AA has been swapping tails around so AA83 has actually been on-time the last two days. The GRU flight has been taking the delay from AA2225 instead...

I have not flown AA this year as much as last year, but I have experienced a significant decline in on-time performance at DCA. Flights that have arrived early or on-time for me have been the exception, not the rule.

Operations at DCA seem to be understaffed at night. On at least two occasions this year that I recall, we went through multiple rounds of delays: first our gate was occupied, then we had to wait for someone to guide us into the gate. Then on one occasion we had to wait for someone to move a vehicle out of the way and on another we had to wait 10+ minutes for someone to operate the jetway. Based on comments I overheard from other passengers and AA staff, this has been common at DCA lately, and these are not unique experiences. (And let's not even get started on the slow delivery of checked baggage.) I felt bad for the FAs and pilots, as I got the sense they were tired of this as well. (And they're getting home late as well due to these operational issues!)

I've also found that gate changes are more frequent as well. Clearly a lot of small problems operationally that compound and turn into many delays and poor performance. AA needs to make some significant changes to get their house in order.

Indeed, in the last 10 days, AA215 (LAX-GRU) appears to have had one outright cancellation and two instances of 3+ hour delays with some other scattered delays.

Tonight's flight is already showing a 3-hour delay and it's still 12 hours away from departing

So, this is a new one for me: I'm on AA963 (DFW-GRU) on 8/3 and it's already showing a 40 minute delay - 32+ hours in advance. In the flightaware 10-day history, the flight has not left DFW before 10PM. Any ideas what might be going on? 77W if that matters...

i've noticed this trend with AA as well.. i'm currently booked on AA 5286 (CLT- IAD) next week and it has an abysmal on time rating. it's also been cancelled twice in the last week.. anybody have any idea whats going on with that flight? i have a connecting from from IAD-AUH that i really cant miss.. lol should i just drive from Charlotte to DC?

Most Ridiculous Systematic Delay In The System ?
 

My candidate is AA 1562, JFK-PHX, scheduled daily at 09.59 AM:

This is usually a LAA 737 which lands at LGA the night before and goes to the hangar. It is then ferried empty from LGA to JFK in the morning.

The scheduled departure from LGA is 08.00 AM, landing in JFK at 08.40. The morning traffic at LGA between the hours of 7.00 and 9.00 is among the worst in the day, with take off waits over 30 mnts and this has been the case for years.

The plane is overnighting at LGA. There is therefore no problem of incoming flight. One would hope that some high powered brain in the system would think of scheduling the LGA-JFK flight at 07.30 to insure a timely departure from JFK... but no. The same machine usually goes on from Phoenix to Sacramento, unless another plane can be substituted for the late arrival in PHX. From then on, the delays snowball.

Who can believe that the cost of reaccomodating passengers with missed connections ( and this is an almost daily affair...) is less than paying an extra 30 mnts to the crew ferrying the 737 from LGA to JFK ?

AA 83 too AKL delayed 2h10m last night. What's amazing is it left at 0030 and AA83 from JFK landed at 0031 and was going to be at the next gate.

Cannot even imagine landing 3h late just to see my connecting direct flight pushing back as we push in.

AA98 (ORD-LHR) again 2 hour delay last night - wow; the 34% on time is deserved for this one - maint again - this time didn't sub to a three class 772

3ORD/ETD0050 MTR-DELAY DUE TO A/C MAINTENANCE *0042
4ORD/OUT0049 OFF0106 *0107
7ORD/AUTO REACCOM DLY FLT COMPLETED SEE N*P3AA0098ORD01AUG *0343*CRCYMG
2LHR/IN1412 *0815

Not sure where you are getting this from. It happened once in the last week.
Most other days flight 1562 left on time and the plane used came inbound as flight 261 from SEA landing around 0630.

Agreed. AA is NOT routinely scheduling a ferry flight from LGA to JFK to bring a 738 for the JFK-PHX flight. It may have happened once, and was probably due to storms/weather causing planes to be out of position (that or a maintenance one-off).

