2015 Oklahoma Commercial Aviation Discussion

[s00nr1]

Was lucky enough to get out of OKC yesterday on a jam packed CR2 on AA. First time I've been on anything other than a mad dog on the OKC-DFW route in quite some time.

[Bunty]

Future of commercial service up in the air - Stillwater News Press: News

[venture]

Future of commercial service up in the air - Stillwater News Press: News

Based on conversations I've had with people that have been in Fort Worth recently, American wants significantly more money than what cities are offering them right now. SWO will likely not get air service any time soon unless they cough up a good deal of cash.

[Bunty]

Based on conversations I've had with people that have been in Fort Worth recently, American wants significantly more money than what cities are offering them right now. SWO will likely not get air service any time soon unless they cough up a good deal of cash.

It can't hurt the situation, if the price of oil stays well under $100 barrel.

[NWOKCGuy]

Qq for those of you in the industry. Alaskan to Seattle prices have gone crazy throughout July from where they were about a month ago. Also seats seem limited for this far in advance. Do you think they're holding seats or is it possible they've filled already?

[bradh]

Incredibly popular time of year to travel up there

[venture]

It can't hurt the situation, if the price of oil stays well under $100 barrel.

Network carriers are in stock pile mode right now to prepare for the next upswing in oil prices.

[no1cub17]

Incredibly popular time of year to travel up there

That - plus only one flight/day (on a regional jet at that (albeit a larger RJ)). Plus the relatively strong AA FF base here - shouldn't be hard for AS to print money on this route, especially in the summer. I checked fares some random weekends just to see - looks like DL is aggressively trying to undercut AS on this route by selling connections via SLC. Will be interesting to see how that plays out, given the state of AS and DL's relationship as it is.

[no1cub17]

Hope none of y'all were on this flight - yikes! American Airlines flight 382 grounded on the runway for nine hours | Daily Mail Online

[Filthy]

Hope none of y'all were on this flight - yikes! American Airlines flight 382 grounded on the runway for nine hours | Daily Mail Online

I was on this flight. It was a complete nightmare. First if all, it was on a relatively small airplane. It was the last leg of my flight home from NY...so, I had personally already been traveling for about 6 hours before I even got on this plane. For whatever reason (maybe because of the short flight time) they weren't properly equipped with food/beverage supplies. They were rationing water, by opening ozarka bottled water, and pouring a very little but in everyone's cup. They got about 3/4 of the way back, before they ran out. They wouldn't let anyone off the plane, because they said that they might get the "OK" to De-Ice at anytime. People were getting short tempered, taking it out on the stewardess, and other passengers. It was also very frustrating, to sit there for 10+ hours...sitting inside a packed airplane, and being told that they didn't know anything, yet every 45 minutes to an hour, different planes on gates of both sides of us, came and went probably 12-15 times in that same time span. Every time a new plane, would come and go...the co-pilot would get on the intercom, and just say..."Ladies and gentleman...I apologize, and realize those planes next to us, continue to depart...but for some reason, they won't let us leave....We just don't know why."

And then everything escalated even further when all of the stewardess started arguing with each other. They made it known to ALL passengers, that it was now illegal for them to even be on the plane, because thir shift had been more than 16 consecutive hours. They got on the intercom, and said..."Ladies and Gentleman, we need some of you, to stop having an attitude We're doing the best we can, and we shouldn't even be on this plane anymore. It's against our FAA rules, for us...but we've decided to stay on this plane for you guys...so, stop complaining." And then at some point in time, they decided they wanted to leave. So, they all go the the front of the plane...and the pilot announces, that now all the passengers must get off the plane...because its "illegal" for passengers to be on the plane, without the stewardesses. And that everyone had to get all carry ones, bags, and deplane. So, everyone stands up...grabs their bags....and stands there in the aisles for 20+ minutes, until the pilot tells us that...well...never mind, the stewardesses have decided to stay.

At about the 7 hour mark, we finally get the thumbs up, to De-Ice. So, we wait in line to De-Ice....45 minutes later, we got to take off. As we're getting ready to take off, he gets to about 30-40% throttle for wheels up, he all of the sudden pulls the ol' E Brake and shuts it down. He comes over the intercoms, stating that there is now a major mechanical issue, and that it was just discovered at the last second. We pull in to find a new gate, so maintenance can look at the plane, but low and behold....there's no available gates now. So, we sit on the Tarmac for another hour...just waiting for an available gate. It was like a bad movie. People were at each others throats, there were no food/water options...and everyone just wanted off the damn plane.

I did get to know all of the people all around me, as everyone was borrowing phone chargers, and tried to stay positive about the situation... But it was tough.

I do understand, that the weather played a huge role int he entire fiasco, but I am extremely upset with the lack of communication by AA.

[no1cub17]

My goodness - sounds like a total nightmare. Sounds like dispatch really dropped the ball. Just curious have you contacted AA and asked for some compensation? A good sized voucher is the least they could do. I'm not sure I would've been able to tolerate this.

Catering on this flight is really minimal - it's catered for a half hr flight - one drink run (if that) - not for several hours and multiple beverages per person - so it's not surprising at all that the FAs ran out of water/beverages quickly.

