AA delayed my flight out of LHR once by just under a day. No compensation beside food vouchers and put up in a hotel. EU rules applied to them since it was a flight operating into/out of the EU at the time. Reason for delay? Staff shortage due to a (false) fire alarm at their local crew rest hotel meaning the crew could not operate the flight.
They claimed such an incident was outside their control and unforeseen. Yet it happened several times in the year odd before my flight. I would have thought they have substitute crews on standby (maybe from an alliance pool?), and at the very least not put all their crew in 1-2 hotels.
They told me fire alarms were unusual. I sent them a UK gov report showing hotel fire alarms happened hundreds of times in the prior year. No change. I no longer fly AA- but I don’t expect any US carrier to act differently. Sadly.
Interesting - the argument being that getting woken by a fire alarm precluded work the next day?
I did some work for a IHG and was told that one of their Sydney hotels hosted all staff from a particular airline when they were in town. Seems like putting all your eggs in one basket?
Yes me too. But in a big transit hub like London, with thousands of hotels, and a continuous stream of flight movements, I would expect them to be prepared for such scenarios with relief/standby crew.
I’m sure the airline can get a much sweeter deal if they show a high volume of rooms booked. Although the costs of an entire days worth of flights being cancelled because of a errant fire alarm seems like a high cost to pay, I’m sure they gamed the numbers out and it makes financial sense for them in the long run
They claimed such an incident was outside their control and unforeseen. Yet it happened several times in the year odd before my flight. I would have thought they have substitute crews on standby (maybe from an alliance pool?), and at the very least not put all their crew in 1-2 hotels.
They told me fire alarms were unusual. I sent them a UK gov report showing hotel fire alarms happened hundreds of times in the prior year. No change. I no longer fly AA- but I don’t expect any US carrier to act differently. Sadly.