Anyone's Travel Plans Messed Up with Grounding of the MAX8?

[Darcy03231]

Looks like ours might be. Instead of a one stop flight ours may become a two stop flight. If that happens we'll have to leave a day early on an overnight flight and come back a day later on another overnight flight. Unfortunately, there's no way to make the flights all work in one day without the non-stop into Miami. We still have a couple of weeks so I'm not rushing to change flights over. I'm hoping they're going to just keep the schedule with a different plane.

 

[otten]

Looks like ours might be. Instead of a one stop flight ours may become a two stop flight. If that happens we'll have to leave a day early on an overnight flight and come back a day later on another overnight flight. Unfortunately, there's no way to make the flights all work in one day without the non-stop into Miami. We still have a couple of weeks so I'm not rushing to change flights over. I'm hoping they're going to just keep the schedule with a different plane.

I really doubt we're going to see a huge impact on travel plans that are weeks out. Over the next few days while the airlines scramble yes but within a couple weeks I think the airline schedulers will have figured out the puzzle.

I suspect that all the panicked people calling the airlines about flights that are several days to weeks in the future are just making it worse. Airlines swap out aircraft regularly either do to maintenance needs, scheduling issues or passenger volume. This is a larger scale than usual but in the grand scheme it's actually a really small number of planes.

Now if they needed to ground the airbus320 or the 737-800 that would be a disaster.

 

[Bowen9475]

My daughter’s plans were affected. She’s flying Southwest on Saturday with a college group to Disney to participate in the Disney Youth Education College Program. Their group of 20 students and 2 chaperones were scheduled to fly out of Providence Saturday morning. Today they found out they couldn’t leave on their original itinerary. One of the chaperones worked with Southwest and they are now flying out of Hartford. They had to split up over two different flights though. Luckily, they’re still able to fly on Saturday but unfortunately, the second group will get 5 hours less in Disney.

 

[NYCgrrl]

My daughter’s plans were affected. She’s flying Southwest on Saturday with a college group to Disney to participate in the Disney Youth Education College Program. Their group of 20 students and 2 chaperones were scheduled to fly out of Providence Saturday morning. Today they found out they couldn’t leave on their original itinerary. One is the chaperones worked with Southwest and they are now flying out of Hartford. They had to split up over two different flights though. Luckily, they’re still able to fly on Saturday but unfortunately, the second group will get 5 hours less in Disney.

Ouch for the ride from Providence to Hartford. Will they be busing it together or does everyone have to get to CT under their own steam?

 

[Bowen9475]

Ouch for the ride from Providence to Hartford. Will they be busing it together or does everyone have to get to CT under their own steam?

They’re actually meeting at the college and going to the airport by shuttle. Each group has its own shuttle. We are in central MA.

 

[Darcy03231]

My daughter’s plans were affected. She’s flying Southwest on Saturday with a college group to Disney to participate in the Disney Youth Education College Program. Their group of 20 students and 2 chaperones were scheduled to fly out of Providence Saturday morning. Today they found out they couldn’t leave on their original itinerary. One is the chaperones worked with Southwest and they are now flying out of Hartford. They had to split up over two different flights though. Luckily, they’re still able to fly on Saturday but unfortunately, the second group will get 5 hours less in Disney.

Oh, that's too bad.

I'm just waiting to see what American does. Right now the schedule is still the same and listing a MAX8 as the aircraft. Luckily I bought travel insurance so if they cancel our flight and we have to do the overnight flights I'll be able to turn in my hotel and meals receipts and get some money back.

 

[AlohaNow]

Umm, I didn't think so until this morning. Our SW outbound to PHL for Tuesday was just cancelled this morning. Man, you have to act fast if that happens! I was able to rebook us on a flight out the next day, so we lose a day there. We're just going to visit family, but still. We'll have to change planes in Nashville, and we haven't changed planes in years! So, so spoiled. Seats still show as available for our Saturday return flight, but I wonder if SW is doing 'rolling' cancellations due to the elasticity of the situation and we'll find out three days before that our return flight is cancelled! Only time will tell.

 

[Darcy03231]

A co-worker was scheduled to come home on Saturday via Southwest on a MAX8. His flight was canceled and rebooked for Sunday, that flight was canceled and he was rebooked for today and he's just found out that flight has been canceled. He's finally given up and is flying home later today on JetBlue.

 

[mikehn]

My original flight is on a Max 8 with American. Just to be sure I dont get screwed at the last minute, I went to Southwest and booked the same flight using my points. If the flight with American works out, I'll just cancel my Southwest.

 

[Minnie824]

not going to disney, but headed this weekend to florida. our flight was cancelled from american and had NOT been a max 8 plane but i am assuming they're using our plane to fill in for another one. they threw us on a flight 7 hrs later scattered across the plane and arriving at almost midnight, losing that whole day. after discussing options, they rebooked us on a flight the day before, now with a layover, but at least we don't lose a day.

 

[jec6613]

Weirdly, yes, but not exactly directly. I was booking some mileage flights into Joburg, and most of the European airlines have pulled the ability to get into business/first at any price for miles (it's a long flight!). I called BA and they said it's because of the MAX grounding, and they're having to reshuffle the fleets around quite a bit. So instead of an LHR connection we're booking two consecutive RT itineraries to go through GRU since it's not a bookable connection (my miles won't work on SA or DL so no direct option). AY and IB are reporting the same for in/out of JNB and CPT, and QR rarely has availability anyway.