Glad you finally made it home safely!

[BG918]

Hopefully every passenger on that flight got a sizable ($500+) voucher for that experience.

[Filthy]

They picked up the story, on "Good Morning America." With this kind of national coverage, I guess I don't feel so bad about trying to start the negotiation process with AA on some kind of compensation.

American Airlines Flight Delayed 9 Hours by Heavy Snow, Mechanical Problem - ABC News

[adaniel]

Sorry to hear what you had to go through. I made a decision to NEVER fly American into any sort of large market after dealing with them at O'Hare. I would love for nothing more than to be completely free of the chains of this airline but I've got too many friends and family members live in podunk cities that are only serviced by American Eagle...sigh.

Also, AA will cancel half their flights if as so much a snow flake falls. The snow here was not THAT bad even by low Texas standards, and SWA at Love Field had minimal cancellations this weekend. The news did a screen shot of both airports arrival/departure screens and it was almost comical what a ****show the DFW screen was.

AA is not the same airline that it was ever since it absorbed the sucktitude of USAir and I don't see it getting better. My advice? Get your credit from AA and put it on eBay. Then start taking the non-stop United flight from OKC to Newark and take the 35 minute train ride to Penn Station. I did this at least 4 times when I was in OKC and it was always a breeze.

[PhiAlpha]

Sorry to hear what you had to go through. I made a decision to NEVER fly American into any sort of large market after dealing with them at O'Hare. I would love for nothing more than to be completely free of the chains of this airline but I've got too many friends and family members live in podunk cities that are only serviced by American Eagle...sigh.

Also, AA will cancel half their flights if as so much a snow flake falls. The snow here was not THAT bad even by low Texas standards, and SWA at Love Field had minimal cancellations this weekend. The news did a screen shot of both airports arrival/departure screens and it was almost comical what a ****show the DFW screen was.

AA is not the same airline that it was ever since it absorbed the sucktitude of USAir and I don't see it getting better. My advice? Get your credit from AA and put it on eBay. Then start taking the non-stop United flight from OKC to Newark and take the 35 minute train ride to Penn Station. I did this at least 4 times when I was in OKC and it was always a breeze.

After several subpar experience with both American and DFW, as well as stories like last weekends... I'm SWA all the way. Like any other airline, Southwest has it's flaws or disadvantages (limited international flights and trips into smaller airports among them) but I flew with them about 40 times last year and and never had a remotely bad experience. Aside from minor delays due to weather, I had one 3 hour delay at Will Rogers due to a mechanical issue and was given a $200 flight voucher before setting foot on the plane, which more than made up for the inconvenience. Also had a two late bags, one of which was my fault, but was given a $50 voucher in both cases.

I passionately hate DFW, especially when compared to Love Field. It's sometimes unavoidable, but I can't stand that place. And I know they're working on renovations, but overall that place is a dump. Also, it's more of an annoyance than real inconvenience but it seems like DFW has the longest taxiing time from gate to take off or from landing to the gates of any airport I've ever been through. Maybe it's just the routes I fly out or the smaller aircraft, but it seems like you spent forever taxiing.

[Filthy]

Start taking the non-stop United flight from OKC to Newark and take the 35 minute train ride to Penn Station. I did this at least 4 times when I was in OKC and it was always a breeze.

This has been recommended to me before. I am not opposed to flying into Newark...and have a few times before, but most of my business is in Brooklyn. So because of that it is so much easier to fly into LaGuardia or JFK and stay in that area as well.. Therefore, I have to weigh my options and pick the lesser of two evils. Unfortunately, its a tough pick...having to fight the traffic driving from Brooklyn thru Manhattan to get to the Newark airport for a straight thru return flight... or deal with a typical 1-2 hour layover in Dallas...but not spend that same 2 hours, driving, riding, whether it be uber, taxi, subway or NJ transit getting from Brooklyn to Newark. I'm damned if I do...and damned if I don't.

[no1cub17]

AA is not the same airline that it was ever since it absorbed the sucktitude of USAir and I don't see it getting better. My advice? Get your credit from AA and put it on eBay. Then start taking the non-stop United flight from OKC to Newark and take the 35 minute train ride to Penn Station. I did this at least 4 times when I was in OKC and it was always a breeze.

Ain't that the truth. It's really sad what LCC Dougie and co have done to what was a halfway decent airline. Their generous FFP is the only thing that keeps me loyal. I'm sure more "enhancements" are coming as the merger progresses though, and that'll be the end for me.

I'll second the thoughts above about AA's horrible ground ops at their hubs. Can't remember how many times we've sat waiting for a gate at ORD, only to watch my connecting flight push back early. Or how many times we've had 1 hour layovers at DFW and our bags don't make it. I divorced myself from Delta a few years ago, but last time we flew them, our bags managed to make a 20 minute connection. That would never happen on the new AA.

[ljbab728]

Or how many times we've had 1 hour layovers at DFW and our bags don't make it. I divorced myself from Delta a few years ago, but last time we flew them, our bags managed to make a 20 minute connection. That would never happen on the new AA.

