Comments on: Can I get my 2 days back, American Airlines? http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/ Michelle Leder's guide to what's hiding in SEC filings Fri, 23 Jul 2010 18:06:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Owen http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-5653 Owen Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:30:13 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-5653 Dear Michelle, I fly for American and would like to offer you some constructive suggestions that may help you in the future no matter what airline you use. The single most important action you can take just prior to travel is to carefully study the weather at all the airports in your itinerary. The largest and busiest airports in the U.S, such as LGA, ORD, JFK, DFW, ATL, EWR, to mention a few, have thousands of flight operations each day and are operating at or near their maximum capacity. When weather conditions force one of these airports to temporarily close for safety reasons, or even to slow their arrival rates due to the traffic bottlenecks nearby severe weather can create, the impact can be to delay passengers for hours or even days throughout the national air transportation system. American and most other large legacy carriers concentrate their operations in these cities because that's where the market is. Your strategy should be to assiduously avoid these large hubs whenever severe weather is expected. For example, if you must get to NYC and severe weather is expected, you may want to consider flying to a nearby city instead, using ground transportation to get to your final destination. While this is inconvenient and possibly more expensive, it works. Hartford, Albany, White Plains, and several airports on Long Island, northern New Jersey, and southern Connecticut offer commercial air service with available ground transportation to nearby rail or bus terminals. I would also suggest that when you purchase a ticket for an important date, make sure it's one that can be changed, refunded, or credited toward future travel with little or no penalty. The long-term solution to your type of problem isn't to hammer American. You should instead direct your criticism toward the various governmental agencies which collectively have created the severe capacity constraints in our national air transportation system that American and all other airlines have to work around every day in their efforts to provide the seat capacity the travelling public demands. Venting your anger or demanding demeaning apologies from low level airline employees who are not responsible for and are powerless to shorten your delay is not constructive, and simply makes their jobs more difficult. Dear Michelle,

I fly for American and would like to offer you some constructive suggestions that may help you in the future no matter what airline you use. The single most important action you can take just prior to travel is to carefully study the weather at all the airports in your itinerary. The largest and busiest airports in the U.S, such as LGA, ORD, JFK, DFW, ATL, EWR, to mention a few, have thousands of flight operations each day and are operating at or near their maximum capacity. When weather conditions force one of these airports to temporarily close for safety reasons, or even to slow their arrival rates due to the traffic bottlenecks nearby severe weather can create, the impact can be to delay passengers for hours or even days throughout the national air transportation system. American and most other large legacy carriers concentrate their operations in these cities because that’s where the market is.

Your strategy should be to assiduously avoid these large hubs whenever severe weather is expected. For example, if you must get to NYC and severe weather is expected, you may want to consider flying to a nearby city instead, using ground transportation to get to your final destination. While this is inconvenient and possibly more expensive, it works. Hartford, Albany, White Plains, and several airports on Long Island, northern New Jersey, and southern Connecticut offer commercial air service with available ground transportation to nearby rail or bus terminals. I would also suggest that when you purchase a ticket for an important date, make sure it’s one that can be changed, refunded, or credited toward future travel with little or no penalty.

The long-term solution to your type of problem isn’t to hammer American. You should instead direct your criticism toward the various governmental agencies which collectively have created the severe capacity constraints in our national air transportation system that American and all other airlines have to work around every day in their efforts to provide the seat capacity the travelling public demands. Venting your anger or demanding demeaning apologies from low level airline employees who are not responsible for and are powerless to shorten your delay is not constructive, and simply makes their jobs more difficult.

