The real story on AA's Austin debacle

The MSNBC article left out many facts, leading to confusion over
whether the passengers had the option to deplane or not. Here is a very
thorough article about the debacle:
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/...es_really_ugly

There was one opportunity to deplane after the plane landed in Austin.
But the luggage would stay on the plane, and you would not be able to
get back on the plane, and with the busy holiday season, you might not
get another flight for days. So only 20 people got off (probably ones
with no checked luggage), the others probably decided that it was worth
waiting an hour or two to get to their destination.

"Bucky" wrote:

The MSNBC article left out many facts, leading to confusion over
whether the passengers had the option to deplane or not. Here is a
very thorough article about the debacle:
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/...liday_flight_b
ecomes_really_ugly

There was one opportunity to deplane after the plane landed in Austin.
But the luggage would stay on the plane, and you would not be able to
get back on the plane, and with the busy holiday season, you might not
get another flight for days. So only 20 people got off (probably ones
with no checked luggage), the others probably decided that it was
worth waiting an hour or two to get to their destination.

A good proportion of the people who got off were destined to Austin itself,
or other cities with flights from Austin. They were told they would not
get their luggage immediately, but only after it had made a round trip to
Dallas.

The rest were told that the storm would likely clear after a couple of
hours, and that they would then be able to complete their trip. Thes storm
actually lingered over Dallas for much longer than initially expected.

Bucky writes:

The MSNBC article left out many facts, leading to confusion over
whether the passengers had the option to deplane or not. Here is a very
thorough article about the debacle:
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/...es_really_ugly

There was one opportunity to deplane after the plane landed in Austin.

Not quite true. Passengers bound for Austin or San Antonio had the
option to deplane at one point, but not the entire flight.

With more detail, it only becomes even more obvious that American was
incompetent and inconsiderate. One must wonder if their maintenance
and safety procedures have become as shoddy as their gating and
scheduling procedures.

--
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Mxsmanic wrote:
Not quite true. Passengers bound for Austin or San Antonio had the
option to deplane at one point, but not the entire flight.

I interpreted the article to mean that everyone was given the option to
deplane, but the 20 that took the option were going to Austin or San
Antonio. The people that wanted to end up in Dallas probably didn't
want to deplane (because they thought they could just wait 1-2 hrs).
Would they really know or enforce where their final destination was? I
can't see the airline preventing people from deplaning when they are at
a gate.