7Continents

OT but the AC's are considered an independent business unit of AMR. They can't just "XFER" some stuff to cater a plane, not to mention the fact that the items need to fit in the plane's carts safely.

gemac

A couple of months? There's feedback for you.

In addition to the many other useful things that I'm sure you are learning at the LSE, you have learned that when flying, there is a small but greater than zero chance that you won't arrive when you had planned to arrive. This can be a valuable addition to your store of knowledge which will serve you well in the future.

Often1

+1 - Catered food & beverage as well as associated supplies (cups, napkins) are loaded in FAA-approved carts which are locked into the galleys for taxi, takeoff and landing. Can't just stack a couple of cases of Pepsi on the floor and hand out the cans.

It seems bureaucratic until there's turbulence and someone gets bonked by a flying can.

BigRedBears

I'm sorry to hear about your issues with AA.
In my experience, AA has been pretty good at dealing with problems [if you have AA status] and crew generally goes above and beyond even in economy.

Now, it looks like AA tried to resolve the original problem, but it resulted in domino effect at JFK. Post-Sandy NYC was a mess, I traveled from JFK the first day they resumed flights and saw a number of people camping out/sleeping in common areas.

I would think you definitely entitled at some kind of compensation from AA (cash, miles, or refund of original ticket). Email them through web complaint form.

Good luck.

p.s. would LSE be understanding about your situation and allow you to take a make up exam?

fastair

Interline inventory is not "real time". I have sold booked many a ticket for travel within 24 hours without calling the carrier up 1st to verify that they had inventory, issued a doccument, only to have the reservation return (sometimes a matter of a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes, with some carriers on the other side of the globe (BR, or EVA airlines comes to mind as one that confirms/rejects very slowly) with older systems, as much as 24 hours later) as unconfirmed. Once the record is ended after selling the segment, the systems send a request to the other airline's systems to request that space, which can return as confirmed or rejected. It is common practice in the industry, when booking immediate (within 24 hours) inventory from another carrier to call the other carrier 1st to request the space (or as I do, book it first as inventory may be decreasing rappidly as others are getting rebooked on the same flight, then call right after) prior to sending the passenger to that carrier.

An immediate confirmation from carrier a about carrier b's reservation is not a confirmation from carrier b.

mvoight

In my experience, the carts with the new drinks, etc are brought on to replace carts that are already on the plane. So, the stuff wouldn't have to sit on the floor, it could be put into the carts already on the plane. Of course, there is the issue of the ability to get stuff from the AC or a store in the concourse. That said, I find this amazing.

1. Given the cost of jet fuel (not to mention the environmental issues), couldn't the excess have been pumped out of the plane, rather than flying around burning it off? Surely the pilot knew before he took off, after flying the short distance, he would have way too much fuel to land.

2. AA knew the plane was being exchanged and had time to stock it before the lav challenged plane landed and offloaded the passengers.

fastair

Fueling a plane is easy...it comes from tanks that are pressurized underground to flow into a plane, and each gate has direct access to a tank with many "conduit" trucks throughout the airport. Offloading fuel is a very slow process and requires a special truck which are not in high supply. I've never seen a defueling operation ever take less than an hour from the time the decision was made, until it was done (requesting a defueing truck, getting one, and having the process completed.) And as for environmental issues, it's a good question, but jetf fuel recycling isn't something that is as convienent as just repump it into another aircraft. I read the procedures needed once (a long time ago) and I don't remember the details, but from what I recall, it was not something that was eceonomicaly feasable in most situations.

djibouti

So if the plane can't fly to LHR due to lavatories, why fuel it for TATL in the first place?

BigRedBears

Might have been already fueled for TATL when they realized WC issues

tarheel99

I made a few frantic calls and emails to my programme director and programme administrator while stranded at JFK.

They told me that "I had to get there in time for the exams." Apparently, they are only given once every 6 months and I could be prevented from continuing in the program if I failed to take the exams.

The LSE is hard core about its exam security process, so that doesn't surprise me at all.

jayer

I don't understand the captain not getting on the horn and saying we have people who need to get there so we're leaving soon with or without catering, so if that botheres you grab something at the food court right now or just deplane and rebook (which I have experienced more than once, but not over water). But I really don't understand not being in place for finals a week early.

Dave Noble

I would be surprised if a pilot decided to do a transatlantic flight without catering

I think that planning to be at destination a day earlier than necessary shows reasonable planning. ru really suggesting that soneone should allow a week to get from Raleigh to London when going by aeroplane on a commercial service?

Far Siren

Which AA department would be responsible for making sure a fully stocked plane was ready to depart at JFK after the inbound from RDU arrived? Cause they screwed up big time since it sounds like they had 3+ hours to get their ducks in order.

MarkedMan

Pretty much every UK institution works this way, unfortunately; I never knew anyone to be allowed to take make-up exams. Then again, part of the purposely deliberative process of grading is to "adjust" for known issues. While it would be difficult to adjust away a completely missing exam, once you have turned something in allowances can be made, more in light of your history in the program than because of the specific circumstances surrounding your exam, especially as a grad student. Much harder to do so with undergraduate courses, I wrote the answer sheet to the intro to Macro and Micro class at LSE many years ago and there were 5 or 6 of us TAing the course and grading stackfuls of exams. We weren't going to be particular about how we graded them or we'd be there six months, never mind two

Moral of the story, as many have already said, however cautious you think you are being, be more so in future, always. Just not worth it. I think you have good reason to request compensation; even so, the realities of air travel these days are what they are ... I just came off a flight experience last week which damn near screwed up the whole, business purpose of the trip with a ridiculous two hour delay due to two separate, laughably silly incidents. All flights around my own were packed, and there was no working around the issue. It happens all too often these days, and the better airlines get at running flights at full capacity, the harder it's going to be to find relief when something goes wrong.

Dave Noble

At what point is enough. Those allowing a few hours to catch a flight on a separate booking or heading for a cruise etc can resonably be claimed to have not been sensible in their allowance

Someone planning to arrive the morning before they have their important engagement have, imo, been quite reasonable and sensible in planning