weather trends
I'm noticing a trend in Des Moines weather.
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
414 AM CST MON DEC 8 2008
...WINTER STORM CONDITIONS LATE TODAY THROUGH TUESDAY TUESDAY...
.LOW PRESSURE WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTH CENTRAL PLAINS AND MOVE
ACROSS CENTRAL MISSOURI AND THROUGH THE OHIO VALLEY TONIGHT
AND TUESDAY. THE SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE A MODERATE TO HEAVY
AMOUNT OF PRECIPITATION ACROSS CENTRAL IOWA. THE SNOW WILL BEGIN
LATE THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS NORTHERN IOWA AND CONTINUE INTO TUESDAY
MORNING. FARTHER SOUTH THE PRECIPITATION WILL BEGIN AS RAIN BEFORE THE
TRANSITION TO SNOW...WITH A BRIEF PERIOD OF FREEZING RAIN POSSIBLE
DURING THE TRANSITION. INCREASING NORTH TO NORTHWEST WINDS WILL CAUSE
BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW AND CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCED VISIBILITY AND
GREATLY HAMPER TRAVEL CONDITIONS LATER TONIGHT AND TUESDAY. EXPECT
THE BLOWING SNOW TO CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS EVEN AFTER THE SNOW
ENDS TUESDAY AFTERNOON.
Sounds like another great week to stick with restaurants accessible via the sky walk.
I had a really fun experience with ComAir last night. I've ragged Delta for at least the past 3 years about how awful their regional carriers are. Smaller planes, they're late more often... you get the idea. Last night just reinforced all this. My flight was delayed because the plane we were supposed to use had not completed its last trip (from DC to Cincinnati). Now, ComAir has a reserve fleet of regional jets it keeps in Cincinanti, but did they fire one up to get me to Des Moines on time? Of course not.
ComAir generally uses the "C" terminal in Cincinnati. There are no jetways at that terminal - you're always walking outside to your plane. This terminal is being closed because it's too expensive to operate, so most of the regional jet traffice will be moving to "A" terminal. I was looking forward to this because all the "A" gates have jetways. But what do the geniuses at ComAir do? They build stair cases at the end of all their jetways over at "A" terminal. How ridiculous is that? A jetway is a device specifically designed to serve as a climate controlled walkway between an airport terminal building and an airplane, but ComAir decides to re-enginner their jetways into stair cases. This makes about as much sense as running a fireman's pole through the middle of an elevator. So, I got to walk outside in the snow.
Then when I got to Des Moines, my luggage doesn't show up. It's still in Cincinnati. They're not sure why, but it could be because they had too many bags to put on this small regional jet they used to fly us from Cincinnati to Des Moines. WHAT? If you're going to put 50 people on a plane, and you're going to let everyone check 2 bags, then the plane needs to hold, um, wait, let me see if I can sort out the math here, carry the 1... yep that's 100 bags. So I got a nifty overnight kit from ComAir and a claim number so I can call some automated 800 number and check the status of my bag.
I think it's completely ridiculous that I have to tell them that they lost my bag. Shouldn't they know? They put a bar code on it when I checked in for my flight. If they kept it behind due to "weight restrictions," they should've scanned it at that time and at least been pro-active enough to tell me what had happened when I landed in Des Moines. "Sorry Mr. Brann, we didn't put your bag on this plane." I still wouldn't find that acceptable, but at least I would know what happened.
So now my bag might be put on the 9AM flight from Cincinnati to Des Moines. It might not though, because you know they can't guarantee that there will be room on that plane for my bag. Will they be able to tell me at 9:15 whether it made the flight? Of course not. They can't tell me if my bag made that flight until that flight lands in Des Moines (and my bag is either on it or it's not). I fail to see how this is possible, but then it wouldn't be the first ridiculous thing I'd heard from ComAir.
URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DES MOINES IA
414 AM CST MON DEC 8 2008
...WINTER STORM CONDITIONS LATE TODAY THROUGH TUESDAY TUESDAY...
.LOW PRESSURE WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTH CENTRAL PLAINS AND MOVE
ACROSS CENTRAL MISSOURI AND THROUGH THE OHIO VALLEY TONIGHT
AND TUESDAY. THE SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE A MODERATE TO HEAVY
AMOUNT OF PRECIPITATION ACROSS CENTRAL IOWA. THE SNOW WILL BEGIN
LATE THIS AFTERNOON ACROSS NORTHERN IOWA AND CONTINUE INTO TUESDAY
MORNING. FARTHER SOUTH THE PRECIPITATION WILL BEGIN AS RAIN BEFORE THE
TRANSITION TO SNOW...WITH A BRIEF PERIOD OF FREEZING RAIN POSSIBLE
DURING THE TRANSITION. INCREASING NORTH TO NORTHWEST WINDS WILL CAUSE
BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW AND CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCED VISIBILITY AND
GREATLY HAMPER TRAVEL CONDITIONS LATER TONIGHT AND TUESDAY. EXPECT
THE BLOWING SNOW TO CONTINUE FOR SEVERAL HOURS EVEN AFTER THE SNOW
ENDS TUESDAY AFTERNOON.
Sounds like another great week to stick with restaurants accessible via the sky walk.
I had a really fun experience with ComAir last night. I've ragged Delta for at least the past 3 years about how awful their regional carriers are. Smaller planes, they're late more often... you get the idea. Last night just reinforced all this. My flight was delayed because the plane we were supposed to use had not completed its last trip (from DC to Cincinnati). Now, ComAir has a reserve fleet of regional jets it keeps in Cincinanti, but did they fire one up to get me to Des Moines on time? Of course not.
ComAir generally uses the "C" terminal in Cincinnati. There are no jetways at that terminal - you're always walking outside to your plane. This terminal is being closed because it's too expensive to operate, so most of the regional jet traffice will be moving to "A" terminal. I was looking forward to this because all the "A" gates have jetways. But what do the geniuses at ComAir do? They build stair cases at the end of all their jetways over at "A" terminal. How ridiculous is that? A jetway is a device specifically designed to serve as a climate controlled walkway between an airport terminal building and an airplane, but ComAir decides to re-enginner their jetways into stair cases. This makes about as much sense as running a fireman's pole through the middle of an elevator. So, I got to walk outside in the snow.
Then when I got to Des Moines, my luggage doesn't show up. It's still in Cincinnati. They're not sure why, but it could be because they had too many bags to put on this small regional jet they used to fly us from Cincinnati to Des Moines. WHAT? If you're going to put 50 people on a plane, and you're going to let everyone check 2 bags, then the plane needs to hold, um, wait, let me see if I can sort out the math here, carry the 1... yep that's 100 bags. So I got a nifty overnight kit from ComAir and a claim number so I can call some automated 800 number and check the status of my bag.
I think it's completely ridiculous that I have to tell them that they lost my bag. Shouldn't they know? They put a bar code on it when I checked in for my flight. If they kept it behind due to "weight restrictions," they should've scanned it at that time and at least been pro-active enough to tell me what had happened when I landed in Des Moines. "Sorry Mr. Brann, we didn't put your bag on this plane." I still wouldn't find that acceptable, but at least I would know what happened.
So now my bag might be put on the 9AM flight from Cincinnati to Des Moines. It might not though, because you know they can't guarantee that there will be room on that plane for my bag. Will they be able to tell me at 9:15 whether it made the flight? Of course not. They can't tell me if my bag made that flight until that flight lands in Des Moines (and my bag is either on it or it's not). I fail to see how this is possible, but then it wouldn't be the first ridiculous thing I'd heard from ComAir.
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