MrMan

Wanted to see if you folks are experiencing a possible change in gate announcement policy. One should note I fly the last flight out of the day to most locations, and usually have a connection. I am finding that the gate agents will board the plane, and the FA�s know there will be a ground hold for several hours due to weather ATC etc. There is no announcement before one boards, and once you board they won�t let you off. I suspect with 9-11 bag matching they don�t want people to leave the flights, pull bags etc. But as someone who never checks, it sure would be nice to take the flight first thing in the morning rather than wait several hours on the tarmac to get to a missed connection. This is compounded by the fact AA is not paying for a hotel, so your stuck with two hotels, the one you initially booked at the destination(after 6pm), and the one you now have to pay for at the connecting city.

Had this happen again in DFW �s Sunday night �Blizzard�

JS

Just curious -- you connect on AA starting a trip in DFW? Why?

martin33

there is no change in policy. if you ask the correct question ["is there an FAA ground delay in place"], the gate agent will gladly look up and tell you a ground hold is in place, but they are boarding the plane anyway since it "might be lifted anytime".

there's almost no excuse for getting surprised by one of these. you can always look up ground stops yourself, at http://www.fly.faa.gov/ois/ , or http://www.dispatcher.org/brief/adfbrief.html ,
and then decide whether or not you wish to board.

caveat flyer...


[This message has been edited by martin33 (edited 01-14-2003).]

MrMan

I love DFW, however no ROC flights

MrMan

The holdups out of DFW are deicing waits of 2+hours. No problem with waits if one flies NW, CO etc

hillrider

That is absolutely the case. Flying into third-world runway-equipped SFO, the king of ground-holds, I see this happen all the time: the ceiling lifts suddenly, and the expected 50 minutes ground delay (that's the technical name) evaporates and you're off to the runway with only a 10 minute delay.

Also, at times they need the gate, so that's why they board.

martin33

I was using hold to refer to both "official" programs, delay and stop.

I do agree the ground-delays often evaporate early. If the expected delay is over 90 minutes, or there's an actual ground-stop underway, I think twice before boarding.