An open letter to American Airlines

• August 11, 2004
• Travel  

I understand the concept of scheduling an average of 199 takeoffs and landings every hour continuously between 10am and 3pm at Chicago, when the airport can only sustain 200-202 flight operations per hour, and then when even the tiniest thing goes wrong, the resulting commercial aviation gridlock paralyzing flights over all North America is the fault of the weather, and not the fault of the airlines for over-scheduling. Really. I get it.

But could you at least make the estimated departure times on the flight status boards be accurate, so that those of us who pay $400/year to have a comfortable place to sit and relax (somewhat) during your inevitable flight delays, can relax in (relative) comfort at the Admiral’s Club until the plane is truly ready to leave?

Thank you.