It's worth noting that his gripes were essentially about not keeping the passengers informed in a timely manner.
I've never seen an airline that actually does. It's beyond me why the GA can't just walk back and ask maintenance how long it will be, and then make an announcement "A seat is broken. It'll be 1-2 hours before we board, but we won't be cancelling the flight."
I've never seen an airline that actually does. It's beyond me why the GA can't just walk back and ask maintenance how long it will be, and then make an announcement "A seat is broken. It'll be 1-2 hours before we board, but we won't be cancelling the flight."
I'm very much in agreement with the general lack of information from GAs. This is probably my single biggest gripe with AA staff.
But what you suggest is not always as simple as it sounds. On one delay I was talking with a very good GA about this. she indicated that, quite often, the maintenance folks don't know how long something will take until they diagnose, or how long it will take to get the part. Now, one can argue (and possibly validly) about whether the maintenance folks should have a better idea, but they're not customer-facing, so they don't need to
So, sometimes the lack of information from the GA is simply because they can't get the good dope from elsewhere. Probably not the case most of the time, though...
I'm very much in agreement with the general lack of information from GAs. This is probably my single biggest gripe with AA staff.
But what you suggest is not always as simple as it sounds. On one delay I was talking with a very good GA about this. she indicated that, quite often, the maintenance folks don't know how long something will take until they diagnose, or how long it will take to get the part. Now, one can argue (and possibly validly) about whether the maintenance folks should have a better idea, but they're not customer-facing, so they don't need to
So, sometimes the lack of information from the GA is simply because they can't get the good dope from elsewhere. Probably not the case most of the time, though...
Cheers.
Generally my experience has been that GAs try to keep paxs advised even if to tell them that they have not been given any timeframe but will make an announcement as information is provided to the gate. However, my biggest gripe would be those relatively few times when I see maintenance going onboard, boarding time has come and gone yet no announcement. By then I usually go up to the podium and ask so I can get a jump on potential rerouting before other paxs do.
Well, they can always say that the seat is broken, they're waiting for a part and don't know how long it will take to get it and/or the maintenance staff is diagnosing the problem but they may not be able to tell us how long it will take to fix. Just tell us something! (That isn't a lie...)
Well, they can always say that the seat is broken, they're waiting for a part and don't know how long it will take to get it and/or the maintenance staff is diagnosing the problem but they may not be able to tell us how long it will take to fix. Just tell us something! (That isn't a lie...)
See, this is what I'm talking about. I fully understand that they can't know everything. But the worst possible thing a GA can say is "Maintenance is on the plane" and just leave it at that. They know exactly why the crew was called, so at least tell us that. If it's something like a possible engine issue and there's another flight leaving 1 hour later I can just hop on that and be perfectly fine. If it's a loose seat cushion I'll tough it out.
See, this is what I'm talking about. I fully understand that they can't know everything. But the worst possible thing a GA can say is "Maintenance is on the plane" and just leave it at that. They know exactly why the crew was called, so at least tell us that. If it's something like a possible engine issue and there's another flight leaving 1 hour later I can just hop on that and be perfectly fine. If it's a loose seat cushion I'll tough it out.
Exactly. While they may not know the duration of the issues (for reasons cited above) they do know (or should know if they care to find out ) the what. Tell us the what so we have some indication of what's going. "Maintenance is dealing with an issue" is not enough.
