Originally Posted by
dcstudent
Was trying to get home from DCA to ATL on DL850 (1830 departure). They loaded us on board at about 9pm, taxied out to the penalty box and just sat there. Got an announcement every 30 minutes or so (thankfully I was in first and the FA lead took very good care of us). Finally, at 11pm we taxied back to a gate. At about 11:15 pilot said we were good to fly. At 11:30 he came on, apologized for “my company’s buffoonery tonight” and told us the flight was cancelled.
I was 2nd back in the terminal and “helped” by a redcoat who was about as bad as it got. Told me she couldn’t get me to ATL on Delta from any DC airport (even with a connection) until Sunday evening. So I asked about AA from DCA or UA from Dulles. She told me that TY ey can’t book on other airlines when the cancellation is weather and no other airlines have seats anyways to ATL because the issues effected everyone. I told her that she was not being entirely accurate, I see flights on AA and UA and I know you can book on OAL even for weather. Somehow, she magically got me on a United nonstop tomorrow, in coach, from Dulles. I tried calling DL but they couldn’t help as my flight still showed as “awaiting takeoff.”.
A relative of mine had the same experience. Was flying ATL-DCA and had two flights in a row get cancelled. He eventually was rebooked via DTW the next day, then got to DTW and found out the DTW-DCA flight was cancelled. Finally gave up and flew back to his home base.
In addition to the mainline cancellations, there were certainly a large number of Connection flights cxld, especially since larger aircraft tend to get prioritized in Irr Ops situations such as this.