[downut]

In the last 4 years (I intentionally include the 2 years before COVID), I have had at least one side of every multi-connection across the pond itinerary destroyed by either AA or UA. That is, delays longer than 12 hrs, advances of start of travel by 6hrs while making the trip overall 18hrs longer. UA has, several times, degraded our friends' return itineraries in the same way less than 12 hours before travel; can't easily cancel. On BA I had a just fine economy+ window seat LHR->PHX destroyed by an at-the-gate reseating to the aisle center bulkhead next to 2 children that screamed and kicked the seats the entire flight. Thanks to the goddess for Bose earphones.

Well that time the BA 747 blew an engine on take-off and we circled the desert for an hour, dumping fuel until landing back at PHX, to a ground stopped airport with emergency vehicles lining the entire runway? Well, I can't fault that too much, we did make it down. One does wonder about maintenance, tbh. The 24hr delay didn't seem like the most important detail.

It is so bad that we have begun contemplating the notion of eliminating our 3-4 weeks of EU vacation a year, then buying a big blue-water catamaran and start sailing it for our adventures. Since we are absolutely in love with many EU cities this is a drastic change for us.

So yeah, commercial air travel is very unreliable. Safety is good, but not the only mandatory criteria.

Ah yes, very fresh anecdotage: we were taking sailing lessons last week and one of our classmates is an AA flight attendant. Confirmed all of the above and it happens to them too.

[Edit: bunch of typos. This topic makes me enraged.]