AA Check-in Breakdown Strands Thousands of Scouts at CLT 2 Aug 2019
#16
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Most of the international troops departed from IAD where a similar situation was reported. Also many troops stayed over to tour the US. So not everyone was flying home yesterday and not all from the same airport. I don’t know what else the Boy Scouts could’ve done. If the airlines weren’t going to be able to handle these reservations they shouldn’t have accepted them.
Note a friend’s son and his troop got caught up in this. The friend’s son and two others managed to get home late last night. The rest of the troop is still in CLT.
Edited to add I just got info from my friend:
I think the airlines were kind of prepared. It's more the airports themselves and TSA. But part of the fault lies with the World Scout Organization, who "coordinated" most of the busing to/from jambo - they dumped huge amounts of people many hours before their flights, which left thousands at the airports for hours and hours. Most contingents traveled in troops of about 40 people, and sometimes there were a couple together. Aaron's troop's flight wasn't until 11:40am yesterday. They were dropped off at the airport around 2-3am (after a 3-4 hour bus trip from Summit Bechtel Reserve). It's a massive job moving 50,000 people. They came into camp in waves: IST were there about 3-4 days before it started. USA, Mexico and Canada arrived 1 day prior to start. International contingents came in the official start day but some were still coming in the next day. And then, the international contingents flew into the US on different days and different ports of entry. Many came in through NYC or DC or Chicago. They toured different areas. It's a mess!
So that changes my thoughts above.
#17
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DFW Airport posted a travel alert due to a traffic management plan in place with this morning's thunderstorms. But hey, FT posters are the experts here.
Heading to the airport? Due to thunderstorms, the traffic management program is in place. This may cause changes to flight times. Please check in with your airline for details. (link:
http://dfw.to/FAA) dfw.to/FAA
http://dfw.to/FAA) dfw.to/FAA
#18
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I think most of the blame falls on AA. Group check in is hard on a normal day as you have to do it with a person so they needed to way over staff.
Also apparently the duffles many groups used didn't work well with the baggage system as CLT so that didn't help.
#19
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Regarding CBP at AUS, I believe most, if not all, of those international arrivals are between 3-5 pm each day. It is quite probable that there was not CBP staffing when the NRT-DFW diverted.
#20
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As noted, the others mostly arrive between 3 and 7pm. When I've arrived on BA (around 4pm), there were plenty of agents to handle the flight, but they probably aren't sitting around all day, just in case AA sends an international aircraft there.
#21
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However those agents dont just work 2-4hrs a day. They're FT employees. If not doing passenger processing, they're likely to still be at airport for GA aircraft, and performing other duties of CBP.
#22
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I suppose the baggage situation would be a bit of a mess as there is no recheck counter in AUS so it probably does make sense to carry on to DFW with passengers and bags on board even if there were people who wanted to go to AUS.
#24
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DFW Airport posted a travel alert due to a traffic management plan in place with this morning's thunderstorms. But hey, FT posters are the experts here.
https://twitter.com/DFWAirport/statu...733873152?s=20
https://twitter.com/DFWAirport/statu...733873152?s=20
#25
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BA connects passengers onward to AA at AUS. Done it multiple times in past. You do have to go to main checkin with bags. However you must go there anyway for security checkpoint.
#26
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#27
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Collateral Damage
I checked in for AA730 (CLT-LHR) during the fiasco. Not sure how any non frequent flyer would have survived and made their flight. I had to climb over people and two cases of fruit cocktail to get to a kiosk... and only because I knew it was there.
I am now in LHR and my bag is ... well, no one seems to know. Given the state of the conveyer belt, I suspect it's still in CLT, but for now it's a mystery.
side note: Plane was initially held 15 minutes due to "weather," and then it was admitted (over the PA) that the real reason we were held (and would be for another hour) was to allow scouts to get through security and onto our flight.
I am now in LHR and my bag is ... well, no one seems to know. Given the state of the conveyer belt, I suspect it's still in CLT, but for now it's a mystery.
side note: Plane was initially held 15 minutes due to "weather," and then it was admitted (over the PA) that the real reason we were held (and would be for another hour) was to allow scouts to get through security and onto our flight.
Last edited by jspatchwork; Aug 3, 2019 at 5:53 pm Reason: Typo
#29
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in most cases, I'm confident passengers would prefer to simply remain on board until the weather clears rather than go through a multiple hour process
#30
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Admittedly 8k seems a large number, but if they sold that many tickets, then there’s that many seats (which could have been sold to anyone). So it’s unclear how this would lead to delays, ESPECIALLY given they arrived so early.
I suppose it may be different from a normal day if many of those sold seats would have been connecting passengers who were “pre-cleared”, so to speak.
I suppose it may be different from a normal day if many of those sold seats would have been connecting passengers who were “pre-cleared”, so to speak.