American Is Flying An A380 From Tampa To Chicago?!

American Is Flying An A380 From Tampa To Chicago?!

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On a serious note, I hope everyone who is trying to get out of the path of Hurricane Irma can do so safely. It’s great to see that (most) airlines have capped fares out of Florida, and are flying bigger planes to Florida to get people out. As an aviation geek, it’s hard not to book one of the Delta 777s or 747s that they’ve been sending to Florida to get people out (though I realize other people have more of a need to be on those planes than I do).

On a lighter note, something funny happened that I have to share. My dad and I were going to take a trip to Slovakia and Macedonia, though unfortunately are canceling due to Hurricane Irma. My dad was originally scheduled to fly from Tampa to Chicago this coming Monday (this all happened before Hurricane Irma posed a real threat), and I haven’t gotten around to canceling the flight. I figure there are other people with more of a need to get through to American agents, and this flight is after people would be evacuating anyway.

So today I received an email saying that my dad had been rebooked because his flight was canceled. Okay, I figured he was rebooked a few days later, or something.

Instead I saw this message:

A flight at exactly the same time, operated by an A380 rather than a 737? YES PLEASE! For a very brief moment I thought “who knows, maybe, just maybe, this is possible.” After all, British Airways has leased planes from Qatar Airways during strikes, so it’s not totally inconceivable that they’d find big planes to operate these routes. But then reality set in, and I realized it was probably a glitch.

I clicked through in the email, at which point it became clear he had simply been rebooked on the same flight on Wednesday… not on an A380.

Oh well…

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  1. Paul Member

    Ben- You are better than this.

  2. MH Diamond

    Clickbait. QR is spot on.

  3. W Gold

    @Curious - No, Tampa cannot handle an A380.

  4. Ian Guest

    How is this clickbait?!?! We all know AA doesn't have an A380 so I was curious how the 'A380' came about. People need to chill out and just enjoy the blog. If you don't like it move on! Thanks Ben! I appreciated the laugh!

  5. Dave Guest

    Mr bigshot flies around the world in first, has millions of miles, then books his elderly father in economy. Sad

  6. Luke Guest

    Lame for those of us who have family trapped down there

  7. Andy Miles Guest

    AA cancelled their flight, MIA-POS on Thursday evening, after everyone was boarded. So that leaves a plane full of people then having to sort out somewhere to stay at very short notice with an approaching hurricane. Too late to drive north unless you're prepared to get to S Carolina.
    hotel room? Hard to find a vacant room in an open hotel.
    No chance of a seat the next day for a plane full...

    AA cancelled their flight, MIA-POS on Thursday evening, after everyone was boarded. So that leaves a plane full of people then having to sort out somewhere to stay at very short notice with an approaching hurricane. Too late to drive north unless you're prepared to get to S Carolina.
    hotel room? Hard to find a vacant room in an open hotel.
    No chance of a seat the next day for a plane full of people.
    It's a decision that leaves so many people in jeopardy. Such poor notice and dreadful decision making process.

  8. W Gold

    Pray for victims. It was coming tward me (in Jacksonville, Fl) though it turned westward tward Tampa. I hope everyone their is safe

  9. JK Guest

    Great story. Really appreciate the information.

  10. Curious Guest

    Can Tampa even support an a380? Don't they need wider taxiways than normal?

  11. Paul Guest

    I see AA is now trolling their customers. When you think they've reached a new bottom they go even lower.

  12. QR Guest

    @RM — That's kind of the definition of clickbait...headlines are written in an exaggerative or misleading way so that people click on it. Just because it's technically "correct" based on the content of the article doesn't make it less clickbait.

    The non-clickbait headline would be: "American mistakenly reports flying A380 from Tampa to Chicago."

    Much less sexy than "American Is Flying An A380 From Tampa To Chicago?!"

  13. Dan Allen Member

    I don't see this as click bait but as someone who evacuated from palm Beach to NYC and paid about $300, i wish someone woukd investigate the airline claims of the caped fares - which very few if anyone received- and the increased flights- which havent materialized.
    I guess that would be too anti airline for some.

    On a positive note i did call Jetblue this morning and requested a refund of the...

    I don't see this as click bait but as someone who evacuated from palm Beach to NYC and paid about $300, i wish someone woukd investigate the airline claims of the caped fares - which very few if anyone received- and the increased flights- which havent materialized.
    I guess that would be too anti airline for some.

    On a positive note i did call Jetblue this morning and requested a refund of the overcharge we obviously were forced to pay. They were very nice, said they have received many similar calls (no really) and in process of investing.

  14. tim Member

    I don't see the clickbait here. American Airlines is indeed providing flights on an A380 from Tampa to Chicago. If you think this is clickbait, check out Gary's site.

  15. JC Member

    Lucky,

    Sorry to hear you are cancelling your trip to Slovakia and Macedonia due to Irma. Hope your parents and family stay safe during this hurricane.

  16. RM Guest

    There's actually no clickbait here at all, especially if folks read the entire post as opposed to the first few words. He goes on to show exactly what he was talking about with the A380 and American. While perhaps that could have been re-arranged for those with less than 90 seconds to read, it was all pretty clear.

    Unlike Gary, Lucky is pretty darn good about not doing clickbait. As such, when I sign-up for...

    There's actually no clickbait here at all, especially if folks read the entire post as opposed to the first few words. He goes on to show exactly what he was talking about with the A380 and American. While perhaps that could have been re-arranged for those with less than 90 seconds to read, it was all pretty clear.

    Unlike Gary, Lucky is pretty darn good about not doing clickbait. As such, when I sign-up for credit cards, I actually very specifically use Lucky's links over Gary's.

  17. Eponymous coward Guest

    Betteridge's law of headlines in action.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines

  18. Alex Guest

    Claiming something isnt clickbait on a technicality is kinda an oxymoron, dont you think?

  19. AW Guest

    @Klop Technically it's not.

  20. Claudia Jean Guest

    Question: "American is flying an A380 from Tampa to Chicago?!"

    Answer: No.

    Another meaningless OMAAT post.

  21. Eugene Member

    So does this define an equipment change ;)?

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Paul Member

Ben- You are better than this.

0
MH Diamond

Clickbait. QR is spot on.

0
W Gold

@Curious - No, Tampa cannot handle an A380.

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