Last JFK-SEA flight of the day (AA267) has been brutal lately. Had taken it several times lately and had delays so had arranged to take my family home on ISP-PHL-SEA routing yesterday, which was thwarted when inbound aircraft for ISP-PHL was super delayed. Called EXP line and asked to be moved to JFK-SEA to avoid misconnect and all 5 of us were moved (3 right into F no less). Got the other 2 up into F at check in. Invound delay + minor mechanicals meant we didnt push until nearly 10pm. Then long taxi and wait on the runway. A look at the recent performance shows a 1am or later arrival in SEA not uncommon. Ouch.

Already delayed for tonight (6 hours in advance).

As others have pointed out-- who told you this?

To the best of my knowledge and unless things are so disorganised that they change on a daily basis, 261 from SEA turns around in JFK and departs about an hour later to Las Vegas.

This by the way probably explains why the JFK to / from SEA and LAS 737s are often part of the sub-fleet with new interiors and good in-seat IFE, whether Phoenix rarely has them

What costs are those? It's not as if they actually add resources or spend money without a protracted battle (unless you have an AAngel on your side.) And that battle usually doesn't resolve until after the trip has been taken.

Don't fly with me
 

Almost every flight I am on seems chronically delayed this year :(

me too.....have had THE WORST luck this year and am starting to give up.

Same, but especially on AA and B6 for whatever reason. Though I've had an unsavory amount of travel to, from, or through the NY airports this year, so I'm tempted to blame the B6 issues on JFK/NY more than B6. Interesting though that 100% of my intercontinental flights from JFK have been on time (and all have been operated by foreign airlines).

AA has been late all over the map for me this year though, JFK, LGA, LAX, DFW, MIA, MCO, PHX, you name it. The worst offending aircraft for me this year have been A321s by far, followed by 777s. Oddly, all of my 757 and 767 flights have been on time.

MIA based for me and its usually 777s that go mechanical. Very little issue with the 738, 321, 763 and 319. Maybe I'm lucky. I usually take morning flights so I have few departing issues but getting to a gate a night is a real venture. Thank god I am not connecting to South America.

AA 83 lax-akl
 

Currently delayed 4h50m, 35m was for late arrival of aa2225 and the rest is because of the computers failing.

No announcements from 1245 until 226, just auto delay updates 10m at a time.

Absolutely terribly handled so far by AA, lounge staff is great staying open and even bringing up sandwiches one they were finally brought to the gate by AA nearly 4 hours into the delay.

This is absolutely my last paid revenue flights on AA.

And it was finally canceled. I am sorry for you brother. You couldn't even get accommodated unless you are ok with going to Asia. Accommodated for hotel?

Yikes! I am sorry to see that. AA has to get their 787 fleet schedule and mx under control. There is no reason to keep having massive delays and cancellations like this on a regular basis...

Perhaps I'm wrong on this, but I don't see UA or any of the other major 787 operators having such major problems with these aircraft. I can't understand why this is like a daily issue for AA.

And what about the AA206/AA207 MIA-MXP-MIA, every day 3 hours late, cancellations, eq change to old 767... And its operated with the 767 so they cannot say that it's fault of the 787...

There's a very recent thread on UA 787 operations.

It's generally accepted the 788s had a rough teething period on BA. Fell victim to that myself. The 777s have a much better dispatch rate still on BA I believe.

Definitely isn't just an AA issue.

(One hand waving)

We will miss you.

Cancelled at 349am we were offered lax-syd-akl getting in 31 hours late.

They had no hotels anywhere near the airport.

We took a trip in vain and it took finally talking to a 3rd person to get sent back to Washington.

Person A in lounge said 400+ change fee.

Person B at ExecPlat desk said 500 waived change fee and had to be same routing.

Person C in flagship lounge said, this was our (aa's) fault, let's get you home on the direct flight and mark it INVOL

That's a throughly horrific experience, wow.

It took 1h45m, A-30m, B-1h10m, C-5m. Go figure.

Many were probably worse off than I was. Only C had any idea that OneWorld had the multi ticket through passenger policy from when had booked the tickets.

Twitter team at least finally admitted it should have been treated as through tickets and we should have been rebooked immediately or allowed to go home.

Heard a lot of Kiwis saying they will never fly anyone but Air NZ again back to the States.

That part I don't take every seriously, personally.

NZ is a much, much better airline for NZ travel than AA, period. :). People choose what they choose, driven by price or other things, and people who make/announce those decisions based on a single horrific experience are just a fact of life. Ive had New Zealanders tell me (I have a lot of friends there,) they don't actually like NZ and prefer Qantas-- and more and more some of the middle eastern connecting options, etc., for far better flying experience.

