gemac

AA has a flight from Deer Park, Washington to LHR? Is that the new CRJ-700ER?

grantsi

Supposed to be on AA98 tonight with my wife....had 2 business seats and were ready to go - however - mother nature got in the way.

However

American Airlines once again demonstrated why they will always get first crack at my business. Fortunately our schedules were quite flexible, however, going direct was not going to be easy. We got a text message informing us of the cancelation and we called the desk right away. "Derek" in Dallas quickly found us a flight on wednesday going through Orlando.

We are now super excited to be flying BA Executive Club ( business class ) from MCO to Gatwick. This turned into a mileage run, code share testing adventure. We are relieved to be watching the Chicago snow from our condo with a glass of wine full of hope that our vacation will kick off with less hassle on Wednesday.

Lost 2 days on the ground on the front end of our trip - had Derek change our return flight to make up the lost time.

A+++++ experience with AA today.

grantsi

By the way, my opinion of this situation may change slightly on Wednesday if I get stuck in Orlando.

That said, I don't think any of my blame will be focused towards AA....just the LHR folks and mother nature.

galaticos

might work out better for you...Gatwick is doing so much better than LHR...they operated a near full schedule today...enjoy the trip..

beerup

The difference between how well LGW and LHR has handled the weather is curious considering both are managed by BAA. Obviously LHR is much larger with four terminals and two runways compared to two terminals and one runway (technically two but they're too close together for simultaneous use) at LGW. However, this difference seems to be much more than airport magnitude given that there were apparently more proactive measures taken at LGW. Is this a difference in local management style with poor oversight from upper BAA management, or are there also other infrastructure differences accounting for the divergence in successful operation?

JDiver

Thanks for the "paxreps" (if "pireps" are Pilot Reports...) all! I believe this helps fellow FTers plan a bit, at least know what they are in for.

Maybe they ought to change the words to the tune - e.g. "The snow in Spain falls mainly on LHR" - since BAA is actually a division of Grupo Ferrovial. I mean they've heard of snow in Madrid, but...

tom911

BAA sold off Gatwick in 2009 and it has a new management company.

http://www.gatwickairport.com/business/about/ownership/

Related: BAA sells Gatwick airport at a loss

theoz1419

Flight 86 left in a snow storm from Chicago to LHR about a hour late tonight. Iths the first plane to leave from Chicago since last friday. I hope and pray that plane makes it to Heathrow and returns in a timely matter as that is the plane im taking Tuesday from Chicago.


Im praying for ya AA86.


And the above poster who said that AA has good customer service, i too believe that. Even though i had been put on hold close to 2 hours Saturday night into sunday morning. They were very very helpful and the operator i had even asked another operator to help look for flights. Although i could not find one on Monday to be able to keep my xmas plans alive in Europe in innbruck, Austria. But, i hope to be grateful to be going to see my stranded girlfriend in london Wednesday morning

beerup

My bad. Yes, you're right - I had an inkling in the back of my mind and quickly looked at the BAA website, but in my haste mistook Glasgow for Gatwick (the words are much more similar than the places!).

With that in mind, where do I line up with my pitchfork to meet the BAA executives?

MiamiPrep

My 12/20 LHR-MIA flight was cancelled, and I was rebooked on 12/24. I & my niece took the 5:44am underground to LHR. AA terminal 3 was a ZOO. First class check-in (G?) was closed.

We got on the waitlist for #87 LHR-ORD 10:15am. We waited, waited, waited by ticketing area. At 9:40am I heard an AA rep say she had 10 seats on LHR-DFW 9:55am. Whoever was there got them. I said yes, but while we were waiting for our boarding passes, we both cleared on AA 87. I thought we would be in the back of the bus, but I got F (J revenue ticket with eVIP) & my niece got J seat (on coach with eVIP upgrade). Pretty slick, huh? However, the flight boarded 1-hour late then we sat on the plane for 3 hours. But got out finally. I was soooo over that cold London weather.

So, the lesson? It pays to be proactive, and keep your ears open.
I was generally surprised how LHR ground to a halt with moderate snow. The AA staff were very nice but seemed overwhelmed. It took ages to issue a simple boarding pass or luggage tag. AA agents in US seem much quicker & efficient, but perhaps it is computer system at LHR. Just glad to be in US, although delayed here due to snow (projected arrival in MIA 3am)

LAXNYER

Oops.. ipad autocorrect... ugh! DFW-LHR-AMS

even with the new F in a crj, i'll stick with this

becket5

Does anyone one know what finally happened to Friday's (Dec 17th) AA116 from JFK to LHR? We were diverted to Dublin when LHR closed a few minutes before scheduled landing and after a night in a hotel (thanks AA) I managed to get put on an Aer Lingus flight to Birmingham after having bought a ferry ticket as insurance. Quite a few of my fellow J passengers were holding out for the original flight to continue to LHR and I'd hate to think they were still in Dublin!

androobe

Actually 98 got out on Sunday night about 2.5 hours late and made it to LHR yesterday.

Bonaturtle

Yeah, was going to say that many flights have been getting out of Chicago, and yesterday every flight going to ORD from LHR got out, and that is the plan today as well. The TATL flights and/or long haul seem to be getting out, it's just the short haul, which should start to correct themselves tomorrow.

Alka

Just checked aa.com and saw AA71 FRA-DFW was cancelled this morning. Still more than a little worried about my FRA-DFW-ORD flights on Saturday.

Given our weather situation, I doubt it would have made much of a difference had AA kept the FRA-ORD route but having the option of a second flight would've been a little reassuring.

Edit: Looked again and noticed today's AA70 DFW-FRA was cancelled as well.