Originally Posted by
Doppy
Would you rather wait two hours, go back to the gate and get stuck at the airport overnight (at your own expense), or wait three hours and then eventually get to your destination?
I'm happy with the 4 hour number if it means they won't cancel the flight, particularly if it's in a high demand period (Thanksgiving, Christmas), or last flight of the day, or there's no open seats on later flights (you really do have a lot of variables out there you don't know about when you're sitting on the plane).
Just this week I had a 2 hour delay at DFW (first hour weather, second hour mechanical), and a 1 hour delay at ORD (because of the SFO power failure). You just don't sweat the 1-2 hour delays, and if 4 hours offers me some assurance, or at least better odds, we'll get to my destination, I'll live with 4 hours. I don't want to go back to the gate if we're that close and risk a crew going illegal, or having the flight cancelled.
Having said that, with over 500,000 actual flight miles on AA, I can't recall a single delay that fell in the 3-4 hour range. Lots in the 1-2 hour range, but I don't recall ever sitting on a plane for 3-4 hours waiting for departure. If that happening on a regular basis to some FTers, I'd sure like to know what routes it's happening on.