]]> By: B. K http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-4793 B. K Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:04:01 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-4793 So my saga continues... As I mentioned earlier, I was told when I got off the plane at our diverted destination (Milan) that our stroller will be on the bus that was to shuttle us to Zurich. Of course it was not there, and I reported this at the Zurich airport, after our 4-5hr bus ride and the American Airline agent told me there, that because there is no connection between AA and Milan, he can not do anything from there, and I should call and report it when I return to NY. Which I just did. I get an agent on the phone, who was unable to look up our reservation by our last name and wanted our record locator. Now my thinking is, if we boarded that plane, then they should have our name in the system. It was an e-ticket and I didn't keep a copy of it after the trip. The agent had the audacity to get annoyed at me. (Makes me wonder about AA policies on treating customers). I give the agent the tag number I have, they say it is not coming up. So then he asks me when did I lose the stroller, and I explained that it was lost in transit on our flight from JFK to Zurich, however the flight was diverted to land in Milan, and this was last Thursday, going into Friday. Then he goes, why didn't I report this then to AA, and I said I did, but AA staff at Zurich told me to call when I get to NY. He then tells me well he can not find my information, and at this point I get annoyed. and he tells me to calm down, and all of a sudden he finds my information...and he repeats the tag number which I gave him in the first place. He tells me the strolled is in Zurich, and that it will be flown back to JFK, but it needs to be picked up from there. I asked him why the stroller will not be delivered to my house (I live close to 2hrs away from JFK), and he says because it was not reported to Lost and Found. Ok to clarify, I asked the crew member, when I got off the plane about the stroller, I was told it will be on the bus, it wasn't. So when I got to Zurich airport (meanwhile I have been on this journey close to 20hrs with a 15month old), they tell me to just call when I get to NY. I tell the agent all this, and all he can say is I was misinformed by the agent in Zurich, and that he apologizes for the inconvenice and that that is what the AA policy is, if it is not reported to Lost and Found it will not be delivered, but needs to be picked up. At this point, I just give up and ask how will I know if it arrives, this is the icing on the cake- "Mame you will just have to keep calling us to check" I am just speechless at the customer service by American Airlines. This is absoutely the worst service I have ever experienced and I fly internationally a lot, but this was the first time I chose to travel American Airlines, and hopefully this would have been the last time. So my saga continues…

As I mentioned earlier, I was told when I got off the plane at our diverted destination (Milan) that our stroller will be on the bus that was to shuttle us to Zurich. Of course it was not there, and I reported this at the Zurich airport, after our 4-5hr bus ride and the American Airline agent told me there, that because there is no connection between AA and Milan, he can not do anything from there, and I should call and report it when I return to NY. Which I just did. I get an agent on the phone, who was unable to look up our reservation by our last name and wanted our record locator. Now my thinking is, if we boarded that plane, then they should have our name in the system. It was an e-ticket and I didn’t keep a copy of it after the trip. The agent had the audacity to get annoyed at me. (Makes me wonder about AA policies on treating customers). I give the agent the tag number I have, they say it is not coming up. So then he asks me when did I lose the stroller, and I explained that it was lost in transit on our flight from JFK to Zurich, however the flight was diverted to land in Milan, and this was last Thursday, going into Friday. Then he goes, why didn’t I report this then to AA, and I said I did, but AA staff at Zurich told me to call when I get to NY. He then tells me well he can not find my information, and at this point I get annoyed. and he tells me to calm down, and all of a sudden he finds my information…and he repeats the tag number which I gave him in the first place. He tells me the strolled is in Zurich, and that it will be flown back to JFK, but it needs to be picked up from there. I asked him why the stroller will not be delivered to my house (I live close to 2hrs away from JFK), and he says because it was not reported to Lost and Found. Ok to clarify, I asked the crew member, when I got off the plane about the stroller, I was told it will be on the bus, it wasn’t. So when I got to Zurich airport (meanwhile I have been on this journey close to 20hrs with a 15month old), they tell me to just call when I get to NY. I tell the agent all this, and all he can say is I was misinformed by the agent in Zurich, and that he apologizes for the inconvenice and that that is what the AA policy is, if it is not reported to Lost and Found it will not be delivered, but needs to be picked up. At this point, I just give up and ask how will I know if it arrives, this is the icing on the cake- “Mame you will just have to keep calling us to check” I am just speechless at the customer service by American Airlines. This is absoutely the worst service I have ever experienced and I fly internationally a lot, but this was the first time I chose to travel American Airlines, and hopefully this would have been the last time.

