bostonbali

My GF's mom was staying with us and was supposed to fly home this morning BOS-PHL-SEA.
On her way to the airport, she gets a voicemail from USAir, stating that her flight was cancelled, and that they rebooked her on a later flight (still the same route). She ended up waiting in Logan for 3 hours. The reason for the cancellation was 'No Equipment Available.'

Not being a seasoned traveller, she didn't ask for any compensation on the spot. When we asked her if US Air gave her anything extra, she said they gave her Exit Row seats on both flights... Right...

Is it common for US Air to cancel flights that are pretty empty?
What's fair compensation?
Has this happened to you before?

Spiff

Compensation isn't due, but if she had found flights on a competitor that got her in earlier, she could have asked to be interlined to that competitor instead.

hp_fa

(No, I don't work for U.)

Normally, a scenario such as you described is due to a broken airplane. Light loads normally ill not cause a cancellation because the plane still needs to get to it's next cities and move those folks along. Missed connection, bad PR and a host of other things generally preclude cancellation unless it is due to equipment, crew or weather issues.

sts603

even if it's in business or first - first available flight to destination if they can't get you there within i think 60 mins if it's cancelled for a reason under their control.....rule 240

RoyalFlush

.....

longing4piedmont

US is cancelling a mind boggling number of flights because they have cut the crews to the bone. The block holders have decided they will not work overtime and there are not enough crews to make up for it. Nobody is willing to go the extra mile this management team any longer and I for one don't blame them

The problem is only going to get worse as the summer. Unless something is done now, up to ten percent of the flights coud be cancelled everyday this summer. It will be worse at the end of and beginning of the month. But then Uncle Al does not have a clue or a plan. The lipstick is gone

As far as compensation, here is the link to US Terms of Transportation.

Terms of Transportation

DOT webiste on delays and compensation

Each airline has its own policies about what it will do for delayed passengers waiting at the airport. There are no federal requirements regarding these amenities or services. If you are delayed, ask the airline staff if they will pay for meals or phone calls. Some do not provide any amenities to stranded passengers. Others may not offer amenities if bad weather or something else beyond the airline’s control causes the delay. Before you book your flight, you may wish to check the web sites of the larger carriers for their voluntary Customer Service Plans, which list the amenities that those airlines will provide to passengers. Links to those web sites appear on the web site of the Department’s Aviation Consumer Protection Division at http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/.

Contrary to the belief of some, airlines are not required to compensate passengers for “damages” when flights are delayed or canceled. Compensation is required by law only when you are “bumped” from a flight that is oversold. Airlines almost always refuse to pay passengers for financial losses resulting from a delayed flight. If the purpose of your trip is to close a potentially lucrative business deal, to give a speech or lecture, to attend a family function, or to be present at any time-sensitive event, you might want to allow a little extra time and take an earlier flight. In other words, airline delays and cancellations are not unusual, and defensive planning is a good idea when time is your most important consideration.

PHL

It's 4 hours, and this elusive "rule 240" varies from one airline to the next. From US' Terms of Tranportation:

"When a ticketed customer holds a confirmed reservation on a flight, US Airways may assume limited expenses incurred as a result of a flight cancellation or schedule irregularity resulting in a delay exceeding four hours, as outlined below...." (you can click the above link for the details).

So, did she arrive in SEA within 4 hours of her initially planned arrival?

haveric

I remember reading somewhere that it is illegal for airlines to cancel flights due to low loads. Of course, even if it is illegal, nothing prevents an airline from doing it and hoping it doesnt get caught...

formeraa

It's not illegal. However, if an airline does it enough times to the same flight, then passengers will book elsewhere.

PHL

Illegal is not the right word, but it's against FAA regs for a scheduled operation to cancel a flight solely for low loads. But, like others have said, it's usually not an option anyway since the equipment often needs to be in the next city to service a new flight.

JAXPax

Probably more like DOT regulations.

Flights with low loads may be more prone to cancellation due to equipment failure/mechanical problems. I've seen it several times (and including when I worked for a major carrier). They have to cancel a flight, they don't have a choice, due to maintenance on a plane. Rather than cancel the full flights on the aircraft's scheduled round trip, they cancel a lightly loaded trip to another destination instead by swapping it's plane out with the MX aircraft.

otralot

No equipment available?? Maybe they traded a plane to pay for fuel

GalleyWench

No equipment available is different from no crew available. It sounds like it was indeed an airplane issue, probably cancelled somewhere earlier due to maintenance.
As far as crew shortages go, this is not the crews fault per se. A couple of years ago the company furloughed a lot of people. Since that time they have also had a huge number of retirements (pilots and f/a's), and they haven't replaced any of them with furloughed employees. Therefore, you have the crews already filling in the gaps for the folks that have left. They also have the crews flying up to 95 hours a month now as opposed to 80-85 that we were flying before, so most of us can't fly overtime even if we wanted to. Pilots can only fly 1000 hours a year and have to pace themselves accordingly. Crews are also limited in the fact that they can't fly more than 30 hours in 7 days so we're constantly having to work around that as well.
And last but not least, no, the airlines do not cancel flights at the drop of a hat just because of a light load. I've flown several flights with one or two people on them over the years.
Sorry she had problems getting home, but I'm glad the delay wasn't more than a couple of hours.

NewToCanada

Same experience for my wife, flying TPA-PHL-YUL. Flight cancelled in TPA. Instead of getting in at 4:30pm in Montreal she got in at 12:15am. Seems to me some kind of compensation is deserved. She was using an AC rewards number, so miles is probably not an option. (Or could they add some miles to an AC account?) What do you think we should claim?

Poor US Air. I used to fly them a lot. It's sad to see what's become of the airline. I flew them on the same routing a few days earlier and when we arrived at Philly we had to sit at the gate for about 15 minutes because there was no ground crew to bring the plane to the gate. I've seen this happen several times already this year. I imagine the loss in fuel and possibly missed connections must exceed whatever money they are saving on the salaries of those extra (too many) ground crew they laid off.

noROCclub

I flew from FLL-CLT-ROC last Wednesday. In CLT, the flight to ROC was delayed because of maintenance (they were working on the stabilizer - 737-300). After a 1 hour delay, the GA announced a gate change. When we got to the new gait, people were getting off of a 737-300 and within 20 minutes we were boarding. The flight was >95% full. I wonder where that plane was supposed to go?