AA proactive weather cancellations is getting ridiculous
 

I, along with many others, had their flights cancelled yesterday into/out of DFW as well as other hubs I imagine due to the weather threat in North Texas through Oklahoma. The weather forecast was for thunderstorms to be likely in the late evening with a tornado watch in effect.

Listening to the forecast the night before it was clear that the worst of the weather would be just west of DFW and it would not roll in until about 7pm.

My 5:20pm flight to SEA was cancelled about 1pm with very little inclement weather showing hundreds of miles to the west. My inbound aircraft from SAT had still been showing on time with no bad weather anywhere near SAT.

The app did not allow me to rebook at no cost nor did the online web site. Call center was 20+ minute wait. I ended up paying to rebook online so as not to lose a seat on a flight the next morning. I will have to fight for a refund later. Eventually, later in the afternoon I managed to grab the last seat on a later evening flight.

Many grumblings at DFW over this. By the time we took off around 9pm, still no storms. As the forecasters had predicted, the atmospheric cap was squelching storms trying to encroach from the west.

I saw a TV news story about how AA is using a predictive modeler feeding in rough weather predictions to develop a proactive cancellation plan. They acknowledge they need more granular weather data. Clearly they are not thinking from a practical viewpoint but then again maybe it is a way to save money to cancel some flights and squeeze everyone into the space available on later flights?? Hmmm...

They are using the excuse of weather to cancel flights and not provide compensation but this was quite a stretch.

I will definately be trying to use Alaska Airlines even more even when the price is higher. Their evening flight was on time and even flew through a slot in the thunderstorm line while AA flights took an extra 45 minute detour to the NE.

You're welcome to it. I hope it works out for you. I'll point out that Alaska Airlines doesn't have a hub with nearly 800 flights. Smaller is easier, although, systemwide, AS is as concentrated at SEA as AA is at DFW.

Things can really get ugly at hubs that don't do enough to drawn down in advance of weather.

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/jetblues-v...nes-day-crisis

http://www.ajc.com/news/local/delta-...fQ4Mp7qBAcylK/

To be fair, most of the OK based forecasters were not expecting the cap to hold. Yesterday turned out to be much less eventful than anyone up here had predicted.

That being said, I have also found AA's weather cancellations to be pretty ridiculous at times as well. They use it as a reason in every possible chance because it's basically a get out of jail free card for them.

Only a 20 minute wait? That's actually a good day for AA's call center.

I have been flying the SEA-DFW route for 15 months now just about every week and I do a mix of AS and AA so have pretty good experience between the difference. AA has the hub at DFW so theoretically has more flexibility in irrops but I have seen that been more of a disadvantage as network disruptions causing shortage of aircraft and crew have hit me many times.

AS has the disadvantage in that if the inbound can't get in on time then you are really SOL. However, their SEA operations are very efficient, single hub, and less affected by weather so this has not bit me much. The inbound also uses the same crew going back.

One very interesting observation I have had. One time DFW ramp was closed due to thunderstorm. We were at the gate on AS. When the storm passed, we were pushed back and headed right to the runway. We passed about 20+ AA planes in a row to take off and for some reason went right to the front of the line and took right off without a stop. I don't know why but maybe it had to do with AS able to re-file a new flight plan quicker. Since the front was blocking most westbound flights, once it passed, everything was opened up. AA may have had a ton of flights trying to get new flight plans and somehow AS had an in.

Again, last night, they seemed to have gotten much more favorable routing with ATC...

The main reason I pick AA over AS is due to the much better flight times/frequencies and sometimes cheaper fares. But as for ops and FF program, AS still wins hands down.

I have been frustrated by this also. But when the flights are running almost completely full they can't afford to get caught. I've been in that situation and it takes days to recover. People are much more peeved if they get stuck for several days as apposed to overnight.

I was also hit by this issue. My callback was only 15 minutes (and still didn't reach the counter in the meanwhile). Sadly, no other options were still available on other carriers (primarily UA or AA). I ended up purchasing the last seat on Southwest and will have to turnaround and get the refund process done.

AA did eventually auto rebook for the next day, but between the on my own hotel cost and time lost, it was better for me to pay the difference between the refund and the new ticket price.

Because the cancelled flight was full, it definitely was not desirable for AA to cancel the flight.

Rasheed

I've been on one of those unfortunate planes watching your plane driving by and taking off. The many times it happened to me was the fact that my destination airport was in either Closed or Ground Stop state.

PAX bill of rights:eek:

There will be a couple of more options on AS from DAL soon.

Same issue...5/18 from DTW
 

I had the same issue as original poster on Thursday, coming from Detroit back to Dallas. Flight was scheduled for 3:25pm, cancelled about an hour before. I was rebooked on a 7pm, and standby on the 5pm (as EXP). They got me onto the 5pm, thus arriving home only 1:30 later than expected.

I made formal request for $78 refund (colleague and I paid for Lufthansa lounge as we weren't sure if we would have full 5 hour wait for 7pm flight), and was denied due to "weather".

To say this is a lie would be generous. Delta flew a flight at the same exact time (15 min diff) and landed with no issue. AA flew yesterday's flight at same time (Friday, 5/19) with worse weather showing on radar.

The fact that they are able to get out of providing compensation, etc is sickening. I'm lucky I made it onto a flight that night, I know many likely spent the night in Detroit on their own dime.

I used to be delayed 1:30-2hrs for weather all the time, flight would still get out. Now they decide to just abandon it? Would have to assume pilots were about to time out or the flight was 1/2 full at best...both leave me infuriated.

How do we hold the airlines more accountable? I still intend to tell AA to refund the $78, and that's the only acceptable response at this point. The principle is the issue. Their behavior is fradulent as far as I'm concerned. What am I missing?

If you flew, why would you be entitled to a refund?

@wrp96 Sorry, I should have been more clear. I'm looking for AA to cover my $78 lounge expense as I was originally told I would have to wait 5 hours due to a bogus "weather" delay. When in actuality there was some other reason for why they cancelled my flight.

Considering they won't even offer AC access for delays, I think you are unlikely to get reimbursed for access to another airline's lounge, especially one that isn't an AA partner.

Whether it was due to weather or not, there's no way they would reimburse a lounge fee.