Don’t you hate it how airlines won’t tell you that your flight is delayed until after everyone’s already on the plane?  You just have to sit there on the tarmac until whatever situation clears up.  I guess they have their reasons for doing it this way, but it’s a drag.  Like the flight I was on earlier this week — right before boarding, I was called to the desk because they’d had to change my seat assignment.  Apparently my seat was broken, so they were putting me somewhere else.  Okay, fine.

We boarded, and the flight was mostly full but not completely packed.  Just as everyone’s getting settled in, the captain comes on the PA system to let us know there’s going to be a delay.  He begins to explain that the plane has too much fuel, and will be too heavy, so they have to get the fuel trucks out to defuel the plane.  He’s flustered and apologetic and says to us, “Folks, I’ve been flying for many years, and trust me, this is a rare error.  It’s not something that happens often, but you know, we caught it before it was a problem, so that’s good.  It’ll just be about a 45-minute delay while we wait for the fuel trucks.”

Thus began the groaning.  Then a few minutes later, the captain comes on again.  “Good news, everybody!  Since we have a row of broken seats that we couldn’t sell, the weight of the plane is just fine and we won’t have to remove any fuel.  We’ll be pushing back any minute now.  Thanks for your patience.”

Everyone was relieved that we wouldn’t be delayed for an hour, but this smelled fishy to me.  Can three unoccupied seats really make any difference on a 747?  Doesn’t a jet this size weigh something like a MILLION pounds?  I can understand if a few thousand extra gallons of fuel is too much, but can three people and their luggage really tip the balance?  How does the airline account for different sized passengers?  You don’t have to weigh in when you buy your ticket.  On any given day, the average passenger weight probably fluctuates a lot.  You could have a plane full of high school cheerleaders one day and a college football team the next, and who’s to say what any of them packed in their luggage?.  I just don’t see how the airline can decide that three unoccupied seats makes enough of a difference one way or the other when deciding if it’s safe to put a plane in the air.

Now I’m not accusing this airline of unsafe practices.  I was never worried about falling out of the sky.  It’s just that logic tells me this business about fuel weight was a big fat lie.  I probably never will know why we were going to be delayed, or why they decided to send us on our way anyway, but I do wonder why they told us this story.  It’s definitely one for my WTF? files.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 7th, 2009 at 10:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.