American Airlines took non-stop flight 2161 from San Francisco to Philadelphia, and diverted it to Dallas on on Tuesday to drop off dozens of soccer fans. Notes for the flight show that the decision was made to give World Cup travelers a lift to their game, while other passengers waited.
An American Airlines spokesperson shares,
When our team realized a large group of FIFA World Cup 26™ fans were going to miss Tuesday’s semifinal match in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, they immediately got to work to deliver. That meant one of our San Francisco (SFO) to Philadelphia (PHL) flights made a brief stop in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to drop off the group, with minimal to no impact to the other customers booked on this flight. That’s a win-win in our book.
American Airlines Airbus A321
According to an American Airlines employee in San Francisco, this was to drop off FIFA VIPs. In fact, they designated the group VIPs because it was a large number of travelers headed to the game. It appears they had been stranded by American flight 2228’s roughly ten-hour delay.
SFO 600A 1 B27
DFW C26 C34 1146A 1245P C34
PHL 16 B5 235P
7SFO/AURA DLY FLT IN PROGRESS *0400*CRCYMG
4SFO/OUT0557 OFF0620 *0820
2DFW/IN1138 *1140
3DFW/ETD1235 *1230
4DFW/OUT1235 OFF1256 *1256
1PHL/INTMD LNDG AT DFW PRE1145PLANNED ENROUTE LANDING FOR WORLD CUP PAX (…)
[XXXXXX] *0309
2PHL/IN1656 *1558
The operational note was entered at 0309 which is 3:09 a.m. Central, or 1:09 a.m. Pacific time. That’s about five hours before departure. It says: “PLANNED ENROUTE LANDING FOR WORLD CUP PAX.” PRE1145 also means a preliminary arrival estimate while the aircraft was still on the ground. This was technically categorized as a diversion and “leg created by diversion,” but it was a preplanned additional stop.
- The flight, operated by Airbus A321neo N471AN, left the San Francisco gate at 5:57 a.m. and took off at 6:20.
- It landed at DFW airport at 11:25 a.m. and reached the gate at 11:38. They dropped off passengers, and then left the DFW gate at 12:35 p.m., taking off again at 12:56.
- It eventually reached the gate in Philadelphia at 4:56 p.m., 2 hours and 21 minutes late.
The France – Spain semifinal began at Dallas Stadium at 2 p.m. Central. The passengers reached the DFW gate 2 hours and 22 minutes before kickoff and would have made it in time.
Meanwhile, flight 2228 had been scheduled to leave San Francisco at 11:20 p.m. Pacific on July 13 and reach Dallas at 4:59 a.m. Passengers were booked on this redeye with plenty of time to spare. However, it didn’t ultimately leave its gate until 9:43 a.m. on July 14. It arrived in Dallas at 3:15 p.m., more than an hour after kickoff where transit to the stadium would still have been in front of them.
American Airlines at DFW Airport
American is the “Official North American Airline Supplier” and that’s apparently been much more than just a marketing sponsorship. They’ve worked hard to get not just FIFA executives but also fans to games.
“AURA DLY FLT IN PROGRESS” means American’s automated reaccommodation tool was processing for Philadelphia-bound passengers with further connections.
While some passengers had to be rebooked, the flight was relatively lightly booked and it seems that everyone made it to their destinations same day at least, some rerouted via Dallas and even got in earlier, though it seems to me that since American decided to privilege other passengers at the expense of some who did wind up misconnecting from their original flights there ought to be some sort of compensation.
I’d note also that the plane’s next flight, American 1489 from Philadelphia to San Diego, ran about three hours late.
Another San Francisco – Dallas Fort Worth flight, Ameircan 1198, left around 5:38 a.m. and landed in Dallas at 10:45. It clearly didn’t have the seats available to reaccommodate this large group of soccer fans.
American Airlines Philadelphia Airport Terminal A
A diversion like this is rare, but not unprecedented. I wrote about a flight where American made an extra stop on their Dallas – Nassau flight to pick up 74 passengers in New Orleans who were headed to Nassau as well.
Those passengers were supposed to fly via Charlotte, but a delay meant they’d misconnect. They got to fly non-stop instead. And New Orleans is directly enroute to Nassau, so they didn’t have to go out of their way like the San Francisco – Philadephia passengers did to get to Dallas.
