Billiken

Today (13 Nov) CO cancelled by 14 Nov flight from GSO to EWR (#2477).
The reason given was weather. It's intersting that CO did this 21 hours before the departure time.

Here's the Weather Channel forecast for 14 Nov:

GSO -- Sunny with 0% chance of rain
EWR -- Partly cloudy with 0% chance of rain

If planes can't fly in such horrible weather, it's no wonder that CO is losing money.

ADDENDUM on 11/14 a.m.

My apologies to CO. At the time of my very hastily posted message (above) I did not know of the high winds situation/sig met warnings at EWR.

Yesterday the CO CSR on the phone would only tell me that my flight (21 hrs later) was cancelled for weather. He did not give details.

I've never raised my voice to a front line airline employee.


[This message has been edited by Billiken (edited Nov 14, 2003).]

JeremyZ

NY is *crazy* windy today.

40-60 MPH, not letting up until Friday night.

Not that I've left my apartment to validate.

scolli01

Are you that obtuse to think that only your flight is affected or that the aircraft and crews for all CO flights (and ExpressJet) are just hanging around at GSO to take you to EWR? Think Domino effect. Crews and Aircraft are scattered throughout the system...just like any other airline that has operations in the northeast corridor.

Just a thought, but you were probably that guy I saw ranting at the agents on the evening of 9/11 saying you had to get home now! They needed to find a plane and crew... hmm...

MEBenson

Sometimes I wish the airlines had "disposable" radio-controlled aircraft that they could load these screamers onto and send it off into a windstorm or hurricane and get rid of those folks!

dthernandez

C'mon guys, it's a legitimate question. NYC is very windy today -- I wouldn't want to land in it, but to someone who isn't in NYC, they have no way of knowing and CO cancelling a flight and calling it "weather" with no further explanation, doesn't help matters.

The most interesting "weather" cancellation I had was on NWA -- MSP to EWR. There were two flights -- one on NW metal the other on CO. NW flight delayed, then cancelled due to "weather." CO's flight delayed just 20 minutes longer and then took off. Seems pretty clear to me that the airlines cancel flights for weather only when it's in their best -- read "operational" -- interests. NW wanted its plane to stay at its hub and CO wanted its plane to get back to its. Makes for a very jaded and suspicious passenger.

ap2110

When I was a corporate pilot in the early 80s I transported people ignorant of the effects of weather and high winds on aircraft. You sound like one of them.

Arcolaio99

Dam give tha man a break. We all aren't perfect, we are all entitled to a mistake sometimes. Not to mention he is a great contributor to the FT community. Billiken hope all turns out well for you.

avek00

I don't have a problem with someone criticizing CO for an "act of God"; I DO take issue with the false claim that CO is broke. CO is quite solvent at the moment, and won't go into Chapter 11 on account of a windy day...

------------------
Has YOUR airline won an award lately?

fireworksboy

Wondering how this statement will stand the test of time, like about three months into '04 under the "new and improved" Onepass program.

005flyer

I flew into EWR this morning. We took the approach like we were going to land on runway 4R. Our flight took us down along the river and over the Meadowlands. Our plane was moving like Space Mountain at Disney World. Right about when I thought we were going to land we took a SHARP right (the entire plane "grunted" as we all got pushed into our seats) and did a John Wayne landing on the short runway. The woman behind me was doing the roseary.

The Weather Channel can kiss me where the exit row seat knows me best...

TransWorldOne

Bingo.

ijgordon

I was supposed to fly PHX-EWR on the evening of Hurricane Isabel. CO cancelled the 4pm flight the night before. HP had a 2:30pm flight that was still scheduled to go.

Medium story short -- CO wouldn't protect me on HP or refund the ticket because it was "weather"-related. HP flight departed and arrived more or less on time (bumpy landing though). My company is out an extra $400 for the o/w HP ticket. CO won't give me the miles.

Who really decides at the end of the day if this was a weather-related delay? There was no weather problem when the flight was cancelled. Another airline got a flight in fine not 2 hours before. It seems that it was in CO's best interest to hide behind "weather" when it was really operational and they should have refunded my $ or protected me on to another airline.

It pi55es me off every time I think about how powerless we are against the airlines and how one-sided their contracts of carriage are. (You want to change your flight, that'll be $100. We want to change your flight to an inconvenient time -- too bad. We won't tell you about the change until the last minute, but we will give you a refund so you can go to another airline and pay full fare).

jerry crump

If an airline cancels a flight for weather reasons THANK THEM. Even if they have been too cautious THANK THEM. I say this as a private pilot you never want to take a chance.

Jim Phillips

Never mind.

[This message has been edited by Jim Phillips (edited Nov 14, 2003).]

005flyer

If you're tired of a lot of weather delays/cancelled flights out of EWR, send a letter to the FAA. Now, what I mean by that is: flight routes in and out of the 3 NYC area airports were set up in the 60's when EWR was the smallest airport. Now EWR is the largest airport and EWR still has to share its approach routes with TEB. When the weather goes bad, the options are limited, the miles-in-trail spacing gets stretched, the airport's acceptance rate goes down, and voila! Your flight is cancelled or delayed.

Obviously, the FAA isn't the reason for all weather cancelled flights, but they could do a lot to reduce the problem.