Flight Cancellation Timing--When do you Cancel?

[Art at ISP]

Last night I noticed that 3362 was cancelled due to mechanical. This flight was due to go PHL-ISP, overnight and turn into 3307 this morning. When I checked the web at the same time I saw that 3307 was still showing as on schedule for this morning.
This morning I checked the web and lo and behold 3307 was cancelled. The reason given was conditions at the airport...but when I saw my friendly agent at ISP this morning he said there never was an airplane for 3307.
My question is, if you KNOW that the last inbound is cancelled and you have no chance to make the first outbound the next morning, why don''t you cancel that turnaround right away and give your res people the chance to reroute people BEFORE they come to the airport???? It seems like that would make better business sense and reduce expenses (accommodations for invols AT the airport.)
I also saw PIT baggage tags at the ISP counter..Is there something I should know????????[]

 

[noname]

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On 8/20/2002 716 PM



This morning I checked the web and lo and behold 3307 was cancelled. The reason given was conditions at the airport...but when I saw my friendly agent at ISP this morning he said there never was an airplane for 3307.

My question is, if you KNOW that the last inbound is cancelled and you have no chance to make the first outbound the next morning, why don't you cancel that turnaround right away and give your res people the chance to reroute people BEFORE they come to the airport???? It seems like that would make better business sense and reduce expenses (accommodations for invols AT the airport.)

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Art,
Welcome to our world. This has been going on for so long and it is really embarrassing. Just another example of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing. I wish I could say that I thought it would get better soon, but this type of problem has been occurring since the 90's.

 

[Hope777]

This happens alot. However, maybe they were planing on ferrying the aircraft to ISP in the AM but they were unable to fix it overnight. We do this quite often at ML. Last flight XLD due to Maint. and ferry in early in the morning for an early morning departure.

 

[Art at ISP]

Hope,

There are some cases in which I would agree. However, if they were unable to fix the airplane at 10PM last night, in this specific case I doubt they would fix it in time to ferry in for the early service. PHL is an outstation for PDT, and there are only 1 or 2 PDT Dash 8-300's assigned there. This has been an ongoing pet peeve of mine of late.

Thanks for your comment.
[]

 

[JAFO]

I can't really speak for Piedmont, but I am a dispatcher for Allegheny. Many times when we cancel a terminator, we are unable to cancel the morning flight until the next day's schedule is built in our Eagle flight trac program. Depending on how busy we are, sometimes the schedule does not get built till after 11 pm. Flight delays for the next day are also not entered until the schedule is built. I can't say for sure, but I believe Piedmont uses the same software.

 

[trvlr64]

[] Art....maybe it's time to become ART @ LGA ! !

Just inserting some humor for you.[:bigsmile:]

 

[Art at ISP]

trvlr64,

Thanks. I did take your comment at humor. More realistically though perhaps it's time to become Art the fan of DL or AA? For reasons unbeknownst to me US has chosen to abandon ISP except for minimal prop service. As pointed out by Planes333 on another topic, US is the only operator at ISP other than Commutair who still uses props, and they show no signs of improvement. PLUS we have no alternative to PIT. I have heard that ISP yields are non existant, but when I am forced to pay over $700 r/t just to PHL, and I know people who do, I find it hard to believe.

My loyalty to you wonderful people dictates that I drive an hour and a half in rush hour to LGA--in fact I have begun to do so...but I fear it will get old. Delta is considering significant upgrades in service at ISP, including the possibility of mainline...Why would US have PIT-ELM and not ISP????????

As always my best wishes to all of my friends at US....

 

[Retired1]

Art like no name said this has gone on for years and believe me prior to 1990. I worked in a station where we had overnights, and your best bet is to have a talk with the friendly agent you mentioned. We always knew there wouldnt be another aircraft the next morning so we would call the dispatcher ourselves and get the ball in play for the next day so the passengers could get rebooked. Worked every time.

 

[trvlr64]

Art,

I used to fly to ISP quite often when I had to work in the Bayshore and Northport areas and further eastern LI areas. But because of the ridiculously over priced airfares from PIT to ISP and the too often cancelled or delayed flights out of PHL I decided just to fly to LGA and drive. I just hope they finish the LIE soon or I may go nuts in that traffic mess.

I will second your opinion about the US employees at ISP. They are a great group of people that do take care of us since they see us much too often.

 

[MarkMyWords]

I checked the flights in question and flight 3362/19Aug was canceled at 10:23pm and flight 3307/20Aug was canceled at 10:36pm on the 19th. While the cancellation code was incorrect (it has since been changed) the flight was in fact canceled the night before.

I also checked with my friends in INT and the flight was worked thru the queue once by virtual agent at 11p and then again by real agents at 4-4:30am. The system worked just as it was supposed to.

Cancellations were in the night before, reservatiosn worked on notifying customers, twice.

 

[Hope777]

PIT-ELM is no longer ML, but Express.