3Cforme

Most likely, she will be confirmed on the next AA-operated routing to ORD with seats available in the purchased class of service.

riteshraja

lightbulb, thank you for posting the advisory.

LAX-LHR (#136) on 12/17 was sent to BRU because LHR was closed. Checked bags were left on the plane in BCN (no one to unload them?)

We were spending couple of days visiting family in LHR and then onto BCN on BA. On phone with EXP desk to get this sorted out.

MilesMonster

Have they called AA yet to find out when they're rescheduled? I was booked on a flight earlier this week that was cancelled a day in advance due to weather. AA's computer system automatically booked me to the same flight the following day. I had to call AA to be booked by an agent onto the next available flight on the scheduled day of travel.

In this particular case the details seem incorrect. AA86 goes from ORD to LHR. Perhaps you mean AA87 LHR-ORD, which is still showing on-time for 12/19 according to AA.com. Whatever the status your relatives have reported at LHR, AA has not found it necessary to cancel flights yet. After checking LHR's website, all of tomorrow morning's Chicago flights (including AA087) are still scheduled as on time.

Periodically monitor AA.com for flight status, and if/when cancelled, your sister should contact AA by phone.

Dallas49er

And have her get there WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY EARLY.

LHR T-3 on a "normal" day is crappy, with a motto of "Abandon all hope, most who enter here.". With no status and 1-2 (or perhaps more) days of pax backed up, perhaps it will be more of a present day Dante's "Inferno".

Good luck to your sis, and remind her to bring enough change for the boatman.

Schnorbitz

Thanks - I've advised her to call the airline to see what's what. AA86 is showing as canceled on flightstats.com; I assumed this is the same aircraft that will service AA87. They're on their way to the airport having been in transit for 8 hours now (usual trip time to LHR is 3.5 hours for them).

MadeInTheUSA

If LHR stays closed, maybe they will let her fly MAN-ORD (AA0055)? She would just need to get the train there (that is if the trains are operating out of London okay).

atrainexp22

I don't think all LHR flights go back to the same place

Example
ORD-LHR may not turn around as LHR-ORD it might do LHR-JFK

ty97

It's possible, but don't assume it. AA brings in many craft from various airports and often does not send a plane back to where it came from.

Doing some checking, it looks like a lot of the Friday night departures bound for LHR made it there on Saturday, while a lot of planes did not make it out of LHR. As a result, AA may have enough craft (or close to enough) to run regular service Sunday from LHR, should LHR open for regular business.

The fact that AA87 does not show as canceled for tomorrow is no promise, but it's encouraging. If AA knew for sure that it would not run, they'd cancel now.

MilesMonster

They're both flown on 777's, but in my anecdote earlier this week, my flight (first of the morning to BNA) was cancelled at least 20 hours in advance due to the inbound aircraft not planning to arrive the night prior due to poor weather. AA might have another aircraft planned for AA87 since they haven't already cancelled the flight.

I checked the AA timetables...AA57 LHR-MIA at 945AM also uses a 777 - and has officially been cancelled for 12/19 on AA.com. All other AA flights back to the US on 777's are still on schedule, up to the 10:15AM departure of AA87 tomorrow. So the 777 used on AA86 is likely turned back around to MIA, not ORD.

Tell your sister to count herself lucky that her voyage to LHR doesn't yet appear to be in vain. But wherever "her" 777 is coming from will need to be leaving in the next few hours (if it isn't a stranded aircraft already sitting at LHR) for a 10:15AM turnaround to ORD, so if the flight is still good later tonight, they should be fine (if LHR can also clean snow off the runways).

AGSF

Tell her to get creative with her suggestions to AA if all they do is book her on the next non-stop flight out. TATL flights from LHR are going to be packed through Christmas at this point. But if she can get them to put them on a OW partner to/through some other European city, they'll more than likely be able to get on something back to the US in the next couple days. Think MAD or BCN, especially.

Looking at IB through BCN on Monday, there are seats available. And I am sure that LHR will be up and running by Monday. If I were her and weren't in a hurry to get home, I wouldn't rebook for tomorrow (Sunday). It's still going to be a miss, and if she can get re-booked for something and it gets canceled, Monday's flights will be more than likely sold-out by then. My 2 cents.

Schnorbitz

All good info - thanks folks. She's finally arrived at LHR; almost 9 hours after setting out. She also talked to AA who told her that it's still on the schedule and on schedule so we'll see.

Appreciate all of your input. For the curious ones, I'll post up to let you know if she made it or not.

The woes of having family overseas! The storms in Europe have been just terrible by the sound of things and it's killing the transport infrastructure at all levels. Still, I'm sure after a cup of tea the stiff upper lip will prevail and life will go on!

Thanks again.

tlott

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; DROID PRO Build/V2_2.26.2) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

I was stranded in dusseldorf for 2 days due to multiple ba dus>LHR cancellations. Then called back to ticket counter from the gate after rebooking on the morning IB flight to MAD because AA didn't issue an ticket for one of our two tickets (had boarding pass with no ticket). Made a later flight to Madrid.

Sitting in madrid now catching the 1:40pm 12/19 mad to JFK Iberia flight. Lots of seats on these flights from what I gather. Good alternative routing instead of LHR. Just need to prompt AA for the routing you would like to try...

Good luck everyone

Traveloguy

I think that is very unfair. T3 is actually a hell of a lot better than it was only 2 years ago. In fact, compared to all the other big Euro gateways, it is actually pretty good, and is as good as many airports across the pond. (I will admit it could get better however)

The problems today all stem from BAA and other airports being too cheap to purchase 250K deicing equipment. Nothing more and nothing less.

They then went on the BBC (and other news) to say this was freak weather (last time I checked I lived in Northern Europe, and whilst unusual, it was not 'freak'), and it was not worth getting a fleet of more vehicles. Not sure about you guys, but 250K is not a lot of cash to spend per vehicle, especially on capex for a company who seems to print money.

ty97

Regarding Sunday "Heathrow will remain closed and will not reopen until checks this morning confirm it is safe, as heavy snow continues to cause chaos across Britain's transport networks."

Not sure what that means yet for AA's ops yet, will likely depend on when the ok is given to re-open.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-...15859705?f=rss

zman

A couple good video clips
One is over LHR including part of T3 in a helicopter

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12027115

http://news.sky.com/skynews/