ch3ss

Id say no, but who am I... Ive flown to Detroit before and its been maybe 50 people on a plane that holds 140.... not even 1/4 of the plane full.... still flew... very interesting topic though

joshua362

Once upon a time ISP had a lot of flights including multiple times a day service to TPA where I would go frequently and often the pilot would remark about the expected weather as he just flew the opposite route.

Now it seems that even the other Florida flights (MCO, FLL) are headed somewhere else afterwards.

They really should do a continuous shuttle to/fro BWI and somewhat restore connecting service near what it once was after they got rid of MDW flights.

But this is an old rant...

lougord99

returnoftheyeti

There are many flights that go back and forth between Sf Bay Area and LA. (In this context LA includes SAN and LAS).

So you might get a plane that starts at OAK, goes to BUR, returns to OAK, goes to SNA, returns to SJC, heads to LAS And finally heads back to OAK to park for the night. All these flights have a different number but are the same plane.

I have actually flown out in the morning from SFO to SNA and returned at night on the same plane with the same crew.

But yeah, if you have a full OAK-LAS plane that goes MX, and you have an OAK-BUR flight that is 20% full, you bet your arse that the BUR flight gets the axe and the LAS flight gets the plane. Especially as there is another 40% full OAK-BUR flight leaving in 90 minutes.

It's the most fun when you are at SNA, it 9:30 at night, and there are 2 flights left to depart that evening. One to OAK at 9:45 and one to SFO at 9:55. Your SFO flight is reportedly delayed 2 hours. The OAK flight will take you. But your car is at SFO. There is a chance the SFO flight will go on time. What do you do?

Final thought : I was at SEA and we were delayed 2+ hours. The FAs timed out. They had to fly in the on call crew from OAK to work our flight. For some reason I think they flew our crew up on an empty plane, but that can't be correct, can it?

Kensterfly

There's no way they would fly an empty plane just to deliver flight attendants.

rsteinmetz70112

I can see that happening if the plane needed to be in position for the next day. I'm a little surprised they made a special trip for FA's only.

I was on a Delta flight some years ago which had serious mechanical problems, the flaps wouldn't retract. We took off and landed twice, since the flaps worked on the ground. Apparently something was binding when the wings were stressed. In any event they off loaded the next plane in and put everyone from our flight on it. Never did find our what happened to those passengers but I suspect they flew in a replacement for them.

Often1

Rather than arguing about the nits, the bottom line is:

1. WN, just like all carriers, reports cancellations and reasons to DOT. If WN reports "maintenance" when it is really "load factor", that is a false statement which is a felony under federal law. Not likely that WN does that. A pretty tough accusation for folks to make without clear evidence.

2. WN, just like other carriers, does have to make aircraft utilization decisions all the time. If the aircraft scheduled to be used for the A-B 1x/day flight which is overbooked at refundable fares goes MX, there is an undersold flight on a route which has 6 more services that day and plenty of room on those services and there is no spare aircraft at A, WN may very well redirect the aircraft for the latter service to the former service.

There is no "right" to a specific aircraft on a specific flight.

NextTrip

You are so right! I find it amusing when passengers refer to a particular plane as "our plane" or "my plane". It is a company plane to use the way they find best utilized. Period.

OPNLguy

Exactly. If we have to cancel a flight (due to whatever reason) we try to limit the inconvenience to the fewest number of Customers possible, hence a lightly-booked flight (or series of) will take the hit...and hence why this question seems to pop up so frequently.

ohange

I believe what OP is suggesting that if a particular plane is scheduled SJC-BUR-SJC-BUR, and the first round trip is low, that they could cancel it to save fuel and other fixed costs.

I suppose that's possible, but the more likely scenario is that WN421 (just checked this) is that route is actually DAL-SJC-BUR, and from BUR, it turns and becomes another flight number (WN199) and runs BUR-SMF-LAS.

Cancelling a leg of WN421 early in the day jeopardizes all of WN199, so the operations folks would have to figure out (and I'm sure there's a flow chart decision tree here...)

If WN421 has a maintenance (or "maintenance" issue ), and the anticipated delay is more than X hours, which of the following is lease financial impact: Ferry a spare plane to BUR and delay BUR-SMF-LAS; cancel BUR-SMF, Ferry a plane to SMF and carry SMF-LAS, or cancel all of those.

Of course, I didn't go as far as to locate what happens to WN199 when it makes the turn at LAS, but you get the idea -- everything has a domino effect here.

Eemraldskies

Yes actually they have. Over the past couple of years with the bad storms causing irregular ops, it also causes unscheduled overnights for the FA's (which by the way don't time out - pilots do, but not FA's). If there are a large number of crews in a city with issues and hotels are full, that have and do take them out of town where there are hotel rooms available. At times it has involved an A/C with only crew members.

I have worked many flights with a handful of folks.

lougord99

Seriously??

Fly them somewhere for a hotel room? Wouldn't a round trip cab ride ( I don't care how far that cab must travel ) be cheaper?

returnoftheyeti

Cant comment on the time out thing, but in this case it was a FA I was talking to. She specifically told me she was On Call and had to fly in to work this flight that we were on. I got the impression that the flight came up only to deliver her (and other crew members) but I could be wrong about that.

J

nsx

This makes sense, but I have to admit being annoyed when my weekly flight was victimized more than 30% of the weeks over a couple months. That was a few years ago. The operations people should spread the pain around a little better than that. It's one more complication, but a necessary one.

ssk1127

Yes, this happens, and no they'll never admit it. Airline often blames weather so passengers have no recourse for compensation. Pattern I've noticed is that this usually happens when there is another flight going out and the airline can consolidate the two flights, especially by cancelling the next to last flight and putting everyone on the last flight of the day. The last flight + any aircraft that needs to make another hop that night always goes.