griffinj

Delta Flight 6499 JFK to DFW on June 25 2007 experienced more than just a routine delay.. for seven hours, four children screamed, and we were told by crew that they couldn't feed us because Delta simply wouldn't allow it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R06dAgpmmbg&embed=1

UpgradeMe

Please have the courtesy to search (or even to look at the active threads on the first page of the forum) before posting:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...highlight=film

TTT

Different flight....

The thread you linked to refers to a delayed Comair flight. The video the OP linked refers to a delayed Shuttle America flight 4 days after the Comair flight.

elitetraveler

Perhaps you should look before you lecture...

^^^ to OP for a nicely documented piece - it shows first hand how bad commercial air service is.

spgaston

That's not a very reasoned thing to say. Perhaps how bad air service can be, or how bad flying out of JFK is/can be.

I have never experienced anything like this and I fly all the time. Then again, I try to avoid JFK when possible.

suefalls

Thanks griffinj
Ah! the joys of flying. Where else can be detained for 7 hrs without food, exercise, and not be read your rights and be unable to have your lawyer present ? It is getting out of hand, with delays on the tarmac. Just let me at least sit in the airport, where I can at least breath something other than recirculated air. ( or at least better recirculated air!) The longest I have been on a tarmac is 5 hrs and I do not wish to repeat the experience.

elitetraveler

Well, in terms of stranded for hours upon hours aboard an airplane on the tarmac or taxiway:

AA at OKC
AA at AUS
NW at DTW
B6 at JFK
DL (Comair) at ATL

I think there was a UA flight I remember reading about

The tremendous staffing reductions mean the airlines virtually collapse every time there is a weather situation or some other event that throws their normal operations off kilter.

JFK is awful, but was just reading a CNN story about thousands of people stranded at DTW as we speak -

powerplantop

Delta needs more of these to show up. Then perhaps they will do something about the contract carriers that fly for them.

TTT

In comparing the two videos, I think the Shuttle America crew handled the situation better than the Comair crew.

Perhaps Delta and its connection carriers should adopt the same company policy that NW has where after a certain period of time (I think NW is 1.5 hours) on the tarmac, the plane gets to vote if they want to continue or of they want to get off.

dietcoke

The whole concept of democracy sounds nice but in reality it may not solve the problem on hand. At airports like JFK when an aircraft pushes off its gate for departure that empty gate is in all probability quickly used by a new inbound flight. Should passengers vote to return to the gate and deplane they better make certain there is available space back at the terminal. Sometimes it is better to just wait and hack it out on the tarmac.

MikeMpls

I've never heard of such a policy. I do know that NW has a ~3 hour time limit for departure antics -- if they're not in the air after three hours, the pax must be released from captivity.

Maybe this should be an action item for the recent appointee whose job is to whip the regionals into shape.

Does mainline Delta have a policy regarding maximum departure delays? If not, they should, and they'd better get one in place so as not to star in any future such YouTube videos.

With a mainline policy in place, they can work to impose it on the regionals as part of the service standards they are expected to meeting when they are flying as Delta Connection.

In the case of Comair, any repetitions are inexcusable since Comair is fully-owned and can be told what to do.

Beckles

Of all places, it's hard to believe that the Delta Station Manager at JFK would allow this to happen considering Jet Blue's woes at the same airport. The only thing I can figure is that the Delta station manager must be incompetent. If I were a station manager at any airport I would have a standing procedure that I was to be notified of any aircraft that had my airlines' name on it if it had been sitting on the ground for two hours so that appropriate actions could be taken (which they obviously were not in this situation).

It sounded like the crew did the best they could given the hand they were dealt ... unfortunately they really were at the mercy of others in this situation too.

(And I realize it's a Shuttle America operated flight, but the plane says "Delta" on it and the Delta Station Manager controls the gates, not Shuttle America.)

powerplantop

The tickets were also bought from Delta. Delta then turned the passengers over to a sub contractor. Since the customer bought a ticket from Delta, Delta is still responsible.

The great thing about these videos is that the sub contractor cannot deny what is on tape.

ATL terminal C or D showing ASA in action would also make great viewing.

itsaboutthejourney

I'll go with incompetent. Based on this, mine and my family's experiences at JFK there is no organization at JFK. It's very 3rd world in terms of how people are treated and information (or lack thereof) is distributed. Then of course there are the birds flying IN the terminal...

doh

In the case of telling Comair what to do, it will cost $$$ to fix the problem (staffing). That affects Delta's bottom line. Good luck! They have another problem with so many different contract lift providers. You can't proactively switch crews when duty time is flagged in the computer, you just have to hope no delays will occur that cause the crew to time out. Good luck to the person tasked with fixing the feeder problem! It ain't gonna happen.