sent

I just realized that I while I made it to IAD, the AAngel at LAX sent my bag to ORD. Looks like it's going to be a while before my tequila and I are reunited.

BTW, I bought an Admiral's club day pass for me and my spouse because of the rave reviews I read about the AAngels on here. I figured we could use the help to give us the best options with the storm but the AAangel we encountered needs to seriously brush up on her skills. She kept having to ask the others for help with certain screens. She told me to email Customer Service for a voucher for one of my cancelled flights whereas another AAngel later printed me the voucher immediately. She also reassured me my bag was going to IAD despite the previous sticker that said ORD; the agent at IAD laughed the minute he saw my ORD sticker. But we got out so it was still worth it. My husband liked that he got to shower and enjoyed the lounge so I hope I haven't set a precedent for lounge access when we travel again...

kebosabi

This is why you know, it would make sense if there was a direct Acela rail station at JFK?

GloverParker

My sister's US DCA-FLL this morning was cancelled for 8 hours yesterday and then re-instated last night. US never sent updates, I just happened to be on EF and noticed that their flight suddenly had inventory again and lo and behold when the went into their record, they could print their original boarding passes.

The EF inventory was totally gone in about an hour so I'm sure everyone rebooking just snapped them up ASAP. I'd be pretty PO'd if I'd rebooked a later/different flight only to learn that my original flight was re-instated and nobody told me and/or I could no longer have my original seat.

phil_flyer

I'm currently waiting in the Flagship Lounge at JFK for AA951 to GRU. Original departure time was 2130, keeps being pushed back. But I am watching them cater, de-ice and ready the plane. In fact, they pushed it out of the gate to do some snow clearing around the plane (that seems to be the source of the delay). So hopefully I am getting out tonight still, I really need the miles for EXP.

ORDflyer

[LEFT]After my wife's father died on Christmas evening, my spouse (AAdvantage Gold) booked a RT from AUS to ORF on the 27th,and a return on the 30th. At 10:30 pm on the 26th she was called about a cancellation and was told there was no space until the 31st. I was able to rebook her on WN and she arrived earlier than originally projected. I am an EXP so I don't hate AA, but their pro-active cancllation policy sure can be difficult for the ones who have to deal. Why not wait and see if he airport is open. Why cancel the night before?

daapower

man..my flights have been cancelled 3 times already...was supposed to go back to JFK on sunday...now pushed out until Jan 2nd..

i'm exec plat btw. even tried standing by...1 flight made it out today

demkr

Where are you coming from? Have you asked about other options close by? HPN, LGA, EWR, even PHL, BDL, BOS, HVN depending how quickly you want to get home? January 2nd is insane. Are they really all oversold up until then? Other airlines?

Sometimes it takes finding the right agent. I had to ask "What about White Plains?" one time when flights to LGA/EWR/JFK were full and was only given PHL option. was booked right away

tfjim

I think AA handled things extremely well from my viewpoint. Following up on my prior posts I got home yesterday at 10:15am on AA1855 LGA-STL. My original flights were EWR-ORD-STL leaving at 5pm on the 26th. When the blizzard really started to become apparent I was very proactive in getting my flights changed.

On the evening of the 25th I called AA to move myself to the 12:50pm departure out of EWR which was then subsequently cancelled. The only sour note here is that there was no notification from AA and only when I went online to checkin did I discover that that flight had been cancelled. I called web services and was connected immediately who explained the cancellation and put me on the 10am out of EWR.

I began to think that I should just try to get on an early nonstop out of LGA to STL as those flights were still being sold on the website. Also, my sister who lives in Boston had announced that she was hitting the road at 7am to beat the storm back. Coming from New Jersey she would more or less pass LGA to drop me off so I called to get moved to AA1855 departing at 8:25am and my upgrade cleared immediately. The online seatmap was showing a fairly full plane but still a smattering of open seats, probably about 20...

We left my sister's house at 6:30am and had a very easy and quick drive up the NJ Turnpike and across the GWB and Triborough to LGA. I walked in the door to the terminal at 7:15am. Given that the radio stations were broadcasting that EWR was a mess already with lots of people milling about dealing with the CO cancellations there I was surprised that the LGA AA terminal was relatively calm and empty. I was expecting mayhem but there were almost no lines to checkin and I was through security in 5 minutes.

