Next month I am taking my first trip to Spain. I am looking forward to it, but not my upcoming trip on US Airways from Phl. I have been watching the flight on their website every day to see if it is leaving on time. It is always late. On a good day, it may be only a few hours late, but on many evenings- the flight is not leaving until after midnight.

My question is why? On some days there are storms that are affecting the flights but this is a drought year the grass is brown, we really have had very few storms or rain this summer. On many days the flight is late with no rain in either Spain or anywhere in America. Why are so many of US Airways flights to Europe running so late and is there a way to find out on the INTERNET why a specific flight is late?

You can pretty much check out any the TA (e.g. Munich) threads and see what a mess the service is these days. I only hope the fall will be better. Considering a PHL-LIS trip, but might just skip it.

Already booked a trip to TXL avoiding US for the fall and their 767's in Sept.

Hope for the best, expect the worst.

is there a way to find out on the INTERNET why a specific flight is late?

flightstats.com...and you can set up a free account and flight alerts to be sent to your computer, PDA, phone, etc. and they start alerting you three hours in advance.

flightstats.com...

That will tell you (or notify you) if the flight is late, but will it tell you why the flight is late? I ask because I'd love to have a way to find out the reason for the delay, not just if there is a delay.

Jim

That will tell you (or notify you) if the flight is late, but will it tell you why the flight is late? I ask because I'd love to have a way to find out the reason for the delay, not just if there is a delay.

Jim

Me, too! The old US used to tell the reason online and on the phone! :(

That will tell you (or notify you) if the flight is late, but will it tell you why the flight is late? I ask because I'd love to have a way to find out the reason for the delay, not just if there is a delay.

Jim

Call ops. :p

Kidding aside, since the "dawn of shares," I have found almost no good, accurate, and up to date way to determine this reason short of hovering over the gate agent until he/she calls local ops, PIT, or wherever they call.

Whereas with Sabre, sometimes the reasons were finked but you usually knew as soon as possible when a delay was currently rolling till.

The good old days....

If SHARES did spit out reasons for delays, I'll bet we'd see "Delays during customer boarding" at least 95% of the time, regardless of the actual cause.
:td::td::td:

If SHARES did spit out reasons for delays, I'll bet we'd see "Delays during customer boarding" at least 95% of the time, regardless of the actual cause.
:td::td::td:

Or "Operational"...they seem to use that A LOT these days to cover just about everything!

Next month I am taking my first trip to Spain. I am looking forward to it, but not my upcoming trip on US Airways from Phl. I have been watching the flight on their website every day to see if it is leaving on time. It is always late. On a good day, it may be only a few hours late, but on many evenings- the flight is not leaving until after midnight.

My question is why? On some days there are storms that are affecting the flights but this is a drought year the grass is brown, we really have had very few storms or rain this summer. On many days the flight is late with no rain in either Spain or anywhere in America. Why are so many of US Airways flights to Europe running so late and is there a way to find out on the INTERNET why a specific flight is late?

If my last trip from PHL - FRA is any example, the plane that was to make this trip was delayed because it was coming from MCO or somewhere in Florida. I don't think US factors enough of a buffer between flights especially those that make up TATL flights as the next leg given their propensity to be delayed. While US does factor in delays, etc. in their total travel time schedule, it is still not enough especially for luggage transfers between airlines and/or terminals. While I can understand a plane sitting on the ground is not a revenue earner, my views are only from a passenger perspective.

The time that a flight departs may or may not be suggestive of how "on-time" that flight will be. Remember that all flights build time into their operating schedule, partly to allow for delays etc.

Don't judge US 740 ( PHL-MAD) wholly on when the flight departs. For example, US740 is suppossed to depart at 1800. Yesterday the flight departs at 1830, a full 30 minutes late, and yet it arrives at MAD at 0724, six minutes early. We ourselves fly US740 back in early July. Our flight officially departs 38 minutes late and arrives in MAD 30 minutes early -- such were the winds that evening.

Official statistics can lilkewise be confusing. Of course, forget utilizing US for information. They do not give on-time performance data for the MAD flight other than the day of the prior day departure/arrival times. I use the KVS tool to pull up US740 and then use the KVS link to flightstats.com to get performance data. Flightstats lists US740 PHL-MAD as operating on time 72% of the time 1 June through 31 July 2007 (http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightRating/flightRatingByFlight.do?&airline=US&flightNumber=740&departureAirportCode=PHL&arrivalAirportCode=MAD). Curiously it only counts 40 flights in this data base in which I assume has 61 flights between those dates. I also utilize Flightaware and can pull data from 1 July to 13 August 2007 on US 740 PHL-MAD ( sans 3 dates for which no data is shown ).

What I find for July using Flightaware data:


3 flights depart <30 minutes after scheduled departure
6 flights depart 31-45 after scheduled departure
4 flights depart 46-60 minutes after scheduled departure
16 flights depart >60 minutes after scheduled departure
earliest July 2007 departure is 1828 hours, latest is 2201 hours
average departure time US740 July = 1905 hours.


What I find for August:



2 flights depart <30 minutes after scheduled departure
3 flights depart 31-45 minutes after scheduled departure
7 flights depart >60 minutes after scheduled departure
earliest departure thus far is 1820 hours, latest is 1925 hours
average departure time US 740 August = 1849 hours.



What does all of this mean? Well, I don't think that the MAD flight is as worrisome as you believe it to be. I think it fair to say that if your TA flight departs within 45 minutes of scheduled departure, then you have a pretty good chance of an on-time, or close to on-time arrival at MAD. In the period between 1 July and the present, I find 3 flights which depart 2 hours late and 3 flights that are 90 minutes late departing.

Mind you, I'm not defending US here, but out of 44 departures during this period, 6 flights have departed what I would call late enough to cause connection problems if one has continuting flights from MAD. The bulk of those MAD flights appear to get in on time or within sufficient time to make a connection in MAD.

So departure times by themselves do not always tell the story, but they can indeed given one a reasonable idea of what to expect for their flight. Of course in the summer time, it take only a few raindrops, clouds, or thunderstorms to turn the entire game upside down. But that's not a US problem, it's the nature of the summertime flying game.

Hopefully you catch a break from the weather gods and have a smooth flight.

Barry