]]> By: Nila Dutcher http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-4788 Nila Dutcher Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:00:54 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-4788 The movie, "Trains, Planes, & Automobiles" HAS to be about American Airlines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My husband has terminal pancreatic cancer and we were given a family vacation to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida for March 18th-March 21st. A very short time frame to see as much of Disney as possible. We were booked on American Airlines round trip. Our departure was 6:20am and had to be at the airport 2hrs early because of security which meant getting up at 3am to arrive in Orlando at 11:30am (connecting flight in Dallas). Okay, that wasn't fun but doable. We get to the airport with heavy rain and lightning. We did not leave until almost 8am. What should have been a 35minute flight to Dallas took an hour 1/2. And 2/3rds of the passengers where throwing up or nauseous! Okay, that's weather related. This I understand is out of the airlines control for safety. But we get to Dallas and they would only put 3 of our 9 family on "standby" then pushed my daughter out of the way to put other people on standby instead ahead of the rest of our family. There was a young college student trying to get home for spring break also who had been on "standby" for 3days! We finally all get on the airplane and set on the tarmac for another 3 hours!!!!!! We were only offered water and orange juice. By this time it lunch time and none of us had eaten since 3am in the morning. Our flight was to be another 2 1/2 hours. The pilot came on the p.a. system and smarted off that he would be happy to turn back around and go back to the terminal if we so wished it. On take-off my husband (who has flown many, many times) said he didn't know if we were going to make it or not. He just knew we were going to crash it was so horrible. We were offered refreshments........water or canned soda. If you wanted something to eat, small bag of cookies or trailmix would be another $3.00 each. $350 a airline ticket one way couldn't get you a friggin` slice of bread with a piece of meat slapped on it or at least a bag of pretzels or peanuts for free????? We landed at 5:30pm - 6hours late. AND they didn't get my husbands luggage to Orlando either. By the time we got to our hotel we had lost one of the precious 3 days we were given as a "last vacation" with my husband and my kids father. Return flight was even WORSE!!! Should have departed at 11:30am but didn't until 1:15pm. Flight-wise was fine. Our connection back to OKC was in Chicago O'Hare. (Getting scared yet?? Worst airport EVER) We were put in a holding pattern for an hour and half. Again, only offered water or canned soda. Food needs to be purchased. Then the pilot says we are running low on fuel and will have to leave the holding pattern to go to Peoria, Illinois. 30 minutes later we land on a teeny-tiny air strip and another hour burned refueling. Back in the air (didn't think there was going to be enough runway to do it either!) 30mins back to Chicago. We land and the pilot says those who are headed onto OKC that our plane has been held for us but please hurry to the connecting gate. There are 6 people in our family (3 went home via Dallas), 5 people in another family, 2 people in yet another one and a lone business man. That's 14 people running half way across Chicago O'Hare airport with two carry-ons each (two babies being carried & 3 children approx 6yrs old being dragged). We get to the gate and the doors are closed and a red sign saying "Boarding Complete". Talk about yelling going on!! Then all of a sudden all the passengers that DID make it on the airplane are being taken off and the sign starts flashing "Cancelled". We heard both of the AA ticket people talking that all the American Airlines planes were being grounded because the batteries or something were out of date on inspection. So, if we HAD made it on the plane our lives would have been at risk. So many, many more AA passengers were without a way to their destinations. Then one of the two said. "Boy, am I glad I'm going on break", and then he leaves. The AA person left standing would only say no seats were available on any airline until next Tuesday. This is Friday, that's 4 days away! We were not given any help what-so-ever as to motel, directions to rental cars, food voucher, etc. NOTHING!!!!!! They wouldn't even let us retrieve our luggage that was checked onto the plane. By the time we found the rental car area (O'Hare is under contruction btw) all the cars were taken or they wouldn't give you a rental for one way. We called a family member in OKC to give us all the 1-800#'s to the rental car agencies. I found one that charged us $75/day PLUS $347 drop charge to leave at our home airport. But we had to pay a taxi another $68 to get us to Chicago Mid-Way Airport to get it. We left Chicago at 8:30pm and drove home another 12 1/2hours getting home at 9:00am the next morning. Thank God we had 3 adults to split the drive time. I called the OKC airport and was told they didn't have our luggage and didn't "know" where it was, whether it even made it to Chicago from Orlando. What the hell good does the bar codes do on the luggage if they aren't being used to scan from one point to another for status like UPS or FedExpress? On the 3rd day of calling and checking the status online of my "delayed baggage" numbers I was told to please don't call anymore because they have a record of all my calls and my luggage numbers. WHAT? They can track my calls but not my stupid luggage??? The Customer Service person would not give me a direct telephone number to the baggage claim counter in OKC saying they couldn't receive incoming calls. Which is a bunch of bull-dung! So I called one of their competitor airlines and got the stupid number myself. Three times I dialed and could tell they picked it up and hung up on me. The 4th time I got a recording that the baggage claim was overwelmed and to please check status online or better yet to go to the airport in person. My husband & I drove to the airport "Loaded for Bear!!" There had to be 50 people in line & only one lone man trying to help everyone when we got there. While I stood in line, my husband started looking at all the tags of the luggages just standing out in the open or going round & round with no security on the carousels. My husband called my cell phone and said he found one of my bags and one of our daughters. I got out of line and helped him look. We found our 8 bags, 6 of the second familys, 3 of the third family. No one approached us about why we were taking so many bags. We could have walked off with any luggage we wanted!! We called the other two families and they came and got their bags. As I am writing this blog it is now 10:55pm on the Monday night and the website for baggage status still shows our bags as not found. I'll be damned if I tell them I got them already. Let them look for days or weeks. They certainly didn't care about helping us or giving us any information. WE WILL NEVER - EVER - NOT IN THIS LIFE TIME fly on American Airlines again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The movie, “Trains, Planes, & Automobiles” HAS to be about American Airlines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband has terminal pancreatic cancer and we were given a family vacation to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida for March 18th-March 21st. A very short time frame to see as much of Disney as possible. We were booked on American Airlines round trip. Our departure was 6:20am and had to be at the airport 2hrs early because of security which meant getting up at 3am to arrive in Orlando at 11:30am (connecting flight in Dallas). Okay, that wasn’t fun but doable. We get to the airport with heavy rain and lightning. We did not leave until almost 8am. What should have been a 35minute flight to Dallas took an hour 1/2. And 2/3rds of the passengers where throwing up or nauseous! Okay, that’s weather related. This I understand is out of the airlines control for safety. But we get to Dallas and they would only put 3 of our 9 family on “standby” then pushed my daughter out of the way to put other people on standby instead ahead of the rest of our family. There was a young college student trying to get home for spring break also who had been on “standby” for 3days! We finally all get on the airplane and set on the tarmac for another 3 hours!!!!!! We were only offered water and orange juice. By this time it lunch time and none of us had eaten since 3am in the morning. Our flight was to be another 2 1/2 hours. The pilot came on the p.a. system and smarted off that he would be happy to turn back around and go back to the terminal if we so wished it. On take-off my husband (who has flown many, many times) said he didn’t know if we were going to make it or not. He just knew we were going to crash it was so horrible. We were offered refreshments……..water or canned soda. If you wanted something to eat, small bag of cookies or trailmix would be another $3.00 each. $350 a airline ticket one way couldn’t get you a friggin` slice of bread with a piece of meat slapped on it or at least a bag of pretzels or peanuts for free????? We landed at 5:30pm – 6hours late. AND they didn’t get my husbands luggage to Orlando either. By the time we got to our hotel we had lost one of the precious 3 days we were given as a “last vacation” with my husband and my kids father.
Return flight was even WORSE!!! Should have departed at 11:30am but didn’t until 1:15pm. Flight-wise was fine. Our connection back to OKC was in Chicago O’Hare. (Getting scared yet?? Worst airport EVER) We were put in a holding pattern for an hour and half. Again, only offered water or canned soda. Food needs to be purchased. Then the pilot says we are running low on fuel and will have to leave the holding pattern to go to Peoria, Illinois. 30 minutes later we land on a teeny-tiny air strip and another hour burned refueling. Back in the air (didn’t think there was going to be enough runway to do it either!) 30mins back to Chicago. We land and the pilot says those who are headed onto OKC that our plane has been held for us but please hurry to the connecting gate. There are 6 people in our family (3 went home via Dallas), 5 people in another family, 2 people in yet another one and a lone business man. That’s 14 people running half way across Chicago O’Hare airport with two carry-ons each (two babies being carried & 3 children approx 6yrs old being dragged). We get to the gate and the doors are closed and a red sign saying “Boarding Complete”. Talk about yelling going on!! Then all of a sudden all the passengers that DID make it on the airplane are being taken off and the sign starts flashing “Cancelled”. We heard both of the AA ticket people talking that all the American Airlines planes were being grounded because the batteries or something were out of date on inspection. So, if we HAD made it on the plane our lives would have been at risk. So many, many more AA passengers were without a way to their destinations. Then one of the two said. “Boy, am I glad I’m going on break”, and then he leaves. The AA person left standing would only say no seats were available on any airline until next Tuesday. This is Friday, that’s 4 days away! We were not given any help what-so-ever as to motel, directions to rental cars, food voucher, etc. NOTHING!!!!!! They wouldn’t even let us retrieve our luggage that was checked onto the plane.
By the time we found the rental car area (O’Hare is under contruction btw) all the cars were taken or they wouldn’t give you a rental for one way. We called a family member in OKC to give us all the 1-800#’s to the rental car agencies. I found one that charged us $75/day PLUS $347 drop charge to leave at our home airport. But we had to pay a taxi another $68 to get us to Chicago Mid-Way Airport to get it. We left Chicago at 8:30pm and drove home another 12 1/2hours getting home at 9:00am the next morning. Thank God we had 3 adults to split the drive time. I called the OKC airport and was told they didn’t have our luggage and didn’t “know” where it was, whether it even made it to Chicago from Orlando. What the hell good does the bar codes do on the luggage if they aren’t being used to scan from one point to another for status like UPS or FedExpress? On the 3rd day of calling and checking the status online of my “delayed baggage” numbers I was told to please don’t call anymore because they have a record of all my calls and my luggage numbers. WHAT? They can track my calls but not my stupid luggage??? The Customer Service person would not give me a direct telephone number to the baggage claim counter in OKC saying they couldn’t receive incoming calls. Which is a bunch of bull-dung! So I called one of their competitor airlines and got the stupid number myself. Three times I dialed and could tell they picked it up and hung up on me. The 4th time I got a recording that the baggage claim was overwelmed and to please check status online or better yet to go to the airport in person. My husband & I drove to the airport “Loaded for Bear!!” There had to be 50 people in line & only one lone man trying to help everyone when we got there. While I stood in line, my husband started looking at all the tags of the luggages just standing out in the open or going round & round with no security on the carousels. My husband called my cell phone and said he found one of my bags and one of our daughters. I got out of line and helped him look. We found our 8 bags, 6 of the second familys, 3 of the third family. No one approached us about why we were taking so many bags. We could have walked off with any luggage we wanted!! We called the other two families and they came and got their bags. As I am writing this blog it is now 10:55pm on the Monday night and the website for baggage status still shows our bags as not found. I’ll be damned if I tell them I got them already. Let them look for days or weeks. They certainly didn’t care about helping us or giving us any information.
WE WILL NEVER – EVER – NOT IN THIS LIFE TIME fly on American Airlines again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

