Thomas Hudson

Next weekend looks to be a much bigger WX system dumping snow in ATL.

You have been warned....

hazelrah

You have a link? I looked at the 10 day for Atlanta on Wunderground and they said 60% change of "ice pellets" next Friday (7 Feb.).

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rylan

Still way too far out to be worrying about a storm middle or end of next week. They don't really know the magnitude or track until a couple days before... or in the case of new england area, they don't know for sure until the storm is over

sethb

Well, let's see. At first, DL claimed it was weather, and wouldn't rebook OP on another airline. OP persevered, and eventually DL admitted that it was crew, not weather, and rebooked OP on another airline.

So it certainly seems to me that OP got further by forcing the issue, rather than just accepting what DL wanted to provide and increasing the value of your stock a little. But maybe you define "further" as "waiting a day or two to fly on DL, rather than flying sooner on another airline".

kitkat77

My experience going through ATL last night was not the smoothest one either.

Nothing else available through any other airport, of course. I came really close to bailing on DL and buying a one-way direct from my origin-destination.

Flight delayed, rebooked for the morning on the app, morning flight cancelled, finally went back to the ticketing area and after a 20 min wait, rebooked back for the original flight with a later connection (no idea how as the oritingal flight had like 35 standbys?). Later connection heavily delayed and managed to get on an earlier, also heavily delayed flight. I count it as a win that I got home at all!!

BDL fell down a bit imo as there was NO extra staff on hand, the DM line I waited for 25 min on hold before giving up, and every flight out of there was cancelled or delayed. All gates had lines of 20+ people, and I saw a guy on the "Need Help" phone that was on hold for what had to be at least an hour+. There was a red coat floating about that seemed to not be helping *anyone* - she went to an empty gate, was fiddling on a computer, and snapping "not open" at anyone who went up to her. With all DL flights out of there not leaving for at least 1.5 hours, not sure why she couldn't help inconvenienced passengers?

ATL gate agent was one of the most... interesting I've ever encountered. He, reasonably so, boarded everyone with a confirmed seat. But then, he tacitly refused to put anyone else on standby, by ignoring a crowd of people that had gathered, and cleared the standby list. I've seen them do that before, so while irritating, it's not unusual.

It was what happened next - he taking people in very strict line "order". I use this loosely on the crowd-of-bees type line that had formed for standby, so not sure how he came up with this order, was using the finger-pointing method more than anything else? He then rebooked onto the flight rather than adding to the standby list? All of the flights out were delayed or cancelled so there was a rather sizeable crowd. I think he delayed the flight a good 15 min more by doing it this way? I would think he'd either turn away any more standbys, or just add everyone standing there to the list and then clear it as usual?

I understand they can't control the weather or the resulting crew delays, but I do think some of the outlier airports should have been a bit more proactive on staffing up and preparing for the higher number of passengers needing assistance, esp since the phone lines were pretty much useless.

DL GNV-CAK

I was scheduled to fly GNV-ATL-MEM last night. With all of the issues at ATL, on Wednesday night I asked DL to fly me MCO-MEM today instead. They were happy to do it. That flight was supposed to leave at 11:55, now estimated to leave at 3:50. How come? Late arriving crew/crew rest.

The irony? My previously scheduled ATL-MEM flight got to MEM late, requiring a late start to the day today, where the crew will fly MEM-MCO...and MCO back to MEM.

I thought I was doing DL and myself a favor avoiding ATL. No good deed goes unpunished.

bubbashow

The crew problem was the weather. If I was forced on the phone with anyone for 90 minutes, I would re-book them on ANYTHING just to get their annoying a$$ off the phone.

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hazelrah

Quite right. They've already moved the "ice storm" predicted portion of the winter storm next week to be North of Georgia. A lot could change between now and then.

sethb

Any answer for that, Mr. I-own-Delta-stock-so-they-can-do-no-wrong?

aviatorzz

Sorry but the crew issues are being caused by the weather. After 90 mins, I bet they just said screw it, rebooked you and got you off the phone, so they could actually help someone who needed it.

Remember ATL wasn't the only airport to get hit. When weather this bad and this widespread you have hundreds of crew members thrown everywhere and that takes time to recalibrate, get everyone back on their schedule and back to normal.

Yes you can try to argue crew, but if it weren't for the ice and snow that went through the SE, everything would be running on time.

I played a game on Wednesday looking at which airports had aircraft stuck because of snow/ice. With the exception of JAX, all northern Florida airports that had aircraft there couldn't take off because of snow/ice. Plus CHS/CLT/RDU/RIC/GSO etc had almost all of their flights canceled to anywhere they flew because of the weather.

I bet it takes two weeks (if the ice storm coming next week into the ATL area doesn't materialize) to get everything back to normal.

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aviatorzz

Let's say the crew for your flight is in RDU. They need to be in ATL to make up your flight as there are no crews available because of the weather. RDU flight cancels due to weather, which means your flight cancels because your crew is stuck in RDU because of weather.

They have to report it as no crew available. But where was your crew? Stuck in RDU because their flight canceled due to weather.

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