joe_miami

This is absurd. The OP was advised his flight was delayed, and he reacted like any normal person would react. Only the battered spouses of the airline industry believe it's normal for flights to suddenly become un-delayed and then take off without passengers who were advised of a delay. In no other area of life does such a thing occur.

EDIT: The above might come across more strident than I intended. I just disagree with beating up on non-frequent flyers in situations like this. If the delay notifications are mostly meant to encourage people to pursue other options, they should explicitly say so. Otherwise, reasonable people aren't going to see "flight delayed 2 hours" and think "we better get to the gate and sit there anyway."

beachmouse

There were indeed rerouting options; they just were not necessarily good options and didn't work well with the OP's need to be somewhere that night instead of flying out the next day.

joe_miami

"The OP should have been at the airport at T-15 of the original departure time, so he could be ... rebooked on a flight the next day"?

That's not a serious argument.

pinniped

I'm not using it as an argument for or against the OP's actions. In the OP, I know how I'd personally act: LGA is one place I don't gamble and try to cut it close. But that's just me. He chose to gamble, and it didn't work. *shrug*

I'm just saying that AA posting delays has benefits and can be acted upon by some, even if it's one of those afternoon LaGuardia delays that sometimes unravels itself. Sometimes you know by mid-morning that it's going to be a backed-up afternoon out there and you can jump on an earlier flight out. All I'm saying is that if AA has the delay information, they should post it.

joe_miami

I wouldn't have done what the OP did, either, especially if I really needed to be somewhere. I'm simply dissenting from this idea that infrequent travelers are somehow supposed to know that delayed flights often become un-delayed. Either the notifications should be much more explicit or they shouldn't be sent until after the original check-in deadline.

C17PSGR

I've been thinking about why I have mixed feelings on OP's situation, and I guess that captures it.

LGA is a disaster on a good day .... in many airports, I know a reliable range on how quickly I can get from place X to the gate but not LGA. From the Whitestone to the gate can be 20 minutes or 2 hours so its moot to me whether the flight is on time or delayed 30-60 minutes. Plus, when it comes to regionals, LGA is a place where they can swap the plane going to CLE for the plane going to CMH. OP has stated this was an absolutely essential trip and OP needed to be at the airport to deal with any problems. So, in light of conflicting information, on a bad weather day, in LGA, I'd never rely on inconsistent text messages but would just get inside security.

In contrast, if I was flying out of Honolulu, received a text message that my flight was delayed by two hours, I'd check on the status of the inbound flight to confirm it all made sense.

I recognize that not everyone has an EF subscription or knows what flightaware is but ... most flyers know LGA is a disaster and OP knew this was an essential trip ...

GoPhils

joe_miami

I've stated my position about six times. In no other area of life are delays announced and then magically revoked. If an airline announces a delay, the plane shouldn't take off unless all passengers are accounted for or there are reasonable rebooking options available. Airlines routinely hold the last or only flight of the day for inbound pax who are delayed; this situation isn't that much different, especially if we're talking 30 minutes or less. (As per the OP, it sounds like they might have made the original time if only an "un-delay" notification had been sent.)

LINDEGR

Just because it's hard/inconsistent timing for you to get to LGA should not impact this discussion. I think AA should end all delay notifications since they are meaningless guesses that apparently no one in his right mind can rely upon. I now know I can't even go to the bar if AA claims to delay a flight since they can simply say 'just kidding' and send the flight out on time on a whim.

And to again re-state the facts, there was NO conflicting information on delays until he was already enroute to the airport.

Often1

I am not beating up on the OP. My entire point is that he was not at the gate by T-15 and it does not matter a fig whether he was passed out drunk at a bar or desperately running from a late AA connection caused by AA. The purpose of the cut off is to keep a massive and complex civil aviation system operating. Schedules change,

Your repeated assertion of what is "absurd" is contrary to the practice of all US carriers and the vast majority of carriers globally.

You may stick to your view if you wish, but it is not the real world.

Now, where I do lose sympathy for OP is that he continues to maintain that he was lied to by AA, that it provided false information, and that it provided inconsistent information. That is simply rubbish and does him no good.

LondonElite

joe_miami

I can't believe you're still arguing this. Absolutely nobody in this thread sits at the gate at T-15 of the originally scheduled departure time for flights showing as delayed. Nobody.

Yes, really. Not once in my life have I had a bus or train with a 2-hour delay magically show up or depart on time. Ditto for everything from pizza delivery to school openings to UPS packages.

controller1

I regularly have UPS and FedEx packages arrive a day earlier than what an earlier tracking of the package indicated. But that has nothing to do with the issue of this thread!

When announced delays are able to be reduced, it also gives AA the opportunity to get back on schedule for that specific airplane for the rest of the day. If the initial announced delay is early in the operational day, I'd rather AA leave earlier than the announced delayed departure and leave behind a few passengers than disrupt the travel plans of hundreds of passengers throughout the day by sticking to the previously announced delayed departure when the reason for the delay has been resolved.

beachmouse

I'm serious. But then too many ATL ground stop recoveries have left me pretty jumpy in that regard- you get to the airport so you can get to a GA (it will be quicker than by phone) and if need be, get yourself rebooked before several thousand other people are clogging up the system trying to do the same thing. Because there have been too many times where I've 'only' lost 12-24 hours of the trip and others who waited another half hour to rebook had far worse options getting to a final destination.

I'm like one of the world's most proactive kettles in that way.

joe_miami

Really? UPS and FedEx send notifications that packages will be a day late but then deliver them a day early? I've never had that happen a single time.

There was no "rest of the day." We're talking about the last flight of the day. It's unclear why people keep arguing things that have nothing to do with the actual situation being discussed.

You go to the airport to get rebooked the next day instead of calling?

"Kettle," indeed.