Medhatter

I just returned from HKG and as usual there was a delay, I asked they GA why the delay and she said "Have you seen how dark it is out there" to which I replied that is what happens at night. Granted it had rained earlier and there was some low cloud but the delay kept getting longer. When we finally boarded we still had to wait almost 30 min and the announcement came that we were waiting for late connecting passengers. My question is: What is a weather delay? Is it just the flight can not take off for weather or connecting flights are delayed for weather. The reason I ask is that in YVR we were boarded and again delayed do to connecting passengers and then again in YYC we had to wait 50 min for connecting Passengers.

YYC009

There can be more than one reason for a delay.

Perhaps flight was originally delayed due weather and then it was like, well we are already one hour late, what is 30min more for another whack of connections, especially if there is still a backlog of aircraft taxing for takeoff. For a once a day flight these are the operational decisions that get made.

YYC009

"What is a weather delay?"

A weather delay is when adverse weather can or is affecting the ontime departure of a flight. It is vague as there are many reasons for a weather delay.
-weather at origin
-weather at destination
-weather enroute
-forecasted weather
-deicing
-late inbound aircraft as a result of a weather delay at another station
-late crew/passengers due to off scheduled operations due to weather delays
-ATC delays due to weather
-terminal constraints due to weather
etc etc etc

KenHamer

All delays are whether delays.

Until proven otherwise.

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Wpgjetse

It sounds like aircraft spacing do to the weather.

canadiancow

Unfortunately, this is quite common.

"Can I have a meal voucher for the delay?"
"Hahaha no, it's weather!"
"The inbound aircraft was delayed two flights ago so they could replace a faulty [something], so it's actually mechanical."
And I got my voucher.

uofmgrad87

You missed one. The plane was delayed earlier in the day by weather somewhere that has nothing to do with the flight. For example, a plane flies from Boston to Miami to Acapulco. The Boston to Miami flight is delayed due to snow. This causes the Miami to Acapulco flight to be delayed. According to the airlines, the Miami to Acapulco flight is a snow-related weather delay.

jc94

This. AC knows that weather allows them to do almost anything, so uses it as an excuse as they can and will in many cases get away with it.

It reminds of my a train network system where people with a yearly pass would get an end of year rebate for any delays of over 10 minutes - say 5% of their trains were delayed, they'd get some amount (maybe 5%, I can't recall .. but something related) back.

How did they deal with this? They would cancel most trains that were to be delayed by > 10 mins. Fair, logical? Maybe not, but they could get away with it.

The answer, as has been hinted at is to challenge it. For most people that requires the knowledge and ability to either go find out (EF?) or if it were me ... I'd post here using the flight number and date (of course ) to find out the actual reason. There are exceptions of course, if I'm sitting in Toronto and have 2' of snow out the window I will expect weather delays.

If it's a dry day in July and I'm flying to YYZ-YVR; well then I'd probably post.

AC plays the odds because there is no business benefit to not doing so.