<p>I’m with Thumper 1…My kid went to school 3000 miles from home as well and she wouldn’t have traded her college experience, despite the occasional travel complication, for anything. She found the school and program that was perfect for her, thrived there, and found a good post graduation that was directly linked to the specialized program she attended. She was lucky and there was never a disastrous delay, but barring something like a major blizzard, with careful planning (first flight out, non-stop whenever possible) it is not too difficult to minimize travel issues.</p>
<p>We live in Texas. D1 went to school at UNC-CH. Airline travel was a given. We never had one problem, EVER, in the 4 years she attended.</p>
<p>So NO REGRETS for us whatsoever. Had we let worries about 2 hour delays take this school off the table, she would have missed out on one of the great experiences of her life.</p>
<p>I think that airline customer service, in general, has gone down the toilet in the last ten years.</p>
<p>Here’s my favorite Delta story. We were heading to Las Vegas for a Grand Canyon, etc. vacation. Got to the airport two hours early and checked in and went through security. We decided to grab a bite to eat at one of the terminal restaurants that was literally ten feet from the gate of departure. The restaurant had music playing and you could not hear announcements. This didn’t concern us since were had our boarding passes and plenty of time. </p>
<p>About thirty minutes before we were scheduled to depart we left the restaurant and headed to the gate, only to find that the plane had left the gate. Apparently they had paged us and we couldn’t hear it so they left. But not before giving our seats to someone who was on standby. Coincidentally there was a fifty dollar bill on the “desk” thing that the flight attendant uses when boarding passengers. When my H suggested that she had “sold” our seats, she nervously pocketed the fifty and got her supervisor.</p>
<p>We were delayed until the next morning.</p>
<p>My favorite…we were flying with a 5 year old and an 8 year old. We had our boarding passes and seat assignments in hand. For some reason, when I got to the gate, I just checked to see if all was well. They had separated the four of us…single seats all over the plane. I politely said that was FINE with me and hoped that the people seated next to my minor children wouldn’t mind watching out for them and entertaining them. Some how they managed to switch our seats so that one parent was with each kid.</p>
<p>I often wondered what would have happened if we had just boarded the plane WITH our seat assignments and boarding passes. Apparently two people had been assigned to each seat!</p>
<p>This was 20 years ago…</p>
<p>But back to my point…if you are going to worry about cancellations or delays with air travel…you will NEVER travel. Just take a good book, and don’t book any important trip with a last minute flight.</p>
<p>Quick thinking, thumper. I used to tell my kids to start coughing and whining loudly, if we weren’t seated together…but they’d just roll their eyes at me. Hey, maybe they didn’t want to sit next to us!</p>
<p>God forbid if this flight I’m on right now is delayed. Stuck in coach and forgot to bring reading material! No outlets, and my computer has a 30 second battery life. I might have to read Fairway Fun.</p>
<p>My last 3 flights were delayed 3 1/2 hours. The last 2 for mysterious reasons, but it seems the airline switches planes to another route for a so called “flight swap.” I’m getting a complex as it seems that other routes are more important than mine!</p>
<p>thumper – sounds like we agree – you said
which is basically what I said in #6:
</p>
<p>My initial reason for posting was simply to ask the question: are these delays typical? As someone who doesn’t fly that much and has experienced a lot of delays, regardless of time of day. It sounds like other people have had delays but they’re not the majority of the time they fly. And certainly other forms of transportation have issues too – trains and buses and cars experience delays. I just always thought a flight would be the quickest way home. Not necessarily.</p>
<p>^^^^Well, you did also say in your OP:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Speaking for myself, I responded to that post before I saw your other post in which you backpedaled on the OP. I should have read the whole thread before responding.</p>
<p>We all usually take the first flight of the day and experience few delays beyond mother nature’s wrath.</p>
<p>Actually…we do NOT agree. You are saying that TOP colleges are worth a plane ride. I’m saying that any college that is worthy of consideration for your kiddo should remain on the list even IF a plane ride is involved.</p>
<p>How about this scenario? Your kid gets accepted to a nice LAC practically in your backyard, but gets a substantial scholarship to a less known school that is 3000 miles away…a scholarship that will save you a LOT of money. Is that worth a risk of flight delays? Of course it is.</p>
<p>Even IF there isn’t money involved, so what if the college kid experiences a few flight delays. Seriously.</p>
<p>If you never want to fear flight delays, or train delays, or car delays (I was 2 hours late getting to a friends two weeks ago in,y car because of construction, and two accidents in northern NJ), then you are relegating yourself to a life at home.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, this type of experience is typical with air travel these days, and is unlikely to improve anytime soon. We avoid air travel whenever possible for this reason. The days of air travel being the luxurious way to get to your destination are over, and probably for good. Delays used to be the exception, it seems as though now they are the norm.</p>
<p>I think it’s wise to consider ease of travel to and from any potential schools on a student’s list. I wouldn’t necessarily discount a school that requires travel by air, but I would certainly investigate how convenient, or not, it might be to get that student to and from the destination city, e.g., number of flights, time of day of flights, which airlines, and probably most importantly, availability of flights that do not require connections.</p>
<p>Unfortunately the days of flights with no connections is also going the way of the dinosaur. With many airlines having hubs theses days…the likelihood of a direct flight is rare. And it becomes more difficult when one airport is a smaller one. We fly out of Hartford/Springfield, and the only direct flights are to Baltimore, Midway and the like…oh…and there is a direct to Vegas!</p>
<p>^^^^We live near a hub, so we are lucky to have mostly direct flights anywhere we want to go. Connections do add a whole other element to travel hassles.</p>
<p>Funny this thread should pop up today. I left Friday for a trip home to the UK. Flew into Chicago then had a connecting flight to Ottawa then a flight to London. My flight from Chicago was delayed a little, then delayed a lot and there was no way I was going to make my International connection. They rerouted me to Washington then London - leaving the next day. I was surprised they would not provide a hotel or a meal - nothing. (last time I was delayed overnight was due to a bomb scare in Paris airport and a 4 hour delay caused me to miss my connection in Houston - that airline put our group of 6 in a nice hotel and it was not their fault about the delay).</p>
<p>Arrived in London Sunday morning instead of Saturday but my bags did not! had to hang around at my brothers house till 7 that night before it was finally delivered. So 2 days of my trip wasted.</p>
<p>And they sent me a survey today. Ha Ha!</p>