My dad just called and is stranded in Houston from the same storms. Not too fun.

Uh...doesn't AA use DFW as one of their hubs? Why are you stuck having to call the 800 number? I know it's kind of retro compared to fixing things online or over the phone, but you're in an airport—aren't there plenty of real live people around that should be working on getting everyone's travel unsnarled?

Once in Seattle with a snowstorm, I wondered why some airlines showed no delays on the departure screen while my flight was delayed. But as soon as it got closer to their departure time, they announced delays also.

If there are flights taking off, then be upset.

Watching the local DFW news and they had an interview from earlier in the day with a AA gate person. She said they were all told to go home for the night. So, I can only imagine that most, if not all AA employees at DFW are gone. AA said they cancelled all flights until midnight. Maybe a skeleton crew hanging around somewhere.....good luck Drew

@CaptZ: So, I can only imagine that most, if not all AA employees at DFW are gone.

That's some damn good planning there.

umm, shouldn't Drew be upset at Mother Nature? What is AA supposed to do about it?

this seems like more of a weather issues than an AA issue. Maybe consumerist should point out that there's not much the airlines can do about the weather.

I was delayed coming into Detroit late one evening and missed my connecting flight. Literally the second everyone had disembarked - WHILE WE WERE FORMING A LINE AT THE TICKET DESK to inquire about the next available flight, the employees up and left. There was NOBODY. Oh, and they claimed "weather" (it was the calmest flight I'd ever been on) was the reason we were delayed, so we had to pay our own hotel for the night as well.

Doesn't surprise me much that all airline employees would be checked out.

This is just another example of why Dallas is a dumb place to locate a major Airline hub as it is frequently subject to unstable weather from the regular collisions of the Canadian (cold) and Gulf of Mexico (warm) air masses.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I have to stop there next week on my trip to Costa Rica.

Wait... WHY, after your flight was delayed for 6 hours, did you not reroute through a different city withOUT weather delays? You flew yourself into the fire, as it were.

Also, out of the hundreds of humans at DFW who work for AA, you decide to call a number that only has so many lines and expect that it will go through every time even though you're one of thousands of passengers trying to call as well? Would you rather have a busy signal? (Wait, I'm sure you want AA to hire 10,000 more phone agents so you can speak to one).

The storm sucks, the cancellations suck... but those are the realities of air travel (especially when you fly headlong into a storm).

Yes, be done with AA... it frees up a seat for me.

(FYI - A quick search shows that all United flights are also canceled. I bet I know what I'll find if I spend the time to search the other airlines.)

Drew has every right to be upset with a company that takes his money and hangs-up when he calls.

Yes, Mother Nature is to blame for the weather. AA is to blame for FAILING on its customer service 'pledge.'What makes AA or, in my case, UA, believe they have the right to under-staff the telephone banks when bad weather occurs?

What gives the airlines (and the airports) the right to strand passengers on runways during weather-related delays? The airlines seem to believe they don't need to have backup plans because that would raise the price of tickets. WHO THE HELL operates a business that way? Seriously, I completely expect that my ticket price includes the cost of simple life-saving measures during weather-related delays.

For example, when bad weather strikes, where are the emergency cots that every airport should stock? Where are the emergency plows and buses to free passengers from being stranded on the tarmac for hours and/or overnight? Where are the backup telephone operators? Why do they have a telephone system that's overloaded? HOW IS IT that American Idol can accommodate 30 million phone votes every week but American Airlines can't handle their customers' call volume when, predictably, bad weather happens?

Yeah, blame Mother Nature.

I can understand that there is bad weather, and that flights were canceled. What I don't understand is why did they cancel all the flights for the rest of the day? It's not a snowstorm that going to dump a crapload of snow on the field. Certainly flights later in the day would be able to operate.

@petrarch1608: Provide a team of employees to deal with customers, provide information and rebook people? I don't think that is too much to ask.

... and not a word about this on their website.

@petrarch1608: Did you RTFA? He said he understands it's about weather, but he'd like to talk to an employee. Because you know if he misses the flight he's been rebooked on, AA is going to blame him. When there is am obvious reason for high call volume(storms), they need to start calling in more people to answer the phones.

@petrarch1608: mother nature didn't make AA not take his calls, just made them not fly any plains.

on the upside, DFW has to be one of the best airports to be stuck in. not much of an upside though...

@petrarch1608: This is crazy snarky. It is really clear that he wants to talk to someone about the next available flight. I don't understand the confusion.

