Help with canceled Airtran flight

[kathylovesdisneyworl]

On 9/1 we were due to fly out of Phila on AirTran. Our flight was canceled due to the fact that they did not have a plane to fly us on. We ended up flying out with a US Air flight. After a rather heated discussion with AirTran I was finally able to get them to refund the airfair due to the fact that they did not have a plane to fly us on. I sent out a email to question why there was not compensation for the canceled flight, they responded that our flight was canceled due to Ernesto. My question is this, if they can't get a plane to Phila due to a storm in another part of the country is this flights cancelation still considered weather related. I don't see why it is but I don't won't to continue to press the issue with them if this is the case. What do you flying experts think?

 

[Hope73]

I am sorry for the upset you went through. I would think you should have gotten your money back and they may have booked you on another airline.

 

[ducklite]

Just because the sky was blue in Philly doesn't mean that a plane wasn't grounded in another part of the country. It's not like every flight has a dedicated plane that sits at the gate waiting to go. They come in from other areas, and at times do get stuck in those areas due to bad weather.

You got to where you were going, and they gave you your airfare back. Why on earth do you think they owe you another cent?

Anne

 

[RachelEllen]

Yes, when there is a chain of events leading to the delay, the airlines considers the first event in the chain the 'cause.' So if weather delays a plane from A to B and you are late from getting from B to C, it's still because of the weather.
Or if the weather caused a 30 minutes delay, than you had to wait ten minutes to get to your gate because you missed your slot, the delay is due to weather. Even if you miss your connection by 5 minutes.

 

[ducklite]

BTW--I flew through PHL on 9/1, and there were a LOT of flights cancelled and seriously delayed. I was chatting with a gate agent about how lucky I was that it looked (fingers crossed) like mine was going to take off on time. She said it was one of the few all day. The weather in the Carolina's and VA was terrible, I could see the storm as we flew over it from Orlando, and it wasn't a very pleasant flight.

Anne

 

[kathylovesdisneyworl]

Just because the sky was blue in Philly doesn't mean that a plane wasn't grounded in another part of the country. It's not like every flight has a dedicated plane that sits at the gate waiting to go. They come in from other areas, and at times do get stuck in those areas due to bad weather.

You got to where you were going, and they gave you your airfare back. Why on earth do you think they owe you another cent?

Anne

Did you bother to read my question? I asked if the plane was not available due to a problem in another city was it still considered weather related for me. You gave me my answer, not very nicely but you did answer it.

 

[kathylovesdisneyworl]

Yes, when there is a chain of events leading to the delay, the airlines considers the first event in the chain the 'cause.' So if weather delays a plane from A to B and you are late from getting from B to C, it's still because of the weather.
Or if the weather caused a 30 minutes delay, than you had to wait ten minutes to get to your gate because you missed your slot, the delay is due to weather. Even if you miss your connection by 5 minutes.

Thanks for your response. I knew if the problem was due to weather at the airport you were flying in to or out of this was the case. I didn't realize it included any airport any where else in the country.

 

[bavaria]

On 9/1 we were due to fly out of Phila on AirTran. Our flight was canceled due to the fact that they did not have a plane to fly us on. We ended up flying out with a US Air flight. After a rather heated discussion with AirTran I was finally able to get them to refund the airfair due to the fact that they did not have a plane to fly us on. I sent out a email to question why there was not compensation for the canceled flight, they responded that our flight was canceled due to Ernesto. My question is this, if they can't get a plane to Phila due to a storm in another part of the country is this flights cancelation still considered weather related. I don't see why it is but I don't won't to continue to press the issue with them if this is the case. What do you flying experts think?

Several years ago airlines stopped giving any compensation for weather delays, including hotel accomodation if it resulted in an overnight delay. There was a poster here some time ago who was trying to get 'compensation' from AirTrain due to a weather delay which resulted in an overnight hotel stay. I posted the contract of carriage for AirTran, which indeed showed that they do not compensate for weather.

If I read your post correctly, AirTran did manage to transport you by 'interlining' with USAir (I didn't know that AirTran does interline - SW does not have a reciprocal agreement with other airlines, for instance). If in fact you ended up buying a ticket out of pocket on USAir and chose not to fly AirTran when a flight became available, then AirTran would be reasonable but not required to refund your flight (based on the fare rules)

The previous poster is correct that it is considered a weather delay, regardless of where the weather issue occured. (and sadly, you'll most likely here weather delay over any other kind of delay ie mechanical since airlines don't need to provide hotel accommodation etc for weather delays)

 

[kathylovesdisneyworl]

Several years ago airlines stopped giving any compensation for weather delays, including hotel accomodation if it resulted in an overnight delay. There was a poster here some time ago who was trying to get 'compensation' from AirTrain due to a weather delay which resulted in an overnight hotel stay. I posted the contract of carriage for AirTran, which indeed showed that they do not compensate for weather.

If I read your post correctly, AirTran did manage to transport you by 'interlining' with USAir (I didn't know that AirTran does interline - SW does not have a reciprocal agreement with other airlines, for instance). If in fact you ended up buying a ticket out of pocket on USAir and chose not to fly AirTran when a flight became available, then AirTran would be reasonable but not required to refund your flight (based on the fare rules)

The previous poster is correct that it is considered a weather delay, regardless of where the weather issue occured. (and sadly, you'll most likely here weather delay over any other kind of delay ie mechanical since airlines don't need to provide hotel accommodation etc for weather delays)

We purchased our own flights down, Air tran really just told everyone there that they would not be flying out that day since there was not a plane to put us on. The other flights to MCO were full so they told us all to be back in the morning for an 11:00 flight. For us that just didn't work so we decided to buy new airfare and fly out with US Air. They never told us why there was not a plane for us to fly down on just that we wouldn't be flying. When I talked to the supervisor at Airtran that night about the refund he told me after checking into the problem that our flight was not canceled due to weather. I have no idea what really happened and I guess I never will.

2 years ago I had a flight with Airtran canceled due to mechanical problems. They issued a $25 voucher for future travel and put us all on other flights out.I thought that they might give us all the voucher this time but really didn't expect anything else.

 

[bavaria]

Honestly, then I would say that you are lucky to have managed to get a flight to MCO (hopefully not for too much more $$$) and a refund from AirTran. You could still push the issue - I don't think that anyone thought that other poster I referenced was going to get compensation, but she gladly came back and proved us all wrong! I think that she got something like $50 or $75 in vouchers for future travel (which usually have a number of restrictions)

 

[CarolA]

Did you bother to read my question? I asked if the plane was not available due to a problem in another city was it still considered weather related for me. You gave me my answer, not very nicely but you did answer it.

Yes, it's weather related and you are due nothing.....

This is common in the winter where the plane is stuck in the snow in the NE or West and in the summer its hurricanes or thunderstorms in the south....

 

[kathylovesdisneyworl]

Honestly, then I would say that you are lucky to have managed to get a flight to MCO (hopefully not for too much more $$$) and a refund from AirTran. You could still push the issue - I don't think that anyone thought that other poster I referenced was going to get compensation, but she gladly came back and proved us all wrong! I think that she got something like $50 or $75 in vouchers for future travel (which usually have a number of restrictions)

We were really surprised that we were able to get a flight out, it cost us $100 per ticket more but we really needed to get there. I just was checking to see if we had any recourse which I gather we do not. Thanks for the info.