Braking Point

Wrapped up the Junior Statesmen Employee Retreat today in San Francisco and headed to SFO for my flight home.

My 7:30 p.m. flight was delayed for about 30 minutes -- which is SOP whenever there are clouds in the sky over the San Francisco Bay.

Finally a little after 8:00 p.m. we were pushed back from the gate and a few feet later came to a stop. We sat there for a few minutes until the Captain came over the address system (always a bad sign).

He announced our plane had lost it's brakes. A few minutes later (while we were sitting in the same spot) the Captain announced we had lost our steering. So we were waiting for a "tractor" to tow us back to the gate.

Fortunately, I was able to get re-booked on the 10:15 p.m. flight and made it back to LAX before midnight.

I went to the United Red Carpet Club to get rebooked only to find California State Senator (and candidate for Lieutenant Governor) Jackie Speier (photo above) had been on the same flight as me and was similarly scrambling to get to Los Angeles.

You would think United would take better care of the State Senator who represents SFO -- one of their hubs. (And she's got to be the only resident of Hillsborough who actually flies coach.)

Since I was delayed for nearly 3 hours I asked United to provide me with a dinner voucher. United declined, explaining that my flight was less than an hour and didn't include dinner service. I spent the three hours in the airport because of their mechanical delay trying to get my mind around that explanation!

The only humor in the evening comes from the pilot of the disabled plane. After we were back at the gate but before we had deplaned the pilot made the following announcement, "We know you have a choice of bankrupt airlines, than you for choosing United."