brewdog11

Are meal vouchers ever distributed in the case of long MX delays? If so, are there any "magic words" one needs to use to get them?

goldengate

What in the world is going on at DFW... do we have any Flyertalkers on the ground there? I am traveling via Dallas today and am experiencing major cancellations and delays even before I leave for the airport here in Tampa. Friends and family flights are all delayed / cancelled.

Anyone on the ground there to give us a sense of what the issue is? Crew? Re-positioning? Any comments from staff on whether the situation should improve later today?

swag

I'm not traveling today, but it sounds like there are a lot of challenges.

40 straight hours of inclement weather, starting with tornadoes in the area Saturday evening, then thunderstorms Sunday and winter weather this morning.

Add in de-icing, plus delays at ORD and at destination airports to the east, it's a mess.

http://aviationblog.dallasnews.com/2...-weather.html/

goldengate

Thanks... this is one of those times it would be great to have a live cam in DFW just to see what the crowds are like..... I will be there later and will update this thread if I have time during connections....

Jish

I spent 13 hours at DFW yesterday - basically total pandemonium.

I can give you my experience and you can extrapolate. I was scheduled on the 11:50am flight to JFK Sunday. This is after a horrific day of weather on Saturday where tornado sirens went off and we were taken into the backroom of the bar we were at for 30 minutes because there was no glass windows to shatter :|

Anyway - that flight (AA 1345) boarded about an hour late and we taxi'd out and were told we were 17th in line for take off. It had been raining most of the morning as well, sometimes quite bad, but very off and on. About 10 minutes into that line-up our captain "timed out" and we went back to the gate. We sat on the plane for about an hour with a promise of a new crew until they finally gave up and let us off.

Walking through the airport it was clear things were bad and getting worse, other flights to NY airports were either severely delayed or already cancelled. I basically had to beg to get a seat assignment on the 4:40pm to LGA and I was probably the last one. Every gate line was at least 20 people deep and I went to three AC lounges and they each had similar lines. Heard one guy in the A AC say he had been trying to get out 3 days and waited 3 hours in the AC line.

The people waiting in the official "re-booking" lines were worse off - I have never seen anything like it, probably 300 people stretching several gate lengths. Anyway, the 4:40pm flight to LGA kept getting delayed, they were trying to find us a crew because I assume our original crew wasn't able to make it in. They predicted a crew would get there at around 6pm but then that crew was diverted.

At that point I was ready to just book the next day but when I finally got through to AA (I kept getting call backs all night - waits as long as 3 hours) literally no seats were available to NY area for all day Monday. I booked a separate ticket on my phone for Tuesday morning as a backup in a panic. I actually grabbed the last two seats on the 7:15am into EWR and there were only a couple afternoon flights with availability for the entire day.

To wrap it up - two more evening flights were cancelled to NY and those people probably won't be getting out till Wednesday at this point. My flight finally took off (AA 1156) after 11pm and landed at LGA at 3:10am (6+ hours late). I will now fight to refund that Tuesday flight (cancelled it from the plane when it finally took off!)

sdix

I forget the numbers but aren't over 50% of AA flights taken by a PAX who flies once a year? If that's the case then this was a bad time to be taking that one flight.

EXP line was pretty efficient over the weekend but the Plat line had horrible waits.

I would hope there are contingency plans in place for these type of weather events but even then AA only has so many employees to manage an inordinate amount of problems.

MrAndy1369

Uh-oh. I'm scheduled to fly through DFW tomorrow (12/29) from SMF to DCA. What would you say my chances are of being delayed/cancelled on?

TheBOSman

Low, tomorrow is forecast for mostly sunny at DFW.

goldengate

Today is pretty decent weather there, but lots of misplaced crews... I'm still waiting in TPA to get there. All the flights later tonight to the west coast seem to be on time so that bodes well. TPA is pandemonium... one of the Dallas flights just went mechanical (they need a "new ignition switch" they are flying in from somewhere else) and all the other DFW flights are both full and late......

FUN FUN FUN

goldengate

I just had an agent offer to "bookmark" a backup flight for me later today... ever heard of that? In the old days they would "protect" you on a flight and this looks like almost the same thing. It shows up when I go to my record locator as an additional segment and I was even able to select a seat.