The "I'll never fly XX" thing is just that, a thing. If AA's AKL flight succeeds long-term (and I personally sincerely doubt it will,) it will be the long term performance and SO many other factors. YMMV.

None of this to take away-- in any fashion-- from just how horrible this particular situation was.

Was scheduled on PVG-LAX this past Friday. Noticed the night before that it was showing as delayed by 7 hours even though the incoming flight was on time. I called AA and they said it was crew rest issues and I got them to route me through Haneda and on to LAX. Went to bed happy.

Woke up on the day of the flight to now see that the HND-LAX flight was delayed by 4 hours resulting in an 8 hour layover in Tokyo and a late arrival into LAX which would cause me to miss my connection and force an overnight in LA.

I called the Ex Plat line in the morning Shanghai time to see what could be done. The initial wait time was 1.5 hours!! I waited another couple hours and called again and now the wait was only 40 mins. Finally around 1pm China time I got through in 5 mins. I had a connection LAX-SFO that I needed to catch to be in SFO that evening. They wouldn't re-route me on JL HND-SFO.

I ended up just canceling the entire flight and booking a last minute biz ticket on CX. I made it back to SFO that evening as planned. Still no refund from AA has posted (should be around $2500).

This experience has turned me off AA and I'll go back to CX and UA for my PVG-USA flights now.

Yes, change fee after the flight is canceled? Ridiculous in my book.

OP could have asked for anything that was available. OP if I were you I would have forced them to route me LAX-HKG-SYD-AKL, CX/QF combo. It could have taken similar time but I am VERY sure they would do if for INVOL, and fly partners in zee booking ticket to show how little faith we have with AA

Why not HND-SFO? Separate ticket of LAX-SFO? It's absolutely ridiculous if they cannot route you HND-SFO. If it's in the same ticket then you could have even asked them to route you through CX, exactly the same routing you want. The airport could have more control, but EXP desk should have been able to do that...?

Just to add to the data:

8/4/16
AA83 to AKL delayed 1 hr 50 m
AA215 to GRU delayed 5 hrs 10m

SMH

Hi omaralt - this CLT delay has affected me before, causing me to miss an intl connex at IAD - you may want to attempt getting on standby for the earlier CLT-IAD AA5502 16:00-16:56 or actually just paying to change your AA ticket to this earlier flight....

Another option would be to change your AA ticket for arrival into DCA around 17:00 on one of the hourly CLT-DCA flights, allowing enough time for baggage pickup/transit taxi to IAD/recheck-in, security at IAD (entire process could take up to 3-5 hours) to make your connection IAD-AUH leaving at 22:00!

Just some suggestions so you don't miss the EY flight to AUH.

wow, thanks! i'm actually coming from tampa, so i have the option of doing a direct TPA-DCA flight. but i picked this one to give me a 4 hr layover in charlotte as my brother lives there.. maybe i'll stick to the earlier one.. thanks

They offered lax-syd-akl arriving 31 hours late and considering we had a 3hr drive upon arrival to Rotorua and roads can get icy at night, we'd lose 2 full days.

Since they had no hotels for us, was not about to put Mrs Zabes64 on a 14.5 hour flight then a 3.5h flight after being stuck in an airport for 19 hours.

We were not given meal vouchers either.

Looks like AA215 is 23 hours delayed? Should have departed last night at 9:15pm and is now departing at 8pm tonight?

Rather dismal performance over the last few weeks. An average of 3-4 hours delayed every flight this week with the exception of a single, 1-hour delay.

:td:

How did it go down? Where did you hear about the cancellation? Sitting at FL hearing that or in the aircraft?

You need to push it to other carriers airlines, including ANZ. It's just ridiculous for two days of delay. You should have asked for full day of meal vouchers before your flight to SYD. At this point I don't know how we can trust AA operations. Just make them put you into partner airlines and be done with it. Google flights are always your friend when trying to figure out the rerouting options. The options they gave you were the most cost-effective for them. I would never take their option unless it makes perfect sense for me.

A lot of the problems might be a thing of the past beyond today

http://www.star-telegram.com/news/bu...e93892477.html