AA cancels flight at OKC , DL brings in plane for 41 student group
Jun 11, 2019, 7:38 am
#76
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: New York
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AA Management should come out and thank Delta for assisting the class in transport and will work hard to overcome some recent maintenance issues they have been having.
Jun 11, 2019, 7:59 am
#77
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Beantown! (BOS)
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We forget that the agents at OKC may have had a horde of paxs to try to re-accommodate. One agent spending time on the phone trying to secure a plane and crew for those 41 paxs may have meant other paxs standing in line even longer. Most paxs have no idea what to do when their flight is cancelled so they stand in a long line either at the gate or at a custom service desk (which I doubt there's one for AA at OKC).
Jun 11, 2019, 8:01 am
#78
Join Date: Aug 2012
Programs: AA PLT, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,405
We forget that the agents at OKC may have had a horde of paxs to try to re-accommodate. One agent spending time on the phone trying to secure a plane and crew for those 41 paxs may have meant other paxs standing in line even longer. Most paxs have no idea what to do when their flight is cancelled so they stand in a long line either at the gate or at a custom service desk (which I doubt there's one for AA at OKC).
Jun 11, 2019, 8:32 am
#79
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: DCA/IAD
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Maybe I can answer that. I fly to the capital region on a regular basis and often use RIC. SLC is currently my home. I use RIC as I have to rent a car, etc. I find going through RIC is much more convenient that dealing with DCA. The security at DCA, car rental , refueling after car rental, etc- is more stress than I care for. At RIC, get my bag quickly, a short walk to the Avis preferred both, and off I go. The gas stations are right outside of RIC. For some travelers- RIC can work. I have also used IAD as a alternate to DCA, I never use BWI as it simply is not friendly. I can handle I95.....
For RIC, the uncertain mess that is I-95 (Mixing Bowl, Woodbridge to Quantico, etc.), would force me to leave probably 4 hours prior to scheduled departure time. I'd do BWI over RIC for departures...
Last edited by IADCAflyer; Jun 11, 2019 at 8:49 am
Jun 11, 2019, 9:05 am
#80
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: DCA/IAD & BUF
Posts: 1,406
Originally Posted by wetrat0 
I'm surprised nobody is asking the most important question. Why was a group of students from OKC flying to RIC for a school trip to Washington DC????
My less than two cents guess on this: I suspect there may have been a short Richmond component to the trip, prior to the DC portion of the trip. These high school class trips often have a "civics" component, especially trips during or immediately after the school year proper. Richmond being the State Capitol of Virginia would lend itself to this. Decades ago on a similar class trip, our trip began in Albany NY, prior to the NYC portion. The included educational aspect of visiting another states capitol and their legislative bodies, was an easier sell on fund-raisers and the various approval chains and parental units, than a purely "fun" - although also educational in some aspects - sightseeing experience NYC alone would have been. But no one ever said we have to "get to Albany". LoL. Of course it was called the "NYC Trip". Similar probably to Richmond and DC.
Anyways ... my kudos to Delta for a solution that helped these kids. That's the point. Not whatever led a tour group to select to arrive into Richmond.
I'm surprised nobody is asking the most important question. Why was a group of students from OKC flying to RIC for a school trip to Washington DC????
My less than two cents guess on this: I suspect there may have been a short Richmond component to the trip, prior to the DC portion of the trip. These high school class trips often have a "civics" component, especially trips during or immediately after the school year proper. Richmond being the State Capitol of Virginia would lend itself to this. Decades ago on a similar class trip, our trip began in Albany NY, prior to the NYC portion. The included educational aspect of visiting another states capitol and their legislative bodies, was an easier sell on fund-raisers and the various approval chains and parental units, than a purely "fun" - although also educational in some aspects - sightseeing experience NYC alone would have been. But no one ever said we have to "get to Albany". LoL. Of course it was called the "NYC Trip". Similar probably to Richmond and DC.
Anyways ... my kudos to Delta for a solution that helped these kids. That's the point. Not whatever led a tour group to select to arrive into Richmond.
Jun 11, 2019, 10:21 am
#81
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: Does Non Rev count?
Posts: 588
I remember once as a kid, my parents took me to a McDonalds. For some reason, the fryer to make the french fries didn't work, and customers we not able to get "fries with that." That is until the manager worked out an arraignment with the Burger King directly next door. BK provided the fries, and McDonalds the sandwiches. The McDonald's manager made sure to let the customers know BK was providing the fries free of charge, Everyone left happy...
