It seems like they needed to get a plane to London anyway--it wasn't an unnecessary trip, those five people just got lucky.

At least they weren't stranded at the airport with nothing but a silly voucher for "Quality Inn". My god, whenever a company name includes the word "quality" you know you're in for a treat. Thanks US Airways and Quality Inn for a memorable stay in Charlotte! No I'm not still bitter!

of course "my kind of of customer service" is winning. why do i keep reading the reader imput when it just makes me angry and depressed?

I'm sure we would bitch regardless of the outcome.

@sir_eccles: way to turn this whole thing around and make it about you. Someday when your a big boy you can have your own article posted on Consumerist. Until then stay relevant to the OP.

It is true that the plane needed to be moved to London. If they did not make this flight there would have been 275 passengers stranded in London that AA would have had to deal with. It happens all the time, usually with 0 pax.

Eco-scandal or not, I have to say, well done American! Probably one of the better pro-consumer decisions you have made to date.

@hals000: I believe that. No one company can be that super-efficient. Besides, you gotta believe there can be things called mishaps too, for that matter.

Only business class?

Why not first??????

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(Joking ... just joking)

So, the full story is that they need an aircraft in London to bring a full plane load back to the US. I can't say I'm completely outraged here. The story is a little more nuanced than that.

A big corporation goes the extra mile to provide exceptional service and Consumerist still gets it's panties in a wad. If they had left five people stranded they would be catching all kinds of hell from you guys.

I was unable to find the link on the Friends of the Earth web site that says their site is solar powered. Maybe they need to clean-up their own footprint before worrying about American Airlines?

Why is this even a vote. This website is all about maintaining good customer service. In an industry known for its poor customer service, American Airlines seemed to shine through in this instance. I say, good for them.

went with option 3. not an airlines expert, but if they had to get a plane to London to accommodate a full return flight, wouldn't that have resulted in a "repositioning" flight (at least that's what cruise lines call it) with no passengers that no one would have heard about? it might not have been transatlantic, but still.
I am also wondering though, why they canceled the flight in the first place, if they were just going to fly the plane anyway. it seems like they inconvenienced the rest of the passengers for nothing? That's not really the point of the entry, I was just wondering how much story we weren't getting here.

Howzabout the airlines just go ahead and learn simple math?

If they have a given number of seats and a given number of passengers, those numbers should be equal on a given plane unless the number of SEATS is greater than the number of passengers.

If companies like American could figure things like this out on their own, we wouldn't have to ask questions like this about their eco-responsibility.

Has anyone considered that since a flight was canceled which was going to waste the fuel anyways (perhaps even more, due to weight of full passengers) then this really is moot?

It's like saying "we canceled one flight and created another" and then they get blamed for the wasted fuel on the created flight, and no credit for the saved fuel on the canceled flight. Friends of the Earth = Nonsensical.

There's no story here. They needed a plane in London. Shooting themselves in the foot if they don't get it there, with potentially hundreds of folks they'd have to re-book on other flights at huge expense. They hate to have to send an empty plane for a trans-atlantic route, but sometimes it must be done.

It's not about customer service, though it's nice for them that they can put that happy face on it.

unnecessary story.

There's a difference for the crew between flying an empty plane to London and flying a plane with passengers (even if only 5). That was a nice thing for them to do.

I think the article is really more about Friends of the Earth, and they're knee jerk reaction, than anything else.

Barring the issue of the plane being needed in London...

Is American so afraid of their competition that they couldn't rebook the five passengers on another company's plane? It would have saved money and fuel, plus shown the five that American was concerned about getting them to their destination, not the money.

Great customer service or eco-scandal?

Why can't it be both?

American Airlines just can't win, can it? The PR woman is going to quit. There's no way to spin this!

I thought treehugging eco-nazis were for mass-transit?
The plane needs to get to london, plus they actually saved fuel, since the plane carried less fuel than a full load would have due to the weight (marginal cost of fuel in aerodynamics). Who knows how much gas they would have wasted if they didnt fly the plane and countless other jets were idling around waiting for gate space from the domino effect of cancelling it. Trehuggers need to be quiet. Plenty of times I have taken the train or a bus and there were only a couple people on it, it doesn't mean they should go cancelling the train or the bus, that defeats the purpose.

@Crazytree: Unnecessary internets. Bring back calculators, books and beer in the can.

Friends of the Earth can kis my you know what. It wasn't the passengers fault that the airline overbooked the flight. I wouldn't care if I was the only one on the flight, I paid for my ticket and I have places to be so it's up to American to get me there one way or another.

They're protesting a simple PLANE FLIGHT?! Wow. Just imagine the horror when we send the SPACE SHUTTLE up into SPACE!

Sounds like they would need to repo the plane to LGW to get the westbound leg going anyways...story seems to just be focusing on the fact that they put some REVENUE passengers on that repo leg.

