While a minor topic hijack, the thread title is perfect to reflect on something an ATL gate agent said about 8 or 9 days back. Boarded an AA 737-800 flight and about 5 minutes after scheduled pull-back time, the captain indicated there was a problem in the cockpit with an autopilot panel, that maintenance couldn't immediately remediate. They were looking for a replacement part from either Delta or Southwest, but if that failed there was a plane coming in about two hours later that would normally sit overnight, and they would use that airframe instead. Roughly 20 minutes later the pilot asked everyone to deplane and wait in the gate area.
The gate agent made a few non-committal announcements over the next hour, but then came on and said (slightly paraphrasing): "
We'll need to wait for the plane that is coming in from Dallas, in about thirty minutes. We were unable to obtain the part, as it was too expensive".
Generally I appreciate gate agents not beating around the bush. But this may have been the first time for me that much honesty was counterproductive. Recognize Delta and Southwest may have been extorting AA a lot of $$ for the part, but it might not be a best practice for a gate agent to say that to a lounge full of frequent fliers. Just leave it as "
the part was not available"
.
Flight ultimately went wheels up just over three hours late. In-flight crew was great, BTW.