Air Travel: It could be worse

The following is a comment I posted in response to another blogger who complained about lost baggage from a recent flight on American Airlines. I thought it worthy of a post of its own:

I too flew American Airlines over the holidays. With my wife and children, we returned from Austin, TX. The stewardess started to serve drinks, when all of a sudden she started collecting them back, saying "something's wrong." The pilot announced that they had to shut down one of the engines due to lack of oil pressure, and were making an emergency landing in Dallas. The stewardess went over safety instructions, for real this time, not the perfunctory way they do before take off. She moved some people out of the emergency exit rows and replaced them with some young men who looked more capable of removing the doors in an emergency, the procedure for which she went over with them. She instructed us in the proper position to sit for maximum safety (arms crossed in front of your face). She did an excellent job keeping people calm yet prepared.

The descent into Dallas was rougher than normal, which the stewardess said was due to only having one engine (my pilot-nephew later said that was a lie to keep us calm; he speculated the pilot of the plane was probably in his early twenties and performing his first actual emergency landing, and was no doubt nervous). We landed safely, surrounded by police cars and fire engines who quickly inspected for damage. The attention was unnecessary, but you can see why they make the extra effort to be safe.

Upon arrival at the gate in Dallas-Fort Worth airport (an unplanned stop, as I described it) American Airlines put us on new flights back to Madison. We arrived 3 hours later than planned, and two of our suitcases didn't arrive until the next day.

While I appreciate your frustration, and I certainly am no fan of the way airlines treat us like cattle at times, an experience like ours puts some well-needed perspective on the air travel experience...