Frequent Flyers - Flight status - Should I worry?

[soup]

My 16 year old son is coming home today from his spring break vacation in Paris and London.

He's breaking all sorts of personal records - first time flyer - first time away from home without parents - first time out of country - first time to ride on a train - first time to visit a nightclub - or have a glass of wine with dinner - so many things - can't wait to hear the stories.

His plane was scheduled to leave at 12:30 (UK time), 6:30 (home time). Thought I'd track it and kept refreshing the page when it hadn't departed on time. Now the flight tracker has this to say:

Comments: This flight is estimated to depart from London Gatwick, UNITED KINGDOM at 3:45pm The flight is operating behind schedule due to maintenance affecting a prior flight. The flight is currently waiting to depart.

Does this happen often?

[SheilaT]

1. Yes, this happens all the time.

I'm a former airline ticket agent (National Airport in Washington DC 1969-1979) and a significant percent of flights run late. Absolutely not to worry.

A maintenance delay can be any one of a thousand or more things, quite literally, but suffice it to say, some aircraft (and it may not even be the particular one he's flying on) got delayed because of something -- perhaps a warning light, maybe a part broke and needed replacing and it was a complicated fix that took 12 hours.

Think in terms of your car. Most of the time (I hope) it runs just fine, but sometimes it breaks down and you need to wait for the fix. The difference between your car and the airline is that far fewer people depend on the timely operation of your car.

My favorite tale of a delay is the time we operated a flight 24 hours late exactly. What that meant in this case, was that we wound up with two flights going to the same place, one which should have operated the day before, and the one that was on time.

Someday go out to a busy airport and park at the end of the main runway, and sit for eight hours and watch airplanes take off and land. It will give you a pretty accurate sense of how many thousands of planes take off and land safely every single day of the year.

[soup]

3. Thank you.

Your post was really reassuring. It's been a long 8 days for mom (me).

[Oggy]

2. I wouldn't worry

and I am a nervous frequent flyer. It sound to me like either the plane had a minor fault that needed fixing on an earlier flight or the gate was in use by another plane with a fualt. Either way just look forward to seeing your son. I don't often sing the praises of my country, but our Airport safety and security rules are as good if not better than anywhere else in the world.

[soup]

4. Sing it loud and sing it long, Oggy.

:)

Thank you from a nervous mom. 8 days without his smile is a long time.

I'm even missing his nightly grumbling over doing the dishes.

[soup]

5. They're off, finally.

Now going to Charlotte, N.C., and will switch planes there rather than the expected direct flight into Tampa, FL. Going to make a long day for both of us.

Now I can relax a little and give my 'refresh' button a well-deserved rest.

Sometimes the ability to get info in real-time is not such a good thing.

[amazona]

6. yeah, all the time

But usually it happens to me on Continental. Boo hiss!

Sadly, flight delays are all part of flying.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

7. As a seasoned flyer..

Let me assure you that this has happened to me thousands of times -it's nothing to worry about and is more of an inconvenience than anything else

Good luck to your son and don't worry -everything should be fine:)