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Whats the strangest layover you had going to a cruise?

aerospace

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MADflyer

MADflyer

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Delta used to sell a 'Stand-by travel pass' for 30 or 60 day unlimited stand-by travel back in the 90's. (Sold to European inbound clients) I did the 30 day once and the 60 day on another trip.

 

I flew all sorts of crazy routings with that, often flying SFO-ATL-LAX and the likes. Used red-eye flights as hotel rooms some nights.

 

Shortest flight on that was I think Burbank (Bob Hope) to Orange County (John Wayne) to have dinner with my Aunt in Laguna that was a cruise enthusiast.

 

I just flew Kuwait Airways in April from Geneva to Frankfurt, stayed two nights, flew Frankfurt to Houston, 1 night, and then Houston to Panama City for 3 nights to then meet a repositioning cruise on RCI Vision.

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Zach1213

Zach1213

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Why?

 

The US government wants you to fly on a US airline between two US cities. The Canadian government wants you to fly on a Canadian airline between two Canadian cities. The US doesn't want Air Canada getting the money for flying you from Chicago to Pittsburgh; The Canadian government doesn't want United to get the money for flying you from Winnipeg to Halifax.

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Zach1213

Zach1213

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Without knowing for sure, I'm guessing cabotage plays a part?:confused:

 

Correct. I try not to use the word cabotage because (a) it sounds funny to me, and (b) most people don't know what it means. Basically cabotage is when a foreign airline operates a domestic flight or connects domestic city pairs. Air France operating a fly from Beijing to Shanghai, or Singapore operating a flight from Sydney to Melbourne would be examples of cabotage.

 

There is at least one instance of an international airline operating a domestic flight in the US - Qantas. They operate a daily LAX-JFK-LAX turn on a 747-400. BUT you MUST be flying to/from Australia to be on it. You cannot buy a ticket from New York to LA on Qantas; you can buy a ticket from New York to Sydney/Brisbane/Melbourne on Qantas that stops in LA. You will have to get off the plane in LA, even if you are continuing on the same aircraft, but you MUST be getting back on to one of the 4x daily Qantas departures (2x SYD, 1x MEL, 1x BNE) ON THAT DAY. US government won't let you fly JFK-LAX-JFK alone on Qantas.

 

I know Korean used to fly ORD-ATL, coming from Seoul, and it was the same situation - you cannot buy ORD-ATL-ORD, only Seoul to Atlanta via Chicago.

 

United operates a flight in Australia going SYD-MEL-SYD daily, and same thing - you cannot just book United from Sydney to Melbourne. Australian government won't let you.

 

There are other examples, I am sure, but am struggling to think of them right now. Lunch time for sure.

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kenish

kenish

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There are other examples, I am sure, but am struggling to think of them right now. Lunch time for sure.

 

Back in the day, PanAm had a fleet of 727's stationed in Europe to feed passengers from secondary cities to their gateways such as LHR, ORY, etc.

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kenish

kenish

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Los Angeles to Santa Ana's John Wayne airport -- distance of 40 miles, with an interim stop in Fullerton, CA. Golden West Airlines, a commuter airline, no longer in business. (I think I know why.) :eek:

 

I flew Golden West many times from SNA to catch LAX flights. Their corporate HQ were down the street in Newport Beach. The main reason for their demise was rapid expansion and purchase of a fleet of DHC-7 (4-engine turboprops) when interest rates were 15%+ in the early 80's. When there was a drop in business, the debt service killed them.

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travelgoddess1

travelgoddess1

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Posted (edited)
Correct. I try not to use the word cabotage because (a) it sounds funny to me, and (b) most people don't know what it means. Basically cabotage is when a foreign airline operates a domestic flight or connects domestic city pairs. Air France operating a fly from Beijing to Shanghai, or Singapore operating a flight from Sydney to Melbourne would be examples of cabotage.

 

There is at least one instance of an international airline operating a domestic flight in the US - Qantas. They operate a daily LAX-JFK-LAX turn on a 747-400. BUT you MUST be flying to/from Australia to be on it. You cannot buy a ticket from New York to LA on Qantas; you can buy a ticket from New York to Sydney/Brisbane/Melbourne on Qantas that stops in LA. You will have to get off the plane in LA, even if you are continuing on the same aircraft, but you MUST be getting back on to one of the 4x daily Qantas departures (2x SYD, 1x MEL, 1x BNE) ON THAT DAY. US government won't let you fly JFK-LAX-JFK alone on Qantas.

 

I know Korean used to fly ORD-ATL, coming from Seoul, and it was the same situation - you cannot buy ORD-ATL-ORD, only Seoul to Atlanta via Chicago.

 

United operates a flight in Australia going SYD-MEL-SYD daily, and same thing - you cannot just book United from Sydney to Melbourne. Australian government won't let you.

