No seats ORD-LGA?

 
Old Aug 9, 2007, 12:26 pm
  #1  
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No seats ORD-LGA?

I have been trying to get a better seat on my flight to LGA tomorrow for a while. Is aa.com showing all seats taken because I don't have status on AA, or because all seats are taken? Right now I'm stuck in 30C in an MD80. Good thing I have earplugs. I thought something would open up when upgrades clear 72 and 24 hours out, but evidently not.
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Old Aug 9, 2007, 12:34 pm
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The seats do tend to clear out as upgrades clear; however, the fact that you're not seeing better seats may indicate one of two different things:

1) Upgrades aren't clearing yet -- the 100/72/24 hour windows are minimum times, and not absolute times
2) If upgrades are, indeed, clearing, the people upgrading are clearing out of exit rows or other premium seats, which show as unavailable for non-status passengers even when empty

You can keep checking to see if something better comes up, but the best thing to do is inquire about an exit row or better seat when you get to the airport, where the premium coach seats are available to all passengers.

Mike
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Old Aug 9, 2007, 12:42 pm
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
I have been trying to get a better seat on my flight to LGA tomorrow for a while. Is aa.com showing all seats taken because I don't have status on AA, or because all seats are taken? Right now I'm stuck in 30C in an MD80. Good thing I have earplugs. I thought something would open up when upgrades clear 72 and 24 hours out, but evidently not.
What flight are you on?
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Old Aug 9, 2007, 12:50 pm
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It's AA 374, ORD-LGA on 8/10.
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Old Aug 9, 2007, 12:53 pm
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Originally Posted by gfunkdave
It's AA 374, ORD-LGA on 8/10.
According to the EF seat map, all of the open seats in coach are in premium rows (9F, 10F, 11F, and eight of the ten exit row seats).

Mike
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Old Aug 9, 2007, 12:57 pm
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Cool, thanks. I'll see about changing seats at the airport...though I did already print off my bp.
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Old Aug 9, 2007, 3:57 pm
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It's the weather.

In NYC we are expecting another nasty 12-18 hours starting at ~12:01am on 8/10. Me and Mrs inlanikai are scheduled to go to PVG through ORD on 305/289. I've been trying all day to get moved to 301 for a little more wiggle room with no joy even though it was F7 on both 301 and 305. Now, all of sudden, Expertflyer shows all the LGA-ORD flights "0" in all inventory till mid-afternoon. I think the folks in RM are getting set for a nasty day after the one we had yesterday (8/8) and are basically putting a freeze on inventory. I was told by the EP desk that 301 was already oversold in coach.

Keep your fingers crossed for the inlanikai's that we make or ORD-PVG connection. ^
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Old Aug 10, 2007, 9:39 am
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LGA a nightmare yesterday. I was on 7:50pm LGA-ATL and was able to standby and talk my way onto the 3:55p (which left a 6:00p). But when AA automatic notifier called me and told me my flight was cancelled (the original 7:50p) and the earliest they could re-book me was 7:50 pm tonight! Next available flight was 24 hours later.
LGA was a zoo, flights to ORD, DFW and MIA were all lateand/or cancelled. Total confusion at AA. The gods were with me on even getting home yesterday.
Take whatever seat you can get, just so you get on the plane.
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Old Aug 10, 2007, 9:46 am
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I completely agree! LGA was an absolute disaster yesterday! It wasn't even bad weather, just ATC holds and congestion delays. It had nothing to do with AA. I was trying to fly YYZ-LGA and sat on the ground for hours because ATC refused to allow aircraft destined for LGA to take off!

We need to write to our Congresspeople and tell them that it's time to deal with the problem of 95% saturation at LGA! From what I understand, because the airlines have moved to a high-frequency, small-aircraft model of business (allowing them to offer customers greater flexibility in flight times while also charging more per ticket, on average), virtually every single takeoff and landing timeslot into and out of LGA every day is assigned to a flight. It's crazy! One little hiccup and the whole day's schedule is thrown off, inconveniencing millions of pax each year and costing the airlines millions. I've all but given up on LGA for anything other than early morning flights where both the aircraft and crew originate at LGA.

We need to deal with this problem--it has gotten only worse in recent years!
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Old Aug 10, 2007, 11:04 am
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Originally Posted by LongingForORD
LGA a nightmare yesterday. I was on 7:50pm LGA-ATL and was able to standby and talk my way onto the 3:55p (which left a 6:00p). But when AA automatic notifier called me and told me my flight was cancelled (the original 7:50p) and the earliest they could re-book me was 7:50 pm tonight! Next available flight was 24 hours later.
LGA was a zoo, flights to ORD, DFW and MIA were all lateand/or cancelled. Total confusion at AA. The gods were with me on even getting home yesterday.
Take whatever seat you can get, just so you get on the plane.
I completely agree. I was at LGA yesterday on the ORD flight where the captain came to the gate and told us that we had a choice in boarding, because we would be sitting in the taxi line for at least ninety minutes; so we could choose not to board and take our chances on a later flight. Needless to say, since all of the later flights were canceling at that point, no one took him up on it.

