Last Wednesday’s American Airlines flight 1208 from Burbank to Dallas – Fort Worth wound up arriving over 6 hours late, at 12:27 a.m. The issue was weather in Dallas… and DFW is known to stand for Doesn’t Function Wet.
Most passengers would have been beyond annoyed at the hassle, even though it was beyond the airline’s control. Yet the passengers on this flight were downright pleasant. And it’s because even though the delay wasn’t something American Airlines could prevent, how they managed the delay was in the very capable hands of the airline’s captain – who organized a pizza party for everyone on the plane.
Best part of today’s flight @AmericanAir the captain of the flight is so magnanimous that he ordered us all pizzas as we have been stuck on the flight @fly_BUR for over 6 hours and we never departed because of some complicated routing issues 🙂 pic.twitter.com/VQY2AW90l6
— Harsha wears a mask 😷 (@ShellZero) October 13, 2022
The pizza (unfortunately everyone got one single slice) – I was still happy that the captain went out of his way to provide this for us! pic.twitter.com/7PrNSx6W1p
— Harsha wears a mask 😷 (@ShellZero) October 13, 2022
The enthusiasm this passenger shows in the face of a six hour delay is inescapable, and that’s because small kindnesses go a long way. And because who doesn’t love pizza?
According to an American Airlines spokesperson, “We’re incredibly proud of the American Airlines team who take great care of our customers every day.”
As I understand it a decision to order pizza to a plane is entirely driven by the captain of the aircraft. There’s no formal “airline pizza policy,” but pilots can actually get reimbursed by the carrier when they do something like this. As I understand it, this isn’t something they ask permission for, and they do sometimes just come out of pocket without filing for an expense reimbursement (in which case the airline might not even know about it). Then again, you probably don’t like your employer’s expense reimbursement process, either!
I would’ve minded. About a half-hour later things probably got really gassy. A sandwich run would’ve been preferable.
IWhen American Airlines pilots experiencing a six-hour flight delay order their pizzas from Domino’s, they will get 20% off.
More info: https://www.today.com/food/restaurants/dominos-inflation-relief-deal-rcna46476
When American Airlines pilots experiencing a six-hour flight delay order their pizzas from Domino’s, they will get 20% off.
I threw a pizza party after I had to divert my HAV-FLL flight to TPA. We ordered 20 Pizzas for 90 people. the F/As did their best but somehow people are just not nice and took too much. 8 people did not get Pizza and all hell broke lose as we pushed back to go to FLL. Luckily the situation was under control but moral of the story is no good deed goes un punished. We almost had to return to the gate and get everyone off, which means we would have timed out.
I suspect that American Airlines knew about the delay BEFORE they boarded the plane, but let the cattle get on the plane and then inform them of the delay. That’s the shitty tactics of American Airlines.
A very low hanging fruit here. Nothing to see, read, really.
Was it with a TWA hijacking that had the plane getting pizza delivery?
Back in the day, there was a hijacking of TWA flight 85. The hijacker came to have ownership of a pizzeria named Hijacking.
Speaking of TWA, the TWA hotel at JFK is having a Flyertalk meeting with or for moderators this weekend. Are you attending and hoping for pizza delivery? lol The Flyertalk Moderators took a break from in-person gatherings during the pandemic. Now the in-person “training” session is back at what was the famed TWA terminal of yesterday.
For the curious. At these meetings, the Flyertalk Moderators discuss Flyertalk moderation practices, and the Moderators also make specific examples out of some Flyertalk participants. The FT Mods pick on Flyertalk Members whom they believe to be problem makers or posting what some of the them believe to be “misinformation” and “non-contributive” posts, and want to see be disappeared Pinochet-style from up on high.
Some of the high post count FT Mods really don’t like many of the regular FT Members with high post counts or post counts higher than them. The names of DELee, gaobest, GUWonder and MSPeconomist are suggested as examples to be used in the FT Mods training session or on the sidelines around the conflicting training session.
“Woe is me”. Not! That said, can’t say I’m surprised.
Like it is in Scandinavia, those who don’t fit nicely into a simple box for the lazy-minded are more likely to be considered a problem for not fitting into a stereotype or convenient mold. One of the many problems that goes on with moderation activities across online social media forums too; and that is even when the moderators are full-time employees or paid contractors.
Six hours of my life aren’t equal to a couple of slices of pizza. Nice of the captain to do, and a good example showing customer service actually does matter, but I’m sure it fell on the deaf ears of American who still let the plane board.
Typical of AA to board a known delay so the plane full of hostages can’t switch their revenue over to another carrier. They have done a lot of this lately. I feel bad for the AA flight crews and ground staff. I PHX taxi driver said AA is making his year.
I’m guessing that the person shown in the photograph is a flight attendant and not the pilot. The photograph shows a bearded person. Not allowed in the cockpit! Very nice of the pilot.
Nice gesture by the pilot. Of course some commenters here prove that no good deed goes unpunished. The Captain was never obligated to do what he did, especially because anyone who flies enough knows that when DFW has problems, it has a ripple effect across the industry, not just AA. If you’re time is that valuable, maybe you should throw the pizza party…or plan better and leave earlier.
I feel like the flight attendants that were actually having to deal with situation should get a little praise. AA will reimburse the captain anyways for what he did