]]> By: Michelle Leder http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-4787 Michelle Leder Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:53:40 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-4787 It's true that I don't know much about tornadoes. What I do know is that there were 5 of us who spoke at the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday: 2 from Phoenix, 1 from LA, 1 from DC and me from NYC. We all had flights that were departing Dallas at various times on Tuesday afternoon and/or evening. Two were on Southwest, 1 was on US Air and I'm not sure what airline the fourth person was on, but I know that it wasn't American. The two people on Southwest both got home on Tuesday night (to DC and Phoenix) and the person on US Air got out first thing Wednesday morning (6 am) back to Phoenix. That may not be a scientific sample, but it's a pretty good indication that this was an American Airlines problem. To say that American's response reminds me of the companies I used to study during my Economics of the Eastern Bloc class would be a mild understatement. Here's yet another response that I received earlier today. This type of customer service might work when there's no other choices, but thankfully, I live in a place where there's plenty of other airlines available to meet my travel needs: Dear Ms. Leder: We received your most recent email, and it is clear from your additional comments about your disrupted trip that you feel strongly about your request for compensation. However, our position has not changed and we must firmly, but respectfully decline. It is just not our policy to provide compensation or reimbursement when bad weather or air traffic control problems impact our flight schedules. Additionally, I'm sorry if my original response was confusing. Your original flight, flight 740 on March 18, was canceled because of the weather. Your rescheduled flight, flight 742 on March 19, was delayed due to a mixture of air traffic control, weather and crew issues. However, when bad weather affects our flights, crew issues usually happen, as well. While it seems we must agree to disagree over this particular situation, this does not diminish your importance to us as our customer and does not lessen our regret for your inconvenience. We hope you will fly with us soon. It will be a privilege to welcome you aboard. Sincerely, Debbie Mahan Customer Relations American Airlines It’s true that I don’t know much about tornadoes. What I do know is that there were 5 of us who spoke at the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday: 2 from Phoenix, 1 from LA, 1 from DC and me from NYC. We all had flights that were departing Dallas at various times on Tuesday afternoon and/or evening. Two were on Southwest, 1 was on US Air and I’m not sure what airline the fourth person was on, but I know that it wasn’t American. The two people on Southwest both got home on Tuesday night (to DC and Phoenix) and the person on US Air got out first thing Wednesday morning (6 am) back to Phoenix. That may not be a scientific sample, but it’s a pretty good indication that this was an American Airlines problem.