Having just been royally screwed by AA on an international flight, I fell his pain.

jcapello: whinefest much?

@jcapello:
"What makes AA or, in my case, UA, believe they have the right to under-staff the telephone banks when bad weather occurs?"

What makes AA do this is its incompetent, unqualified management, that doesn't understand that this is exactly the kind of situation that NEEDS TO BE MANAGED by working with the people (customers) that make their paychecks possible.

Umm the weather here in Dallas is awful and is going to be all night, that is why they cancelled the flights. It's a very unstable airmass with microbursts embedded making it very dangerous for flights. Yeah AA should probably answer the phones, but with the dangerous flooding conditions in Dallas right now, it was a good decision to let employees go home safely before it gets dark.

@jcapello: Very well put!

As shitty as the not being able to contact anyone sounds, the weather here is insane. I can't say I blame them and it's probably not a constant recording, just a all lines are busy call back or something. Certainly he's not the only persona calling and to expect any company to have that many people staffed would be a little ridiculous.

But if they just turned off their customer service to not deal with it, that would be beyond bad. Seems very unlikely though.

Anyways, there isn't a damn thing any airline could do today. The monsoon turned to hail and I'd be much more pissed if they flew me in it rather than strand me.

Also apparently a database crashed at DFW airport, so all flights are cancelled due to that. Although the weather isn't letting up at all, other than for 5 minutes here and there.

Phone # working properly as of 7:25pm

Couple of things here. If you use a travel agent then you can call them instead of trying to call the airline 1-800 number. The travel agent can access your reservation on their computer and make any changes for you, and by the time you get to the head of the line, all the airline person has to do is hand you your new boarding passes.

To the poster who made the comment about "it's not like snow on the field and flights later in the day could operate", in theory, yes, but they may (probably)don't have the equipment there to operate later flights, because the planes were supposed to be coming in from somewhere else and didn't get there, because the flights were cancelled. Contrary to what many people think, airlines don't have spare planes sitting around, even at their hubs, that can go out at a moments notice. Even if they did, they have to get a crew there to operate the plane.

No, I don't work for an airline, but I am in the travel industry, and it really is a lot more complicated than most people think it is.

Can't get through to the 800#? Just call the Spanish 800#. 1-800-633-3711 We did this today at work for an employee who was flying to DFW today. Got right through after 1 ring. They answer in Spanish but all speak English once you start speaking English.

It's obviously his fault for expecting assistance in response to money taken and service not rendered...

(I kid)

woah looks like i'm gonna get my account banned again.

@jcapello: HOW IS IT that American Idol can accommodate 30 million phone votes every week but American Airlines can't handle their customers' call volume when, predictably, bad weather happens?

Nothing to do with the difference between talking to a computer and talking to a human being who needs to be paid.

What makes AA or, in my case, UA, believe they have the right to under-staff the telephone banks when bad weather occurs?

Yeah...someone at AA saw a huge storm heading for Dallas and decided to give half their phone reps the day off (roll)

They probably had the same number of staff as they always do to handle the calls coming in. They just got a larger spike than they generally would because of the sheer number of people affected (DFW is a hub, so this storm probably affected AA flights everywhere, not just out of Dallas).

I'm sure they were calling everyone they could think of to come in and work the phones once they realized what was happening.

But it's not like you can just grab people at random off the street, hand them a headset, and have them start taking calls.

If AA let their staff at DFW head home early just because they canceled all their flights, that's a bad decision worth railing against. Getting pissed off because their call center got overwhelmed by a freak storm isn't.

Wow...there's a lot of stupid in this thread.

@sourc3: "Oh, and they claimed "weather" (it was the calmest flight I'd ever been on)"

The weather causing the delay doesn't have to be at the airport you're landing at. If your connection will be flying into bad weather, there could be an ATC backup - planes have to have more spacing and time to land during bad weather. If there's bad weather at the origination of your connection, it could be delayed from taking off for the same reasons.

Drew wrote: "Meanwhile, I don't see any notice about any other airlines canceling all their flights."

Those other airlines don't route most of their daily flights through Dallas, where funnel clouds and hail have been reported all afternoon. Seriously - take the SkyLink around DFW. Count all the airplanes belonging to airlines other than American - not even 100, despite the 200+ gates at DFW's four main terminals.

