Originally Posted by spaceman3
My friend was flying to LHR last night from JFK on AA. Her 9:30pm flight was delayed due to "mechanical" problems, and they were threatning to cancel it completely. As if that wasn't bad enough, the 7:30pm flight was cancelled, also due to "mechanical" problems. And to top things off, the 11:30pm flt was also cancelled, due to, you guessed it, "mechanical" problems. Making matters even worse was the fact that the Admirals Club now gives 2 drink coupons when you come in. All other drinks must be paid for.
I told my friend that I've never ever had "mechanical" problems on Continental (and it's unlimited drinks at the club.) We agreed thay they were trying to cover something up, like possibly saving the cost of sending out a flight or two and getting everybody on one aircraft. Which led us to what it costs for fuel on a 777 - 7 hour flight. Anyone want to wager a guess (or an exact answer for that matter)?
I think it would have been interesting to call AA and find out what was happening to the return flight. Back in the bad old days of Continental, when they used to play games with passengers in Newark, calling to see what was up with the return flight often got one nearer to the truth. I bet they already had canceled two returns.
I don't have a clue how much a B777 would guzzle on a flight to LHR. I'll guess 125,000 lbs.
I guess the term "mechanical" is pretty broad. They may have just decided that a number of non-critical issues that were flagged should now be addressed. If passengers knew their rights, they must have had to fork over a lot of compensation for the cancellation of the 7:30 p.m. flight; it must have been more expensive on the canceled returned flights, since the EU seems to have stricter regulations about these issues.