AA sets new policy limits on onboard waiting during delays
 

After debacle, American will keep fliers on planes no longer than 4 hours


07:55 AM CST on Friday, February 9, 2007
By TERRY MAXON / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

American Airlines Inc. says it won't hold passengers on grounded aircraft more than four hours, a policy born from its December debacle in which thousands of passengers spent hours waiting for storms to pass inside crowded, parked planes.

American spokesman Tim Wagner said the Dec. 29 situation was so rare that American veterans can't recall a similar day when weather disrupted operations in such a way.

Even so, the Fort Worth-based carrier decided that in the future, four hours will be the maximum they would hold a flight before deciding to cancel it and unload the passengers.

"It's a rule now," Mr. Wagner said. "It's a rule that may never be used again, though."

A prolonged series of thunderstorms disrupted operations at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport from midday through late evening on the Friday between Christmas and New Year's Day, when American's airplanes were filled with holiday travelers.

American's operations managers diverted 121 American and American Eagle flights to other airports, and other flights taxied away from gates at originating airports and sat while waiting for D/FW weather to improve.

Officials said they didn't cancel the flights for hours on Dec. 29 because they expected the storms to abate. Instead, thunderstorms kept re-forming and passing over North Texas, and thousands of passengers were kept waiting on parked airplanes.

A number of passengers caught on those flights – particularly from several flights that were diverted to Austin and sat on the ground for eight hours or longer – are pressing Congress to pass laws protecting passengers from recurrences.


Other changes

In addition to the four-hour policy, American is making changes at its systems operations control center in Fort Worth to better handle diversions and make sure officials are aware when passengers' wait times are building up.

The airline is creating a position to oversee diversions and help schedule flights to get passengers back to its connecting hubs. It is developing automation tools to warn managers when passengers have been on the ground a long time. The carrier said it also was "reviewing all procedures related to customer handling and make appropriate changes as needed."


Passengers' treatment

Stranded passengers had criticized the airline for how it handled passengers after the flight cancellations, with inadequate staffing at airports, poor communications about what was going to happen next and not enough help while they were waiting.

Mr. Wagner said American was reluctant to cancel flights that day because it didn't want to strand the thousands of passengers, knowing that it would have a hard time finding seats for them over the holiday weekend.

He said 4,600 customers on 67 planes sat more than three hours on Dec. 29, a good portion of whom were kept on board for more than four hours.

American is sending apologies and vouchers of up to $500 to passengers who were subjected to waits of three hours or more on the ground.

I'm sorry, but I just don't think that's good enough. If you are boarded for a 6 hour flight, then they allow you to sit on the plane for four hours prior to takeoff, ten hours of being scrunched in a plane is not sufficient to me. I don't think there is any reason to leave passengers for that long. I have seen planes boarded when they were fully aware that a prompt takeoff would never happen.
You have to remember you have handicapped people on a plane, tall people squished into a seat on the plane, you have diabetics, and even perhaps small animals who will be urinating or worse on that plane. There are certainly enough reasons to say that this is not good enough, even withstanding the poor air circulation and possible lack of lavatories.

I would agree this isn't good enough. 4 hours seems too long. This appears to be a lame attempt by AA to claim that the Passenger Bill of Rights isn't required.

I have some family members (non-AAdvantage) who were stuck in OKC for about 6 hours on the Friday before New Years after diversion en route to DFW . Without any communication from them to demand compensation, they received $250 vouchers from AA earlier this week. The two events seem to be coordinated.

While we all probably won't agree on a time (2 hours MAX seems about right to me), I think that probably 95% of us would agree that 4 hours is too long! In addition, there is no mention of (1) explanations being given to the passengers on-board (2) catering (3) lavatories etc. I agree: this seems like a transparent attempt by AA to head off Congressional action on a Passengers' Bill of Rights.

The problem with returning to a gate after 2 hours is it automatically turns a 2 hour delay into 3+. As one who has sat through a bunch of 2-3 hour waits at DFW and ORD I know I can handle 3-4 hours, and I would hate to stretch that out by un-necessary returns to a gate. IMO if you get on a plane in DFW or ORD, or you're traveling to either, at certain times of the year you need to go mentally and physically prepared for a 3 hour wait because it's pretty common.

I agree. I think 4 hours is reasonable. If you check www.fly.faa.gov regularly, you will see that 4-hour ground delay programs do happen from time to time when there's particularly bad weather (e.g. thunderstorms or fog sitting all day right over a major airport).

I disagree.. this is the United States of America. Telling me that I have to anticipate and accept 4 hour waits at DFW due to beancounter mentality and fear of unions and lawsuits if things get bumpy is unacceptable to me. Note that very few of these delays are REALLY caused by weather. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that only the US is blessed with rough weathers at time. It might be time to take a look at how other countries handle these situations. You don't think Finland has it rough in Feb? Or Taiwan during Monsoon season?

2hours is enough...

I also agree. I don't think a 4 hour max is unreasonable. The last thing I want to do after a 3-4 hour delay (which I've experienced numerous times at DFW and ORD) is to extend the delay by being forced to return to the gate.

While I agree that four hours is too excessive, I could stomach it, if and only if, the rule required that the plane is catered and cleaned every two hours. And $500 vouchers what a joke. But then again you would expect from "anything to save a nickel" Arpey.

How do you propose to make that work for planes that are sitting on the tarmac queued up for take off?

No, it is not at all "pretty common." Your opinion is misinformed. Since you've been corrected before, that must be intentional.

I can only speak from my experience, and maybe I'm unlucky but for the last decade I've traveling extensively in North America I've been getting about one wait or diversion of the 2-4 hour magnitude a year. If you like I'll PM you so that you'll know which flights not to take?

Thank goodness, 3-4 hour waits are not common at all. Although I have experienced several, they've been spread over 12 years and 750,000 or so BIS miles. (although I don't find 4 hours unreasonable as a maximum time limit, I'm not sure I'd keep flying if 3-4 delays were "common".)

If you have fewer than a half-dozen segments/year in North America (which is where I would consider one delay/year to be "pretty common"), then please post the flights/routes publicly so we can all avoid them.