I just recently started flying a bit (it will probably increase as time goes on), primarily going from LAX to NYC a few times a year. Flying back after the holidays I was scheduled for LGA-CLE-LAX. I'm wondering if people can comment on my experience at CLE, what I should have done to avoid this, and whether CO did anything wrong.

My flight from LGA-CLE arrived 20 minutes early. I had an almost 3 hour layover from the original times. Upon arrival, I checked the monitors and found that the CLE-LAX flight was delayed for 1 hour. I immediately went to the nearest GA, who checked her computer, told me it was maintenance issues with the plane that was still at IAH and that it should get there on time. I pressed her on the issue and she just repeated the same thing. Deciding there was nothing I could do, I wandered around the airport looking for something to eat. About an hour later, I realized I should have asked about any rerouting options I had, so I went to the nearest customer service booth and spent about 5 minutes interrogating the person on every possible option (I don't think she could really think much besides answering questions). Turned out I could have made a flight to IAH and from there to LAX had I been rerouted immediately.

My flight eventually took off at midnight after the plane was switched back to the original plane (I finally determined that originally it was a plane from SFO that was supposed to take us to LAX, that had been switched to a plane from IAH and then back). Meanwhile, by the time the plane from SFO arrived, there were at least a few planes that looked identical to the one that arrived from SFO parked in the gates surrounding ours, and no one from CO even thought of using those planes and saving everyone an hour.

This has been my first experience with a significant delay on CO, and frankly, I was not amused at the lack of creativity on the part of the employees and the lack of scheduling by everyone else. Do people think that CO is to blame here at all or was it just my inexperience that helped cause this?

Thanks,
David

You wanted to add another connection in IAH just for an hour delay? I'm almost positive CO did think of using another aircraft, but just because there are airplanes that "look" similar to yours, there are other logistical reasons for not using them. Most of the time, aircraft are on certain maintenance routings. They are scheduled for routine maintenance on certain days, in certain hubs/cities, at certain times. They try to minimize re-routing of aircraft in order to keep them on their maintenance schedule

There are many other logistical issues to consider in addition to what the other poster said...crew scheduling issues being chief among them. Those other planes were probably scheduled for other flights as well. If taking one of them would delay that flight, where is the benefit? 'Getting creative' with on-time management does work, but it is more likely to create additional logistical problems. And remember that CO flies several different configurations of 737 that may look identical from the outside to the novice eye when they really aren't the same plane. Better to delay your's one hour instead of flying on time with 20 fewer passengers left in CLE.

If this is for real why press & interrogate customer service/GA's over a purported mx delay?

Did further questioning make their answer change? Did pressing them about the issue change their answer and did they ultimately admit the delay was to let the flight crew sober up? Was interrogation enough? Was the next step "water boarding?"

Seriously if an mx delay is going to be that big of a deal it sounds as if the OP is in dire need of taking a maintenance/operations tour at the next CO Kellner/Burri event, and see what this airline and the most professional men and women in the industry go through. I think you'll find they're really focussed on staying flying and maximizing profit by trying to reduce delays.

So, your net delay was one hour and you are furious that CO did not offer, sua sponte, to reroute you through IAH?

Is CO to blame for what? Your inexperience caused what? Be a bit more clear. So far, it sounds like much ado about nothing. If you're going to start flying more, then you'd better learn to relax more, too.

I apologize if I was unclear.

1. My flight was scheduled to leave at 8:50 PM EST. It left around midnight EST, pushing back my arrival time until 2 AM PST instead of 11 PM PST. The initial posted delay was for an hour.

2. The original plane was supposed to be the one inbound from SFO. Due to the bad weather in SFO, they changed it to the plane from IAH. When that plane had problems, they switched back to the plane from SFO.

3. There were several other planes that looked the same as ours in the gates surrounding ours. I believe we were on a 737-700. Instead of using one of the other planes, we were forced to wait for the plane that arrived last. The plane from IAH arrived at 10:30 PM EST and there were several others that were not being used any more for the night before then.

4. I was upset because I could have been rerouted immediately and not had any delays. I already had a 3 hour layover and due to the early arrival of my plane and the late departure of the plane to IAH, I would have been able to make it. I did understand maintenance issues could take time and that's why I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. At the time I arrived, they had no idea when the plane from IAH would take off, since it was still on the ground. In addition, the story of what was happening kept changing every time I talked to an agent and this did not make me much happier.

Sorry for being confusing and thanks for the replies.

Welcome out of the ranks of lurkers; sorry your first post here was related to a preceived injustice you suffered.

From what I'm reading of your story the situation truly was in flux, so the fact that each agent had a different explanation was based on the fact that CO was changing things around in an effort to get you out of CLE and on to LAX as quickly as possible. As noted up-thread, planes that look the same are not necessarily the same model (73G, 738 and 739s all look a lot alike from the terminal, unless you're able to tell how long it is by eyeballing it in the dark), and even if they are, one plane may need to go to IAH instead of LAX that night or the next morning for maintenance or any number of other reasons. The planes (and the crews) cannot be shuffled so easily without a number of other things changing down the line.

You mention going to a CSR and asking about a reroute. You say that you would've made the LAX flight had you been rerouted "immediately." Is that immediately as in when you asked the CSR or when you arrived in CLE and noticed the delay? Are you sure that there were seats available on the CLE-IAH and IAH-LAX segments? There are several potential reasons you might not have been able to get on the IAH/LAX routing, even if you were standing at the gate. The fact that you had to suggest alternate routings (and there aren't that many) to the CSR is bad, but that's really the only thing I can think of where CO could have done a lot better, but again it is hard to know from where I'm sitting if you actually could have gotten on to those flights.

In the grand scheme of things a three hour delay isn't the best way to spend an evening, but there were both weather and mechanical issues and you and a hundred something others caught the delay. Sorry, but there isn't much else that is going to happen on that one.

Like others have told you, those planes A) may not have been the same configuration and B) have a schedule to maintain themselves. Surely you didn't expect Continental to pull one of those planes off its schedule and create an inconvenience for all of its passengers just for you?