Flying Can Mean Going Nowhere Fast

A flight from JFK in New York to Dallas-Fort Worth last week was supposed to take four hours. It took 10. To pass the time, one man recorded his ordeal for YouTube as mechanical problems, backed-up runways and crew changes left passengers starving and exhausted.

The FAA predicted this would be the worst summer ever for flight delays, reports CBS News correspondent Nancy Cordes.

Jeff Meehan, executive vice president of the Airline Transport Association, says so far this summer, things have been going "terribly."

"The unfortunate thing is that today (the delays are) not simply a function of weather. This is something we're seeing on days when the weather is perfectly fine," says Meehan.

In May, government numbers show that more than two in 10 airplanes landed at least 15 minutes late. What the numbers don't show is the true delay to passengers when delayed flights force them to miss their connections.

"Those people are delayed not by 30 minutes, but by however long it takes to reaccommodate them on another flight leg to their destination," says MIT's Cynthia Barnhart, who is researching how much longer, on average, passengers who miss connections have to wait for a new flight — at a time when planes are fuller than ever.

Just ask any stranded traveler — some of whom are posting their sagas online.

"Three days, two airports, one mission: going home," said one passenger in a YouTube video.

Some airports are worse than others, according to a Web site created by air traffic controllers. Roughly a third of all flights leaving congested hubs like Newark, Philadelphia, Dulles, Atlanta, Chicago and JFK are delayed. Connecting through Salt Lake City, Minneapolis or Cincinnati, they say, might be a better choice.

Or better, yet, says Daniel Horwitz of www.avoiddelays.com, "Avoid the connections, go direct when you can,"

Miami's professional soccer team had to draw straws today to determine who got to leave San Francisco on time and who had to wait.

"Three out of four flights I go on are delayed somehow," says one player.

The industry blames an outdated, inefficient air traffic control system. Passengers don't know whom to blame, but tempers are growing shorter as the weather gets hotter.

For those who can't avoid connections when traveling this summer, experts have two pieces of advice: Travel early in the day before thunderstorms kick up, and schedule more time between flights than you have in the past.