The Mother Of All Debacles

[NoName]

Can anyone beat this? I'm sure someone can but this is worth venting over IMO.

Arrived at LAX on QF93 in F this morning. Great shower and relaxing breakfast at the F lounge before wandering over to terminal 4 for my 11:10am LAX-LAS flight. Can't see the flight on the board. When I ask I'm told it's going from terminal 6 (bording pass says T4). No issues, I could use the walk. Get to the gate and flight delayed to 12pm. No problem these things happen. Further delays to 12:30 then 2. The. Told there are mechanical issues and they "hope" to have a plane at the gate by 2. No problem I want to actually arrive safely. Presume they will require some time to clean and then board so assume maybe a 2:45 departure. No. Delayed to 2:30 then 3. Plane arrives just after 3 and we board immediately. 3:15 and they tell us they have loaded too much fuel to land safely in LAS. The reason: they thought the plane was flying to SEA. LOL. Stuck on the plane till 3:30 when we're told if they don't remove the required fuel by 3:50 then the crew will run out of hours. Pilots blame the FA's hours, FA's blame the pilots hours. Gets to 3:45 and it's obvious to me it's not going to happen. I'm up the back so I hop up and want to deplane to beat the masses to the rebooking process. Told to sit down as they should be able to leave in 5 min. 45 min later told the flight is cancelled. Hop off and run to a quite AA desk to avoid the crowd. Girl tells me she's booked me on the 5pm flight and I need sprint to T4 to make it. Sprint to T4 and do indeed make it with about 5min before scheduled gate close. Get to the front of the line and told no she has put me on the 7pm flight. Will the 7pm flight actually get me to LAS? Watch this space!

The positive: got to wander back to the F lounge for dinner. Calamari & the beef burger. Fantastic!


Update: 7pm flight now delayed to 7:32pm.


Correction: 7:32pm is the scheduled time. Chalk up being told the wrong time as an addition to the debacle.

 

[Quickstatus]

Thanks for your trip report.

Mods can this post be sent the the American Airlines Delays and Cancellations thread

AA has A319 that plies the LAX-LAS and others like LAX-SEA so it fits with your story. Apparently all the SEA flights were on schedule.

Sorry to hear about this. You were initially booked on AA1705 which was indeed cancelled. Then the 5pm AA1058 but was really shafted to AA2297. There is a 2200hrs AA1554 in case the 2297 goes belly up.

The situation you describe is not unusual with respect to the additional delay announcements - "another 5 min or another 30 min and we will take off". It makes for a very frustrating day. At least you had a bit of an oasis in the F Lounge

I wonder if a pilot can contribute an opinion regarding the "over fuelling" issue. The distance differential between SEA and LAS is perhaps 1-1.5 hours extra at cruise altitude. Which is the most fuel efficient aspect of the flight. Would this be enough to put the aircraft over max landing weight. I remember that Planes can land at above max landing weight, it's just how hard the plane contacts the aircraft.

As Melburnian1 suggests, the mark of a good airline is not only the safety record but how it recovers from situations like this and the manner in which it takes its misconnected passengers through to their intended destination.

Not the worst that I've been involved in and many would say non unusual either but irrespective of whether mine is bigger and badder than yours or vv, I've learnt over the years that each is very different because it affects passengers in their different and individual circumstances.


Looking forward to your update if possible!!!

 

[Buzzard]

That's quite a tale.

 

[Hvr]

Would've been quicker to drive LAX-LAS.

I feel for you and hope you get there soon.

 

[Deleted member]

I like your "silver lining" attitude.

 

[JessicaTam]

I am looking forward to the next instalment!

Good luck.

[thread moved to AA sub-forum]

 

[njba]

What a rough landing: from QF F to the best of AA. :| Well done for bearing it so stoically. I hope you had marinated previously in champagne to make this all bearable.

 

[straitman]

I wonder if a pilot can contribute an opinion regarding the "over fuelling" issue. The distance differential between SEA and LAS is perhaps 1-1.5 hours extra at cruise altitude. Which is the most fuel efficient aspect of the flight. Would this be enough to put the aircraft over max landing weight. I remember that Planes can land at above max landing weight, it's just how hard the plane contacts the aircraft.

Looking forward to your update if possible!!!

Nothing to comment on really. If the a/c was at or near landing weight for the SEA flight then it would obviously be overweight for the shorter leg.

Actually there is a little more.

LAS has an airfield elevation of 2205 ft with probable temps of 100 F and SEA an elevation of 433 ft with probable temps of 75 F which means the DA (see jb747's comments about DA) of LAS is going to be higher. This combined with available runway lengths may impose another limitation other than just the basic numbers.

 

[dajop]

Well there's a word that starts with cluster that would describe it .... Sounds like you've kept good spirits through the whole thing (what else can you do?).

Your comment about getting back to T4 about 5 mins before scheduled gate close , practically speaking being the US doesn't that mean you got to the gate about 10mins too late ? I guess if you were booked on the 5pm but didn't have a BP it does sound like you may have been trumped by others who were at the gate so they moved you again ....

 

[froggerADL]

[thread moved to AA sub-forum]

Thanks for not moving it to the Delays and Cancellations thread as requested. I never read them as they are often just whinges about 30 minute delays.

 

[cove]

NoName I always fly Delta to Salt Lake because AA out of LAX is a bit of a worry.
We drive next day to LAS as it can be quicker....typically 4.5 hours.

 

[Anna]

Am fervently hoping I don't have a tale to top this one after I land off QF93 in a couple of days, hoping to connect on AA (not to LAS though) I've already noticed that it's changed a few times whether my AA sector is departing from T4 or T6. And my AA flights are on a separate PNR but I'll have a checked bag :-| - if necessary I'm ready to remind QF at check in that the interline through-check doesn't end until next month on QF

 

[amaroo]

Classic PITA chain of events. The walk from T4 > T6 is uninspiring - particularly when you need to do it twice in a matter of hours.

 

[NoName]

Ended up getting to my hotel around 10:30pm so first day basically a write off. Was exhausted as you can imaging so just played a little dice ad ended up in bed not long after. Lesson learned and yes will give AA a miss out of LA in future. Hopefully the AA flight from SFO-ORD-YYZ next wed night goes a little smoother.

 

[docjames]

Prob would have been faster to go to Hertz and self-drive!

 

[BriarFlyer]

:shock: :shock: :shock:

So, I'm flying AA72 to LAX and then on to SEA. Should I choose an AS connection LAX-SEA rather than AA?

 

[cove]

You should be ok now that you have left LAX No Name. AA expanded a bit too quickly in Los Angeles when they merged with US Air.

 

[kempvet]

Not sure which FF you are with, but if AA try for mileage points compensation with a letter to the CEO, if not AA, then I suggest you do have an AA account in the future, I am sure that if you traveled F to LAX with another FF program AA would likely give you 10k miles as compensation.

 

[kempvet]

:shock: :shock: :shock:

So, I'm flying AA72 to LAX and then on to SEA. Should I choose an AS connection LAX-SEA rather than AA?

No, for this reason.
If AA72 is late (as often it can be), you may be dumped to the remote terminal which means that a connection on AS may be missed, plus it took almost 2 hours to get through Passport control last Tuesday when I landed on AA72, if you have purchased the cheapest fare, expect to lose the flight as I doubt that AS would take your AA72 into consideration, stick with AA and even though inconvenient, like the OP they will accommodate you no matter what for no extra cost

 

[BAM1748]

Good story and have a few similar of my own. Best one saw my arrival into Sydney two days later than scheduled from LAX using three different aircraft.