Sorry about your $500 ticket, but you will not reach your destination as planned.

Surprise, Surprise the FAA screwed up again. This time they only delayed 600+ flights. MSNBC News Reports:

U.S. aviation officials said most flights around the country were back to normal Wednesday, after a software malfunction delayed hundreds of flights on Tuesday....The Northeast was hardest hit by the delays prompted by a glitch at a Hampton, Georgia, facility that processes flight plans for the eastern half of the U.S. The FAA said the source of the computer software malfunction was a "packet switch" that "failed due to a database mismatch." The FAA, for its part, said it would work to make sure the problem doesn't happen again. Another FAA spokeswoman, Kathleen Bergen in Atlanta, said there were no safety issues and officials were still able to speak to pilots on planes on the ground and in the air. According to the FAA, 646 flights had been delayed as a direct result of the problem. In a 24-hour period the FAA processes more than 300,000 flight plans in the U.S., the agency said.... Bergen said the problem that occurred Tuesday afternoon involved a failure in a communication link that transmits flight plan data from the Georgia facility to a similar facility in Salt Lake City. As a result, the Salt Lake City facility in Utah was having to process those flight plans, causing delays in planes taking off. She said the delays were primarily affecting departing flights. Spitaliere said there were some problems with arriving flights as well.(August 27, 2008)

How does this happen? A Database mismatch, why are they only running one database. How about a clone database that duplicates instantaneously for back-up purposes, but that would make to much since to rational human beings. How are there no safety issues, if for a period you do not know where a plane might be? I understand that years before the development of computers and GPS systems, control towers were able to control air traffic fine. With 100's of planes in the air simultaneously this is dangerous. The FAA clearly isn't doing their job.

AA company of the year

American Airlines canceled more flights today,

"American Airlines canceled nearly 600 more flights across the U.S. today as part of its MD-80 jet fleet remains grounded for maintenance checks."(LA Times)

and tomorrow

"American Airlines says it has canceled about 200 MD-80 flights scheduled for Saturday and plans to resume a full, normal schedule on Sunday... At least 250,000 passengers have been affected by the American cancellations this week."(MSNBC)

Normally when you piss off 250,000 customers you care enough to apologize instead of blaming the FAA for finally monitoring airlines.

-Maybe Daniel Gross can tell us when Airlines will become customer oriented again.(NEWSWEEK)

I am sure it excited potential travelers to hear American Airlines decided to match United Airlines rate hike.

"The nation's major airlines have matched a fare increase of up to $30 per round trip that was started by United Airlines. American Airlines, the nation's largest carrier, matched the fare hike on Friday afternoon, which may have removed the last obstacle to making the increase stick.Airlines say they need to raise fares to cover jet fuel costs. The price of fuel tracks the price of oil, which hit a record Wednesday before declining Thursday and Friday."(MSNBC)

Yes American Airlines Still Sucks

American Airlines inconveniencing customers, nooooooooooooo.
American Airlines has done it again, done what you ask what else. Stranded customers in places around the country, and blamed it on someone else than themselves.

"AMR Corp.'s American Airlines will scrub 900 more flights today, adding to 1,550 already canceled this week, as it continues another round of inspections and groundings that stranded 171,000 passengers.

American said it had ``no choice'' in parking almost half its fleet of Boeing Co. MD-80 jets, after the planes again failed to meet a U.S. safety order. The move came in response to spot checks by the Federal Aviation Administration that found the world's largest carrier" (Bloomberg, April 10)

171,000 passengers and all they can say is, we had NO CHOICE. So it is the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA's fault for finally trying to protect the consumers from a potentially dangerous situation.

"Falling short of FAA requirement for the earlier wiring adjustments meant that American didn't have the option of parking some jets on a rolling basis while flying others, Chief Executive Officer Gerard Arpey said. Fort Worth, Texas-based American checked all the MD-80s in March in response to the FAA order, resulting in groundings and hundreds of scrapped flights.

``A very high percentage'' of American's 300-plane MD-80 fleet wasn't in compliance as the jets were rechecked"(Bloomberg, April 10)

So if it was up to American Airlines, they would have continued flights without wiring adjustments that are deemed necessary for safety. It's not our fault consumers, you cant have it both ways. "You can either be delayed and receive horrible service on in compliant planes, or we can fix them and you will be delayed and never have to receive our horrible service" Ill take the never flying on American Airlines, and not worrying about their service. Maybe they will go the way of ATA.

I have a valid idea instead of crying about not having a choice to inconvenience customers, how about you do regular maintenance on your planes. You shouldn't need the governing body to remind you by grounding your fleet, to maintain the planes. The amount of money the federal government has given AA seems to make them feel invincible as a company, since they know they can't go out of business. The government wont let AA file bankruptcy again to forgo paying for the millions in loans they owe to the government. Shouldn't the fact our tax money continues to support this airline make their rules and compliance more stringent? Shouldn't all citizens get discount tickets since they all technically paid for part of the company?



You can use your cell phones on planes.... In the Europe

"European regulators have dropped the ban on in-flight cellphone calls, but passengers' ability to chat will depend on which airline they fly. European Union regulators on Monday loosened the rules on cellphone service, a satellite-based technology that can be turned on by a captain at about 10,000 feet. It also can be turned off at any time. The ban remains in place in the United States, so U.S. airlines aren't affected. Air France last week became the first international airline to offer mobile service as part of a six-month test to gauge customer response. Other carriers, however, are shying away from the feature, saying that passengers don't want chatter and ring tones invading their space."(USA TODAY, April 10)

Sounds like some cool technology, I just didn't think about the negatives. That would be horrible on a cross country flight, if this technology was available for use in the United States. They amount of conversations you would have no choice but to listen to, unless you had some good earplugs. That's is a bad dream, that you would be paying for. But honestly I think it would be cool at least once to call someone from 20,000 feet up, to say I almost home.