AA83 LAX-AKL = shameful on-time performance
 

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...irportCode=AKL

This flight currently has a 36% on-time rating (it is delayed at least 2.5 hours tonight and was delayed 2 hours yesterday). I have several colleagues that have taken this flight and not one has arrived less than two hours late. The culprit seems to be the inbound 787 flight from ORD, AA2225, which is also always late (41% on-time rating)

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...ghtNumber=2225

Todays delay is the clincher, my colleagues are switching back to UA/NZ via IAH until AA can get its act together on this route. They are getting a terrible reputation. Just an FYI beware...

Didn't this route just start in June? I usually give new routes at least a few months to work out any kinks before I rely on them.

But still not good to have such bad delays.

Maybe the culprit is this aircraft when it is on the leg inbound to ORD or further up the chain. This appears to be a Integrated Operations Center - Flight Dispatch issue with a rather new flight.

AFAIK, AA still has three 787-8s awaiting delivery, and the first 787-9 arrives later this year. AA may have jumped before putting their shoes on with this one.

my friend was at LAX this past Monday morning. Said that he saw that Sunday night's flight was leaving at noon on Monday - 14 hours late. Sounds like fun!

It ended up being 3.5 hours late yesterday - did not leave until 2:15 AM. My colleagues are so done with AA on this route...

My parents were on this flight on Sunday and it was delayed 16 hours (left Monday afternoon). AA claimed crew time out and didn't provide a hotel (aren't they supposed to in this case?).

They did however send $300 evouchers each.

But back to the topic, these delays are quite unacceptable. And I think it's more than just LAX-AKL, my flight from ORD-FCO was delayed about five hours last week.

Is it still the 'mechanic'-induced delay problems?

Chronic delayed routes/flights .e.g. AA98
 

On AA98 next week and noticed this has a chronic delay leaving ORD (for the ORD-LHR segment, NOT the TUS-ORD same flight number with different equipment)

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL98

Trying to see what else systemwide is this bad. Is this a crew inbound issue or the 772 maint issues as this is set as a converted/new cabin - no spare aircraft or flex on aircraft swaps?

AA2349 ORD-DFW is even worse.

http://www.flightstats.com/go/Flight...ghtNumber=2349

Don't think its related to the interior.

It's probably similar to what I experienced with my international flights out of ORD last year ... what I understand is this ... when the plane comes in from crossing the ocean they have to do some extra inspections and either they are short staffed maintenance-wise at ORD or that they defer a lot of maintenance until it becomes essential but what I've found in several or my flights (767 & 772) is the maintenance guys find something and then there is the scramble to fix it. Sometimes they'll swap air frames for a later departure but the way most AA INTL departures seem to be around the same time they usually end up having to delay some flights to make the fixes.

Again, this is what I've experienced over several international flights last summer to winter.

I took the AKL-LAX leg a few weeks ago. Inbound segment from LAX arrived on schedule, and our flight was on-time too. I think they're having some real growing pains at LAX right now, coupled with some heinous construction at the airport and other operational problems.

Then just: Do what REAL travellers do: In their professional lives-Build in delays, MX,WX, UNIONS, etc..

Put your head on a swivel. Look out for #1. Take care of your self.

OR:

Come on a website and b**** w/o accountability.

Sorry-I'm tired of of people who travel 3-8 times a year, DEMANDING on time performance, and whineing and sniveling.

..and they shouldn't demand on time performance because?

DEMAND?

Certainly it's reasonable to question why AA's performance is near rock-bottom? Nobody's expecting zero delays, but AA is doing badly even relative to its peers. And there's nothing wrong with demanding better of companies you do business with.

Absolutely, that's the only way to maintain any form of standards in a competitive vacuum. Again, nothing wrong with the occasional weather/ATC delay, but there's no excuse or reason for chronic delays on any flight.

The inbound aircraft from ORD is chronically late. Over the last 14 days, it's arrived on time only 5 times. I've just about given up taking AA2225. They just can't seem to get it out on time.

I asked the same question a couple of weeks ago about AA215 LAX-GRU : http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...y-delayed.html

Seems like there are some serious reliability issues with AA and LAX. In the above thread, there's also a reference to the PVG flights and its issues

Hope AA gets it sorted out and delays are minimized in the next couple months. On 83 in early October.

wth?

^

Nothing demanding or whiny whatsoever as far as I can see. Maybe this thread needed a trigger warning :D

It's the problem of the 788. Any long hauls that are involved with 788, ORD-PVG, LAX-GRU, DFW-PVG, ORD-NRT(which I was on) are always delayed. I don't know if it was the problem with AA maintenance or Boeing. After JL's 787 problem in Boston, they seem to be running perfectly fine, so it could take a while for ORD, DFW, and LAX to get all the parts equipped for maintenance improvement.

The non-refurbished 772s, and 77Ws are having excellent record of on-time performances. @SYD sitting for AA72, hoping the aircraft could delay a little bit so that I could use the spa. Couldn't even beg for 20 more min. :/ Seems very bleak at this point. :(

Perhaps relative to the 787s but I'm not sure I'd call my experience with the 777 fleet this year excellent in terms of timeliness. One canceled 777 flight, one 777 delayed 2.5 hours due to MX, one 77W flight delayed 4 hours due to multiple maintenance problems (ended up switching to a different flight).

