Originally Posted by moondog

Post 6 sums up this idea nicely. They would rather maximize pain for a small(er) number of customers than inflict moderate pain on a lot of customers.

This sort of makes sense from their perspective because it minimizes strain on operations and it's arguably efficient (e.g. 2000 people are stuck in CLT, 40 planes are going to pass through, each plane can hold 150, so let's see which planes can take as close to 150 off of our hands as possible). Lightly booked flights end up being collateral damage.

Personally, I think passengers would be better served if AA ops didn't reshuffle according to loads even if this resulted in increased delay durations because we'd be able to make decisions based on information available to us and wouldn't feel any pressure wait around in a crowded airport, let alone within view/earshot of our gates.

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