100 Flights for the Year

This has been a year of travel like none other for me. I made United 1K status 45 flights ago. I am now on my 100th flight for the year. Here are a few of the things that have happened on those flights:

1.       Medical Emergency. So far this year there has only been a single medical emergency on board a flight. Given how many I’ve seen in previous years, I’m surprised there haven’t been more.

2.       Lost Bags in Newark. My bags missed a connection that I made in Newark on my way to Florida. I’m not sure if the bags were telling me something or not.

3.       Rejected Landing. On one flight into San Francisco, the pilot rejected the landing and we did a go-around. The pilot saw there was something on the runway and made the smart decision not to hit it. I liked that pilot’s priorities.

4.       Broken Jet Bridges. I’ve had two jet bridges that have broken so far this year. One was on a flight from Zurich to Chicago, and another was a cross-country flight to San Francisco (either Chicago, Newark or Houston, I can’t remember). On the flight from Zurich, the ground support team was able to fix the jet bridge and we were able to disembark. On the flight to San Francisco, we had to change gates. Getting everyone back in their seats and away from their luggage for the five minutes to do the gate change was interesting.

5.       Dodging France. On a flight back from Europe, the pilot avoided French airspace and took a longer route. At the time the French air traffic controllers were on strike along with the rest of the country. I think they called it “Tuesday”.

6.       Bomb Threat. One flight in Germany experienced a bomb threat. Apparently, the threat was to the previous flight that involved my aircraft. They inspected the aircraft and “believed it was unlikely the aircraft contained a bomb”. It was as much certainty as one could get from a German engineer, so I took the flight.

7.       Mechanical Issues. Airplanes are big and complicated, so it is natural that issues come up. Sometimes the issues are small and cause flight cancellations. Sometimes the issues are big and can be repaired quickly allowing us to resume the journey with little to no delay.

a.       Landing Gear. The landing gear required a part to be flown in from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Flight delayed by 4+ hours.

b.       Cargo Hold. A repair the cargo hold of the aircraft delayed the flight by an additional two hours, making a comfortable connection decidedly less comfortable

c.       Engine Indicator. An engine indicator dial malfunctioned on the way to the runway, causing the flight to return to the gate and ultimately be cancelled.

d.       Cabin Pressure Test. A flight was delayed for nearly three hours after an issue caused the cabin to not pressurize properly. I misconnected in Denver and got home the next morning.

8.       Crackers over the Pacific. A flight from Japan to San Francisco became more difficult when, despite my attempts to order food before the flight, there was no vegetarian meal. I was told I had to request the meal before the flight, which the system didn’t let me do. This meant I had rice crackers on my way from Tokyo and no actual food on the 11-hour flight.

9.       Crying babies. Parents have a tough job, and small children don’t seem to get the same enjoyment out of flying as I do. The number of times I’ve had small children cry for the duration of a flight is too many to count. A flight from Japan had three children who alternated crying for the approximately 11 hours. A flight to Denver had two parents and two children in three seats with one or more of the children crying. Parents have my deepest sympathies.

10.   Eating through turbulence. Sometimes eating on an airplane can be interesting. On a flight to Tokyo, I discovered it was easier to let the food jump into my mouth than the more traditional way of eating. Fortunately, the flight attendants had extra napkins.

With that, it is off to flights 100 and up!