I'd like to think that I'm enough of a guy to know when I am wrong about things. I know I have been constantly critical of legacy carriers and their approach to delays. And I have spent a fair amount of time venting on American. But last night, at DFW, I want to particularly compliment the all female crew of American 2370.
Yesterday in Chicago was horrible to say the least. Bad storms, hail and the like most of the day. In fact when I did get here I could not believe how much high water lay on the streets with all kinds of tree limbs blown there.
Obviously, when this happens, ORD will melt down. I had been checking flights into ORD all day long and AA had canceled many of their trips.
But my flight showed "on time" most of the day, and of course, you can't believe that. The FAA delay site showed average delays into ORD running anywhere from 2 hours to 3 and a half hours. The radar showed big cells over the city, and sweeping in from the west which of course is right on the arrival from DFW.
Finally AA posted a departure time of 8 pm (the flight was scheduled for 6:50 pm).
So we boarded and right away I could tell this crew was different. The captain constantly came on the PA and spoke to us in very human tones about the weather and what could end up happening to us; long tarmac delay, possible deviation. She was very frank and a refreshing difference.
Then a few minutes later, she came on and told us that the FAA had issued a 9:40 PM wheels up time for us and of course it was just 8:10 pm. We all groaned knowing that we were going to have to sit there for 90 minutes before even taking off. She continued to come on the PA and apologize.
Then something happened that I had not experienced in almost 30 years of air travel; our wheels up time was moved to 8:40 pm and the cockpit was told this at 8:35!
She came on again and shared the good news but said, to be honest, no matter how fast we pushed back, no matter how fast she tried to taxi, we would not be in position for take off in just 5 minutes.
But she worked like heck to pull it off. It did take longer than 5 minutes, but we taxied right out to the departure end of 18L and we were off.
We arrived in the gate at ORD only 1 hour and 30 minutes late which was truly a good ending to a potentially horrible situation.
And when we deplaned at ORD; I walked past literally hundreds of passengers trying to sleep out in the open on city-of-Chicago-owned cots.
For anyone who never flies, this is the one situation that I have tried to avoid for almost thirty years, and I have managed to do it.
I wanted to take a pic of this but out of respect for the dignity of the people who actually paid an airline in order to sleep on a cot out in the open, I simply did not.
But again, I was completely impressed with the professionalism of that cockpit and how they felt it was imporant to keep the customers informed.
I recall all those nights sitting in DFW on Delta metal undergoing the same kind of delays and the cockpit was completely silent.
Great job ladies!
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