Better Late Than Never?

We're American Airlines, doing what we do best..

Sadly, "what we do best" doesn't seem to have much if anything to do with on time arrivals. Case in point. Today I traveled from San Jose to New York via Dallas. The flight from San Jose to Dallas was fine - we left on time and even arrived a few minutes early.

The flight from Dallas to New York was not so good. The flight, as is frequently the case, was oversold - they were offering up to $300 to take a later flight. Hindsight being what it may, I should have jumped at that offer.

The flight was scheduled to depart at 3:30pm. At 3:00pm we started boarding. At 3:30, we were still boarding - the usual problems - lots of people bringing everything they own with them and checking none of it (given the lack of speed in the baggage area in NY, they made the right decision), people crowding around the entry to the gate well before their rows have been called (what is it about "boarding" that causes people to forget how numbers work - group 1 first, then group2 etc?) and so on..

At 3:45pm, the pilot came on and said we were delayed for a few minutes for a maintenance issue. About the same time, a deadheading crew member got up and told the pilot he was going to take a different flight - one departing at 4:30. He clearly knew something that the rest of us didn't - a 4:30pm flight wouldn't be departing for 45 minutes - did know we would be there for at least that long? And wouldn't be be great if our pilot knew how long repairs would take and was honest with us and told us we were there for the duration!

A few minutes later, the pilot came on again and said the maintenance would take at least 30 minutes. Then, out of nowhere, a gate agent came on and asked us to deplane - complete with belongings. Given that it took an hour to get everyone on the plane, this seemed like a pretty stupid idea if the work was only going to take 30 minutes. I guess that's why I don't work for an airline - I tend to "think" occasionally.

Thirty minutes later we reboarded. For the next 30 minutes in fact - I'm proud of my fellow passengers - they cut their boarding time in half - no doubt because everyone knew exactly what fit in what space - maybe there's an idea here - use some software to analyze carry-on bags and figure out where they'll best fit in the overhead baggage area.

I think we finally took off a little after 5pm - not bad really, an hour and a half late. Three hour and thirty minute flight an hour and a half late? I wonder if the the airline ever considered a frequent sitter program to go along with their frequent flier program?

We made it to the NY area, and the pilot, not wanting to get anything right, announced that our slot was gone (I think it was gone two hours earlier) so we'd have to circle for a bit. And circle we did, but not for too long. We landed, taxied to the gate, but apparently took the gate crew by surprise because they were nowhere to be found so we sat on the ground for another ten minutes waiting for them to come so we could get off the plane.

They came, we deplaned, but they left, forgetting to offload our baggage. Another 30ish minutes later, that finally arrived.

After this, I'm left wondering what they did best. Ok, the plane stayed in the air, that's definitely a noteworthy plus. But getting into the air was obviously problematic, and once there, they didn't seem to want to land.. It's almost as if they decided "these passengers, they are good people, let's hang on to them."