So, if the airline is delayed what responsiblity do they have?

[disneysnowflake]

I'm wondering what airlines are responsible for when a flight is delayed due to no crew?

We came home last week. ME picked us up at 5am. We were through screening and sitting in the USAir boarding location at 5:45am for our 8am flight.
At 7:30 some folks from USAir made an announcement that they had no crew, so our flight was delayed until 9:45am.

Our flight was to arrived originally at 10:15am, and now would land at noon.

Then at 9:45 we were told the flight wouldn't leave until 10:15am and would arrive around 12:30pm. Our connecting flight was to leave at 12:25.

There was a family who was heading home. Those poor people had a connecting flight departing at 11am. The other 2 flights were sold out. There was no way they would make a connecting flight. Since we originally were scheduled to land at 10:15, there was plenty of time for them to catch their connecting flight, but no anymore.

The family was very upset. They were basically told too bad. US Air reps told the family that they are not responsible to get this family anywhere. The older woman traveling with them was crying. The US Air man told the lady to stop crying because there was no reason to get so upset. She then stuck her fingers in her ears. The US Air rep then freaked out saying she was rude and refused to do anything else for the family. They wouldn't speak to the family and wouldn't allow the family to approach the check in desk.

I don't fly that much. I'm wondering what responsibility the airline has when they are delayed due to no crew?

But, guess what? Our flight landed at 12:25, about 2-1/2 hours late. Our connecting flight was scheduled to leave at 12:25. Of course, our connection was on the other side of the airport. We arrived for the connecting flight to be told too late for us.
That wasn't true. We got on our connecting flight. Why? That flight for US Air had no crew, either. They then quickly got a crew, and we got home.

All in all we were only 30 minutes late from our original final destination landing time. Our luggage didn't make it, but we did. Whew. We were really scared of being stuck since that was also the only flight leaving that day for our final destination.

If you are on a flight that is delayed due to no crew, then what rights do you have when you don't make your connecting flight? What if there are no other flights that day? Is the airline required to help you?

I'm just wondering. There were a lot of unhappy people on our flight.

I was very nice and polite to the airline rep. They moved us from row 24 seats to row 5 seats instead to help us get to our location faster for our connection. I just felt bad for that other family. I hope all 7 of them made it home okay.

 

[seashoreCM]

Flight delays and cancellations.

Normally the airline's only obligation is to eventually honor the ticket if seats are available on a later flight, or to refund your fare at your request.

You may contend that the airline may not deny you an unsold seat simply because more than enough seats at your fare level on that plane have already been sold, and the airline probably won't argue strenuously otherwise.

Different airlines have different additional passenger benefits for missed connections, such as a hotel room if the next flight is the next day. A few airlines will put you on a different airline's flight and this is easier to accomplish if you picked out the flight you wanted.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[safetymom]

I suggest you asking that question on Flyer Talk. www.flyertalk.com

Go to the website, then miles and points, then go to the USAirways forum. You will get lots of information so you can be better prepared the next time it happens.

 

[Servants of Evan]

For a delay of only two and a half hours, I don't think you're entitled to anything. If it's over four hours, I think you can get a meal chit worth a whopping $6. It's only when an overnight is involved that it can get expensive for them (and it's not that expensive, really).

Servants of Evan

 

[DebbieB]

I was 3 1/2 hours delayed on a NW flight in June, I got an apology letter and 1,000 bonus miles.

 

[Aliki]

Airline companies don't have to do much to compensate passengers if your flight is delayed 1-4 hours.

More than that, they'll normally compensate you a meal, which is a $5 meal voucher to McDs or something.

If it's overnight, sometimes they'll comp you a room, sometimes they wont.

I once got stranded at LAX on Christmas Eve because my flight was delayed 3 hours, they hit turbulence and trans-pacific flight took another 2 extra hours, resulting in me being 5 hours late for my connection.

I spent Xmas Eve overnight at LAX, with NO ROOM COMPENSATION and just a $5 voucher to McD.

 

[beattyfamily]

Just wanted to share that on our flight down to Orlando from Boston with Jetblue on Sept 29, 2005, it was delayed 3 hours because of a wind storm and they were so nice to us. They brought out crayons and coloring books and paper for all kids, then they announced they had pizza and snacks and drinks for everyone. I thought it was a nice tough. It made the long delay not so bad. GREAT customer service.

 

[POB14]

From the DOT website:

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.​

So it's up to the airline what they do.

 

[vossjemi]

I had a similar situation with Northwest. Thank goodness we booked our air for our cruise a day early. As it was a horrible horrible day and I don't really want to relive it, I won't bore you with all the details. Suffice it to say we were at the airport at 5am and finally made it to Miami around 9:30pm, but our luggage was in New Orleans. We spent another hour and half at the airport filing a lost baggage claim. Finally got checked into hotel around midnight when we were supposed to be there at noon.

Only thing open in Bayside Marketplace across from hotel was Hooters, so ate there at midnight. Got back to room and had calls to place to verify luggage info and to file claim w/travel ins just in case luggage didn't make it. Got to bed around 3am. Luggage was supposed to arrive around 8:30 am via American Airlines. Since NOrthwest couldn't get us to Miami that day with all their problems, American was the newly rescheduled last leg of our flight, and apparently its up to the last carrier to find your luggage. Airport said it could be delivered to hotel, but no guarantees as to time....could be after 4pm. Cruise departed at 5pm, so not taking any chances and got up early and went to airport and picked up luggage ourselves.

