Of course I was just asking for trouble :). On my way to Cleveland (from Cincinnati, don't ask :) we had a weather hold, followed by a refueling in case of diversion, but I hadn't considered that "maintenance"....
Departing from Cleveland (DC9-31) for Detroit, we had a maintenance hold. Fuel leak, they said. "ten minutes". Half an hour later, we were still on the ground. And I was biting my nails because I had a tight connection in Detroit. They finally got us off the ground, and into Detroit. My connection to Cincinnati was the next gate over, and that plane left without a hitch, so I figured the maintenance problem was a fluke.
After an interminable layover (not maintenance related, just schedule related :) in Cincinnati, we were on our way back to Detroit. Yet another schedule-related layover in DTW, and we boarded the plane for Boston. DC-10 this time. We got on the plane, they locked the door down.... and the captain came on the PA saying he was signing off on the maintenance paperwork and we'd be ready in just a minute.
Half an hour later, he comes back on saying they were having problems closing the engine cowl (you'd think they'd know how to do this :) and that we'd be another few minutes. About twenty minutes later they let some of us off the plane to make phonecalls. I thought this was a bad bad sign :).
We eventually got to Boston. *Late* -- about 11:30 or so (we were due to arrive in at 10:30). The SFO and LAX flights had just arrived in -- also late. I was never so happy to have our bags have made the flight before. Having three large planes all waiting for baggage on one carousel would have been hell....
I talked to a few flight attendants in Detroit (on the DC-10) who said that yes, the labor dispute was probably to blame.
I'm glad I fly mostly new planes (probably 75% of my miles are done on 757s), because they're less likely to have maintenance problems. I'll be thinking twice before flying on old NW planes again in the future, at least until they settle this dispute.
--Helen --