Flight: United #1578 TPA-IAD

Departing From: Tampa Florida (TPA)
Traveling To: Washington Dulles (IAD)
ETD: 6:24 PM EST
ETA: 8:46 PM EST
Est. Duration: 2 h 9 m (Act. Duration: 4 hr 40 min)
Departure Gate: E75
Arrival Gate: C20
Seat: 9C
Equipment: Airbus 320
Miles: 810
Other:

This might be the same plane we came down on. Might be a slight delay leaving because of weather @ Dulles, although it sounded like the rain was done up there. Gate agent thought 30 minutes at the most.

More thoughts on "TED":

Maybe the point is to be seen as having a sense of humor? The gate agent spent a lot of time trying to do stand up over the PA system. They must think that Southwest is successful because of the song paradies they usually sing on that airline. Maybe they don't realize this is one of the most annoying things about flying Southwest? Perhaps they could copy Southwest's stampede down the jetway, also?

In an interesting turn of events, while we waited in the taxiway the pilot's radio failed. We now pulled back to the gate so they could replace the radio. Delay so far: 45 minutes.

This didn't fix the problem, so now they had to turn everything off to "reboot" the airplane.

We're finally off the ground around 8:00. Some computer "in the belly of the plane" had to be rebooted. A lot of people on the plane are grumbling because they are worried about making connections. But, things are so backed up at Dulles that most of them will be OK (hopefully).

So, a new adventure in flying. I now know what happens then the pilot's radio fails before take-off!