CarlTheWebmaster

Scheduled on LH419 IAD-FRA today. Got a notification from Tripit (seems to be based on data from FlightStats) of a 22 hour delay (very early this morning). LH Website says "Scheduled" for today's flight and the inbound LH418 is basically arriving on time.

I called LH and they say all is fine, but I'm curious/concerned about two things: 1. why does FlightStats say there's a delay, and 2. On LH.com, other days for this flight show the words "on time" in green (e.g. for 12/20) for LH419 and have a link to the incoming flight; For 12/19 it says only "scheduled" and the on time indication is missing (and no link to incoming flight).

Is this a simple data glitch in the third party provider? Crew availability issue (given that there seems likely to be a physical aircraft at IAD by this afternoon)?

If it's a crew issue, I wonder why they wouldn't fly someone else in from FRA given that it's a hub and I would think they have some reserve crew most of the time.

Thoughts?

Nick Art

Considering that LH418, the inbound flight FRA-IAD is on time and in the air right now makes me think that the return shouldn't be a problem.
I've considered crew availability, but that shouldn't happen and if they knew it this far in advance they could still put a crew on a flight to JFK or BOS connecting to IAD or they could have put the crew on the IAD flight directly.

But we won't know until you're actually sheduled to depart.

KP2006

False alert. There is some issue in the data that flightstats pulls from, it thinks the 418 has not departed yet and will be significantly delayed.

CarlTheWebmaster

Not a glitch; not a false alert. Flightstats was right. New departure time is tomorrow at 15:30 so 21hr delay. Called LH and got connection rebooked. She had 'no information' about the cause of the delay. I think it's strange that the plane is there but can't go out.

I don't think there's much I could have done to rebook given the scarcity of seats this time of year flights and the fact that my traveling party numbers 4. Oh well.

I'm not in the compensation game but I'm glad this is on the outbound so I can sleep at home rather than having an extra night in a hotel. If I were away from home I would have asked for some compensation (or would there be an EU Rule thing?)

Nick Art

Since the plane very definitely did not go tech (as it's in the air right now) you should be due 600 Euro per person as you will very definitely arrive at your destination more than five hours late. Unless this delay is based on a unforeseen event, which I doubt, messing up the crew schedule is certainly not unforeseen and in the amount of time they knew about the delay they could have flown a crew there...).

Make sure to also keep your dinner receipts for today and tomorrow as you could also claim those as expenses since LH is obliged to provide you with that during such a delay. (Unforseen or not doesn't matter). This, however, shouldn't be seen as an invitation to dine very fine this evening, keep it reasonable.

You could also have them put you up in a hotel for the night, however, since you have a home there I think this would be unreasonable, albeit possible per EU rules.

If you provide cabin class and destination we might even be able to help you find another flight if you wish to try and rebook onto an earlier flight.

CarlTheWebmaster

Thanks - I agree. When I was checking the changes and seats on the phone just now I asked about the compensation and the agent said to submit feedback via the website. Is there some other/better way or is that SOP for compensation requests?

Not really my style to get this when I don't strictly need it - I'm going to eat at home. As I said above I'm not really into going after every last bit of possible compensation.

Thanks! I was able to find a shorter connection on Saturday when we finally get to FRA, and the TATL leg leaves earlier than usual (15:30). I looked but there wasn't a reasonable looking set of connections for 4 pax (on award tickets which may or may not matter) today. We'll go tomorrow and see about the EU compensation which seems like a reasonable deal.

Nick Art

Your flight is in airport control which measn that irrops now result in you being rebooked onto any available seats, no matter your booking class or the fact that these are award tickets.

As for the form, that is indeed the correct proceedure. You can expect this to take 4 to 8 weeks. Keep the message short and just not the important details. (ie.your booking details and name as well as flight numbers, how much you were delayed, and that per EU rules you are due 600 EURO per Person.

CarlTheWebmaster

Update

At check in I asked about the delay and was told that the pilot was sick, necessitating the delay. But given the first inkling of a delayat around 01:20 am Eastern, it’s still not clear why a new / additional pilot wasn’t sent off to IAD earlier.

In the end the result for us was:

1. No real problem going a day later (in fact both me and Mrs Carlthewebmaster got some important work done on Thursday)
2. Lounge at IAD was emptier at the earlier hour. (And very nice food and drink selection - delicious chicken schnitzel and rotkraut, plus I may or may not have had a wee dream of Cuervo1800 reposado preflight).
3. Emptiest TATL *A flight I’ve been on in years - had an entire three-across row in Y and slept soundly for several hours.
4. Also empty connection to VIE (early am)with again an empty row.
5. EU compensation to come.

21 hour delay FTW?

Semi off topic but why does a very new 747-800 have the old dual-jack audio instead of a normal 1/8” stereo plug? Baffling.

8420PR

I guess the replacement pilot took the next flight to Washington, had the minimum rest and then operated the delayed flight back. I don't think (or at least I hope it is not allowed) for pilots to start work straight after getting off a long haul flight.

Glad it worked out fine in the end for you. In economy I think there is nothing better than an empty flight (and maybe I would prefer empty economy even compared to a full business class - at least on Lufthansa). Sound like a nice and relaxing start to a trip to Europe.

CarlTheWebmaster

Update LH just paid the full EC 216 compensation for this delay. Efficient process.

televisor

Did normal headphones work? Or did they perhaps have noise-cancelling headphones available? Double jacks are quite common in the forward cabins, but you can still use a standard single-3.5mm-jack headphone with them. They could be offering dual-jack sockets even in economy for any number of reasons, including noise cancelling in future, better reliability now, etc.