ibrandsguest

I'm generally happy with US Airways and think that the airline did well in a rough situation with difficult weather conditions at CLT yesterday, causing a lot of delays. But:

(1) Why aren't delays more accurately and more promptly communicated? I was on a flight that ended up being delayed over 3 hours because the inbound airplane was delayed. The flight showed as being "on time" until just before it was to board. If the inbound plane hadn't even left yet when it was time for my flight to board, why aren't delays like this indicated sooner? And if the inbound plane hadn't even left yet (for a 2+-hour flight), why was my flight shown with just an hour delay at first, when there was no way it could be delayed less than 2+ hours due to the inbound plane's delays?

(2) Why aren't gates used more efficiently? D11 and D13 had multiple flights leaving from them, all at times close to one another, which could have caused delays, while other gates in the D concourse were empty. Why?

(3) One flight was delayed for a long while, and then the final reason given was that there were not enough flight attendants, and so apparently a flight attendant had to be called into work. It took the poor person apparently 15 minutes to get to the airport. Why weren't flight attendants called into work earlier? (Yes, I know that the crew probably timed out due to the ever-increasing delays, but this was foreseeable later on in the night.)

(4) I don't care if my 1am flight is catered. I don't recall even being offered any food/drinks (in FC), which was fine, but catering adds some time to the process.

Thanks.

LowlyDLsilver

As far as (1) goes - If you're at a hub airport, it is very possible they could swap in a different aircraft and let the original one do a different flight when it does arrive - so delays outbound from a hub are not cast in stone. If you're at an outstation - and your plane hasn't left the hub - well, you know how that story ends.

Also, on 1, it is best to keep your own eye on your flights using flightaware or others like it. Tracking aircraft coming into an outstation is easy - but at a hub you'll have to ask someone what your inbound's flight number is. Then - unless they swap in a plane, you'll often know better than the GA's when you're REALLY going to leave. Also, if you know ahead of time that a connection is never going to work - you may have options that the people who only watch the tube at the airport won't have.

sbbutler93

Too bad US doesn't make it quite as easy as Delta on FlightAware...Delta flights have a track inbound flight option!

As to point three, there's no telling what could have happened. They were probably completely bombarded with timing outs happening left and right.