To say that American’s response reminds me of the companies I used to study during my Economics of the Eastern Bloc class would be a mild understatement. Here’s yet another response that I received earlier today. This type of customer service might work when there’s no other choices, but thankfully, I live in a place where there’s plenty of other airlines available to meet my travel needs:

Dear Ms. Leder:

We received your most recent email, and it is clear from your additional comments
about your disrupted trip that you feel strongly about your request for compensation.
However, our position has not changed and we must firmly, but respectfully decline.
It is just not our policy to provide compensation or reimbursement when bad weather or
air traffic control problems impact our flight schedules. Additionally, I’m sorry if
my original response was confusing. Your original flight, flight 740 on March 18, was
canceled because of the weather. Your rescheduled flight, flight 742 on March 19, was
delayed due to a mixture of air traffic control, weather and crew issues. However,
when bad weather affects our flights, crew issues usually happen, as well.
While it seems we must agree to disagree over this particular situation, this does not
diminish your importance to us as our customer and does not lessen our regret for your
inconvenience. We hope you will fly with us soon. It will be a privilege to welcome
you aboard.

Sincerely,

Debbie Mahan
Customer Relations
American Airlines

]]> By: FortWorthRes http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-4786 FortWorthRes Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:35:43 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-4786 Ms. Leder, I'm not sure where you got your info on the tornado warnings, but a "Tornado Warning" is when a funnel cloud has been spotted on the ground. One was spotted on DFW Airport property at about 10:45 Tuesday morning. DFW was closed to air traffic from 10:45 until about 5PM (all airlines). Similarly, Love Field (Southwest Air Hub) was closed from about Noon until 5PM. Both airports received strong winds, lightning, heavy rain and hail for the better part of the day. For the day, Southwest cancelled roughly 50% of their Love flights and American canceled 75% of their DFW flights. I have no clue on how the other airlines did, but I would guess if a flight was coming from more than 500 miles, it was canceled. American made a decision to cancel all remaining DFW flights early in the afternoon as the weather wasn't expected to clear until late in the evening. There were some small windows where AA was able to bring in some of the 130 diverted flights and SW was able to operate some of their short haul flights. AA's decision enabled them to get the planes and crews in proper position to start the next day fresh. SW had a mostly "unpublished" operational meltdown the next day as they were overwhelmed with planes, passengers and luggage. I'm sorry that your flight was delayed the next day, but ATC delays are common in the NY area and air traffic was disrupted all over on Wed and Thurs as well by the same storm system that affected the DFW area on Tuesday (see MO, AR floods, and ORD snowstorm on Thursday). Unlike when you drive, airlines do not get to decide when they take off or land, they must get clearance from ATC. So, if a plane pushes from the gate at DFW and while taxiing, NYC ATC says it can't leave, it can't leave. End of story. And, if it can't leave for too long and it's near the end of the day, it could potentially cause a problem with the crew running past their allocated hours (mandated by the FAA). Let me ask you a question, if you have a meeting in NYC and have to drive to work on the Sawmill River Parkway and it rains and the road is closed due to flooding or an accident and you can't make the meeting, do you call the NY DOT and ask for compensation? Ms. Leder,
I’m not sure where you got your info on the tornado warnings, but a “Tornado Warning” is when a funnel cloud has been spotted on the ground. One was spotted on DFW Airport property at about 10:45 Tuesday morning. DFW was closed to air traffic from 10:45 until about 5PM (all airlines). Similarly, Love Field (Southwest Air Hub) was closed from about Noon until 5PM. Both airports received strong winds, lightning, heavy rain and hail for the better part of the day. For the day, Southwest cancelled roughly 50% of their Love flights and American canceled 75% of their DFW flights. I have no clue on how the other airlines did, but I would guess if a flight was coming from more than 500 miles, it was canceled.

American made a decision to cancel all remaining DFW flights early in the afternoon as the weather wasn’t expected to clear until late in the evening. There were some small windows where AA was able to bring in some of the 130 diverted flights and SW was able to operate some of their short haul flights.

AA’s decision enabled them to get the planes and crews in proper position to start the next day fresh. SW had a mostly “unpublished” operational meltdown the next day as they were overwhelmed with planes, passengers and luggage.

I’m sorry that your flight was delayed the next day, but ATC delays are common in the NY area and air traffic was disrupted all over on Wed and Thurs as well by the same storm system that affected the DFW area on Tuesday (see MO, AR floods, and ORD snowstorm on Thursday).