Luckily we had our toiletry bags with us and a change of clothes which got us through the night. However, we did incur some expenses. Food/drink at airport (which Northwest gave us a voucher for, but wasn't enough to cover the bill), taxi fare from hotel to airport and back to hotel next morning to get luggage finally arriving from New Orleans, and Hooters meal (which I really didn't expect reimbursement for). Northwest denied our claim to reimburse us anything (I would have thought the taxi fares at least), but gave us double the miles (like I'd fly with them again). Our travel insurance (CSA) reimbursed us for everything, including the Hooters meal, but only after I explained all details in a written ltr. At first, they wanted to deny it because we landed in Miami less than 12 hours after our scheduled take off at home. It took almost the first 2 days of the cruise to finally catch up on sleep and relax.

I'm soooo glad that is over. Now, I try to schedule direct connections whenever I can.

 

[georgina]

If you are on a flight that is delayed due to no crew, then what rights do you have when you don't make your connecting flight? What if there are no other flights that day? Is the airline required to help you?

You have no rights. They don't have to give you anything. I discovered that when Delta stranded us in LA for an entire day (equipment problems) and then in Atlanta for half a day (had to fly standby). When I complained after we finally got home, they sent us $50 vouchers for a future flight, which went unused because I refuse to fly them ever again. Most of the reps we spoke with were extremely unhelpful too.

 

[beccasmom]

As much as I dislike saying this, the airlines do not always give customers “full disclosure” with regards to why a flight is cancelled or late. It is much like “real life” where the worker bees do not know the whole story. I’m not saying it is necessarily intentional, but it does happen.

Some family members were in Dallas over the weekend to attend a christening (my brother is a clergyman and was performing the ceremony). Their original flight back home to Philly Monday evening was to have left Dallas at 7:45 p.m. and arrived in Philly around 10:00 p.m. It was running late due to lack of a crew coming from Pittsburgh. More specifically, the plane ran into maintenance issues and the crew from Pittsburgh could not get to Dallas. They eventually cancelled the flight at around 7:00 p.m. and paid for both a hotel room and dinner and shuttled them back DFW the next morning. A pain in the neck, to be sure, but there were no other alternatives but to stay in Dallas an extra night.

Sometimes airlines will endorse their tickets to another airline – for example, American is the dominant carrier in Dallas. But that is only if room is available and as this was the weekend that the Cowboys played the Eagles (and a federal holiday weekend to boot), plenty of Philly fans were in town. Space was at a premimum.

My understanding of what airlines “have” to do in such situations is spotty. I believe that if the delay is caused by weather, they are not bound by any hard and fast guidelines (except for their corporate conscience). In the case of maintenance issues or lack of a crew, that probably falls into somewhat of a gray area. I’ve certainly sat on a runway while a plane was undergoing “maintenance” for hours on end and/or waited for a crew to arrive from another location. Neither is fun, but might be preferable to being stuck in an airport all night. Flying today is stressful and missing a connection just makes it worse. I have found USAirways to have a mixed assortment of associates – some are exceptionally accommodating and helpful. Others are barely civil and treat customers as if they’re doing them a favor. I wouldn’t hold my job five seconds if I treated people that way. Job stress or not, it’s unconscionable behavior.

Anyway, I will stop ranting. Here is USAirways Terms of Transporation document – it makes for somewhat enlightening – if lengthy– reading.

http://www.usairways.com/customers/travel_policies/terms/terms.htm

 

[safetymom]

I just got back from Boston where they were having problems with the radar. Many flights were delayed at least 4 hours or more. Some flights were cancelled. The airport was full of people camped out on the floor waiting for flights.

 

[michellex2]

Legally, my understanding is that the airlines are not required to do anything. As difficult as it can be, I think that the best results occur when simply asking the agent for help with whatever your situation is, and dealing with complaints after you're home, rather than combining the two. I ran into a lengthy flight delay situation that meant that we missed our connecting flight. I was traveling with my frail, elderly mother in a wheelchair, and due to needing to manage the chair, had very light carry on luggage (i.e. no change of clothes, toiletries, etc.) Plus we had fragile, refrigerated medicine that she used. When I explained the situation to the gate person, they managed to snag our luggage, so I could retreive some items, got us an ice chest for the meds, a voucher for a room at an airport hotel (where they'd called ahead to insure the room was handicapped accessible) and dinner and breakfast vouchers at the hotel, a shuttle from the hotel to the gate, plus when we got on the flight the next morning, we had first class seats. I was pretty impressed. (The airline was Delta.)

 

[NeverlandClub23]

I don't think they have any responsibility. We flew from Philadelphia to Puerto Rico last September and sat on the plane for four and a half hours on the ground waiting to take off due to re-fueling and "mechanical problems". Anyways, by the time we got to Puerto Rico we missed our flight to St. Croix by three hours and there were no more flights until the next morning but hey the airline (or airport) gave us a "discounted" hotel room at $39 a night! What a deal! We were only there for four days and we spent practically a whole day flying so I was not looking forward to flying back. But we had almost no problems flying back. I mean besides a carton of cigarettes stolen out of my boyfriend's luggage and two bottles of rum stolen out of mine (that's ok I still had 5 more )