Trip Reports - BDL-JFK-SAN-DFW-BDL

Here is my first trip report of a long weekend I recently spent in San Diego, one of my favorite cities in the US. I hope everyone likes it.

17Aug
AA5023
BDL-JFK
Saab 340B
3:45-4:45 Sched

Finally, a nice sunny summer day here in New England, so there was no stress over whether nor not my Eagle flight was going to be delayed or cancelled. Check-in at the gate was quick and easy. The flight was oversold, and a voucher for $300 was offered, but ended up not overselling. We left ontime at 3:45 for a relatively smooth flight to JFK. Flying time was a quick 36 minutes, but that seemed to be plenty of time for the one F/A to serve the full flight-quite impressive. We taxied to the remote parking area a short time after landing. HOWEVER, we all sat in the plane for another 20 minutes because the ground personnel were busy with another departing Eagle flight. It seemed there was only one set ground crew for all of their planes that day. As you can imagine, the plan became very hot, as well as our tempers. We finally boarded the bus, and I had now only 20 minutes to connect. Thankfully, my next flight was just across the hall.

AA127
JFK-SAN
767-200
5:40-8:20 Sched

Another on-time flight. Imagine my surprise when I heard my name paged to receive a new seat assignment. Being Platinum, I was hoping to be upgraded to Business, but I wasn't. I was upgraded to FIRST. Oh yeah, a sleeper seat! Got on the plane and had my obligatory champagne prior to take-off. We left the gate right on time, and lifted off 20 minutes later behind a NW 747-400 (Going to Tokyo?). Service started quickly, of course, with my preferred cocktail, warm nuts and vegetables with sour cream.

Next round was cavier and smoked salmon, with all of the accompanyments. Then came the salad cart along with a mini lobster tail and claw (I asked for two of each) and also a tomato and mozzarella salad). OK, now I am full and still have my main course coming. I selected the Chateaubriand, which was suprisingly cooked to perfection, along with the fresh vegetable medley. Also had many refills of chardonay (small glasses). The meal was finished off with a hot fudge sunday and an Amaretto. The service and food was outstanding on this flight. Just before landing, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies were served.

We landed 20 minutes late at 8:40 PST due to re-routing of the aircraft because of thunderstorms in the midwest. We had to first fly north then south.

(BTW, saw the AF concorde parking near the DL terminal all alone-can't wait to see if airborne again)

20AUG
AA580
SAN-DFW
MD80
11:25-4:25 (Sched)

I knew this flight was overbooked, so made sure I was number one to volunteer. They offered a $400 voucher and the non-stop to JFK again (which was a 737-800 this time)and thent to Hartford). As departure time came, I overheard that they were needing a few volunteers, so I assumed I would have been one of them. My name was called and told to go ahead and board. I said I heard they were bumping people and that I was number one, so why wasn't I being bumped. The rather rude woman said that even though I was number one, they can decide who actually gets bumped. They only needed 2 seats, and there was a party of 2 right after me. NOT FAIR, and I told her so. Again she was rude and said if I needed to board now, or lose my seat. So, go on and took my coach seat, which was a pre-reserved exit row aisle. I sat down and the F/A came over and asked if I would switch so a family can be seated together. I was about to say no, until she said she would give me free drinks on the flight. Well, the other seat was also and aisle and considering the mood I was in at the time, sure I would move for free drinks.

The flight pushed back on time. It was a bistro snack, was wasn't too impressive (are any of them). Had my 2 free wines. We landed at 4:20 and was at the gate at 4:25.

AA1890
DFW-BDL
MD80
5:24-10:00 Sched

Our flight was delayed until 6:05 due to late arrival of the aircraft. Found out the arrival was from BDL, but seemed strange because the arrival was not "late", it was early. The aircraft scheduled to be used on this flight originates in ELP, but was sent somewhere else. I don't know why they would delay our flight and not use another MD80 (One that was already there), especially since DFW is MD80 heaven.

Anyway, our departure time was pushed back to 6:20, we boarded at 6:10 and was off the gate at 6:26. I was in coach again. I tried to use an upgrade cert, but it was only good for full-fare, the gate agent would have taken it, but first was full. Oh well. I had another exit row aisle, which isn't bad. First round of drinks came, then a dinner (no Bistro meal-yeah), I had the BBQ chicken strips with mac and cheese, not too bad. Another round of drinks came, but just had water.

I was still stewing in my seat over not getting bumped!! I am thinking about writing a complaint letter. I am not expecting compensation, but I believe they should know about it anyway.

We finally landed in Hartford at 10:40. Another cold summer night in CT. The summer has been awful - wet and cold, it feels like late October! I had no bags to check, so got to my car quickly after landing and was back home at 11:40.

All in all, a nice trip. The weather in SAN was awesome, as usual. Got in some beach time - Black's Beach.

I hope you all enjoyed the trip report, as I am a novice at this. My next trip is in 3 weeks to Prague and Munich via AA/BA in Business Class. Really looking forward to that, especially since it will be my first extended flight on the 777 (I previously flew on a SQ 777 between KUL and SIN, but it was only a 30 minute trip-but they served a full meal in first class- gotta love those foreign airlines-wouldn't even get peanuts on a short jet flight like that in the US)


Till next time,

Mike

Aahh, congrats on the coveted double upgrade! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

You expected the gate agent to bump you and just one of a party of two?

I was wondering if you had tried to get an upgrade for either of the flights and failed or just did not try?

Thanks for the report, I am still waiting on a double upgrade from AA

It is true that AA doesn't necessarily follow the order of volunteers for bumping. In addition to looking for pax that can be easily re-routed or parties that make up the number of bumps they need, they'll also sometimes skip around the list for security reasons. I've only seen AA do this occasionally, but DL does it frequently.

I can't believe anyone would ruin their flight and day by 'stewing in their own juices' because they didn't get bumped!!

No wonder Flight attendents are stressed out.

"I was wondering if you had tried to get an upgrade for either of the flights and failed or just did not try?"

Globalflight - I actually did try to upgrade at the gate in SAN and DFW using my "full fare" upgrade certs, but they were full. I was going to try to use them on the JFK-SAN flight, but they got to me before I got to them.

Roadrunner - I was actually more upset over the Godlike attitude of the gate agent. One thing I failed to mention in my trip report was that the two women who were bumped apparently knew the gate agent, so figure it out from there.

Also, what does my experience have to do with stressing out F/A's? As far as I know, F/A's don't work at the gate, but on the plane. I did not mention, nor complain to, the F/A's about my experience. I am sure other pax complain to F/A's about things they have no control over, but that is not the case here. I know many F/A's, and respect the job they do.

I have been bypassed by AA for getting bumped in favor of bumping a larger party. Sure it is annoying, but as far as being fair or not, being bumped is a privilege, not a right. I can see the logic.... if you are oversold by 4 and have a party of 4 and 2 singles who volunteer, the way to do it is to bump the party of 4, or else you have to raise the compensation.

I once witnessed someone complain about this policy at JFK (I think it was an oversold Eagle flight to BDL), a supervisor was called, and the people were bumped, and the plane went out with empty seats. Was AA too generous in this case? I dunno...

Another interesting bumping story happened to me in YYC. I volunteered to bump off YYC-ORD for $500 and was told shortly before departure that my seat was being used, and was rebooked for the next day. Then, they noticed they forgot to cancel the seats of no show CP codeshare pax, and suddenly they had a seat for me. I was given the option of sticking with the original plan (travel tomorrow for $500) or to receive $300 and travel now. I was shocked to get $300 for nothing. But AA didn't want to disappoint me I guess, because they already told me that my seat would be used.