American Airlines Detoured A Nonstop Flight For World Cup Fans—They Made The Game, But The Flight Arrived 2 Hours Late

American Airlines took non-stop flight 2161 from San Francisco to Philadelphia, and diverted it to Dallas on on Tuesday to drop off dozens of soccer fans. Notes for the flight show that the decision was made to give World Cup travelers a lift to their game, while other passengers waited. An American Airlines spokesperson shares, When our team realized a large group of FIFA World Cup 26™ fans were going to miss Tuesday’s semifinal match in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, they immediately got to work to deliver. That meant one of our San Francisco (SFO) to Philadelphia (PHL) flights made a brief stop in Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) to drop off the group, with minimal to no impact to the other customers booked on this flight. That’s a win-win in our book. American Airlines Airbus A321 According to an American Airlines employee in San Francisco, this was to drop off FIFA VIPs. In fact, they designated the group VIPs because it was a large number of travelers headed to the game. It appears they had been stranded by American flight 2228’s roughly ten-hour delay. SFO 600A 1 B27 DFW C26 C34 1146A 1245P C34 PHL 16 B5 235P 7SFO/AURA DLY FLT IN PROGRESS *0400*CRCYMG 4SFO/OUT0557 OFF0620 *0820 2DFW/IN1138 *1140 3DFW/ETD1235 *1230 4DFW/OUT1235 OFF1256 *1256 1PHL/INTMD LNDG AT DFW PRE1145PLANNED ENROUTE LANDING FOR WORLD CUP PAX (…) [XXXXXX] *0309 2PHL/IN1656 *1558 The operational note was entered at 0309 which is 3:09 a.m. Central, or 1:09 a.m. Pacific time. That’s about five hours before departure. It says: “PLANNED ENROUTE LANDING FOR WORLD CUP PAX.” PRE1145 also means a preliminary arrival estimate while the aircraft was still on the ground. This was technically categorized as a diversion and “leg created by diversion,” but it was a preplanned additional stop. The flight, operated by Airbus A321neo N471AN, left the San Francisco gate at 5:57 a.m. and took off at 6:20. It landed at DFW airport at 11:25 a.m. and reached the gate at 11:38. They dropped off passengers, and then left the DFW gate at 12:35 p.m., taking off again at 12:56. It eventually reached the gate in Philadelphia at 4:56 p.m., 2 hours and 21 minutes late. The France – Spain semifinal began at Dallas Stadium at 2 p.m. Central. The passengers reached the DFW gate 2 hours and 22 minutes before kickoff and would have made it in time. Meanwhile, flight 2228 had been scheduled to leave San Francisco at 11:20 p.m. Pacific on July 13 and reach Dallas at 4:59 a.m. Passengers were booked on this redeye with plenty of time to spare. However, it didn’t ultimately leave its gate until 9:43 a.m. on July 14. It arrived in Dallas at 3:15 p.m., more than an hour after kickoff where transit to the stadium would still have been in front of them. American Airlines at DFW Airport American is the “Official North American Airline Supplier” and that’s apparently been much more than just a marketing sponsorship. They’ve worked hard to get not just FIFA executives but also fans to games. “AURA DLY FLT IN PROGRESS” means American’s automated reaccommodation tool was processing for Philadelphia-bound passengers with further connections. While some passengers had to be rebooked, the flight was relatively lightly booked and it seems that everyone made it to their destinations same day at least, some rerouted via Dallas and even got in earlier, though it seems to me that since American decided to privilege other passengers at the expense of some who did wind up misconnecting from their original flights there ought to be some sort of compensation. I’d note also that the plane’s next flight, American 1489 from Philadelphia to San Diego, ran about three hours late. Another San Francisco – Dallas Fort Worth flight, Ameircan 1198, left around 5:38 a.m. and landed in Dallas at 10:45. It clearly didn’t have the seats available to reaccommodate this large group of soccer fans. American Airlines Philadelphia Airport Terminal A A diversion like this is rare, but not unprecedented. I wrote about a flight where American made an extra stop on their Dallas – Nassau flight to pick up 74 passengers in New Orleans who were headed to Nassau as well. Those passengers were supposed to fly via Charlotte, but a delay meant they’d misconnect. They got to fly non-stop instead. And New Orleans is directly enroute to Nassau, so they didn’t have to go out of their way like the San Francisco – Philadephia passengers did to get to Dallas. Topics on this page