While waiting for my flight at D4 I watched AA771 to DFW board across the way at D1. Amusing to see with 33 people on the standby list and lots of D-1s, D-2s, etc. hoping to get on. My flight was up to 17 standbys when I got on. The plane filled up including the couple in row 3 who were going on to Miami. I saw some of the non-revs who had been waiting for the DFW flight walk by so if they were accomodated then most everyone waiting should have been too.

We landed ontime into STL and deboarded. Our plane was going back to LGA as AA1214 due in at 2:15pm. I see from Flightaware that it was diverted to JFK and landed at 2:45. It was obvious looking online at the schedules that this was due to be one of the last few AA planes into LGA on the 26th.

From my viewpoint AA did a nice job for me. Considering that they were forecasting a blizzard it was an easy affair getting my flights changed with zero hassle and there was plenty of availability. I think that given the circumstances and timing of the storm if you wanted to get out of NYC yesterday it was entirely feasible if you were willing to get to the airport early enough. AA clearly worked this out knowing when they wouldn't be flying and it wasn't hard to figure it out....

daapower

the closest was DCA...which is a 4 hour drive and only 1 seat available


all nearby airports were full, i tried to use aa online booking engine to place any seats on hold but they would dissapear when booking.

its strange other airlines are going out. my wife really had to make it back so she was able to get the last seat on a virgina america.

this is coming from LAX btw

virgin america agent said all flights are going out still...

while at LAX 25 crew members were trying to make it back to JFK...maybe 6 were pilots. wife overheard them say "o well i dont care if we make it back we're getting paid anyway"

i sense that flights are getting cancelled due to lack of manpower at JFK..

not enough ground crew to clean up and not enough pilots to fly the planes since they cant get into JFK

demkr

I believe most flights ex-LAX are going out (AA10 just departed and AA30 is scheduled on time). Tomorrow's AA118 is cancelled but 34 is on schedule as well.

It's probably an issue of there are simply no seats open on the flights that will go out to accomodate you. You can try standing by for them I am sure.

Of course, if I could get the confirmed seat to DCA I'd take it and grab Megabus back to NYC. Friday is a long time to wait especially if I'm away from home. While doing that I'd see if I could standby to a more convenient location-who knows the amount of no shows/irrops that could occur. Good luck getting home whatever you decide-my sympathies for the inconvenience

daapower

thanks for the advice

what really annoys me is that my flight that i had a confirmed seat on tomorrow is the only lax to jfk flight cancelled apparently...

the 9am and on are still going out. just the 7am

eb31

The 1:45PM is also cancelled.....

Dallas49er

1. You should asK Kate Hanni 1st.

2. Proactive cancellations are a BA trick/policy/method/plan/scheme that AA seems to have adopted over the past 1 1/2-2 years (see point #1 above).

emma dog

The airlines proactively canceled flights long before the tarmac rule was written.

The fact that BA was doing this in your example is more evidence that it would happen regardless of the tarmac rule since the tarmac rule doesn't even really apply to them.

I personally would rather be stranded in a hotel or my house than stuck on a plane for hours and hours... it happened to me once at IAD on UA where I had a 5 hour delay only to be canceled. The conditions on the plane weren't nearly as bad as other sensational strandings, but it really sucked because we had nothing to drink, nothing to eat, no substantive updates on a departure time, no a/c, and no entertainment.

If the airlines had actually done a marginally decent job taking care of their customers then there wouldn't be a need for the tarmac rule. Remember, this is the same airline that blames all delays on "weather" even though there's blue skies between AAA and BBB and the "weather" is some other city only peripherally related.

cyncyn129

My SO and I are flying MIA-BOS-LHR tomorrow. We've been following the news (and stories on FT) and feel terrible for all those passengers stuck at airports until they can get a flight out.

Since we don't really care how we get to London (just that we get there!), I called AA this morning and asked if I could take any other flight from MIA to LHR, either direct or thru DFW. That would free up two seats from MIA to BOS and BOS to LHR for anyone who might be on the standby list.

The agent said there was C availability for both of us on AA #56, MIA-LHR. But then he said we would have to pay the difference in the fare, as well the change fee. I said thanks, but no thanks!

We were willing to change our travel plans and arrive in London 3 hours later than our original flights, in order to help someone out. But not at an additional cost of over $1,000 to us! Surprised AA wasn't more flexible