Yea i agree about the oh my gosh i took a flight last week and it was delayed so ever AA flight is delayed.

Sounds like there is a problem out of ORD? And the new AA LAX ACK flight? Is this two issues or one that's related?

LAX is a Mess with the added flights and the all around construction. The lack of gate space means 15-30 waits for a gate on almost all of my flights in to LAX the last 6 months. They are running a tight ship in LAX so I've come to expect gate delays and its made my expectations go down and I find I've been getting pleasantly surprised more often then not lately.

MIA to LAX 77W Landed and taxed right to the gate:D^

We've seen more than just the usual/expected delays this summer. AA is driving the fleet and crews too hard, and safety/on-time performance is suffering.

I'm 110% with the pilots' union on this statement:

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Ame...388571512.html

Absolutely agree. However, the unions (at least the leadership) fought hard in favor of the merger along with US management, so I also blame their shortsightedness/greediness as major contributing factors to where we are now. I believe that was the FAs union, I'm not sure about how much the pilot's union had to do with it. At any rate, they're accurate in their assessment of the current product. It is an outright embarrassment.

AAs Ops truly suck....I've now started booking my weekly Chicago flights on Delta.....I don't even care if I'm in coach....at least I will get there.

I was dismayed when the merger happened too, considering US Air had a reputation for scraping the bottom of the barrel. Whether the FA union's behavior was greedy or shortsighted is a matter of opinion, but...I agree that it sure didn't turn out well. :(

I've been watching the evening departure ORD-MCO (AA55) for Labor day weekend and this flights has been late almost every day the last month...many days 2+ hours. I've noticed several times the incoming aircraft is on time. If there is a mechanical somewhere else at O'Hare, say a more business traveller heavy ORD-SFO route, will they pull a functioning plane off ORD-MCO (heavy leisure route) and put it on ORD-SFO?

I'm guessing the answer is no and it's just coincidence this flights is late so often. Even though I'd rather fly AA due to my status and chance of upgrade, I think I'm going to fly either UA or SW as there ontime percentage seems better as of late.

It is apparent to me that AA published on overly aggressive schedule on the LAA side, especially with widebodies and in/out the ORD and LAX hubs. I'm not seeing anywhere near the level of problems on the LUS side. The LAA side has an older, more mtc intensive fleet (M80s, 757, 763, 772), fleet types that they are still teething (787's, A32X's) and hubs that generally more congested. I do not believe that the schedule planners considered all that. This, combined with the generally more hostile and inflexible LAA pilots and FA's, is causing the LAA ops to go off the rails quickly...

I'm seeing more issues with LAA ops than LUS ops. Just this week the LUS flights I flew were generally all on time (8 segments); the LAA flights (4 of them) had missing crews, equip swaps multiple times and in one case a last minute change to another FO causing a 50 min delay.

This was connections in ORD and PHX (don't know if PHX has an LAA 737 domicile or they all fly PHX inline from another hub - these were NOT LUS crews in PHX). Granted seen no issues out of DFW at all this summer (other than normal weather issues)

I'm assuming the rebanking of flights is bogging down operations at heavy hubs such as ORD, DFW and MIA. Even if you land early you often arrive late waiting for a gate. Waiting off the tarmac for 30 minutes+ seems to become much more common. A couple of months ago we sat for over 90 minutes as there was a broken a/c at our gate and the claim was that ORD didn't have any other gates to send our 763 to.

This is a major problem and probably why AA ops are negatively affected more than US ops (though CLT is a disaster IMO).

Example on AA98 delay TONIGHT is in the detailed status of EF:

5ORD/6ORD-LHR NRML 772M WL OPT IN 772A SEATING 16/194/37 ACCT EDM
N7AS ORD
FTWDP R.A.BORSOS *2058
7ORD/AUTO REACCOM DLY FLT COMPLETED SEE N*P1AA0098ORD30JUL *2202*CRCYMG
3ORD/ETD2315 MTR-DELAY DUE TO A/C MAINTENANCE *2258
2LHR/PRE1243 *2258

So looks like they sub'd to a legacy 777-200 (non 772 retrofit cabin) and that it also had maint still on the sub aircraft.

The odd thing is that some of these stations rebanked as early as two years ago. I don't know how or why they haven't managed to work the kinks out yet.

There's no kinks to be worked out. The infrastructure can't handle what's being asked of it at many of these airports. Unless the number of flights at certain times are reduced, there will continue to be problems. Also, the seconds aircraft go down for maintenance or if there's any kind of weather or ATC delay, the whole operation at any given hub will devolve into a complete cluster. This is what schedule banking is all about.

To be fair, reducing the number of flights at certain times would qualify as working out a kink. :)

Fair enough.

I feel bad for the people that bought AA83 as a Direct flight to AKL from NYC w/ the stop in LAX, yesterday and tonight that flight misconnected with the LAX-AKL flight.

I'm not looking forward to dealing with this flight on Wednesday, at least we are arriving 2 hours early, but have to fly that awful LUSa321 to get there.. so glad AA switched their programme up so I don't make these stupid decisions to fly them just because of miles, going to be soooooo much happier soon.