Unlike when you drive, airlines do not get to decide when they take off or land, they must get clearance from ATC. So, if a plane pushes from the gate at DFW and while taxiing, NYC ATC says it can’t leave, it can’t leave. End of story. And, if it can’t leave for too long and it’s near the end of the day, it could potentially cause a problem with the crew running past their allocated hours (mandated by the FAA).

Let me ask you a question, if you have a meeting in NYC and have to drive to work on the Sawmill River Parkway and it rains and the road is closed due to flooding or an accident and you can’t make the meeting, do you call the NY DOT and ask for compensation?

]]> By: Broc Romanek http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-4785 Broc Romanek Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:50:05 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-4785 Interestingly, when I blogged about this type of topic a year or so ago, I also hit a nerve with my readership. The airlines really need to get their act together... Interestingly, when I blogged about this type of topic a year or so ago, I also hit a nerve with my readership. The airlines really need to get their act together…

]]> By: B. K http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-4784 B. K Mon, 24 Mar 2008 20:01:13 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-4784 My family and I flew on AA 64 on March 20th 540pm flight from JFK to Zurich, which was supposed to arrive at 635am on March 21st. However, apparently the pilot was unable to land the plane at Zurich airport, due to strong winds. The flight was diverted to Milan, where we were grounded for about 4hrs, waiting for fuel and for the weather to clear up. 4 hours, without being offered anything to drink or eat by the in-flight AA crew members. Meanwhile I had an infant with me, for whom I had just one extra bottle of formula just in case of delays. Finally the plane took off again to Zurich, and once again the pilot was unable to land the plane in Zurich, apparently due to strong winds. We were then flown back to Milan, and were told once we landed ground crew will help us further, and that we will be shuttled in a bus to Zurich from Milan. Meanwhile it is past 2pm, still have no eaten since the breakfast provided by AA at around 530am (Central European time). All the passengers were asked to disembark, and our seat was all the way at the back, and we got out, and when I asked for my stroller I was told it will be on the bus by an in-flight crew member. We all clear customs, and get our baggage, and go out in hopes to talk to ground crew, who will be able to give us more information on the situation, on how to reach our worried families, and possibly providing us with some food. However, we encountered one agent, for a flight full of passengers, who in very broken English informed us, we were to wait for the bus, and it will take us to the Zurich airport. The bus arrives at 3pm, there were 3 buses and instead of opening all three buses at the same time, they only opened each one as one got full. Please understand, that I was holding my baby in my arms, who happened to be recovering from fever, who had a runny nose, and was congested, outside where it was windy, to get on a bus. At this point I realized that my stroller was not here, so I ask around and someone then tells me, that it was in the baggage claims area, which they wouldn’t let me reenter. The bus finally starts moving close to 430pm, and we head out to Zurich airport. We don’t arrive at the Zurich airport until 830pm, meanwhile we didn’t eat anything since the 530am breakfast AA provided us. Another passenger with a baby was gracious and nice enough to give me some food for my baby. We were so disappointed in AA service or better word would be lack of service to their passengers. Please understand not only did we pay for our tickets to fly to Zurich, but we also paid to have the infant fly on our lap for a 7hr flight and not a 20hr journey. More disappointing was to find out, that our flights was one of the very flew that did not land in Zurich. My family and I flew for vacation for 2 days, because of this fiasco; we were there only 1 day because we had to fly back on Sunday morning. This was the absolute worst flight my family has ever been on, most of the passengers concur on that flight concur with us on this. My family and I flew on AA 64 on March 20th 540pm flight from JFK to Zurich, which was supposed to arrive at 635am on March 21st. However, apparently the pilot was unable to land the plane at Zurich airport, due to strong winds. The flight was diverted to Milan, where we were grounded for about 4hrs, waiting for fuel and for the weather to clear up. 4 hours, without being offered anything to drink or eat by the in-flight AA crew members. Meanwhile I had an infant with me, for whom I had just one extra bottle of formula just in case of delays.
Finally the plane took off again to Zurich, and once again the pilot was unable to land the plane in Zurich, apparently due to strong winds. We were then flown back to Milan, and were told once we landed ground crew will help us further, and that we will be shuttled in a bus to Zurich from Milan. Meanwhile it is past 2pm, still have no eaten since the breakfast provided by AA at around 530am (Central European time). All the passengers were asked to disembark, and our seat was all the way at the back, and we got out, and when I asked for my stroller I was told it will be on the bus by an in-flight crew member. We all clear customs, and get our baggage, and go out in hopes to talk to ground crew, who will be able to give us more information on the situation, on how to reach our worried families, and possibly providing us with some food. However, we encountered one agent, for a flight full of passengers, who in very broken English informed us, we were to wait for the bus, and it will take us to the Zurich airport. The bus arrives at 3pm, there were 3 buses and instead of opening all three buses at the same time, they only opened each one as one got full. Please understand, that I was holding my baby in my arms, who happened to be recovering from fever, who had a runny nose, and was congested, outside where it was windy, to get on a bus.
At this point I realized that my stroller was not here, so I ask around and someone then tells me, that it was in the baggage claims area, which they wouldn’t let me reenter.
The bus finally starts moving close to 430pm, and we head out to Zurich airport. We don’t arrive at the Zurich airport until 830pm, meanwhile we didn’t eat anything since the 530am breakfast AA provided us. Another passenger with a baby was gracious and nice enough to give me some food for my baby.
We were so disappointed in AA service or better word would be lack of service to their passengers. Please understand not only did we pay for our tickets to fly to Zurich, but we also paid to have the infant fly on our lap for a 7hr flight and not a 20hr journey. More disappointing was to find out, that our flights was one of the very flew that did not land in Zurich. My family and I flew for vacation for 2 days, because of this fiasco; we were there only 1 day because we had to fly back on Sunday morning. This was the absolute worst flight my family has ever been on, most of the passengers concur on that flight concur with us on this.