I will say that he was pretty cool about the whole thing. We boarded about 40 minutes late, and sat in the conga line out there; but while we were sitting there he told us "feel free to use cell phones, computers, etc., when we get closer to takeoff I'll tell you to turn them off." He waited until we were #3 to force everyone to shut down again.

Also, what was up with the LGA AC? The door was locked for a while! Nothing like a scrum of people outside the AC in D waiting to get in....
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Old Aug 10, 2007, 6:21 pm
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Originally Posted by ESpen36
I completely agree! LGA was an absolute disaster yesterday! It wasn't even bad weather, just ATC holds and congestion delays. It had nothing to do with AA. I was trying to fly YYZ-LGA and sat on the ground for hours because ATC refused to allow aircraft destined for LGA to take off!

We need to write to our Congresspeople and tell them that it's time to deal with the problem of 95% saturation at LGA! From what I understand, because the airlines have moved to a high-frequency, small-aircraft model of business (allowing them to offer customers greater flexibility in flight times while also charging more per ticket, on average), virtually every single takeoff and landing timeslot into and out of LGA every day is assigned to a flight. It's crazy! One little hiccup and the whole day's schedule is thrown off, inconveniencing millions of pax each year and costing the airlines millions. I've all but given up on LGA for anything other than early morning flights where both the aircraft and crew originate at LGA.

We need to deal with this problem--it has gotten only worse in recent years!
...its not really the smaller planes with higher frequency, its the extremely antiquated ATC system which is only 2-3 decades obsolete...
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Old Aug 12, 2007, 10:01 am
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Originally Posted by bryenz
I completely agree. I was at LGA yesterday on the ORD flight where the captain came to the gate and told us that we had a choice in boarding, because we would be sitting in the taxi line for at least ninety minutes; so we could choose not to board and take our chances on a later flight. Needless to say, since all of the later flights were canceling at that point, no one took him up on it.

I will say that he was pretty cool about the whole thing. We boarded about 40 minutes late, and sat in the conga line out there; but while we were sitting there he told us "feel free to use cell phones, computers, etc., when we get closer to takeoff I'll tell you to turn them off." He waited until we were #3 to force everyone to shut down again.

Also, what was up with the LGA AC? The door was locked for a while! Nothing like a scrum of people outside the AC in D waiting to get in....
My wife and I were on the same flight, and felt we were lucky to get out of LGA. Friends on some of the later flights got cancelled because of the gridlock. A minor problem was that the airplane continued to inch toward the takeoff position for 90 minutes, and because we were in motion, the FA said that she could not serve us drinks while on the ground. (And we really needed them).

I never had seen so many planes lined up at LGA. The line of AC waiting to take off extended from AA's G wing up to the end of the runway at the point where the Delta Jungle Jets board, and then back along the other side of the runway to the other end.

One of the issues that not contribute to these delays was that 15 years ago, one of the most common planes seen at LGA were the L-1011s of DL and TW, and widebodies of other airlines. Widebodies are a rarity now at LGA, and I wonder when they will start to make a comeback on these routes because of the congestion.
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Old Aug 12, 2007, 11:28 am
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Originally Posted by Life_Platinum
My wife and I were on the same flight, and felt we were lucky to get out of LGA. Friends on some of the later flights got cancelled because of the gridlock. A minor problem was that the airplane continued to inch toward the takeoff position for 90 minutes, and because we were in motion, the FA said that she could not serve us drinks while on the ground. (And we really needed them).

I never had seen so many planes lined up at LGA. The line of AC waiting to take off extended from AA's G wing up to the end of the runway at the point where the Delta Jungle Jets board, and then back along the other side of the runway to the other end.

One of the issues that not contribute to these delays was that 15 years ago, one of the most common planes seen at LGA were the L-1011s of DL and TW, and widebodies of other airlines. Widebodies are a rarity now at LGA, and I wonder when they will start to make a comeback on these routes because of the congestion.
You guys must have been in F. From my row 10 seat, a bunch of people got up to use the lav, get stuff from the bins, etc., and the FAs didn't say anything at all.

I wondered about the widebody thing. It's only been recently that I've been going to LGA and didn't know how effective those were. Some of the more chatty captains talk about noise abatement on departure, I wonder if the neighbors around there would complain about heavies taking off and landing over Queens...

Something has to be done with the whole airspace in that area, anyhow. Three big airline airports and any number of GA ones (plus HPN, etc.) means way too many planes coming and going at any given time. As a GA pilot, I don't think I'd have too much fun flying around that area.
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Old Aug 12, 2007, 6:08 pm
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FWIW, we got in to LGA about 2 hours late. It looked pretty crowded in there. Sorry all of you had to wait around.

THey put me in 9B, BTW. I asked at the gate.
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