American Airlines flight 239 from Rome to Dallas is cancelled on Friday, and the reason that decision has already been made – a day in advance – is really interesting (to me, at least).
There’s going to be an aircraft on the ground there in Rome. American Airlines has crew on the ground in Rome, also, waiting to fly. They have passengers, and contract services to handle check-in and boaridng and ground duties. The flight operated yesterday and today and it’s going to operate on Sunday.
But all of the passengers booked on Saturday’s 273-seat Boeing 777-200 are going to have to find a different ride across the Atlantic – because while American Airlines has pilots in Rome, they’re the wrong pilots.
- Today’s American AIrlines flight 240 from Dallas to Rome was cancelled. And in its place they’re sending out a 234-seat Boeing 787-8 as American 9606.
- Normally the plane lands, gets catered and (hopefully) cleaned, and is used to fly back to Dallas.
- But since the pilots on the ground in Rome who would work the return flight are used to flying Boeing 777-200s, they aren’t qualified for the Boeing 787-8 that’s arriving there.
American Airlines Boeing 787-8
You might wonder, why then doesn’t American Airlines just fly over Boeing 787 pilots to work the return flight? They can give pilots business class seats as passengers, let them sleep, and then start fresh Rome – Dallas right?
American Airlines Boeing 777-200 Concept D Business Class
No. Under U.S. Part 121 rules, you cannot deadhead from Dallas to Rome and then immediately operate Rome – Dallas. That’s because time spent deadheading is duty time, and doesn’t count as rest. A pilot cannot exceed their legal maximum duty hours, and those would expire since the flight over counts against it.
And since before any flight duty period begins, the airline must give a pilot at least 10 consecutive hours of rest with at least 8 hours sleep opportunity, they’re going to have to let the pilots rest before they can bring the 787-8 back to the States.
Today’s flight over on the Boeing 787-8 has just 20 business class seats – but since the flight is blocked at over 10 hours – one will be blocked for flight attendant crew rest.
American Airlines Boeing 787-8 Crew Rest
The 777-200 it’s replacing has 37 business class seats. There are going to be a lot of disappointed passengers heading to Rome today, but (1) at least they’re heading to Rome! and (2) many will be less disappointed as the ones trying to leave Rome tomorrow.
Going for great once again.
At least those passengers should be compensated in accordance with EU261 (€600/passenger), as this absolutely was under the airlines’ control, and originating in Rome (within the EU), in addition to rebooking or refund, and also accommodations for that extra day(s) in Rome, if applicable (like, if they aren’t from there already.) We deserve similar air passenger rights legislation in the USA; no, it doesn’t raise prices (see ULCC Ryainair in Europe), nor does it bankrupt airlines. Also, no, travel insurance isn’t enough as many policies have arduous terms (50% of Trip or +72 delay required for coverage, read the fine print). Probably, Congress would need to act; I realize the current group hates consumers, so when the adults come back, please get it done. Canada also has a similar regulation, APPR. Yes, this is a hill I will die on (within this context, air travel, etc.)
FA getting a business class seat? Where’d you acquire that BS?
So there wasn’t a replacement 777 in DFW to fly to Rome instead of the 787-8?
The passengers trying to leave Rome on Friday could be:
1. offered a seat on the FCO-DFW flight on Saturday. Some might actually like another day of vacation. What if they can find 5 seats?
2. offered a seat on American’s Rome flights to O’Hare, Charlotte, Philadelphia, or JFK. There might not be too many seats on those flights. What if they can find 10 seats? What if they can find 10 more seats on Saturday?
3. offered a seat on BA or IB or AY and connect to a US flight. What if they can find 15 seats?
4. offer a seat on the what ever airline can get them back, like ITA, Air France, KLM, United, Delta, Lufthansa, Westjet, Air Canada, SAS. What if they can find 50 seats? And 50 seats the following day
That’s 140 seats and doesn’t cover Emirates from Milan.