Pretty sure AA and DL could have done something similar, if only AA had a culture that inspired this sort of thinking. Clearly Delta does....
Pretty sure AA and DL could have done something similar, if only AA had a culture that inspired this sort of thinking. Clearly Delta does....
Jun 11, 2019, 2:50 pm
#82
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Originally Posted by wetrat0
I'm surprised nobody is asking the most important question. Why was a group of students from OKC flying to RIC for a school trip to Washington DC????
My less than two cents guess on this: I suspect there may have been a short Richmond component to the trip, prior to the DC portion of the trip. These high school class trips often have a "civics" component, especially trips during or immediately after the school year proper. Richmond being the State Capitol of Virginia would lend itself to this. Decades ago on a similar class trip, our trip began in Albany NY, prior to the NYC portion. The included educational aspect of visiting another states capitol and their legislative bodies, was an easier sell on fund-raisers and the various approval chains and parental units, than a purely "fun" - although also educational in some aspects - sightseeing experience NYC alone would have been. But no one ever said we have to "get to Albany". LoL. Of course it was called the "NYC Trip". Similar probably to Richmond and DC.
I'm surprised nobody is asking the most important question. Why was a group of students from OKC flying to RIC for a school trip to Washington DC????
My less than two cents guess on this: I suspect there may have been a short Richmond component to the trip, prior to the DC portion of the trip. These high school class trips often have a "civics" component, especially trips during or immediately after the school year proper. Richmond being the State Capitol of Virginia would lend itself to this. Decades ago on a similar class trip, our trip began in Albany NY, prior to the NYC portion. The included educational aspect of visiting another states capitol and their legislative bodies, was an easier sell on fund-raisers and the various approval chains and parental units, than a purely "fun" - although also educational in some aspects - sightseeing experience NYC alone would have been. But no one ever said we have to "get to Albany". LoL. Of course it was called the "NYC Trip". Similar probably to Richmond and DC.
It does strike me odd that AA didn’t offer other solutions, especially since their DFW hub was so close. Heck, charter a bus (or reimburse the school district to use a school bus) to get them to DFW—it’s three hours and AA has a lot more flexibility from there. It’s what was mentioned above, though—AA’s corporate culture just doesn’t empower agents or encourage creative thinking.
Jun 11, 2019, 4:22 pm
#83
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Twin Cities
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Posts: 3,870
Originally Posted by wetrat0
I'm surprised nobody is asking the most important question. Why was a group of students from OKC flying to RIC for a school trip to Washington DC????
My less than two cents guess on this: I suspect there may have been a short Richmond component to the trip, prior to the DC portion of the trip. These high school class trips often have a "civics" component, especially trips during or immediately after the school year proper. Richmond being the State Capitol of Virginia would lend itself to this. Decades ago on a similar class trip, our trip began in Albany NY, prior to the NYC portion. The included educational aspect of visiting another states capitol and their legislative bodies, was an easier sell on fund-raisers and the various approval chains and parental units, than a purely "fun" - although also educational in some aspects - sightseeing experience NYC alone would have been. But no one ever said we have to "get to Albany". LoL. Of course it was called the "NYC Trip". Similar probably to Richmond and DC.
Anyways ... my kudos to Delta for a solution that helped these kids. That's the point. Not whatever led a tour group to select to arrive into Richmond.
I'm surprised nobody is asking the most important question. Why was a group of students from OKC flying to RIC for a school trip to Washington DC????
My less than two cents guess on this: I suspect there may have been a short Richmond component to the trip, prior to the DC portion of the trip. These high school class trips often have a "civics" component, especially trips during or immediately after the school year proper. Richmond being the State Capitol of Virginia would lend itself to this. Decades ago on a similar class trip, our trip began in Albany NY, prior to the NYC portion. The included educational aspect of visiting another states capitol and their legislative bodies, was an easier sell on fund-raisers and the various approval chains and parental units, than a purely "fun" - although also educational in some aspects - sightseeing experience NYC alone would have been. But no one ever said we have to "get to Albany". LoL. Of course it was called the "NYC Trip". Similar probably to Richmond and DC.
Anyways ... my kudos to Delta for a solution that helped these kids. That's the point. Not whatever led a tour group to select to arrive into Richmond.