"Why don't the phones work?"
LIkely because American contracts for a certain number of voice circuits from their telecom provider. When the number of calls to their Reservations number exceeds the number of contracted open circuits, those calls will be routed to IVR. On a day like today, when American is handling not only regular reservations calls, but also tens or possibly hundreds of thousands more calls than normal, this is perfectly normal and expected; they'e at least trying to help by providing you with an automated system when there is neither the hardware (circuits) or people to help you.

I don't expect people to know all the ins and outs of telecom or the airline business - but if you want to blame someone for bad service at the airlines, don't blame the employees. They've taken pay cut after pay cut and stayed on the job, dealing with cranky and sometimes unfair customers.

Blame the executives who take millions in bonuses while making flying a frustrating a la carte affair. The service you're paying for (a flight from a to b, possibly through c) has decreased in cost in real terms over the past ten years, despite the fact that the jet fuel costs over three times as much as it did in 2000.

American could have possibly done something to make your day a little better, but in the end, it comes down to a twenty thousand (or more) people on the ground at DFW, no safe way to operate aircraft on time, and dependencies (like landing slots and open gates at other airports) that can't be changed on a whim.

I usually defend AA but I must say, I've always been underwhelmed at how AA handles accommodations for people due to weather cancellations. I've had it happen to me more than once at various elite levels and every time they just sort of go home and leave you looking for hotels. It'd be nice if they at least stuck around at the airport for 90 minutes to help people find hotel rooms.

@Corydon: If AA let their staff at DFW head home early just because they canceled all their flights, that's a bad decision worth railing against. Getting pissed off because their call center got overwhelmed by a freak storm isn't.

I disagree. I have sympathy for anyone that had to work through those conditions and perhaps may have sent them home -- particularly since customer service calls can be handled at umpteen other venues (including overseas).

My problem with the airlines is that 'freak storms' aren't uncommon. Hurricanes, blizzards, tornadoes, monsoons, tidal waves, ice storms -- they happen all the time SOMEWHERE in the world. BAD WEATHER is no excuse for having a customer support telephone system that can't handle a spike in calls.

Look, I don't pretend to know how to run an airline, but surely there are ways to have standby Customer Service reps for emergency circumstances. What about part-timers working from home? How about former employees willing to work piecemeal? How about call centers in other time zones? How about a telephone queue that doesn't hang up on customers? How about redirecting agents from new reservations for an hour until the stranded customers can get help? At the airport itself, why not send some of those front-desk ticket agents back to the concourses to assist with the chaos?

I'm always amused when a storm hits Denver and United has, say, two people staffing the 8 stations at their Customer Service counter where 200 people are lined-up. Doesn't United employ hundreds of people at that airport? Are you telling me that NONE of them are capable of staffing Customer Service during an emergency? And don't look for those ubiquitous Customer Service telephones for assistance during an emergency. They, too, disconnect you when the airline is deluged with calls from customers they've stranded.

My advice nowadays? Find a comfortable seat near a power outlet because your cellphone battery is sure to go dead while you're trying to get through to the airline.

@CaliforniaCajun:

Darn well done.

The help-the-customer-after-taking-their-money division isn't as advanced as the money-taking division. Try calling the money-taking division.

As someone who just drove through this crap to get to work, I can attest that it's nothing any sane person would want to be driving through. (The prosecution rests, your honor)

AA has its main reservation center just off FAA Blvd near Dallas/Fort Worth International. The two main highways near there--State Highways 114 and 183--are FLOODED. 183 is down to one lane in a lot of spots, and 114 is closed according to local radio traffic reports. Highways all over the Metroplex are shut down due to wrecks or simple water.

From experience and knowledge, AA has reservations centers in other locations, but none overseas from what I am told. However, the size of these centers pales in comparison to the main center here in Dallas. Would you be willing to shoulder the cost of two equally-sized reservation centers just for the 1/12th of the year when AA's main hub gets smacked around?

Yes, lack of communication is frustrating, especially when you're stuck in a 70s-era airport with limited entertainment and located in the smack middle of nowhere (by intention), comparatively speaking. On the other hand, sure is nice that DFW Airport is usually on time with limited ground delays--compared to, say, JFK or LGA--and ample parking the remainder of the year, isn't it?

Why not walk to Atlanta's Hartsfield airport?

A little-known but handy factiod, if you walk far enough down Atlanta's concourse D, you will suddenly
find yourself in DWF's Terminal E, just past gate E38.

Go ahead, call me crazy, but try it, you'll like it.

Mother nature FTW!

@jcapello: Feel entitled much?