So apparently in Europe at least, it's mucked things up good and proper, even on the airlines that don't run the aircraft.

Aside, I was at a bar under the LAX approach over the weekend and counted no fewer than 9 MAX8 and MAX9 in every livery that operates them in the US except American. There's a large Boeing facility nearby so I suppose that's why, kinda interesting to watch it though.

 

[Darcy03231]

not going to disney, but headed this weekend to florida. our flight was cancelled from american and had NOT been a max 8 plane but i am assuming they're using our plane to fill in for another one. they threw us on a flight 7 hrs later scattered across the plane and arriving at almost midnight, losing that whole day. after discussing options, they rebooked us on a flight the day before, now with a layover, but at least we don't lose a day.

I was hoping that since American is still selling seats on our upcoming flight that we were safe, but it sounds like they're still readjusting flights. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I did hear on this morning's news that American pilots are supposed to start testing the software patch in simulators this weekend.

 

[Darcy03231]

I just heard on the news this morning that Boeing is hopeful that the FAA will approve the software patch today and it can start being installed as early as tomorrow!

 

[ironz]

Yep-- our nonstop flight going to MCO was cancelled 5 days ahead of our travel date. I thought we were on a 737-700, but they may have had to switch planes around. We were able to change to a different flight, although our new nonstop flight is not at an ideal time of day. (and the choices with connections were not too much better) It's sort of messing up our first day. We were just going to hang by the pool and relax, and will likely still do that, but we arrive so early, if we're not exhausted from getting up early, I wouldn't mind adding an extra partial day at the parks. Going to play it by ear, I suppose!

 

[jec6613]

I just heard on the news this morning that Boeing is hopeful that the FAA will approve the software patch today and it can start being installed as early as tomorrow!

Since it's grounded, the aircraft will have to be recertified before it can fly though. The more news that comes out, the more it sounds like the FAA and Boeing certified the aircraft thinking of US aircrews, which get more rest than the rest of the world (there was a 2009 crash that caused it to go up, and because of that it's been 10 years since an air transport passenger crash on a US airline after that when before it was one every 1-2 years) and have very specific items they must be trained on, including a runaway stabilizer.

Yes the software could have been better, but this update has apparently been in development on one of the 737 X aircraft (Boeing test platforms) since before even the first accident. There's a lot more to this story (including how many lives it's cost indirectly due to the grounding of the fleet, or how the FAA being shut down halted deployment of the software that was due to be published before the second crash) that of course won't really get reported on very well and will be of more academic interest later.

 

[NYCgrrl]

It will not help Boeing's cause at least in the short term that a MAX 8 made an emergency landing at MCO today. No passengers on board, the plane was moving into storage from one locale to another, and the 2 man crew is fine. At this point they do not think the engine problem was related to what is believe to have caused the other 2 crashes but as per norm the FAA is investigating.

 

[jec6613]

It will not help Boeing's cause at least in the short term that a MAX 8 made an emergency landing at MCO today. No passengers on board, the plane was moving into storage from one locale to another, and the 2 man crew is fine. At this point they do not think the engine problem was related to what is believe to have caused the other 2 crashes but as per norm the FAA is investigating.

Any incident on a certificated aircraft is always investigated, from the cracked window in flight on a Beechcraft up to major incidents. So long as it's not an experimental aircraft, they look at it.

This is actually the first failure of the LEAP-1B, its sibling engine the LEAP-1A in the A320neo family has already had a few issues, but their introduction to service so far has been remarkable in that even new it has had fewer issues than the previous proven CFM56 used on the 737Classic, 737NG, and A320; which has an incident about every three days (about 3 incidents per million flight hours, there are about 30,000 of them in service). It's just headline grabbing because it's the 737MAX.

 

[NYCgrrl]

Any incident on a certificated aircraft is always investigated, from the cracked window in flight on a Beechcraft up to major incidents. So long as it's not an experimental aircraft, they look at it.

This is actually the first failure of the LEAP-1B, its sibling engine the LEAP-1A in the A320neo family has already had a few issues, but their introduction to service so far has been remarkable in that even new it has had fewer issues than the previous proven CFM56 used on the 737Classic, 737NG, and A320; which has an incident about every three days (about 3 incidents per million flight hours, there are about 30,000 of them in service). It's just headline grabbing because it's the 737MAX.

You are obviously some one much more knowledgeable about planes than I; I just ride 'em, LOL.
Still, I'm glad we agree that the FAA will investigate and that the media hasn't forgotten the public's interest in their safety. For what it's worth the NYT and WSJ put this news item "below the fold".

 

[jec6613]

You are obviously some one much more knowledgeable about planes than I; I just ride 'em, LOL.
Still, I'm glad we agree that the FAA will investigate and that the media hasn't forgotten the public's interest in their safety. For what it's worth the NYT and WSJ put this news item "below the fold".

Oh yeah, these sorts of stories are great bellwethers, any place who puts it above the fold is basically yellow journalism.

Here's an idea of how much gets investigated: in 2018 there were 1569 NTSB aviation investigations, or 4.3 per day. That includes every time there's an incident on a US produced aircraft (so Textron, Boeing, Northrop, Lockheed, etc) anywhere in the world, as well as every foreign aircraft that has an incident in US controlled airspace - which includes most of the Pacific Ocean. That's not even all of them either, the FAA has to refer the NTSB to get involved if the incident is viewed to be safety related. The database is even online and searchable.