Interesting communications incident at AA MKE...
Jan 9, 2017 | 6:04 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2016
Location: Chicago
Programs: AAdvantage Platinum
Posts: 34
Interesting communications incident at AA MKE...
Witnessed an interesting and eye opening situation at MKE a few days ago.
I was flying MKE-PHL-BOS on 1/4, the MKE-PHL being operated by an Air Wisconsin CRJ200 (Never again
). Got to the airport at 1.5 hours before departure, got to gate about 45 mins prior to boarding. The inbound flight was just pulling into the gate ready for a quick turnaround back to Philly. Pulled in, crew came off and new crew came on; the leaving crew told the new crew that there was a small issue with the thrust reverser and that everything should be fine and a repair can be done in Philly. A few mins passed and we were about ready to board, and got a notification on my phone that my 11:30am on-time flight was now delayed until 1pm. Started getting concerned. I go up to the gate agent and show her the notification, she checks her computer, and is surprised to see that the flight now leaves at 1pm due to MX. She had absolutely no idea. I overheard some conversations between the flight crew and the agent, and even the flight crew was not aware that the flight would be delayed. So agent finally calls dispatch and asks what happened, dispatch tells her that they decided to do the repair in MKE since it is an Air Wisconsin MX base since the crew reported the issue on the flight in. Agents rebook connecting flights and since there are no AA flights after 11:30, the agents' shift ends and they leave. Meanwhile a bunch of pax are just sitting there doing nothing and I oversee MX fixing the engine, and they leave the plane at around 12:15.
Agent comes back at around 12:45, sees that no one is around the plane, and is now complaining that no one called her to say that the plane is fixed and she can board everyone. No one called the flight crew either, which was sitting in a nearby gate area the whole time wishing they could get out of there faster. Agent goes up to the crew, asks them whats up, no one told them anything, she then calls MX, they said they left the plane a while ago (and didn't tell anyone). So the agent simply says "Let's do this then" and tell crew to go on the plane and simply starts boarding. Plane boarded in only a few minutes and we were ready to go, departing 1.5 hours late. Also, agent was extremely friendly, helpful, and understanding to the Pax during the delay which is good.
To me this whole situation wasn't that big of a deal since I had a long layover anyway, but this certainly raises questions about the communication here. If everything was properly communicated, we could have gotten out maybe 45 minutes earlier and the aircraft's next flight wouldn't have been delayed either. Never seen this kind of lack of communication at an airline before, it should really be improved.
I was flying MKE-PHL-BOS on 1/4, the MKE-PHL being operated by an Air Wisconsin CRJ200 (Never again
). Got to the airport at 1.5 hours before departure, got to gate about 45 mins prior to boarding. The inbound flight was just pulling into the gate ready for a quick turnaround back to Philly. Pulled in, crew came off and new crew came on; the leaving crew told the new crew that there was a small issue with the thrust reverser and that everything should be fine and a repair can be done in Philly. A few mins passed and we were about ready to board, and got a notification on my phone that my 11:30am on-time flight was now delayed until 1pm. Started getting concerned. I go up to the gate agent and show her the notification, she checks her computer, and is surprised to see that the flight now leaves at 1pm due to MX. She had absolutely no idea. I overheard some conversations between the flight crew and the agent, and even the flight crew was not aware that the flight would be delayed. So agent finally calls dispatch and asks what happened, dispatch tells her that they decided to do the repair in MKE since it is an Air Wisconsin MX base since the crew reported the issue on the flight in. Agents rebook connecting flights and since there are no AA flights after 11:30, the agents' shift ends and they leave. Meanwhile a bunch of pax are just sitting there doing nothing and I oversee MX fixing the engine, and they leave the plane at around 12:15.Agent comes back at around 12:45, sees that no one is around the plane, and is now complaining that no one called her to say that the plane is fixed and she can board everyone. No one called the flight crew either, which was sitting in a nearby gate area the whole time wishing they could get out of there faster. Agent goes up to the crew, asks them whats up, no one told them anything, she then calls MX, they said they left the plane a while ago (and didn't tell anyone). So the agent simply says "Let's do this then" and tell crew to go on the plane and simply starts boarding. Plane boarded in only a few minutes and we were ready to go, departing 1.5 hours late. Also, agent was extremely friendly, helpful, and understanding to the Pax during the delay which is good.
