time
resulting in 50-60 of us missing the connection to the flight back to Minneapolis.
Took over 47 hours to complete the travel, landing a new layover 11 hours in the
Honolulu airport and another for 8 hours before the final flight from Minneapolis to my local airport.

This should make the next trips seem like a walk in the park.

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[gearguy]

I had a flight like that once. Leaving from Philly to Chicago, flight was delayed but I was assured I'd make the connection to Tokyo.
Of course I didn't, so I had about an 8 hour delay in Chicago. Then we were late landing in Tokyo, so I missed that connection as well.
Because of noise restrictions, the plane to Bangkok couldn't be held, so I wasn't able to get a flight to Bangkok till the next morning; a nine hour lay-over.

On the other hand, the Thai directs from JFK were very nice, tho after about 13 hours in a plane, you start to go a bit stir-crazy.

[bao-bao]

So far it looks like dab69 will hold the record... and he's welcome to it, thank you very much.

The only time I've had a significant delay was on EVA in Taipei one trip home after pushing away from the gate. After doing some sort of test on the way to the runway they had to "re-boot the computer system" on the plane, causing a complete shut down of the engines and internal systems. They did this two more times over 15 minutes or so, and then called for technicians to come to the aircraft while we sat.

Nearly a half hour later we were told they couldn't do the needed repair where we were, so we taxied back to the gate where we sat for another five hours until they finally conceded defeat, announcing they'd be making a change of aircraft. We were now almost six and a half hours off schedule, and some passengers began making impossible demands ("I don't CARE how you do it, I have to be in San Diego in another nine hours" - that kind of nonsense) that were all handled in a professional manner. They wheeled in carts of hot meals and fed us at the gate, provided phones for those who needed to make contacts at their arrival points and worked furiously to re-book, re-ticket and run those around that could be put onto other airlines. In all, it made my travel time home a full 24 hours, and I hope I don't ever have to repeat it.

The worst of it was listening to a dozen or so Ugly Americans pontificating in loud tones how "ridiculous" the situation was. Personally I'd much rather sit on the ground while something's corrected than scream for ten minutes as we plummet towards the ground from 30,000 feet, but hey - maybe that's just me.

By the way, for my "inconvenience" I was sent a lovely passport wallet, designed for a Taiwanese passport and useless for mine! :rolling: When I returned the wallet they credited my mileage by an enormous number that I continue to use for upgrades.

[dab69]

Actually the best travel I have done in all my time travelling to TH.
The trip in started a little earlier than I was accustomed. For the very first time I
found I can sleep on the plane, sleeping almost half the trip.

On the return trip in Honolulu I had a nice two hour nap sleeping on a bench on my back.
A true godsend for my back.

I always freaked when they added only a couple hours to the voyage.
Sleeping in an upright postion in public has to be learned?

Now if I can just meet that cute guy that came up to me in Minneapolis again.

[tomas1]

Some years ago on my way back to Europe from Bangkok, Thai cancelled the flight just as it was about to taxi out from the gate at midnight. Before Thai had organised hotels for everyone, the time was 3.30am. We had to be back at the airport at 6am for new boarding. Finallly the plane left 1pm. Not much sleep that night. Then we arrived too late in Frankfurt for my connecting flight, so I had to stay overnight at an airport hotel before I finally arrived home next morning.

[dab69]

Don't you just love those 5:30 takeoff times.
Wake up call @ 2:30 am, taxi @ 3:00am. Airport @ 3:30 am.

What other businesses can get away with this?

Option two:
take off @ 9:00am, fight traffic and congested security, customs, and security.

I think that I may have some sort of record.

EVA sold and printed out a ticket to me for FLT 68 January 26, 2010. I'm standing at BKK waiting for the line to open...the line never opened, one guy from the airport athority came over to see what I was waiting for as he could see I was getting a little nervious. He incrediously looks at my ticket and informs me that there is no FLT 68 today, FLT 68 has always been everyother day yesterday and tomorrow...not today. He gets EVA's station manager on the line who very politely says, "There is no FLT 68 today, you are booked on FLT 68 tomorrow, come back tomorrow, thank you, goodbye." And sure enough I was booked on FLT 68 on January 27. They were good enought to fly me Business back to LAX.

[Smiles]

From the other side (this may be a different kind of record): Been flying to and fro between BKK and the west coast of N America now for 10 years (airlines: United, EVA, Korean, Air Canada) and have, not one single time, been more than a few minutes late arriving (in either direction). More often than not the arrival times were exactly on the button. Once in awhile early.
Never lost luggage either.
Delighted to sit out the wind shear. :headbang:

Frankly I have always been expecting some of the experiences above to pop up, but nada so far.
Anybody else had a perfect record?

[Captain Swing]

A bit off topic-sorry- but I drive a limo in the New York area. This evening I picked up a woman who had just flown in from Singapore--Singapore Air, nonstop, 18 hours. Halfway to her hotel she got a phone call and heard that her mother had died, unexpectedly. She called the airline, found they had a seat, and had me take her back to the airport, where she boarded the SAME PLANE and flew back to Singapore. Unusual, and sad, circumstances, but they put some other travel nightmares in perspective.

[Beachlover]

Oh man... how terrible. Just as she had flown out of the country.

I heard Singapore Airlines does the longest scheduled non-stop passenger flight in the world... I can't remember if it is this 18-hour route though or something longer. You would really want to be in business class for it...