Dear Crabby,

I hate it when the airlines promise to be on time and punctual and then are anything but that! Why can’t a plane just take off and land when they say it will?

Sincerely, Charles Landontime

Dear Mr. Landontime,

I think the simple answer here is NO! The airlines will always have delays, always make promises they cannot keep, and will always hire people that simply try to make your life as difficult as possible. I recently was trying to help a friend of mine fly to another city to get some medical treatments. He had not flown in over ten years, and the last time he flew he had a panic attack before the flight.  The attack was so bad, they had to stop the plane on the ground and get him off immediately.  In fact, they even had to drug him up enough so they could get him home. Well, anyway, he needed this treatment from another state and we did not have time to drive that far, so his new doctors gave him some sort of cocktail of medications to keep him calm. Because of all of this, I had to call ahead of time and try to arrange his flight with the airlines. I explained that I needed wheelchair access to the gate, and that he had an anxiety attack previously. They said they would make a note about it and that all would be ready when we got there. The day we were to fly out finally arrived, and we made our trek to the airport. I assured my friend that all was taken care of and that the airlines would be ready for us.  Boy, was I wrong!  As we arrived in the parking area, we discovered that they had no personnel anywhere nearby! We somehow managed to find a shuttle, load everything and everyone in, and finally arrived in the terminal to find there were no wheelchairs around. I walked about a half mile and finally found one we could use.  I looked for someone to help us, but no one was available. So I pushed my friend through the long, tedious terminal until we arrived at an eating area. I set all our bags down for a moment, because they were killing my back, and I pushed my friend into the restaurant to take a look at the menu when suddenly there were several airport employees around us telling us we were not allowed to leave our luggage unattended.  Thinking they were they were there to assist us, I said, “Oh, so glad to finally find you guys. Can you take a few of these and help us to our gate?” They all but laughed at me and went off saying that was not their job. Well, we finally made it to our gate and were ready for the flight.  I asked my friend to take his medicine, and he did. About ten minutes later, he was sound asleep and pretty much dead weight. I again asked that we get some help down to our seats and there was only a blank stare looking back at me. I once again was left to maneuver and handle everything myself as it was apparently no one’s job to be helpful that day. When we made it to the plane and had found our seats, the pilot announced that there would be a short delay. Another hour slipped by before we finally took off. The rest was pretty normal, minus arriving an hour later than expected. So I don’t know what to tell you, other than don’t volunteer unless you are up for doing all the work yourself – and never count on the airlines to be helpful, accurate, or even close!

Sincerely, Dear Crabby

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