To me this whole situation wasn't that big of a deal since I had a long layover anyway, but this certainly raises questions about the communication here. If everything was properly communicated, we could have gotten out maybe 45 minutes earlier and the aircraft's next flight wouldn't have been delayed either. Never seen this kind of lack of communication at an airline before, it should really be improved.
Jan 9, 2017 | 6:26 pm
#2
Ambassador: Alaska Airlines
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: BWI
Posts: 7,393
Communicating is definitely not AA's forte - both with their own employees and their customers.
Some could argue this is one of AA's weakest areas.
I am still waiting for AA to share some exciting news about their current/upcoming IT investments with innovative solutions to elevate operations and customer interface. Unfortunately, you can still hear the crickets chirping in the IT department down in Ft. Worth.
Some could argue this is one of AA's weakest areas.
I am still waiting for AA to share some exciting news about their current/upcoming IT investments with innovative solutions to elevate operations and customer interface. Unfortunately, you can still hear the crickets chirping in the IT department down in Ft. Worth.
Jan 9, 2017 | 7:07 pm
#3
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Jan 9, 2017 | 7:22 pm
#4
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Jan 9, 2017 | 8:09 pm
#5
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Saturday morning CLE-ORD flight on 170 (EAAagle flight). I got an upgrade and sitting at 1A, very light load where I think I was the only one in F, more than 15 minutes of idle time after the boarding was completed till the departure.
FA had nothing to do and chatting with me. Then my cell phone dinged (before departure where my cell phone was not on the airplane mode yet) where AA app was telling me that my CLE-ORD flight was delayed. I said to the FA that our flight was delayed, where the FA said really? and walked into open door flight deck and said something to the pilot. The FA came out of the flight deck and said, No, we will depart on time.
The pilot came out of the flight deck few minutes later to use the lav before the flight. Then the pilot was talking with the FA at up front. I mentioned to the pilot that I got a message that our flight was delayed. The pilot said to me, No, we are leaving Cleveland on time. Then copilot in the flight deck call the pilot standing up front and said something. The pilot came out the flight deck and said, You are right, we got put on flow control at ORD, we are departing 15 minutes late.
FA had nothing to do and chatting with me. Then my cell phone dinged (before departure where my cell phone was not on the airplane mode yet) where AA app was telling me that my CLE-ORD flight was delayed. I said to the FA that our flight was delayed, where the FA said really? and walked into open door flight deck and said something to the pilot. The FA came out of the flight deck and said, No, we will depart on time.
The pilot came out of the flight deck few minutes later to use the lav before the flight. Then the pilot was talking with the FA at up front. I mentioned to the pilot that I got a message that our flight was delayed. The pilot said to me, No, we are leaving Cleveland on time. Then copilot in the flight deck call the pilot standing up front and said something. The pilot came out the flight deck and said, You are right, we got put on flow control at ORD, we are departing 15 minutes late.
Jan 9, 2017 | 9:41 pm
#6
Join Date: Apr 2015
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Posts: 604
I can attest to this having worked for AA. The communication is in fact bad. In my GA days there is more than once I walked up to ask the crew if they knew the flight was cxld as they were busy with their pre-flight. They always looked confused as heck and had to call company and find out themselves sure enough. Not to mention the numerous times a crew came strolling in unaware of a 2hr ATC delay that was posted.
The regionals are the worst though. A lot of times you will have X contract worker working a flight with Y regional pilots etc.
Heck back in the day when I had to deal with delayed pax with connections, I would have to go back myself and trace their connection being delayed bc it would still show on-time. If I went by the system a lot of times I would be taking them off a connection they actually would make because of that one's delay too.
The regionals are the worst though. A lot of times you will have X contract worker working a flight with Y regional pilots etc.
Heck back in the day when I had to deal with delayed pax with connections, I would have to go back myself and trace their connection being delayed bc it would still show on-time. If I went by the system a lot of times I would be taking them off a connection they actually would make because of that one's delay too.