Jun 11, 2019, 5:37 pm
#85
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: New York, NY
Posts: 557
If this is correct, AA and DL have put back in place their interline agreement - unless i misread it. If so, can DL bill AA back?
https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...an-asked-back/
https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...an-asked-back/
Again these agreements have been in place for quite some time. We have them in place with another large airline named United. They apparently made the same statement to United. We were offended by that comment. And said no we’re not going to agree..we’ll just cancel the agreement so we cancelled it with some anxiety amongst the team because that makes it harder for our team on the ground. We didn’t do it lightly we didn’t just do it out of hubris we just thought it wasn’t fair and right and it didn’t feel right to us. And indeed it was a motivating factor to say look these guys are basically saying they know how to run an airline better than we do so they want to charge us more, we’re not doing that.
So we chose not to and again knowing that again there are indeed times where we have a mechanical and they don’t and all of a sudden our customer service agents don’t have the ability to put our customers on Delta and that’s a disservice to our team and to our customers. We weren’t happy about that but we also weren’t happy with the alternative. We chose to cancel it and it’s been cancelled.
Our team went through the res system integration flawlessly, we didn’t have any disruption, and since that time just progressively got our operation better and better and better so I don’t know a few weeks ago somebody with their tail between their legs called Don Casey and said ‘hey you know that agreement? We think maybe we should put it back in place because it’s hurting our team.’
Don said okay we’re happy to do it at the old levels. They said no no we thought we’d put it at the higher levels. Don hung up on them. So then they came back and said we’ll do it at the old levels.
So we chose not to and again knowing that again there are indeed times where we have a mechanical and they don’t and all of a sudden our customer service agents don’t have the ability to put our customers on Delta and that’s a disservice to our team and to our customers. We weren’t happy about that but we also weren’t happy with the alternative. We chose to cancel it and it’s been cancelled.
Our team went through the res system integration flawlessly, we didn’t have any disruption, and since that time just progressively got our operation better and better and better so I don’t know a few weeks ago somebody with their tail between their legs called Don Casey and said ‘hey you know that agreement? We think maybe we should put it back in place because it’s hurting our team.’
Don said okay we’re happy to do it at the old levels. They said no no we thought we’d put it at the higher levels. Don hung up on them. So then they came back and said we’ll do it at the old levels.
Jun 12, 2019, 5:52 am
#86
Join Date: Sep 2016
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Yep, even this morning while watching The Weather Channel, they covered this story. Jim Cantore added that Delta also treats their news crew (who fly DL) well. They didn't really mention AA though. It just makes DL look good.
Jun 12, 2019, 7:41 am
#87
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Jun 12, 2019, 8:20 am
#88
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Posts: 13,913
The press is constantly full of "the airline done me wrong" stories. I doubt that management pays much attention. There was weather and the flight was cancelled. The GA could not simply reroute 41 paxs together and an alternative would have been a refund. It's great that DL was able to step in and save the day. The AA agents would not have known whom to call to even ask for an entire a/c and crew. Given the day they were having it might not have been in their mind. Again, lucky for those 41 people someone at DL knew a decision maker that could be called upon. However, in most circumstances this group would have been out of luck. With load factors on ALL AIRLINES in excess of 85% finding 41 empty seats on a flight, no less during weather, isn't going to happen.
Jun 12, 2019, 8:27 am
#89
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If this is correct, AA and DL have put back in place their interline agreement - unless i misread it. If so, can DL bill AA back?
https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...an-asked-back/
https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...an-asked-back/
Jun 12, 2019, 8:31 am
#90
Join Date: May 2004
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What did Bastien say to Parker quiz: (100 points possible)
1. 100 pts
A. Glad to help!
B. Thanks for the PR!
C. Delta would like to thank AA OKC ground staff for their help.
D. HA HA HA HA HA
E. All of the above
2. Extra credit:
Essay: 25 words or less
Will any of these kids, their parents, their relatives, their friends EVER fly AA in the next 50 years? If so, why?
1. 100 pts
A. Glad to help!
B. Thanks for the PR!
C. Delta would like to thank AA OKC ground staff for their help.
D. HA HA HA HA HA
E. All of the above
2. Extra credit:
Essay: 25 words or less
Will any of these kids, their parents, their relatives, their friends EVER fly AA in the next 50 years? If so, why?