androobe

If only this were true. Last night only 86 got out, not 98 (opposite of Sunday night). Today 90 is cancelled, 91 back to ORD is cancelled (so not all ORD flights are going!) and who knows about 86 and 98 tonight yet... much too early to say.

Basically LHR is at 1/3 capacity. That means roughly 1/3 of each airlines slots will be available today.... only 7 AA flights out today (of ~16 maybe?) Fingers crossed for tomorrow and onwards, although the weather forecast is going downhill for the next few days.

androobe

You would always have the option of FRA-MAD-ORD on IB..... (subject to seats!), or many others if you can handle a double connection!

Bonaturtle

Yesterday:

87 LHR-ORD departed yesterday at 2:45pm, today got out 30 minutes late
47 LHR-ORD departed yesterday at 4:38pm, today on time thus far
91 LHR-ORD departed yesterday at 6:27pm, today canceled

That's 5/6 on LHR-ORD the last two days. I'd say that's pretty good considering the rest of flights. It looks like today they'll get 10/16 flights out, with 2 of the cancellations being to Boston because of their current storm.

As far as weather, clear today, with a little snow overnight, then clear for the next 4 days after that. Guessing short hauls will get back in the game tomorrow and will be working a full plate on Thursday.

jmphoto

I contacted @aaeurope on twitter in re to Flagship Check-In at LHR and initially was told it was open. An hour later they retweted with this though:

we had to close our Flagship Check-in but our Admirals Club is still open and is located T3 on the Departure Level, "Lounge H" area.

So I guess don't rely on avoiding the scrum at T3.

Surbiton Flyer

I believe that the $16Bn debt mountain that Ferrovial took on board to buy BAA is the root of the problems at LHR. I read recently that interest payments are over $800m a year which leaves little for investment in snow clearing equipment.

It also demonstrates a total lack of management capability by BAA. They had 5 days warning of the snow and should have contracted heavy construction equipment that is currently idle with the austerity measures to move the snow from the runways and taxiways supplementing their handful of snowpolughs. The fact that one runway is closed 3 days after the snow demonstrates the failings and Colin Matthews, BAA CEO, should resign on grounds of gross incompetence - if he doesn't he should be arrested and taken to the Tower of London for public flogging.

I was lucky that my booked flight on AA173 to RDU flew yesterday departing 3 hours late, but in the circumstances that was a result when so many flights were cancelled.

Howgart

My re-booking on AA115 LHR-JFK Wednesday morning was just cancelled...this just 10 minutes after hearing from our Corporate Travel folks that they were able to clear me off the waitlist for this flight!

Again, I am just beyond words at the gross incompetence on display here. (On BAA's behalf, not AA)

dmsdfw

AA155 LHR->BOS tomorrow also just canceled. That was my second rescheduling - from Saturday to today to Wednesday, and now to who knows when. I've been holding for the EXP desk for thirty minutes.

yabadoo

Any luck with the re-booking?

I'm due to fly BRU to JFK via LHR on AA131 on 12/23, right now I'm trying to get on the direct BRU-JFK but am WL'd. Don't know what to do as I'm not sure if BA will be able to fly me BRU-LHR as the last 3 days they have cancelled all in/out of BRU. At least AA is trying to keep the JFK & ORD flights going out of LHR and have cancelled most of the others to MIA, LAX and BOS in the last 2 days, as it's easier for folks to connect to those cities once they are at JFK/ORD. I guess in the meanwhile it's wait-and-see and pray for confirmations to come through on alternatives.

LAXNYER

will AA increase capacity to help with the log jam? (add special flights to/from lhr or upguage equipment for more space?) I'm on a 763 on thursday from DFW-LHR (hopefully). Wondering if they'll swap those to 777s to add a few more seats/bags.

yabadoo

They probably will upgrade equipment on 763 sectors provided they can fly it in to LHR. Also, they may be taking 777's off routes such as LHR-LAX which have been cancelled and putting them on the LHR-JFK/ORD corridor. I don't think they can schedule special flights in, they are having a tough time just holding on to current schedule let alone bring in new flights in the midst of the current bedlam. Once the weather improves and runways open up then they bring in the specials to clear the backlog.

JDiver

It's not like they have a bunch of aircraft in reserve - so all we can do is guess what Dispatch will do with the resources available at their disposal.

Bonaturtle

Trying to get on BRU-ORD direct on 12/23 now as well as all flights out of AMS-LHR have been canceled today and tomorrow, and won't know Thursday until tomorrow morning. Unreal that the tough part is getting to London, but getting a TATL out of LHR starting Thursday should be 100%.

ARGH!

WNLuvr

I'm on that same flight Thursday (AA 78?) so I'll keep my fingers crossed with you. I did notice though that of the two daily DFW-LHR flights, today's flight 78 (the 767) has been cancelled in favor of flight 50 (the 777) departure. Same thing happened yesterday. So, from this one data point it does look like AA is favoring larger equip for running their limited slots into/out of LHR.

Hayden

I wonder what, if any, provisions the contract with Ferrovial has with respect to nonperformance (e.g., failure to keep the airports fully open). One would hope there would be penalties that would tend to deter this kind of problem, not counting the costs of paying the government to bail them out (if the military does, in fact, play a role).

dmsdfw

Yes - I managed to get onto AA109 tomorrow morning which means I can get back to DFW without over-nighting in Boston so that's better than I had.

From what the EXP agent was saying, they are only being allowed to operate 30-40% of their depatures from LHR tomorrow and they'd just decided which the lucky flights were. That explains why AA115 and AA155 were canceled at the same time. It also means that if you have a flight tomorrow out of LHR and it's not been canceled yet then there is a good chance it won't be. They also reminded me twice to take a print-out of the ticket confirmation otherwise you won't be allowed inside the terminal. I guess they have security trolls checking against a list of operating flights.