I’m obviously missing something but what will the 787 do after it arrives in FCO? Will those pilots have a layover in Rome then fly the plane back empty? (I’m assuming every scheduled outbound flight has a matching inbound plane, unless another US-FCO flight regularly operated with 787 is cancelled…)
We know you hate AA and everything they do but the headline makes it sound like AA made a mistake and sent the wrong plane (as they clearly did to NAP earlier this summer) But no, what AA actually did is ensure that a bunch of people were able to fly from DFW to FCO as planned after a likely mechanical problem. Of course a 787 pilot can’t fly a 777 and vice versa and of course pilots can’t dead head in and turn the same aircraft. But come on, Gary
AA-nother ‘f-up’ by crew skeds/plAAnning ? Didn’t AA have a somewhat similar incident in routing a 787 model to an Italian airport that did not have the appropriate runway capacity ? Or sending that A320 from LAX to Hawaii years ago that was not ETOPS rated ?
AA app flight status feature now shows seat maps, similar to the United app – tomorrow’s FCO flights all show availability, especially FCO-JFK and both PHL flights. Waitlist shows 60 seats available on first PHL flight and 31 on the CLT flight.
Deadheading is duty time? Does that mean pilots get paid to sit in business class seats watching movies?
“You might wonder, why then doesn’t American Airlines just fly over Boeing 787 pilots to work the return flight?”
Really? Nobody ever wondered this; that would be unsafe and stupid beyond belief. It’s like you’ve never taken a 10 hour flight.
@christian,
YEP, it’s duty and they are on the clock.
Most people won’t think about this, but yes, this kind of things happen.
We were expat’s in India once upon a time, and when we came back to visit during the US, we found this kind of thing out the hard way. We used to take the United BOM-EWR flight. Well, if it canceled, the next day departure from Mumbai would cancel due to no aircraft there, and the following day flight would either cancel or significantly delay because the crew flying in on the next day flight couldn’t just work the return, and even a deadheading crew couldn’t do it either. So when that happened, rather then wait, I’d get them to rebook me on another Star Alliance flight scheduled for the same night, and could connect in EU to get back home.
“Deadheading is duty time?”
Think of it like this (not trying to be flippant with you either).
Put a long haul truck driver on a 10-12 hour flight. Right after they land, that guy hops in a truck and hits the road for a trip. (Actually three drivers, they take turns and one at a time gets the sleeper.)
Tell us how safe you think your family is riding in a car next to that hypothetical truck for the next 10-12 hours.
(“Maybe they should make a law…”)
Hope it makes sense when I explain it that way.
(Driving a truck is easy… right? I mean the modern ones must have some kind of alarm to alert the driver if he’s drifting out of the lane and stuff. I’m sure your family is fiiiiine.)
Gary. Come on.
#1. American flies out of DFW which means Dallas/Fort Worth not Dallas. They are headquartered in Fort Worth and do not fly to any Dallas airport including Love Field.
They operate out of DFW International Airport. Big difference and two different cities.
#2. You suggest then that maybe Alaska Airlines is based at Boeing Field which is in Seattle? They are based at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Big difference. Two different cities.
#3. Cabin crew at AA do not use passenger seats for crew rest as the 787 has bunks upstairs. And yes, when the flight has four pilots they use seat 1D on the 787 along with the pilot bunks upstairs to sleep or watch a movie. It’s their crew break to use as they please.
@Johnmcsymthe re 1 and 2 I’m speaking colloquially, as for 3 you’re agreeing that what I wrote is accurate
Just another in a non-ending string of blunders. Yet, the BoD and major investors pay the execs millions of dollars without any accountability and/or consequences.
So the plane is flying back Saturday, essentially empty. AA9600. Super odd they dont have the flight in the system for sale…
Why my preferred carrier across the Atlantic is Cunard.
@haolenate, look at the seat map on the customer app. About a third of the seats are occupied. That suggests the flight was an extra section, aka add-on, rescue, etc., other jargon for a flight to bring back stranded passengers, seats available for rebooking (but not available for the sale of new tickets).
This is why deadheading pilots shouldn’t get domestic FC seats. It’s part of their duty days, they are getting paid for it. If they were flying, they wouldn’t be sleeping. If they’re deadheading for 3 hours, they can only fly X-3 hours, not X+3 hours.