But isn't that when icing occurs?

That's great! And if it was so fast for me in this case (meaning: if it was always at this speed), then I wouldn't have made that note that the lack of notice of flight cancellation made it worse. However. the only notification I got was one some 6-8 hours later - after I had discovered the cancelled flight and called to rebook it - and while it was the standard "your flight is cancelled, we rebooked you" message, in my book that doesn't count as "proactive notification of flight cancellation," if the customer gets it nearly 10 hours after flight was cancelled (and less than 10 hours before it was due to leave) and only after taking the time to call in and get it rebooked himself after noticing it himself.

As I think I've clearly stated. Yes, I did get the "your flight was cancelled, we rebooked you" message, but only many hours after I had noticed it myself and called to rebook already. Getting that after the passenger notices and calls to rebook is not really being notified of that. Being notified means getting it promptly after the flight is cancelled (within the hour I'd say). It seems to work in some cases such as for you - great! I sure it works so for me the next time also.

Indeed, just in this case nothing was occurring and the pilot also mentioned that there was "just some light rain" in Atlanta earlier that morning and he was a bit perplexed why the earlier morning flights had been canceled.

I am no expert so I won't even pretend to imagine does temperature just above freezing and some light rain make the runway (that is continually used) "slippery" and unsafe or not. There are others here much wiser than me here who will know that better.

Without slamming a particular airline, I can say this--I have had two vendors in my office in Cleveland for a few days, and both have no status.

Both have been trying to get flights to New York since late Wednesday night--those were full. Thursday (yesterday) was a complete miss for both of them--despite having "bought up" to full fare tickets, neither has status. Ergo, it seems that every time a flight is preemptively cxld, they rebook the people with status first, and (unscientific secondhand observation) those who have been waiting the longest.

I think they both got out this morning to Newark--since presumably continental has some decent metal on the hub-->hub flights (and I hope so--because the weather in Cleveland has gone really south today and is going to remain as such).

But what I'd personally like to know is the methodology they use for who gets rebooked and in what order--it would allow the traveler (particularly one without status) to plan accordingly (I'm sure the two vendorgents in question would have liked nothing better than to have escaped Cleveland a few hours earlier rather than spend an extra 36 hours in town)--had they known.

With all the fun with the snow in JFK these couple of days, cancellations are understandably inevitable. However, my unscientific data collection and visual observation leads me to think DL is opting to cancel even if they can really fly.

I was here last night and have been back here since 630am this morning (still here in JFK). I see B6 planes taking off all morning and a few foreign flags doing the same. Quite a few landings also including a few DLs. The flight information monitor/LCD data is pretty consistent with what I observed from T2 and T3 (I got bored so I walked all around the all of both Ts). There are lots of DL planes all over the place of various sizes (RJs to 772s).

So what's with all the cancellations? I know some are dependent on planes getting in but considering the numbers, it just seems dodgy especially with the first flights out where most (not all) of the planes are already parked at the gates. Are they really cancelling instead of delaying so their ontime numbers don't look as bad?

Do weather delays count the same as non-weather delays?

I know I've had a flight cancelled that could have been delayed. The reason, as a frustrated agent told me, was to reduce the number of hotel vouchers they would have to give out. Most folks would have missed their connection, so this was a cheaper option for them. (Not for my group though, as we had to pay for car rentals and hotels to/in MSP.)

It could also be that delays beyond a certain point would cause pax to mix once-a-day connecting flights, for instance, so a cancel may just make more sense. As the previous reply mentioned, there may be implications for what they have to pay another airline to endorse tickets over to them or compensation to pax in choosing to cancel a flight instead of say waiting several hours when pax would miss connection opportunities that day anyway.

Those departures could be to places not impacted by the weather or locations where they could get in and out before being stuck due to the weather.

DL isn't exactly on the leaderboard for stats these days. However, a lot of airlines have been getting more realistic with what's going to go and what's going to sit on the tarmac before returning to the gate. The CXLs are an artifact of that. I think there is also an issue with resources (both metal and crew) being run as lean as possible.

There's a lot of slack with crew and equipment, it's just when everyone gets out of place, the real debacle begins. My guess is that DL is being extra cautious and just bagging the flights before they have a real mess on their hands. Either way, they'll never please everyone. If they don't cancel and people get stuck on planes for unrealistic amounts of time, people will complain. If they cancel and the weather turns out to not be as bad, people will complain.

This also goes hand in hand with the new DOT ruling of passengers not being allowed to stay on an aircraft for more then 3 hours on the tarmac. If that does happen the airline is fined $27,500 per passenger on that aircraft.

Exactly... so this is what people will have to endure now. Instead of making a reasonable attempt to get a flight to its destination, airlines will just cancel them outright and the passenger will have to deal with THAT aftermath. Either way, people will be angry at the airline. We can't please everyone, but we can sure try!

Only after you were called out on your original post which was clearly in error and designed to slam the airline.

Feel free to continue to grind your axe......

BTW, have you even bothered to research the term "flow control" or do you just want to go on blindly slamming Delta? Did you bother to call DL today to see where the real issue with the notification really are?

When government runs customer service, this is what you get.

I have already moved the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...l#post13473368 thread over to TravelBuzz and this is really the same subject. The TB mods should be merging them together.

RSSrsvp - Moderator