Lots of airlines do this all the time. Off the top of my head, Lufthansa used to fly Dubai-Abu Dhabi with (at one time) a 747 (I think they still do it, too, but with something smaller...A330?) ... you don't see people jumping on them for flying something like that on a 80mi leg, now, do you? Same reason, really - repositioning.

Happens all the time, folks. I seriously doubt that American (or anyone else, for that matter) would set up a transatlantic flight in a widebody aircraft and burn north of 100,000lbs of fuel (at today's prices, mind you) to make five people happy.

Honestly, i'm kind of amazed they couldn't find them a lear jet or something out of there.

You get mad if they send one full plane and one mostly empty one, but not if they send two half-full ones? Doesn't that equate to the same thing? Come on, this whole thing is just stupid. I applaud American for what they did.

I doubt that plane went over totally empty anyway.
I'm sure there was some freight or something in the hold.

@raleel: honestly, I'm kind of amazed how people are ignorant when it comes to actually reading beyond the headline. Oh sure, they could have also used the same learjet to fly a whole jumbo jet full of people back from London as well, eh?

I got stranded recently thanks to a cancelled flight, so I'm going to have to side with the airline on this one. I would have appreciated the airline I was with doing the same for me.

It was a pain in the ass trying to find accomodations to make up for the "act of god" that got my flight cancelled.

My mother worked for American Airlines and there are a number of flights daily that are for the sole purpose of moving planes to the airport they need to be for their first flight in the morning. These were great for the flight privileges we got because they were always empty. Who would choose to fly from San Francisco to DFW at three in the morning?

@discounteggroll: I've stopped being amazed a long time ago.

The so-called "Friends of the Earth" sent a correspondent to the Bali climate conference. I couldn't anything decrying how much carbon was released by all the planes flying in, including so many private planes that there wasn't enough space to park them all.

It's the first time in a long time I have heard of an airline actually acting like it gave a rip about customers. Seriously.

Stories like this is what makes people think that environmentalists are all ignorant morons.

Anyway, airlines do this all the time to allocate aircraft to various routes that might not have a plane for a variety of reasons; i.e. maintenance problem, schedule change. They're called "ferry" flights. They're usually empty except for the flight crew (2 pilots).

Nothing wrong with AA's move here since empty planes get moved around all the time. Might as well put a few passengers on them if you can. What I am not understanding about this story, however, is that if they already decided to take the plane to London, why was the original flight cancelled and the rest of the passengers rebooked?

@SpecialEd: How does asking a question equate to Consumerist getting its panties in a bunch? When I read the article, I saw that Carey said American's gesture "seems nice," but because someone else (not Consumerist) was upset, he put it up to the readers to decide.

@mantari:
That's because the government operates the space shuttle and a corporation operates this airline. Government good, corporations bad.

American did the right thing.
The passengers bought tickets for a flight from Chicago to London, not a flight from Chicago to London only if it is convenient for American or eco-friendly.

@KJones: But that's the point of the issue. If they were overbooked and they didn't need a plane in London, those people would have sat in NY or wherever.

The people complaining about it need to STFU, honestly. It's crap like this (and that nonsense Greenpeace "study" of computer makers, made entirely by reading FAQ's on the company websites and assuming anything not on the FAQ was not a policy) that make it harder for GOOD environmental impact studies and complaints to be taken seriously.

There is a need for serious environmental impact study and protest. This isn't it.

The plane needed to be in London. I imagine the flight crew also needed to be in London (unless AA had extra flight crews in London; I have no idea). The plane would have gone; the only significant marginal costs for the airline was meals and drinks.

This is all about PR. AA sucks and they know it. I was stranded in STL for 36 hours last week due to "air traffic congestion". I didn't get anything but abusive and hostile employees. There were enough people stranded to fill about 75% of an MD-80. We just kept going from gate to gate waiting for standby. The STL AA baggage office is an awful place too. They think lost bags are funny.

I bet if the five people stranded were members of "Friends of the Earth" on their way to an Al Gore speaking engagement in London there would be no outrage.

Voting no workee in Firefox?

I am with American on this one. There was a story on the local news a few days ago about a mouse that was spotted on an airplane. The crew woudn't take off until they found it bc they were worried about it chewing through cables/wires. Finally after 6 hours and still no mouse they decided to take off anyway. HOWEVER, there was a family who, as a result of the delay, missed their connection to their remote spring break destination- the only flight offered that week. That would completely suck. What if they had been saving their entire lives for it?

@discounteggroll: Well, I suppose now I'm more amazed at how anonymity on the internet brings out the worst in people. Geez, give it a rest. I read more than the headline and missed a sentence.

should Sanjaya have been voted off American Idol?!?!

WTF does it matter, it happened.

@Bodgy: Probably could have spun the PR a bit better on this. ala:

/QueueSideShowBarker>
"One time only half fare to London...!!"
"One time only half fare to London...!!"
"First 100 passengers only...!!"

For the tree huggers -> Shut Up already. It is really getting a bit old.