coolcoil

We are sitting on the ground in Kingston, Jamaica After experiencing a "cabin depressurization" (pilot's words, not mine) on AA 924 MDE-MIA. We did not know anything was wrong until the captain calmly announced that we were diverting and would be landing in ten minutes. Before that, I had felt us start to descend, but thought it was a normal in-flight altitude adjustment. The oxygen masks did NOT deploy.

I just heard the captain telling somebody that we were at 38,000 feet and we started to slowly lose pressure.

Not an exciting story, and I almost didn't bother to post, but it was something to do while sitting at the gate. At least I can add one more to my list of countries visited!

bdemaria

When one is in a plane that has a mechanical issue serious enough to warrant an emergency diversion - the last thing you want is "an exciting story"

Glad you are all OK - hope it isn't too difficult to get back to MIA.

BStrauss3

No updates posted yet to flyfo data

Key is that last line - At Kingston station, decision at 11:00 (prob whether maint can fix it or they need to bring in a new plane)

coolcoil

Well, the emergency was well handled as far as I can tell, but the IRROPS not so much.

NOTE: The following is a sort-of rant about IRROPS handling. As somebody who does not bother to read the zillions of rants about IRROPS handling on FT, I would not blame you for choosing not to read this one. Nothing I write here is going to change anything, and now I regret spending the time typing it. I'm even thinking about not posting this, but if you're reading this, you know how that decision fell out.

They pretty quickly determined that the plane would not be operable until at least late tonight. So, we were deplaned after an hour, which probably was not bad, but things did not go so well after that. The KIN crew was overwhelmed. Fortunately, I had blown an SWU on this flight, so I was one of the first to deplane and they collected my BP for rerouting. After 2.5 hours, nothing had been done with it. I called into the EXP desk, and they reserved the flights I wanted, but I still had to wait for the airport team to actually issue the tickets. So, I am now sitting in the contract lounge after waiting in the unairconditioned airport for 3 hours.

However, I am not griping for me, but for the main cabin travelers. I handed over my BP and went to sit down immediately. Some of them had been standing in line for 3 hours when I finally got my BP and probably still had an hour to go. Not fun in a room that had to be at least 85 degF. I was disappointed to see that no particular effort was made for status passengers. If I had not spent the SWU, I would have been one of those poor souls. There were two groups - first class and economy.

This was my first experience with IRROPS on AA and I have been fortunate to not have experienced it often on any airline. It's clear that AA has not invested enough in training their people or setting up systems for IRROPS. I was getting frustrated with the KIN staff due to the slow speed, but when I saw how many screens they had go through to reissue my ticket, even when I already had the reservation was revealing. (I was standing to her side and slightly behind her). The agent was rapidly blowing through each screen, but the shear quantity of steps in the process makes it impossible for anybody to do a good job.

I don't see why AA does not:

1) Streamline the process. Sorry, in my business we never would tolerate so much busywork and delay for something that has to be done every day.

2) Have a centralized IRRPOPS team that can at least handle the rescheduling, even if they can't actually reissue the ticket,

coolcoil

Thanks, you are absolutely right about that. It looks like I'll get to BWI at 12:03 a.m. instead of 4:30 in the afternoon, so not horrible.

C17PSGR

Glad you're safe ... on the IRROPS piece, I'd think about giving AA a pass. You landed in a different country where you are stuck inside a secured area because of border issues. KIN is a small station so it's not surprising that they aren't able to handle it well.

BStrauss3

Realistically, what do you expect?

AA has 3 flights a day MIA-KIN (arrives 12pm, 2pm and 6:30pm) and 3 KIN-MIA (8am, 1pm and 3pm) so when you show up with 30 minutes notice at 9:30am, what happens? Where does the staff to handle an additional airplane full of passengers come from?

The answer is they scramble and muck things up the best they can (BTW, it happens just the same at all outstations). Most passengers need to be rebooked on connections, all of which takes time. 160+ passengers, maybe what, 3 counterstaff?, 5 minutes per person...

Usually, the smarter passengers call the 800# (domestic) where there are dozens of agents available.

C17PSGR

Unless ... of course, you're in a foreign country where they keeping you inside the passport control area since they probably have limited facilities for handling transient passengers.

coolcoil

I did not make it clear enough that I was satisfied with the effort (and patience) of the KIN staff. I did note that they were overwhelmed. My point was that AA could/should make it easier for their staff, particularly in outstations, to handle IRROPS. My two gripes are:

1) The AA reservations system requires an incredible amount of data entry on many different screens just to reissue a ticket. In my case, I had the new flights reserved bu the EXP desk, but the tickets had to be issued by the airport staff. They had to go through countless screens and enter all kinds of stuff the system should have already known. It took 5 minutes to do this simple task even though the agent's fingers were flying.

2) if smart people call the 800#, why does AA not have phone lines available to allow passengers to call reservations. It would take a huge load off the staff to only have to reissue tickets and not have to help passengers with their itinerary. In this day of VOIP, having a few extra lines on hand at the outstation costs peanuts. Even calls to the US 800# from an international station cost nothing (or next to it).

By the way, here's a tip if you travel internationally: get the Vonage app for your phone. I called the EXP desk and it didn't cost me a dime. It works pretty much anywhere you have a data connection, wireless, 4G or even 3G. Calls to the US are free. Calls to other countries a very cheap.

buckeyefanflyer

Flight Aware not showing the diversion for some reason.

phlwookie

Probably just due to where it happened vs. their normal service area. It does show "result unknown" today.

coolcoil

It looks like the result is still unknown. I've received several of the automated flight update calls to let me know flight 924 is leaving Kingston at various times. The latest I just received said the flight was leaving at 10:00 tonight. It was a little annoying to get a call at 1:00 a.m. this morning though.

BTW - If anybody is interested, I did get an unsolicited apology email from AA this afternoon and 20K miles. I had not requested comp, and I am more than satisfied with what they gave me.