Alaska Airlines flight diversion leads to a 30-hour nightmare for passengers
Jan 7, 2019, 11:22 pm
#16
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I'm wondering how Alaska did a "rescue" flight BUF-BOS? And why....
Jan 7, 2019, 11:28 pm
#17
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Jan 7, 2019, 11:29 pm
#18
Join Date: Sep 2008
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to that sort of generalizationI tried to google it but didn't come up. Can you tell me when another major US airline (AA, UA, DL) stuck passengers in an airport overnight and did not allow them to leave?
Unless are you telling me "unable to leave airport" has a different meaning?
Jan 7, 2019, 11:40 pm
#19
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Jan 7, 2019, 11:43 pm
#20
In memoriam
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Flight out of BUF was at 3:45 am, so had they left they would have had to reclear TSA at 2:30 or 3am. I guarantee no checkpoints open or staffed at that small airport at that time. I'm sure they were told you can't get back in and will be left here.
Jan 7, 2019, 11:46 pm
#21
Join Date: Sep 2008
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And I'm sure many others on FT would have as well. But are 150 passengers so clueless that they feel obligated to spend the night in the airport?
Jan 7, 2019, 11:49 pm
#22
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The blue highlight was unintended. I was referring to the diverted to JFK at the top. But that's apparently due to FlightRadar24 thinking it's still intended for BUF-LAX I guess. I see that future AS1413 on Flight Aware but not FR24.
Jan 8, 2019, 12:10 am
#23
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This is my question. Unless police/TSA were physically stopping people from leaving the airport... this is exactly the sort of thing travel insurance is for. Big thumbs down for how AS handled this in addition, Do they not have people working at corperate what would have been around midnight west coast time?
Jan 8, 2019, 12:23 am
#24
Join Date: Apr 2017
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Not exactly apples to apples, but I can buy an 11:45am flight tomorrow from BUF-LAX for $271....
Jan 8, 2019, 12:45 am
#25
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Yes, exactly, this. I think that people have too much respect for people in perceived positions of authority. I'm going to spend a night in an airport because some airport employee says that I "have to"? Not in this lifetime.
Jan 8, 2019, 1:05 am
#26
Join Date: Mar 2010
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I probably would have bailed too — but part of that would depend on the baggage situation. If you had checked bags (thinking the couple with the cats, probably the student returning home), I’d be weary about ever seeing my stuff again if I left and rebooked a new flight out of BUF the next morning. I don’t know policies on this but I could see AS saying that by not waiting, you abandoned your belongings or something.
(That said, I did once get stuck in DFW because of snow (!) and opted to drive to Austin with some dudes I met in the airport rather than take a flight the next day, and the airline still got my bags to me. But that wasn’t a situation where I left a closed airport and I was able to tell the ground crew what I was doing.)
Whaf I don’t understand is why AS didn’t proactively try to book pax on other airlines out of BUF or even BOS. Because with what they are going to be stuck paying out (I agree with the poster that said $1000 in funny money is laughable for this kind of situation), it def. would have been cheaper.
(That said, I did once get stuck in DFW because of snow (!) and opted to drive to Austin with some dudes I met in the airport rather than take a flight the next day, and the airline still got my bags to me. But that wasn’t a situation where I left a closed airport and I was able to tell the ground crew what I was doing.)
Whaf I don’t understand is why AS didn’t proactively try to book pax on other airlines out of BUF or even BOS. Because with what they are going to be stuck paying out (I agree with the poster that said $1000 in funny money is laughable for this kind of situation), it def. would have been cheaper.
Jan 8, 2019, 3:35 am
#27
Join Date: Aug 2015
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What would other airlines do?
Back in the old days of Southwest (about 25 years ago), I had a friend flying from Dallas to El Paso, and the plane (in mid flight) made an unscheduled diversion to Amarillo to pick up stranded passengers (sounds like a Waylon Jennings song), and everyone on the plane took it in good spirits to help out the stranded Amarillo passengers.... Of course, Southwest's routes back then were like a bus. Most airlines probably don't have that flexibility anymore, including Southwest.
Jan 8, 2019, 6:28 am
#28
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This is the inherent risk with flying Alaska to distant outstations with low frequencies. In irrops there is no bounce-back capacity and IME no inventiveness / flexibility / customer-first mindset.
Jan 8, 2019, 6:28 am
#29
In memoriam
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Since they only quoted a couple passengers, who sounded like infrequent travelers, we don't know all 150 stayed.
Jan 8, 2019, 8:27 am
#30
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Honestly I probably would have stayed at the airport too. The passengers were probably told a rescue plane was on the way, and I would have assumed it would then take me to LAX. No way would I guess that I was headed back to BOS.