]]> By: p12 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-4779 p12 Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:46:16 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-4779 Little people are people too! Little people are people too!

]]> By: Danny http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-4778 Danny Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:17:49 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-4778 Michelle, I'm sorry that you had two days out of your life disrupted, and I assure you that the majority of employees at American love their job and want to treat the customers with respect and dignity. As stated by another poster, our hands have been tied to an extent so they can save every dollar possible. Even at the expense of customer service. Again, sorry for the two day disruption but please realize that many, many employees have had more than two days of disruption. Many have had lives destroyed or dramatically changed by American. I'm sure you are well aware of the turmoil the industry has gone through over the past few years and though I realize the customer has paid a heavy price, the employees have suffered tremendously. Some have actually taken their own life because of the situation. Michelle, I regret that your experience was bad and I hope things have gotten better. But always remember as bad as you might temporarily have it, there are those who have it worse and some who always will. Happy Easter Michelle,

I’m sorry that you had two days out of your life disrupted, and I assure you that the majority of employees at American love their job and want to treat the customers with respect and dignity.
As stated by another poster, our hands have been tied to an extent so they can save every dollar possible. Even at the expense of customer service.

Again, sorry for the two day disruption but please realize that many, many employees have had more than two days of disruption. Many have had lives destroyed or dramatically changed by American. I’m sure you are well aware of the turmoil the industry has gone through over the past few years and though I realize the customer has paid a heavy price, the employees have suffered tremendously. Some have actually taken their own life because of the situation.

Michelle, I regret that your experience was bad and I hope things have gotten better.
But always remember as bad as you might temporarily have it, there are those who have it worse and some who always will.

Happy Easter

]]> By: Jenny http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/comment-page-1/#comment-4766 Jenny Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:50:04 +0000 http://www.footnoted.com/blog-notes/can-i-get-my-2-days-back-american-airlines/#comment-4766 I was a stranded passenger as well on Tuesday, but do not bear any ill will towards American Airlines. Although having to arrive at my destination a day late was a bit of an inconvenience, I was rebooked immediately. What I especially appreciated was the advanced notice that my flight was cancelled, rather than arriving at the airport to learn of my flight's fate. We all want our travel to go without a hitch. Mother Nature, however, could care less if we fly today, tomorrow, or next week. American Airlines made a sound and proactive decision to not attempt to fight weather that day, and all passengers that feel safety is an airlines top priority should applaud American for making that call. I was a stranded passenger as well on Tuesday, but do not bear any ill will towards American Airlines. Although having to arrive at my destination a day late was a bit of an inconvenience, I was rebooked immediately. What I especially appreciated was the advanced notice that my flight was cancelled, rather than arriving at the airport to learn of my flight’s fate. We all want our travel to go without a hitch. Mother Nature, however, could care less if we fly today, tomorrow, or next week. American Airlines made a sound and proactive decision to not attempt to fight weather that day, and all passengers that feel safety is an airlines top priority should applaud American for making that call.

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