 

There are other examples, I am sure, but am struggling to think of them right now. Lunch time for sure.

 

Believe it or not, Pan Am was also restricted in this manner (cabotage) prior to deregulation in 1978, and it was a U.S. airline! They could fly an a/c from LAX/JFK, but only with passengers continuing out of the country, or arriving from another country. I worked for them for 15 years, and United for another 17 years. I'm also very familiar with the SYD/MEL/SYD flights.:) Bringing the cabotage back to cruise lines, it works the same way, regarding foreign ports visited between 2 U.S. ports. All to protect each country's industry.

 

Back in the day, PanAm had a fleet of 727's stationed in Europe to feed passengers from secondary cities to their gateways such as LHR, ORY, etc.

 

That was the Pan Am IGS (Internal German Service) that flew in and out of Berlin to cities in Europe. Lufthansa was prohibited from flying into West Berlin after WWII -- only the U.S., Great Britain, and France were allowed to carry passengers into and out of that city.

Edited by travelgoddess1
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kenish

kenish

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Posted (edited)

I was on CX from LAX-HKG-TPE when an incident at HKG (old Kai Tak airport) closed their single runway. Our LAX-HKG flight landed in TPE. Since I was on a last-minute biz trip I only had carry-ons. But I wasn't allowed to simply deplane in TPE due to immigration and security requirements. We finally arrived in HKG 5 hours late, of course missing the last connecting flight to TPE. I had to stay overnight in HKG and arrived in TPE about 15 hours later....INTO THE SAME GATE!!

 

Neighbors were traveling LAX-HNL on CO to a funeral, so travel was time-critical. Their flight had a mechanical problem on taxi-out and ended up cancelled. It was a few days after Aloha and ATA stopped flying and thousands of passengers were stranded. Neighbors got rebooked thanks to husband's CO elite status. However it was LAX-EWR on an afternoon flight with an overnight layover to a EWR-HNL flight. The ultimate irony is 24 hours after Super Shuttle picked them up at their house, they flew directly over our area and they even spotted their house from 36,000 feet!

Edited by kenish
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Twickenham

Twickenham

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The lack of any meaningful international flights out of my home airport of YQB means that I have frequently flown to YUL or YYZ to catch a flight to Europe. Just last Sunday, flew YQB -YYZ-WAW, meaning I flew over my house about 15 hours after I set off for the airport. My return is ZRH-IST-YYZ-YQB, although being in business makes the IST stop pretty sweet.

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notentirelynormal

notentirelynormal

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My weirdest was: we were flying non stop from LAX to San Jose, Costa Rica. All of a sudden we descend. We land "somewhere". Many people get up and got off the plane. We are literally yelled at to make sure all the carryon stuff in the bins is ours. Then a bunch of military guys come on the plane and ask about each and every piece of luggage above. They leave. We leave. On the ground about 20 minutes.

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Globaliser

Globaliser

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Why would she accept such a crazy routing, unless she was doing a mileage run?
Low fares? Turkish Airlines is known to dump capacity - no, please forgive me - offer extremely competitive fares.

 

If you want to see crazy, how about Casablanca to Cairo via Doha, which is a routing offered by the relevant usual suspect.

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dancinman66

dancinman66

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I had a flight with layover in Beirut for two days

Only problem was they wouldn't let me out of the main arrivals area if the terminal

Thought I'd been through Jordan so was stuck with only shops around me for that whole time

Fun fun fun

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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em-sk

em-sk

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The US government wants you to fly on a US airline between two US cities. The Canadian government wants you to fly on a Canadian airline between two Canadian cities. The US doesn't want Air Canada getting the money for flying you from Chicago to Pittsburgh; The Canadian government doesn't want United to get the money for flying you from Winnipeg to Halifax.

 

A US to US flight with a connection is Canada is only Valid if sold by a US based airline. United would be able to sell a flight from Seattle - Toronto - New York. Air Canada is not permuted to sell such a ticket (unless you staying overnight in Canada).

 

Similar rules to how Foreign Cruise Ships can transport passengers between US ports.

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travelgoddess1

travelgoddess1

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A US to US flight with a connection is Canada is only Valid if sold by a US based airline. United would be able to sell a flight from Seattle - Toronto - New York. Air Canada is not permuted to sell such a ticket (unless you staying overnight in Canada).

 

Similar rules to how Foreign Cruise Ships can transport passengers between US ports.

 

See posts # 29. 30, and 33 above. It's called cabotage.

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UKBayern

UKBayern

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:confused:

 

That's not so bad.

 

You do know you are flying in the opposite direction, and fly back over Amsterdam, don't you?

Amsterdam-Zurich = 1,5 hours, minimum connecting time in Zurich about one hour, Zurich-London=1,5 hours.

Flying time Amsterdam-London= 40 minutes.

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