I think SFO gate has a good point. If all stations could print off a list for passengers who are stuck b/c of atc or wx delays. Then, that would help the passengers out a lot. From what I have seen in Newark, the hotel's are usually full to begin with. Then, a lot of the rooms fill up w/crews who get stranded in Newark b/c of weather, duty days, etc.

However, the notion that CO owes a passenger a hotel room b/c of something that is out of their control is absurd.

Rj- CO does not control the weather. Sure, they can move a flight up or try to work around weather delays. But at the end of the day, if WX or ATC is the reason someone misses a flight, then CO is not at fault. I know a lot of people on this site would like to think they are. But CO owes you nothing but to re-book you for the next day or evening. THere is nothing in a passenger's ticket that says CO owes them a hotel room.

If CO provided a hotel room for everyone who was stranded in Newark b/c of ATC, or WX delays, their expense's would goo through the roof. The company is trying to make money. Not hand out all the free hotel rooms at CO's expense b/c of an issue that CO has zero control over. I think the current policy should remain the same. That is CO does not provide hotel room's on atc/wx delays. The only think that should be provided is a discount rate for a hotel room if one is open. Otherwise, the passenger should pay for it on their dime.

IF the delay is b/c of MX. Then, CO should buy every passenger a hotel room that missed their connection b/c of MX. But only for MX, not weather, atc, or b/c a passenger shows up late to the airport.

A big thumbs down to those that think CO should provide free hotel rooms for WX or ATC !

Presumably since EWR is the hub, they would have a better program in place. While SFO has some onward, interline connections, it's certainly a smaller percentage of connectors, and definitely a much smaller sheer number of connectors than CO deals with in EWR.


I think what he was referring to was for top-tier elites. This would be in line wiht NW and UA's policies. Niether NW nor UA will strand a top-tier elite on their own dime, regardless of the reason for the delay. I'm not familiar with how DL and AA do it.

Yes, SFO does have a very small percentage of customers requiring assistance in securing a hotel room for the night. That's probably why you don't read about any issues with SFO.

For all we know the hotel board is the best place to find a hotel in EWR during delays. Hopefully someone working in EWR can post a comment on how they deal with this issue.

You said CO has "zero" control over "delays" due to weather and ATC, which is false. CO has control over the delays but it doesn't make economic sense for CO to schedule to compensate for weather or ATC delays. By virtue of the COC, the risk of weather delays is borne by the consumer and not CO. I'm not saying CO should be paying for hotels here, but let's not kid ourselves into thinking CO has no control over these delays.

Of course, CO needs to be careful about how far it pushes the COC in these situations. The ATC delays are often of CO's own making, and stranding pax in a hub with no available hotel rooms (whether paid for by CO or not) is a great way to push pax to the point-to-point LCC's. CO needs to at least make sure its customers have a place to go and are well cared for even if CO isn't paying for it.

Boy is it great to live in a community of countries where customers have at least a couple of rights.

to Continental

What is the big deal with needing help to find a hotel near an airport?? Walk outside and wait for a hotel van or grab a cabbie and say 'Hotel Please'. Or fire up the laptop and punch up one of the travel sites and make a reservation before you get on the van

Hey ray of sunshine, why don't you go back and read the posts. Not a single person has said CO should provide a room. The entire string is talking about help finding a room and ways CO could improve. No one is crying and whining here. And the OP himself said it wasn't a big deal and was asking if the lack of help was normal.

I have a feeling that you will do just as well if not better by looking yourself for a hotel..just ask for the distressed rate..I think that if the airport was having bad weather delays the agents would be busy rebooking passengers..so if you wanted to wait at the service center..im sure you could..everybody wants things in an instant..you just have to wait your turn in line..

I don't think most passengers flying the Sunday after Thanksgiving are savy enough to think of that, won't be traveling with their laptop, and won't pay the airports fee to use the wifi. The line for cabs at EWR at 2:30 AM this past Monday morning was running about 2 hours long and that was with plenty of cabs around.

The OP said NOTHING about deserving a free room. not only are you a "typical" example of the worst of Newark employees, you apparently skipped reading comprehension class in grade school.

Not being an ASA, I'm only taking a stab at the dark and NOT making excuses for the sub-par customer service you received.

Sunday was an insanely busy day at EWR, as every other airport since it was Thanksgiving weekend. The horrible winds and ATC issued further compounded the situation.

Again, while I make no excuses for the lack of assistance you received, and understand you are only asking about opinions in this case, I only offer that the ASA's at EWR were overworked and overstressed on Sunday.

In either situation, the Sunday after Thanksgiving or wx, ASAs can usually still provide great customer service. I think the combination just made it very hard on some of our staff. They may have not been through similar circumstances before and just assumed sending her to the phonebank was the quickest, easiest option at that point.

This is the exception, not the norm and I hope we haven't left a sour taste in the OPgf's mouth

Sorry again for the inconvenience!