Originally Posted by FlyingNone
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Honestly, why would any GA want to treat this like a "joke" or deliberately "withhold" information? I shudder at what the passengers would do/say if an announcement was made to the effect....."Ladies and gentleman, we really have no idea when this plane is going to leave". Don't you think there would be a riot ?
Originally Posted by
Boghopper
Actually, I mentioned later that I pity the GAs, too. Usually the only information they have is whatever comes up on their screen. Whatever is going on gets decided higher up.
As for a 'riot', I don't agree. What they would get is a bunch of people demanding confirmed alternative transportation. Which is probably what UA is trying to avoid in the first place.
OMG, u r right on, both of you. The 411 we get comes from our controller. It may or may not be accurate. I can usually guess a better time as I am only working the 1 gate and the variables are known to me. But they often "underquote" a dptr time on purpose. It is better to be prepared to go at xxx time (and have people all over the airport see that) in case the inbound aircraft makes up soome time on a delayed flight, then to be ready to go early and not have everyone in the gate ready. The choices are a) leave the ones in the bar behind, or b, sit and wait on a plane that is already late.
So many people ask "So what's the REAL truth?" I usually reply something along the lines of "Well, I save the REAL truth for my friends and family, and just spew what mgmt gives me to the masses, but since you seem like an alright guy..." And then I start laughing at (oops, I mean with) him. I mean really, how long would it be before someone complained that I was giving out different info than UA wants me to give? I may be correct most of the time, but if I advise incorrect, and they have proof (ez update or other means) that I was diverting from what "the man" has given me, to give a differeing personal opinion, that may have caused them to miss a flight, how quickly do you think it would be before I was called in to remind me that I am (while at work) a representative of UA, not an individual?
And so true, as soon as the people lose faith that I (as a GA) have a good clue, the line gets long and people ask to be double booked (which isn't gonna happen, as once it is done for one, it must be done for all, and our inventory systems don't have that much "play" in them.)
Originally Posted by
why fly
In ORD yesterday every flight had "weird" times none of the computers seemed to agree on anything.
Yes, the tier 2 ground stop as well as once it was lifted, the 50% arrival rate that ATC put on ORD that day messed up arriving aircrafts ETAs, which in turn messed up dptring aircraft ETAs. By the normal "go home time" for most agents, the staffing people thought that all the trips were "covered", as the dptr times were way off. They didn't ask for people to stay overtime, and then many trips remained without enough manpower to drive the jetbridges, let alone work the flights in any sort of professional manner.
Wasn't one of our finer days. But most of the passengers seemed VERY supportive. I can't remember a day that I got more sincere thanks for the updates and explanations as to how the ATC sysytem has caused us unknown delays and to stay near the gates for updates, and to not rely solely on the flight info displays/other automated info systems.