baccarat0809

A big thanks to all who chimed in, esp with the info on the amount of de-icing trucks available. Makes me feel much better.

Got upgraded on the DTW-CLT leg so I'll happily keep it.

DemonDeacon

My buddy just called me from DTW. He was on the plane for DL 5180 DTW-CLT but they pulled them off and cancelled it because "they ran out of deicing fluid."

He's rebooked on DL 2450 which leaves at 5, but if that gets scrubbed and he gets stuck there, is he in line for hotel? I understand that you don't get it for weather, but running out of deicing fluid seems like that wouldn't necessarily fall into the wx category

baccarat0809

Depends - if he's a DM or PM he may get somebody, especially if he can get into the Skyclub, to get him a hotel room - otherwise most likely not.

If he is there that Westin at the airport is GREAT, although I have no idea if they have room tonight or what the cost is going to be.

DTWflyer

To clarify, it is CLT that ran out of deicing fluid, not DTW. DTW is still going strong.

They cancelled the DTW-CLT flight to not strand an aircraft in CLT, thereby impacting all of the remaining flights for the aircraft today (e.g. CLT-DTW-xxx)

More or less related to the weather problems in the Southeast in CLT.

DemonDeacon

That's what I figured. He's not even an SM member (I know....) so I doubt anyone is going to go out of their way for him. They are going to try to standby on a couple flights to GSO tonight, but they're both zeroed out so probably no chance.

I will say that I called the GM line three times for him in the past 15 minutes and they were all answered immediately, so props to Delta there, even though they couldn't help.

DemonDeacon

Anyone have any idea whether DL 2450 is actually cancelled? Both FlightStats and DL's system say it is running, but apparently they were making announcements 30 mins ago that all flights to CLT would be cancelled.

My buddy tried to make other arrangements, but can't do anything because all the CSRs are telling him that the flight isn't cancelled.

Come on Delta!

DTWflyer

I'd stay they are likely throwing in the towel with CLT ops for today. In the past hour, only 3 flights (total for all airlines) have taken off from CLT.

If they ran out of deice fluid then there isn't much they can do until they get anymore.

DL2450 is still not officially cancelled, but give ops time, they are completely buried today considering ATL is in shambles. The 738 on 2450 is supposed to fly DTW-CLT-ATL. Its likely a no-go.

They may try to fly the 7pm departure to CLT since it remains overnight in CLT, if they feel like they'll be able to get aircraft out in the morning (DL 2796).

Its just a bad day to be headed to the Southeast or East Coast.

The CSRs aren't the ones who can cancel a flight, they may not officially know. They probably got wind of the deicing situation in CLT from the pilots, but dispatch and DL' SOC is just a mess today with all of the cancellations.

DemonDeacon

Fair enough. My buddy is at the gate right now and he said that everything is set up like it's going to go.

I checked his itinerary and he is booked both on the 5 PM and on the 7 AM for tomorrow morning. Is that standard procedure? If the 5 PM flies, will they automatically cancel his flight for tomorrow?

GaryO3

Yes, that is typical. I have actually had 3 different flights and they basically told me to get on the one that I wanted to fly on and the rest would disappear.

ADLFO

Exactly. Your friend is being protected on the later fight(s). That way if tonights flight is cancelled, your friend still has confirmed space on another flight. If they get on the flight tonight, the later flight will disappear from their itins eventually, but it won't happen instantly.

DemonDeacon

Last I heard from him, he was on the plane in DTW, though they hadn't pushed yet. Now I guess my beef with Delta would be that the GAs made an announcement after his first flight was cancelled, that all flights to CLT tonight would be cancelled.

This led to me calling Delta to rebook him into GSO or RDU tonight since while his car is in CLT, he really needed to get back today. I guess luckily, they weren't able to find anything, and then he looked at the monitors and saw that the 5 pm to CLT wasn't cancelled afterall.

Why would the GAs make that announcement if they weren't actually cancelling the flights? Probably a good chance that some people heard that and just left the airport

GaryO3

Any word on the weather in DTW? The same flight that I am rebooked on for tomorrow (#1670, SRQ-DTW) left almost 2 hours late today. If this happens tomorrow I'd miss the last flight. I would prefer to be proactive about chaning if the weather doesn't look like its going to improve or equipment positioning looking like it might cause problems.

Only been in DTW once and not real familiar with it so any help is appreciated!

DTWflyer

Consider your friend lucky. CLT ops (like ATL) is in shambles today.
USAirways is operating very, very few flights in/out of CLT.
In the past 2 hours there have only been 4 departures out of CLT and 7 arrivals in CLT, total, for all airlines.

Not being there who knows what exactly the gate agent said. In these situations, a lot of things can change rapidly. The gate agent is not the one who has ultimate authority to cancel flights. SOC & dispatch ultimately make that decision. The agent may have been told to just start rebooking, but operations decided perhaps that they just needed to send this particular flight out, more or less since they knew due to the backlog of stranded passengers they could fill it up.

Likely DL in CLT determined they only had enough deicing fluid left to handle X flights today. Thus triaging the situation, they decided they would try to just operate the highest priority flights and cancel the rest. Hence why they cancelled the 1pm DTW-CLT-DTW E-175 turn, but ended up flying the 5pm DTW-CLT 737 flight, and they are hoping to continue that airplane on CLT-ATL tonight, to get the plane where it needs to be and start clearing out the massive backlog of passengers.

IRROP situations can be very dynamic. Sometimes is a luck of odds in determining whether stay, rebook, or leave the airport.

As for current weather in DTW, it is snowing, gotten 1-2 inches so far, but its supposed to be done later this evening by 9-10pm.

I would not stress out about DTW tomorrow, you can't make an assumption on tomorrow's flights based on todays flight. The airport should be operating just fine tomorrow. Not sure what your other options are at this point, consider ATL is a disaster. I'd stick with SRQ-DTW-PHX tomorrow, and if you see that the DTW-SRQ flight inbound is running late and you want to/can try your luck over a messed-up ATL.

Frankly, the entire DL network is a mess, system-wide due to the massive distruption with crews, planes, and commuting pilots all over the place.
At this point, just go with the flow.

DemonDeacon

Glad that he made it out tonight. Understand that everything goes out the window in IROPS, but sometimes it gets frustrating. He was supposed to fly yesterday, but everything obviously got cancelled, so the prospect of having to get a hotel room in DTT to get home two days behind was not very enticing.

I will say that I talked to four separate representatives calling the GM line for him, and they all answered immediately and tried their best to help, especially considering that I was calling on behalf of someone who is not even an SM member.

I'm flying GSO-ATL-SLC on Friday morning, so let's hope ATL has recovered by then!

BobH

You shouldn't have anything to worry about -- by the time you get here main road should be clear and dry and in what we call good winter driving conditions.

The only possible issue would be delays caused by conditions in other cities.

Bob H