AA flight cancelled seeking thoughts of others

Aviation Airlines
1

Just want to see what others here think of this

I had a flight scheduled out of La Crosse, WI (LSE) at 2:35 today with connections in ORD and LAX and my final destination of SAN.

That was cancelled last night. That isnt what I have a problem withthe following is.

Early this week there were forecast for significant snow/ice in the area. As the week went on they fine tuned the forecast and by Wednesday it was a Winter Storm Warning meaning it couldnt miss us. What wasnt sure was the exact amount of ice or snow but 6-12 inches of snow with inch of ice was all very likely at that time.

On Wednesday Northwest had issued weather waivers for the entire area, allowing passengers to rebook without penalty before or after the weather was supposed to hit.

After checking aa.com and seeing a number of seats open on their seat maps for flights that would get me to SAN (I realize they are not the most accurate, but it gave me some idea that there should be seats when I saw a dozen or more). After seeing that I called American to see if I could get out ahead of the storm.

They had said at that time they had no knowledge of weather in this area that would turn bad and cancel flights.

Thursday evening I am checking to see what earlier flights are like to see if I could get out earlier on standby (figure the earlier I can get out of this area, the better in case my flight is cancelled). As I am running down the departures out of LSE I run across mine and see it is cancelled.

Call up American and the only option they have is to get me out 5:55 PM on Saturday, arriving in San Diego at 10:05 PM. That is a full 25 hours later than I was supposed to get there. Losing a day in warm, sunny SoCal doesnt have me too happy

After doing some other things I call American back last night and was able to get on a 6:00 AM flight out of RST (Rochester, MN) on Saturday, getting into San Diego at 10:20 AM.

Now in all of this I have never received an email or phone call that my flight was cancelled. I can only think that if I had waited until this morning or until closer to when I would have left for the airport (like much of the flying public would do) that I would be on a Sunday flight

  1. Anyone else think its odd I didnt get a call from them about the cancelled flight? Or am I expecting too much?
  2. Should American have issued a weather waiver on Wednesday seeing what the forecast were and that Northwest had done it for the same region? Or again, am I expecting too much? (I know, go fly NWAright?)

Bad news is I dont get to where I want to go when I wanted to get there.

Good news is that I had very nice reservation agents that were very helpful in getting me where I want to go as soon as they can get me there. Not to mention, the women I talked to last night put me in first class from ORD-SAN.

2

i have flown nwa and when one of my flights was cancelled, i was informed the night before the flight via phone.

3

We’re The Phone Company
I saw this sketch on SNL one time. Lily Tomlin reprises Ernestine the telephone operator from her Laugh-In days (insert snorts as appropriate):

Here at the Phone Company we handle eighty-four billion calls a year. Serving everyone from presidents and kings to scum of the earth. We realize that every so often you can’t get an operator, for no apparent reason your phone goes out of order [plucks plug out of switchboard], or perhaps you get charged for a call you didn’t make.

We don’t care.

Watch this - [bangs on a switch panel like a cheap piano] just lost Peoria.

You see, this phone system consists of a multibillion-dollar matrix of space-age technology that is so sophisticated, even we can’t handle it. But that’s your problem, isn’t it ? Next time you complain about your phone service, why don’t you try using two Dixie cups with a string.

[loud, booming “Liquid Plummer” voice-over] We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the Phone Company.

(Text source: “Saturday Night Live: The First 20 Years”, 1994 Cader Company. I saw it on SNL and loved it!)

4

I’d say be glad you’re smarter than the average bear, Boo-Boo! Lots of stranded travellers are gonna be watchin’ you get on that flight and all they can do is WISH they were you! Yeah, you’re missin’ a day of sunny, CA - but some people are missing weddings, funerals, kids’ performances in school plays, or maybe two or three days of their vacation time… :wink:

5

If you make your AA reservations online (which they encourage by not charging a ticketing fee), you can create a Flight Status Notification for your flights. You can choose to be notified of any changes in your flights’ status by a number of different methods – voice mail (cell phone or landline) or text message (cell phone, PDA, email, or pager). It has actually worked!

During the mid-February storms here in the Midwest, I had two different round-trips scheduled to ORD. I was called the night before the first storm hit because the flight had been cancelled – when they called they already moved me to a different flight later in the day after the storm was scheduled to have passed.

The 2nd case was not as clear-cut because my flight was not canceled early. However, AA called to tell me it would probably be delayed and possibly canceled. In talking to the agent, she told me that even in Dallas she was well aware of the forecast for IND. After several delays we finally got to ORD. At the end of the trip, I found at least 5 messages in my voice mail that were sent every time the departure time for my flight had been postponed.