Oof. 2-hours late… would sure be ‘nice’ if airlines properly compensated affected passengers for their operational failures… or, is ‘time’ not valuable… *cough*
So , if I choose a nonstop flight from SFO-PHL and I am charged over $200 extra bc it’s a nonstop flight as opposed to a flight with one stop or connections , American gets to decide that day to change my itinerary that I was charged $200 extra for as a nonstop and I still pay the nonstop charge? Ok got it
So AA (in a somewhat arrogant, but not out-of-character manner) described this situation as a “win-win in our book.” No, it was not a “win-win;” but more of a salvage operation! The DFW-bound soccer fans were still significantly delayed (over 6 hours) into DFW because their original SFO-DFW redeye had an even greater delay. And by putting the soccer fans on a SFO-PHL trip and diverting it to DFW, they “salvaged” the soccer game for the FIFA group. But the cost was a >2 hour delay for those poor people who thought they were getting a nonstop from SFO to PHL! AA perhaps made the best of a bad situation, but this was not a “win-win.” That would have been if AA had operated SFO-DFW and SFO-PHL as scheduled.
When I used to fly AA, they rarely missed an opportunity to delay my flights, you could pretty much count on some kind of delay. Even though I had top tier status, they finally lost me as a customer when on one flight leaving Austin, they loaded the flight, pushed away from the gate, and promptly told us they were waiting for the flight log to be delivered to the plane, 30 minutes later they changed the story and told us it was a latch piece missing on the cargo door. “Don’t worry they said, technician is on his way to replace the latch” 1.5 hours later, no technician, no latch piece, 3 hours and 10 minutes later they said “we checked with the FAA and they say it’s ok to fly with part of the latch missing”. Knowing full well the flight was delayed for maintenance, they loaded us up and made us sit 10′ away from the terminal for nearly 3 hours 15 minutes. No, couldn’t just delay the flight and let passengers relax in the terminal, no, let’s load the cattle into the hot tube and make them sit on a plane going nowhere for 3+ hours without so much as a cup of water passed around. Yep….. screw AA, I’ll pass anytime I can use a different carrier… Even DL
Pax booked SFO to PHL to DFW?
I’m guessing it was a cheaper option.
Then they were no+shows for PHL-DFW
They lose all their AA points?
Last time I flew SFO to DFW, some people missed their connections. At least 90 minutes took place between me sitting down and plane leaving the gate.
Culprit wasn’t weather or maintenance. According to the pilot, the baggage handlers left for “lunch” without realizing we were still waiting.
@Disgruntled American — Eh, could be worse.. you could be England, today. *smh*
Shitty operations make for shitty options from which to choose. Surprised they’re trotting this out as a “win win” when literally everyone involved was a victim of the poor operation.
@Jon gets it. No wonder they’re partners with Shitibank.
American Airlines and shitibank. Makes perfect sense. They both loathe their customers have poor service. .
PHL-bound pax arrived 2 hours and 20 min late. How is this a win-win? Typical AA mix of gaslighting and smug arrogance. Reminds me of the reply I got from AA when I was delayed for 5 hours (due to operational reasons within AA’s control): “we’re so happy we were able to get you home safely.” So apparently not dying is the bar AA has set.
That’s insane American should be sued for a stunt like that! Any passenger going to PHL that was inconvenienced even a little bit should get like $5,000 compensation In my opinion, this was so unprofessional and for a non-American sports game to boot!
So the original pax to PHL arrived 2 hours and 20 minutes late AND the pax on the next flight out on the aircraft were 3 hours late and AA deems that “minimal to no impact.” Sounds about right for the clueless idiots in AA upper management.
Just sayin.. if we had actual passenger air rights legislation like EU/UK 261, Canada’s APPR, etc., those affected passengers would’ve each received a couple hundred dollars of compensation for the inconvenience caused by the airline… but, no… in the US, we hate consumers, and love corporations, and let them act with impunity, all thanks to legalized bribery and corruption. *sigh* (doesn’t have to be this way, folks… demand better.)
It is challenging to deal with the soccer fans, as the people who are fans of their national team don’t know if they are going to another city or going home until they finish their previous game a couple days before. I flew United on the evening of July 5 SFO-DFW, and the redeye went from nearly empty to nearly full between booking and the date of travel. Spain and Portugal played in Dallas on July 6. United has more flexibility in SFO than American, but American has more flexibility in DFW, unless there is weather in DFW earlier in the day.
I don’t envy the job of people scheduling the planes and crew for an airline recovering from a weather event, and have a big event to be accommodated on short notice.