The last time I was on AA through DFW I had about 10 minutes to make my connection because my flight was late. I did it with no problem. Besides changing terminals and getting to my connecting gate about one minute before the scheduled departure, AA decided to delay the connecting flight a few minutes to accommodate late passengers and my bag made it too. Every airline has issues at times but I certainly wouldn't single out AA as being particularly bad.

[adaniel]

This has been recommended to me before. I am not opposed to flying into Newark...and have a few times before, but most of my business is in Brooklyn. So because of that it is so much easier to fly into LaGuardia or JFK and stay in that area as well.. Therefore, I have to weigh my options and pick the lesser of two evils. Unfortunately, its a tough pick...having to fight the traffic driving from Brooklyn thru Manhattan to get to the Newark airport for a straight thru return flight... or deal with a typical 1-2 hour layover in Dallas...but not spend that same 2 hours, driving, riding, whether it be uber, taxi, subway or NJ transit getting from Brooklyn to Newark. I'm damned if I do...and damned if I don't.

Yeah that would be tough. My friends up there live in Manhattan or Brooklyn Heights so a Penn is not a big deal at least by their standards. You could always changes trains and get on PATH to the WTC and take a taxi over one of the bridges to BK, but that's a lot of switching.

I probably shouldn't have used the term "breeze." I agree with you that absolutely nothing about travelling in that area is easy. Kinda crazy that the vast majority of NYC and Long Island, around 10 million people, are only connected to the US mainland by 2 rail tunnels, two rickety auto tunnels, and two decaying bridges.

I passionately hate DFW, especially when compared to Love Field. It's sometimes unavoidable, but I can't stand that place. And I know they're working on renovations, but overall that place is a dump. Also, it's more of an annoyance than real inconvenience but it seems like DFW has the longest taxiing time from gate to take off or from landing to the gates of any airport I've ever been through. Maybe it's just the routes I fly out or the smaller aircraft, but it seems like you spent forever taxiing.

Love Field is gorgeous these days...like walking into a museum. I remember as recently as 2012 Love was falling apart and smelled like a leaky sewer line had busted. I am a bit upset that Delta has been bumped from DAL for Virgin, but the politics around air travel here are kooky to say the least.

IMO DFW is too big geographically to manage effectively at this point. I hate to say this but I wouldn't recommend anyone from OKC connect there. With the Wright Amendment dropped it will be interesting to see how both DFW and DAL perform in the future.

[no1cub17]

IMO DFW is too big geographically to manage effectively at this point. I hate to say this but I wouldn't recommend anyone from OKC connect there. With the Wright Amendment dropped it will be interesting to see how both DFW and DAL perform in the future.

Meh I don't know if I agree. The geography should help more than anything - DFW has so much more space, more ramp space, more taxiways, more runways, and a ton of gates. If AA wasn't so incompetent at times it wouldn't be as big an issue.

DAL will never touch DFW in terms of connectivity and destinations offered - not even close. True the WA went away but I'm pretty sure that a condition of that was limiting DAL to 20 gates, down from over 30 I believe.

[Snowman]

Meh I don't know if I agree. The geography should help more than anything - DFW has so much more space, more ramp space, more taxiways, more runways, and a ton of gates. If AA wasn't so incompetent at times it wouldn't be as big an issue ...

Once any system like that though gets backed up, it is tough to clear (especially at reduced capacity), made worse by the Hub & Spoke model tends to cluster arrivals/departs so they can route connections.

[gopokes88]

Meh I don't know if I agree. The geography should help more than anything - DFW has so much more space, more ramp space, more taxiways, more runways, and a ton of gates. If AA wasn't so incompetent at times it wouldn't be as big an issue.

DAL will never touch DFW in terms of connectivity and destinations offered - not even close. True the WA went away but I'm pretty sure that a condition of that was limiting DAL to 20 gates, down from over 30 I believe.

+ no international travel. SW is having to use Houston as its carribbean hub.

[damonsmuz]

It's official. We have 2 years left to enjoy the AA Mad Dogs

MD-80s to be gone from American Airlines fleet by end of 2017 | Dallas Morning News

[brianinok]

They're old and they need to go. But I am going to miss the 2x3 configuration. I wish the 717 had been more popular and was more prevalent for domestic flying than it is.

[OUman]

Having connected at DFW numerous times now, I can honestly say it's a ton better than it was back in the day (pre-2005 to be exact). That's before the new Terminal D and the Skylink were both built.

The taxi times can be either short or long, but DFW is big and big airports almost always have long taxi times. Nothing you can do about that. Either you have a hub with plenty of runways (less congstion) or you have a hub airport that is bursting at the seams (Heathrow).

To say it's a "dump" is rather harsh. Go to Paris Charles de Gaulle, which truly is a dump. Makes DFW's terminals look way better. Not to mention the "airport tour" you get when you arrive on an international flight (not that I mind since I am an aviation enthusiast, but most people are not fans of that place to say the least).

If you give yourself enough time and fly when the weather's not an issue, DFW wins in my books anyway. I do like DAL though. I liked it before the new terminal was built, but it's even better now.