In my last blog I recounted my friend’s sad holiday travel tale in which she spent the bulk of her New Year’s Eve sitting on a chair at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport waiting for her twice delayed flight to finally board. The airline insisted Mother Nature was at fault, but now it appears weather was only partially to blame for the “weather related” delay.
Airlines say they are telling the truth when it comes to canceling flights due to inclement weather, but travel experts say when a carrier feeds you the line that Mother Nature is at the root of your travel delays you typically aren’t getting the whole story.
Besides the fact that airlines save a ton of money by blaming delays on “Acts of God” (if they do so they are not obligated to offer passengers accommodations, meals or hotel vouchers) they also stand to pad their reputation as well.
Airlines use the honor system when it comes to blaming delays and cancellations on bad weather. Basically, we passengers have to take their word for it regardless of if we see blue skies outside the terminal’s window. The data is reported to the government but not subjected to any kind of formal audit. The government only began requiring carriers to report the causes of delays five years ago, and since then it has red-flagged weather delay numbers only twice. Most notably in 2005 when it fined SkyWest Airlines $25,000 for “inappropriately attributing flight delays to the National Aviation System.”
As far as defining a weather delay, any seasoned flyer will tell you that the definition is loose at best. According to travel experts, conditions at your departure airport or destination airport aren’t the only ones to consider. Carriers take into account the current weather conditions anywhere in the system. That’s because the airlines rely on aircraft coming from other cities, which could be affected by weather. A number of travel experts have criticized the airlines for applying a looser definition of weather with greater frequency.
Finally, the whole process of playing the weather card gets even trickier when you are stuck in an airplane on the tarmac with only a tiny window to view the elements. According to the Transportation Department, each airline has what they call an “inherent biases” to the way it classifies a delay. It all comes down to who reports the delay. For example, if the gate agent is coding the delay, they won’t code it as being their fault because they don’t want to run the risk of losing a bonus over it. In most cases it is far simpler and cheaper for an airline to blame Mother Nature than have to compensate passengers or negatively affect their on-time rankings.
Do you have a weather delay horror story?
Related Articles:
Is Mother Nature Really To Blame For Airline Weather Delays?
Mother Nature vs. Baby New Year
Mother Nature vs. Holiday Travelers
Preparing For Travel Delays–Part 2
Traveling With Young Children: Dos and Don’ts
Traveling With Children-Learn From My Mistakes
Flying with Children: Layover or Not?
Tips To Remember When Traveling With Children