Erasmus

Short question: is there a way for Alaska (or, more to the point, me) to find out where the crew for a SkyWest operated flight is coming from?

Longer story: In markets where there are multiple airlines and multiple airports, there are flight options literally every 20-30 minutes in the morning. I frequently buy walk-up fares the morning of when flights are delayed on whomever can get me there earliest. So, I want to know why my flight was delayed and if there is a chance it will creep later.

Let me preface by saying the following is not a complaint about delays. I totally get they happen and we all just need to deal with them. But dealing with them in the most effective way (in my case, buying a walk-up fare on another airline if appropriate) requires accurate and timely information. I take care of making other arrangements, getting refunds, etc. I'm not asking for compensation or even accommodation, just information.

I awoke this morning to a flight delay notification from AS (kudos!) informing my my flight was going to be 40 mins late. Do I rebook on another carrier (which are operating on time) or stick with my current flight?

First check was ATC on both arrival and departure airports: no delays. Second was ExpertFlyer flight info: delay due to crew. OK, great. So presumably late arriving inbound crew last night, need their minimums. Fine. Just as long as the posted departure actually reflects true availability...

Upon arrival at the airport, neither TAs nor GAs would tell me where the crew was coming from (in fact, the GA claimed that would be a "security violation"?!). Once on board, the copilot reveals the pilot called in sick last night, so another pilot was currently inbound on another flight and would be arriving shortly. As you might imagine, posted departure time was hopeful: pilot's flight was delayed, pilot took even longer to change terminals and get to our gate, and we ended up departing substantially later than our posted delayed time. There were no less than three other flights I could have taken that would have gotten me to my destination earlier than the Alaska/SkyWest flight I ended up sticking with.

Stuff happens; I get it. My frustration is I was happy to address the issue if I had been informed of the situation. Cleary SkyWest crew dispatch knew hours previous where the pilot was coming from (since they had to call out and put them on the plane to deadhead), and that information is presumably in some system. The failure here was the inability (or unwillingness; hard for me to tell the difference) of the AS agents to access it. I'd be delighted to hear if there are ways to get at it, or, if not, to whom I should direct feedback about the lack thereof.

jsguyrus

It has been my experience that Alaska is not all that great about posting real time information on delays and tends to incrementally show delays. I can look at flightaware and see a destination has a one hour ATC delay but AS will start by showing a 10 minute delay and just keep delaying by 10-30 minutes until they get to the entire hour delay.

As far as real time info on crew delays, I am not sure that AS can properly give you that information as many times they may not even know. In the case of a sick crew member AS may not know how long a pilot is going to take to get through traffic and get to the airport etc.

N1120A

AS may not have a computer link to OO's dispatch, but their agents will definitely know where the pilot is coming from, so as to facilitate their arrival.

3Cforme

Pilot assignments - and for that matter, aircraft assignments on a city pair - are dynamic. They can change right up to boarding. May the OP never be flying through O'Hare on a United Express carrier on a bad day.

Erasmus

Yup, and if I were at a hub that would be another story. But for small stations the choices are far fewer--especially when they involve deadheading crew in from a base as was the case here.

Again I'm fine if the answer is "we're working on it," but that was clearly not the case here. OO had located and dispatched a pilot many hours in advance; why that information cannot be conveyed is beyond me.

saxman66

The information is out there for agents. If they can't look it up, operations can easily find out by calling Skywest control to see where they are coming from.

jrl767

whether or how readily they can see the information isn't in any way related to whether they can or will make the information available to a passenger who's asking about a posted flight delay