The holidays are always a stressful time when it comes to air travel, due to the full flights, longer security lines, and possible bad winter weather around this time of year. But for some travelers, who made the journey from Miami to Los Angeles over the holidays, they found themselves traveling for 20 hours.
Per CNN,
186 travelers endured a 20-hour trip after departing Miami International Airport on Wednesday morning. Instead of getting to LAX before noon, they arrived well after midnight.
American Airlines told CNN the Airbus A321 had a mechanical problem and had to land in Lubbock, Texas.
“There was a noise and then we were told later that one of the engines went out and they had to land in Texas,” Evelyn Albert told KTLA.
After assessing the issue, American called for another plane, but after loading the perturbed passengers, the crew had to fly to Dallas, American’s home base, to gas up.
Then the airliner took off for Los Angeles, landing at 2:15 a.m. on Christmas Eve.
“We appreciate that we got here … to our destination, but we’re 15 hours late,” Johnathan Himebauch said to KTLA.
American Airlines said Thursday it was still trying to figure out the mechanical issue with the original plane.
Bottom Line
It’s unfortunate that this occurred to these 186 passengers onboard American’s flight, but they did eventually land in Los Angeles, making it home for the holidays.
How was your holiday travel this year? Did you experience any lengthy delays or was everything on-time. Please feel free to share your experiences below.
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I think when the engine goes out on your plane and you land safely, all things considered you have come out ahead. The only thing that seems fishy is why they had to fly back to Dallas to refuel. Why couldn’t they refuel in Lubbock? Is Lubbock airport that small that they don’t have the correct refueling equipment for the A321 or was american trying to save $$$ my refueling at a better rate at DFW? If it was the second i’d be pi$$ed
This seems quite minor as compared to the thousands and thousands who were impacted by weather both on 12/23 (east coast) and 12/26-27 (Dallas tornadoes) — it took me 12 hours on the plane to get from SFO to DFW on Sunday and as an EXP I was one of the lucky ones who was able to rebook for the next day. At one point, I stood next to someone who was told that they couldn’t be rebooked until Wednesday. It’s been an ugly week for American all around.
The only reason why the plane couldn’t refuel at LBB is because of current construction on the runway in Lubbock, which meant that the plane wouldn’t be able to take off with the right length of runway given the weight of the fuel needed to get to LAX. I am a ConciergeKey based in Lubbock, and LBB normally sees service from a mix of Mainline and American Eagle aircraft, which is being subbed out right now for a schedule consisting of only American Eagle aircraft for the 90 days or so that the long runway is out of service.
Just flew back from Dallas, and AA was awful (I’m a plat). Delayed over 8 hours. I’d be fine with an 8 hour delay, but the way they went about it was absolutely insane. They clearly had no crew, and kept pushing the flight back 30 minutes. We even had mechanical trouble after departing, and had to come back and switch planes. I found every single person at AA both rude and totally unaccommodating, which I found shocking considering how much I fly with them and rarely encounter this level of poor service.
My trip was supposed to start on 12/24 @ 6:00am and arrive in Jamica at 12:30pm. We did not arrive until 12/26 at 3:00pm, 57 hours later. AA was not helpful. I had to scream at a supervisor to get a hotel room the second night of the delay. We had 4 delays, 2 missed flights and 1 equipment issue and lots of customer disservice.