Living the dream!

Did you know that a single armrest on a passenger seat could ground an entire 737, leaving 120 people stranded overnight? I just found that out tonight, after I found myself staring out the window from gate A18 in Houston for 3 hours, waiting for a contract maintenance truck to show up and sign a bit of paperwork so I could go home. But no, they never showed up, and the plane was subsequently ferried (empty) back to PHX, the only flaw being an armrest between a center and window seat that was, as the Captain described it, "flopping all over the place."

I'm not sure how America West handles maintenance issues, but here at my airline we can simply call maintenance control from an outstation and have them defer items over the phone. With the aircraft having more than 2 open seats to begin with, it would have been a very simple exercise to move those people elsewhere in the aircraft and post signs on the seats that read "Do Not Occupy." But, what do I know? That just seems, you know, logical and all.

Of course, the icing on the cake tonight was the later Mesa Airlines flight departing without me with empty seats, after the gate agent shut the door in my face without any concern for my commute home. Because of that, I'm stuck in Houston for my two off days instead of at home in my own bed. One of these days I'd like to chain one of these gate agent's rear axles to a light post to keep them from going home! Haha! Wait, probably too evil and illegal.

One can dream. One can dream.