You are wondering where the free cots, backup reservations center (the main one is in Dallas, and they likely sent the employees home so they could actually get home to do things like take care of their kids, which they can't do if it isn't safe to leave the airport), emergency plows, extra buses, and tens of thousands of phone lines are?

Here's a hint: Those things are expensive. If you want those things, they most certainly can be included in your ticket price, if you don't mind that ticket price going up. Over and over, the American public has shown themselves to be tolerant of lousy service, because they want to pay the absolute lowest for a ticket.

If you're ever stuck in D/FW, head to terminal D (the newest terminal) - lots of room, plenty of food options. AA has plenty of room to improve, but I'm finding it hard to get really mad at them when their biggest hub (AA is in 4 terminals & approx. 110 gates) is shut down by weather, completely wrecking the schedule NATIONWIDE. I would think bringing in a couple extra shifts to work the phones would barely put a dent in the number of reservations they have to change.

Sounds like AA needs to due some call routing management or at least hire a few more CS agents.

@wesmills: Well, it's a shame that there are no other suitable locations for call centers other than Dallas.

@IceTrojan: You try changing your flight plans without getting bent over by the airline. THAT's why it didn't happen, I bet. And you can still wind up screwed by this kind of thing out of the blue too. How do you know he knew this was happening.

as a pilot, i say get over it. You really want to fly in unsafe weather? Not with me.

@jcf70816: Do travel agents routinely stay late in their offices so they can answer angry calls from passengers at say 7:25 PM? Seriously, it's been so long since I've used a travel agent that it would be nice to know if you can count on them outside of regular business hours in a case like this.

I also think that no matter how crappy the weather was outside the airport and making it hard for AA employees to get home, you would think that it being an AA hub full of passengers who are going to need to get somewhere, sometime, that there would at least a few AA employees left on duty through the night to try to start the process of rebooking the stranded passengers a little bit earlier than making them all stand in a huge line first thing in the morning. No, I take that back, that's too much to ask, too sensible.

@pshifrin Keep that under your hat. If "everyone" knows it won't work as well for you and I in the future. Also as an added benefit you don't get a Mumbai accent from an outsourced call center.

@jcapello: "If AA let their staff at DFW head home early just because they canceled all their flights, that's a bad decision worth railing against. "

God forbid those AA workers at DFW get to leave their jobs early when flooding is prevalent and they may not be able to leave later.

I mean, hell. Let their kids wonder where mom and dad are while thunderstorms, hail and funnel clouds pound the DFW area. Mom and dad might have some customers to asuage at the airport, after all.

More proof that people these days think first and foremost about themselves.

@doctor_cos: "Well, it's a shame that there are no other suitable locations for call centers other than Dallas."

Yes, damn American Airlines to hell for wanting to employ local people at decent jobs. They should farm all that help over to India so that we can all bitch and moan about it even more.

You want customer service? Then get ready to pay a thousand dollars for an advance purchase nonrefundable coach class ticket for a cross country ticket.

Because the cost of jet fuel is sky high and you're still paying 1999 prices for tickets. Reality enters the equation when you suddenly realize that the airlines have cut their employees' pay several times and don't offer the service you think they used to.

@coddat: I was just going to say the same thing-- it was probably a decision on the part of the DFW station management to allow their employees the opportunity to go home early, before it got too late and they, too, were stranded at the airport...

While I have plenty of negative things to say about the airlines and the way they treat both their employees and their passengers, allowing people to leave early and close when there is inclement weather is a good thing-- a kind gesture on the part of AA.

I'm sure there's still some AA employees floating around there at the airport somewhere, and chances are this guy has already been rebooked on another flight but just doesn't know it yet...

Things happen-- storms happen, flights get cancelled. It doesn't really seem like AA didn't anything wrong here and that all of the airlines are having the same problem. It sucks to be stranded in Dallas with no idea when you're going to leave, but this is just one of those things that you can't predict and that isn't really anyone's fault.

I think somebody got its facts wrong. The employees who left early were not the ones in answering the phone calls but the ones in the ramp. Thunders and funnel clouds are sometimes the reason of why operations are stopped and no plane can join/leave from the gates ( they need the wing walkers and bag loaders to do the work you know...)

Another little fact being ignored is that one of the control towers got evacuated because of fears of a tornado.

So what is it now? AA needs to have robots working the ramp and the tower control. Most likely somebody is going to complain because they are putting people out of their job... yadda yadda

American Airlines, there's something special in the ground!