American airline troubles

[scubaNYC16]

UGH. American is my last choice but has good nonstop flight from NYC to Cabo for Socorro when I booked. I thought their issues were improving and this makes me nervous but the articles refer to high winds in Dallas which is their hub.

 

[archman]

American has a major hub in Dallas. The winds were so bad over the weekend that only 2 (of 5) runways were operating at times. This put a severe backlog on American's ability to move planes in/out, and also move flight crews in/out.

 

[donhealy]

Well, I was lucky. Our Saturday 3:04pm flight from Belize City to DFW was cancelled at 9:00am. I was on the phone immediately as they had re-booked me for Sunday. I had only a 15 minute wait on the AA Platinum line and was able to re-book the 12:30pm flight in coach. There were at least 25 other folks transferred as well. Thanks goodness for that as I had a very bad feeling about Sunday also being cancelled.

 

[kmarks]

Saturday, October 30, the CZM airport was quite full.

The setup

• Saturday seemed to have had the week's only nonstop flights to
  • DEN, ORD, CLT
• AA canceled one of two flights to DFW
  • the early of the two, 1:08 PM departure
• AA's flight to/from CLT ~3 hours late

And everyone wanted to go home - those with connections in DFW and CLT were unhappy. AA's cancellations in DFW and CLT didn't help.

The check-in lines filled the lobby area - more of a scrum than organized lines

Folks unloaded on the agents for the delays. AA's lines moved slowly.

Delayed travelers spilled over to UA check-in lines as they rebooked on UA.

The security line crawled along

Meanwhile, the immigration area was beset with delays as flights arrived in close order.

AA followed up the Saturday situation by canceling #1256 to DFW on Sunday

Our Saturday trip to DEN - on time. DEN to EGE - no crew for the Saturday night connection, flight delayed to Sunday AM.

The good news? More service on AA and UA to CZM in November.

Me? I think the next trip will be midweek in and out - fewer folks to contend with.

For a second I thought I might be in that picture. That was the most crowded I had ever seen CZM and the check-in lines were an absolute mess. They had two agents available to work everyone through.

Our flight to CZM was much worse, though. On the 23rd, we were supposed to flight out of CID, but for some reason American Eagle didn't have an operational de-icer truck so all the other airlines were flighting out with no issues with the light frost, but everything AA/AE was delayed up to 3 hours and they offered no compensation because they claimed it was weather and not equipment related. We missed our connection in DFW, didn't make standby for the next flight to CUN, but ended up on a flight to CUN at 7. That one, too, was delayed by 3 hours due to a malfunctioning air handler. We had to fly at 25,000 feet because they only one one working air handler (out of two) and couldn't pressurize the cabin enough. We made it to PDC at 1:30 am Sunday, got a couple hours of sleep, took the ferry across at 8, and managed to make our first scheduled dive at 9:30.

Extra stress, I was the trip director and had to do certification dives with one of my travelers. Had we not made it on Sunday morning, he wouldn't have been able to dive until I got there.

I was really disappointed with the immigration in DFW that day. I was really looking forward to using my new Global Entry card and it didn't save me any time at all. I've never seen 0 minute wait times across all lines. Where was everybody?

AA wasn't the only airline to be weird on Saturday, though. My wife was flying with our kids, coming home from a trip to Austin. She was on UA and was supposed to go through ORD, but they told her at check-in that she was now going through DEN with a 4 hour layover (actually kind of nice since she had a 4- and 2-year old with her). But then they printed her boarding passes and they were all in middle seats spread across the plane.

 

[ggunn]

I hope to not have to fly anywhere for quite a while.

 

[jonhall]

Flew Southwest to Sedona a couple of weeks ago - they only made one change prior to trip 2 ½ months before trip - changed our non-stop return trip into one with a connecting flight. I had to call to tell them I wanted a different non-stop they offered.

Next up is Coz at end of month with AA, Cabo in Jan. with Delta, and Bahamas in spring with AA. All three of those have had changes so far in the flight itinerary. Delta is the only one with a big difference, and one that I again had to find the alternative myself to change the flight to.

The trip I’m on right now (making up for lost time) is the only one with no changes - I’m driving!!

I’m thinking by the end of Nov., flying to and from Coz through Dallas with AA will be smooth sailing!!

 

[flyboy08]

Couple of guys have been waiting for their scuba gear from AA for three days now…their bummed out on CZM….

 

[mediumone]

Couple of guys have been waiting for their scuba gear from AA for three days now…their bummed out on CZM….

They're jackasses - from Doug Parker on down.

 

[flyboy08]

They're jackasses - from Doug Parker on down.

I used up alll my AA miles last month on Europe tickets…so happy I’m done with AA…I’d rather walk.

 

[matthewjen]

we just got the bad news from American about our upcoming January trip, to many crazy changes to stomach. from multiple days/layovers to forced bag drags. we are going to give Volaris a shot. wish us luck!