Just got back from a round trip flight, PHL to ORF, and encountered a little legerdermain by US to try to "improve" their on-time statistics. Was booked on a US flight leaving PHL at 9:15 for Norfolk. Got to the airport to find it listed on the board as "10:10 ON TIME". Couldn't believe this, so I asked the ticket agent about it when I checked in. He said that they knew they were going to have an equipment problem on this flight, so had "rescheduled it" at about 7 AM. Of course, since everyone who was going to be on the flight was already awake and probably headed to the airport, that didn't do anything for the pax. However, would have enabled them to claim that the flight had left on time (although really an hour late). However, the best laid plans of mice and men .... As it turns out the weather on Tuesday did not cooperate, and we did not take off until 11:00 am anyway.

Wondering if others have experienced similar attempts to goose the on time statistics, on US or other airlines.

Djlawman

Cheeky buggers! Anyway, the "on-time" statistic only applys if a flight is 15 minutes late or more. Even if a flight is 6 hours late it is just recorded as a late flight, period. A more realistic statistic would be to show the average time in minutes that a particular flight is delayed, but the airlines were successful in persuading the powers that be to overlook that more meaningful number.

Put simply, yes, routinely!

It seems this happens whenever I fly AA - the flight is mysteriously "rescheduled" between when I call before I leave for the airport and when I get to the airport. Very suspicious.

I know this may seem a bit odd, but I started keeping track of some statistics on the delays that I encounter back in May. In case anyone is wondering: 39 segments flown, 12 delays (greater than 15 min). Average delay: 56 minutes, 40 seconds. Worst delay: 3 hours, 19 minutes.

Based on deviation of actual arrival time at destination from published arrival time. (Since I care more about when I get there than when we left...) Also, these figures are based only on the flights actually taken. I could have kept track of actual arrival time vs. arrival time on originally booked flight. Then it'd be even worse, because I've been rerouted due to cancellations, etc... causing me to be something like 5 or 6 late. But I don't count that here...

On the plus side, I have arrived more than 15 minutes early twice.