So was on my LAX-IAH jaunt home on the red-eye and the LAX ops apparently forgot to schedule the flight attendants for the flight, hence no one showed up until 3 hours later. I guess with all the storm mess, they forgot to make all the necessary calls.

So did CO do away with any amenity coupons for meals and such? What happened to Customer First?

I doubt CO forgot to schedule crew. They were probably displaced, or over their monthly time, or some other operational reason.

CO has software that would prevent a pure forgetful blunder like that.

With the weather I would bet that a plane did not show up that had your crew and as such they were waiting for the replacments.

No the pilot specifically explained the situation and said the guy forgot to call the crew.

Was your flight originally scheduled to be Delayed and then re-instated to being On Time? If that was the case, then yes I can see how crew scheduling might have forgotten to call the crew with the new time of departure, given the weather mess.

If your flight departure time was never changed, then it is up to the crew to wake themselves up, get the van from the hotel and be at the airport one hour prior to departure.

I have watched flight times change from on time, to many hours late, to back on time because of aircraft swaps.

There has been so much bad weather across the country, I'm surprised that this hasn't happened more often. Once on UA, the crew didn't show. Then a replacement crew appeared a d found a mechanical problem. Once that was fixed, the replacement crew said they were beyond their time limit and could not fly. UA then cancelled the flight. Didn't get out of DEN until the next day.

So, things can be a lot worse.

Here's another one for y'all.

Tuesday 12/23, CO 1597 IAH-EWR a 753 scheduled to depart at 4:05 PM. I was seated in 1E and saw and heard everything that follows.

Boarding started early for a full flight. We arrived at the gate at 3:25 and the GA's were calling rows in the low 20's. We boarded, took our seats and I noticed that the cockpit was empty - no Captain and no FO. The FA's did a beverage service. At 4:00 PM the FO boarded, introduced himself to the FA's up front, stowed his gear, and settled in to the right seat where he began getting organized. About 5 minutes later, a 4 Striper walked up to the cockpit with no luggage and no Jepp case and began conversing with the FO in the right seat. He entered the cockpit and did not take a seat as he continued to talk to the FO. Shortly after that (and past our scheduled departure time) a GA walked up to cockpit and began conversing with FA's and the Pilot and FO in the cockpit. The GA left the plane and an FA then made an announcement that the Pilot was delayed due to mandatory crew rest. The scheduled Pilot and FO had gotten in late from SEA and weren't legal yet. I then observed the Pilot who had come up to the cockpit get on his CO cellphone. When he completed the call, he returned to the rear of the plane and then reappeared with his luggage and Jepp case. He entered the cockpit again, stowed his gear and settled in to the left seat. There was a brief conversation between him and the FO and then he made an announcement that the assigned FO would not have the legally required crew rest and that he, a qualified 753 Captain who was commuting to EWR to start a run, would fly as FO up to EWR. He further stated that the Captain would not be 'legal' until 5:29 PM (over an hour from the present time) and that they would do everything they could to make up time. The Pilot arrived on board at 5:20, to a round of applause, and we closed the door at 5:40 which was 1:35 late. We arrived late and a number of people missed their connections.

I have both positive and negative comments to make about this experience.

I feel that the CO GA's, FA's, and cockpit crew were great and that the actions taken by the deadheading Captain alleviated what could have turned into an even bigger problem for crewing the flight. There were obviously no qualified Reserve Crew at IAH to fill in (as there would be for a sudden illness or similar emergency). There was honest passenger communication and the promises that were made regarding time were kept. While no one was happy with the situation, at least we know what was occurring.

On the negative side. Any decent crew scheduling system should have detected the inability of the assigned crew to fly this schedule based on their arrival time from SEA.

Why wasn't a different crew assigned or if none were available, why wasn't a flight delay posted so that those people needing connections could be made aware and reaccomodated?

Why were passengers, particularly in coach, forced to endure a 1:35 delay on a full airplane?

Why was Customer First ignored. There should have been a beverage cart or two brought to the plane in accordance with the Customer First plan. The coach FA's had to draw upon the First Class supply of bottled water. Surely, CO has beverage carts available at IAH (unless they auctioned them all at the last DO ).

Failure to provide a crew is treated as a maintenance delay and with over an hour to spare at the gate, CO missed the opportunity to score some positive PR by handing out the inconvenience packs with a discount voucher and 2 drink coupons.

I also have to wonder if CO treated those pax who missed connections to CO paid hotels, etc. or if they foisted it off as a weather delay.

IMO, THESE ISSUES REFLECT A MAJOR FAILURE OF MANAGEMENT TO DEAL WITH REALITY. Someone in CO management needs to look at the series of breakdowns and missed communications, which appear to be pervasive when it come to IRROPS, and implement policys and proceedures to bring these incompetent occurrences to and end rather than being the norm.

I don't believe that any passenger expects perfection, but we do have a reasonable expectation of being treated fairly and honestly.

A note to all of the sycophants - I'm not looking for compensation, nor am I wasting time reporting this to 'WE DONT CARE' although everyone on the flight is probably entitled to some compensation.

So no delay was posted until well after our departure time. The inbound plane arrived maybe 20-30 minutes late since they were just deplaning when usually boarding is just starting. We only got the explaination from the pilot on taxiing to the IAH gate. Basically, the dispatcher with all the mess, never informed the crew what flight they were working. Not sure exactly if the crew that showed up was suppose to be our crew originally or not....

Customer First was certainly not being followed. Only 2 announcements in the 3 hours, no beverages/snacks, no meal vouchers offered. This was my biggest problem, in that though mistakes happen, it's how you handle the situation that makes or breaks the situation. CO failed on this operation.

I had a similar experience on AA on Thanksgiving Sunday. The replacement crew that they thought they found at ORD was actually already illegal and in their hotel. They had to find another crew and get them back to the airport. An extra two hours delay wasn't fun on top of the initial two that we were at when we started boarding.

My understanding is that those situations mostly happen when there is a delay in getting data into the crew scheduling system so the updates that would cascade through to reflect that the pilot is going to still be illegal for their next flight haven't propagated. I don't know if that is always the case, but it is what we were told.

You might actually be surprised the number of times a day.....systemwide.....how many flights don't have a full complement of crew assigned.

Crew Scheduling always seems to pull a rabbit out of the hat and find the appropriate number of bodies.......

The complexity of getting QUALIFIED bodies in the right seat is actually something just short of rocket science.

Had this occured at a Big 3 Auto Plant the shop steward would have Closed the place down.

Kudos to that off-duty Capt. I hope mgmt appreciates things like this. At a couple of other Carriers that Flight would have stayed where it was along with its passengers

I was one of the FAs working 1597 IAH-EWR. I will not identify myself but want to let you know that the company does know about the situation with this flight. I advised the company myself. As for providing a beverage service on the ground, we were parked at the gate and therefore are not permitted by the FAA to bring carts in the aisle as they would block access to the aisle for an emergency evac on the ground. If there were a need to evac., the boarding door would be the only way off the plane as doors are not armed until push back. That night was a mess and thanks for being so understanding of a situation that should not have happened. Thanks so much to the pilot that gave of his time to help us out and work the flight to EWR. It's co workers like him that help make this place a great place to work!

Are u saying CO has a rule that drinks can only be served from a cart in the Aisle?
I know AA and DL will serve water and soft drinks on a ground delay (at the gate and on the tarmac).
They take orders and serve them from a tray or bring a tray around with water, juice, coke, diet coke (limited selection) and ask what u would like.

what I said was that the FAA does not allow a cart in the aisle on the ground because it would block the aisle if we have to evac the plane

How does this keep you from serving water from the galley?