IWontRegretThis

Last night really was a mess @ DFW. I was one of the super lucky ones with the weather, flying to PDX via PHX. Our inc aircraft was the first aloud to land around ~930pm when the weather had a break, and we managed to turn around and be on our way to PHX in ~2hrs late, only got into PDX around 3AM. As far as I know the direct flights all got pushed to today. CK had backed me up on the first AM flight this morning, but funny enough it was canceled before I took off for PHX.

C was a mess - lines everywhere, even 15 people deep in the C club. Even had a 5-10min wait on the CK line - never remember that happening before.

captaink

Just had my MCI-DFW flight, as well as my rebook via ORD cancelled. Picked up a last minute ticket to DAL on WN, but not sure about the refund process (this is the return leg of a RT) Any insight? Gold line is 2+ hour wait, and OSO line isn't any better.

fastflyer

After a 22-hour delay, I finally made it to MCI today from DFW on the Noon flight, AA340. I flew into DFW from PBI yesterday, landing at 5pm. The four remaining evening flights yesterday DFW-MCI all canceled.

7am flight operated today (Was dawdling at the Marriott DFW so didn't try to standby for it), then the 10am flight cxld, then my Noon flight operated. The weather in MCI is bad -- heavy blowing snow and supposed to drop into the teens tonight.

Some FYIs for IRROPS:

(1) Make sure that your standby status reflects both your elite level and also previous distress (like a previously canceled segment). My record had only my EXP status and did not include that I had been confirmed on a canceled flight on Sunday. My standby number went from 40-something to 3 after this was corrected. An airport agent needs to do this.

(2) Do not use the "D" Admirals Club for airport assistance. It's completely overwhelmed with international travelers. "C" and "A" are quicker, especially "A" because of fewer operational gates currently.

(3) Consider trip-in-vain. I was very tempted to fly back to PBI last night, but I realized it would screw up my New Year's flights, plus the AAngels were fairly certain I would get to MCI today. In any case, there is no charge for the return segment if you declare trip-in-vain. Like standby, this is also an airport function (not via the EXP phone agent).

(4) Call the hotel before getting on the shuttle. The AAngels gave me a voucher for the "Wingate Hotel" last night, which the hotel front desk would not honor (they had sold out in the interim). Fortunately, I found this out as the Marriott van pulled up to the curb.

ynotzzz

Quick story... and a cautionary tale...

My sister and her husband were scheduled to fly out of ORD today for DFW. They were going to relax for a few days before enjoying the football semifinal bowl game this Thursday (they are both Mich st alums). They also are infrequent flyers, and were unprepared for what was about to happen...

Due to the icy weather their flight was cancelled (along with most/all others) so they called to rebook. They were told that the the next available flight was Friday (!) at which point they started panicking since the game was Thursday night. The agent also very "kindly" offered them a full refund for the flight.

While my brother-in-law was starting to process the refund I got a call from my sister explaining the situation, and told them to "WAIT!". I jumped online and found a number of alternative flights that would have gotten them to DFW in time for the game that the agent very conveniently overlooked. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that these flights were all selling for a very high amount.

I quickly threw out some alternative flights for my brother-in-law to ask about, at which point the agent sweetened the pot with a "one time offer" of a $300 voucher in exchange for cancelling the flight. My brother-in-law didn't have the patience to get into any kind of back-and-forth so he just said "fine" and essentially gave up his vacation (with hotels, cars, and tickets already bought) in exchange for the refund and a voucher. I couldn't believe it.

They very optimistically decided they would use the voucher to go somewhere else last minute (haha) but now it's sinking in that nothing is available or that prices are stratospheric.

To the AA veterans - what would you have done in this scenario? What would have been an appropriate voucher amount in exchange for canceling the trip?

goldengate

Hello from DFW, A terminal around 9 pm local time. Airport looks more like 5 pm than 9 pm with tons of people everywhere. Huge lines at the reaccommodation area.... like 300 people long.... spanning multiple gates and not moving. Agents are telling people that first flights available are on the 31st. Platinum line wait is down to 10 mins... I'm really missing my old CK/EXP status. I haven't been to the AC.

Spirits are pretty good -- people on my flight from TPA waited for tight connection people to deplane first. I gave up my seat in F for the last 30 mins because a guy had his father's funeral to attend and had 10 mins to make it.

It could be worse -- I'm sure yesterday was worse-- the night flights seem to be going but inbounds are delayed because all gates are full. We sat there for 10-15 mins after being told 30 mins originally.

Hope this is of interest... I was very curious before I got here what I would find.