rd7242,
Thats what I was just told by ann Elite Desk rep at a major. WN and DH she said werent apart of the interline system, ashe didnt know about B6 but thought they wouldnt be either. Well thats a pretty good reason for me to stay away even with the cheaper fares. Id prefer to know I have an insurance policy that will protect me. And yes I usually find the need to use it at least 3 times a yr.
id hate to find out that I cant get to my destination till their next open flight, while other carriers are flying with empty seats.

Ive yet to fly on B6/WN/DH B6 might be the only one of the 3 that I may but Ive taken Song plenty of times. Once I was rebooked onto DL mainline from a Song, dont know if they would have put me onto anyone else but at least theres some protection from DL for the time being.

The interline system is only useful in the event of delays/cancelations within the airlines control (i.e. maintenance or crew issues).

If it's weather or ATC, you're at the mercy of the airline agent.

thats correct but if you read the letter the from #1 post that OP (letter writer) said the pilot had said it was a mechanical which had it been reported as such and had there been an interline policy, then he could have been rebooked ongto another carrier, that was my point.

Now any carrier can cover themselves by using ATC as the excuse and therefore let its passengers fend for themselves. I think as the carriers $$$ situation gets worse we are going to see alot more of us being out thetre on our own, and the use of ATC as the excuse if that was the case or not, so that the carrier wont have to pay for hotels or rebooking onto another carrier. After all what will they lose me or you as a customer, they will figure its cheaper for them that way.
I hope Im Wrong on this point.

true
 

The problem I have is that we dont know if the flight was delayed
way earlier in the day by atc....which is usually the case...especially
with dulles and the northeast. When all those delays trickle down
throughout the day and then you have a mechanical problem, who do
you blame. We are taking this guys story as absolute truth, but there
are always two sides to a story. Maybe the night before atc delayed
that flight the crew was on because of weather or traffic, and because
of crew legality their show time was late and therefore the flight
was delayed at the beginning of the day hence the trickle down effect.
So again, we dont know the whole story.

It is possible to check and see if an airline's coding of an ATC delay agrees with the FAA. Every tower keeps track of delay statistics, and if the flight is delayed by ATC by more than 15 minutes after its proposed departure (a technical item that is listed on a specific flight plan, not the schedule in the airline's timetable) ATC notes it as an ATC delay. I'm not sure they tracked arrival statistics, though.

I'm not up on DH's current use of delay codes, but when I worked for them back in the UAX days, if an aircraft was late arriving and departed with 25 minutes of arrival, the delay code was listed as "LT" for late turn. That was the official code, regardless of the reason that the aircraft was late arriving IAD. If, however, the flight took more than the "alotted" 25 minutes to "quick turn," then the reason the flight was delayed beyond the 25 minute window was listed at the delay. If there were multiple causes for the delay, IIRC, the factor that contributed to the delay the most was listed as the delay. I could be wrong about that, however.

And yeah, every carrier's Rule 240/120.20 agreement is different. There is no federal law that requires them to rebook pax on other carriers. One of the reasons I tend to shy away from the LCC's is the lack of interline agreements.

.
 

There are time limits for atc codes. As long as the plane leaves the gate on
time and has no other issues than atc....or more accuratley flow control
located in herndon viriginia, then the number of minutes you can delay
a flight due to atc is almost infinite. What you have to understand is
there is also a code for "upline atc." Which means if flight "a" is late for
35 minutes due to atc flow control, then flight "b" can use that upline
atc delay code also, along with flight "c,d,e...etc," assuming nothing else
goes wrong...i.e. mechanical. These delays not only trickle down all day,
but also cause crews to be late for connecting flights along with passengers,
and may mess up routine maintinance also. Of course airlines dont help
"flow" by cramming as many flights as they can in and out of airports, but
in order to keep prices down, you gotta keep them in the air. And from
what I understand, inter-airline are expensive.....hence higher ticket
prices. Maybe it is just me, but I will take the cheapest, direct flight I
can find. If I am late, oh well, thats the risk. Its better than greyhound or amtrack.

The "rant" on the original site has been taken down. The current text there actually paints a fairly positive view of FLyI.

The weekend of this guys travel was the same weekend IAD got hit with a bad winter storm. All connections were crazy that day.