That is how their web-based reservations work. I don’t know what AA does for non-internet reservations since I always use their web site. Possibly someone else can shed some light.

6

And the airlaines wonder why people are moving to personal aircraft in droves.

7

i was flying AA last october from ORD-RSW, i booked myself on the only non-stop flight they had that day. they called me the night before and told me it was cancelled due to storms that were going to hit that day. they told me they put me on an evening flight that connected in MIA, the only problem was that it got me into RSW about 11pm which was late and i was flying down to surprise my grandma, the had an earlier flight at 6am with a connection in MIA so i took that flight. I got to MIA and my flight said ontime, then it changed to cancelled. i went up to the service desk and they said they had a bus on the way to take us all to rsw and we all recieved $10 food vouchers plus $100 travel voucher.

I booked online but didnt choose to be notified of changes so i was really surprised that they called, and put me on another flight

8

Perhaps you will remember this experience next time, and book with NWA?

The bottom line is that most people either try to fly on “their” airline, due to frequent flier and hub relationships, or they go for best time and price. I am lucky to own a plane since I refuse to fly United, and I live now in Denver.

Quality, for most buyers, never seems to come up (except concerns over safety). I think maybe the airlines are rotten because we tell them that we don’t care about anything but scheduling and cost. We tell them they are all the same (except for SW of JB, perhaps). Unfortunately, we can’t seem to get everyone else to play along and choose quality over price and schedule.

A few years ago, AA (IIRC) put more leg room on many of their planes. I bought a ticket, and liked it. However, they would not guarantee you would get the plane with the extra legroom, and they persist in using DFW (a.k.a. Thunderstorm City) as a hub. At any rate, the whole experiment failed when it didn’t attract enough market share to make up for the lost seats.

9

Indy: I have always booked online, have never used flight status notification, that is my bad, guess I will do it from now on. However, it still seems a little odd to not hear from them since they do have my email and phone number an automated call letting me know or an email wouldnt be too hard.

Candamooney: No, I will not book with NWA in the future. They might have offered a travel voucher in advance and might have been able to get me out before the storm, but that is all they have over AA. The last times I flew Northwest the employees were not enjoying their job and it showed. They were rude, unhelpful, not very friendly, just didnt make flying with them very pleasant.

AA on the other hand, from reservation agents, to ticket agents to the flight crews seem to at least make an effort to help the passenger and dont seemed so forced doing what they are doing.

10

Well, at least you are looking at quality of service. I wouldn’t want to fly with anyone who had surly employees either. I can put up with a lot of other things first.

11

Just an update on all of thisI wrote American an email March 1 when my flight was cancelled expressing my frustration with the situation, from not being able to get out early, and not being notified about the cancellationbla, bla, bla

Ten days or so passed, didnt get a response so I sent another one, saying much of the same thing, but also included that I was very happy with the very friendly and helpful reservations agents (the reason why I got out on Saturday morning and not later in the weekend or early next week).

This week I got a reply, pretty standard, nothing special except that they gave me 5,000 AAdvantage Miles.

Its somethingfor me, it works as compensation for missing a day

12

On 19Mar I had a return flight from CHS-BDL on DL. That morning they canceled my inbound from CVG-CHS.

On 16/17Mar they cancelled most flights into the northeast. Thus, every single flight from any hub anywhere into the northeast, whether on DL/AA/NW etc etc etc was booked over the lids and had standbys until the next day. Yet, I had a reserved seat on a fligth into BDL that I could not get to due to the cxl.

The Ticket Agent @ CHS was very helpful, but Hartford was not happening that day, nor was PVD, ALB, BOS, HPN, SWF or any of the NE airports. However, one place had LOTS of seats. HVN - New Haven. The ticket agent never even thought of HVN until I brought it up.

Now this guy told me that he sent at least 7-8 people away that morning, with hotel and food vouchers, with seats the next day for BDL and another two dozen or so for Boston and NYC airports. Yet, half of them could have gotten on my PHL-HVN flight. Plus, DL gave me a voucher for a car rental from HVN-BDL, where I picked up my car the next day with only a minor hassle.

The moral of the story is don;t give up and always know what your destinations are with airline service where ever you go. As for you, next time, reserve a full fare coach back up ticket for the route you want, and when your flight gets canceled, you have a seat.

Also, Know when to invoke Rule 240.

13

The only reason I got out for my trip was because I mentioned RST, MSP, even went as far as suggesting MSN, if I didnt do that, I dont get out when I did.

Reserve a back up ticket? Thats just crazy.

What is Rule 240?