American Airlines appears to have smoothed out customer-service difficulties at DIA today after the shortfalls that plagued the airline Wednesday.
At mid-morning, the line at American’s ticket counter was short, even though the carrier had canceled a good portion of its Thursday schedule.
On Wednesday, American canceled 19 out of 22 of its DIA departures because of ongoing inspection of the carrier’s MD-80 fleet.
Fred and Sharon Crandal, and their 10-year-old grandson Shane Snyder, of Battle Creek, Mich., arrived at DIA early this morning to find that their 10:30 a.m. flight to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on American was canceled. The trio had been vacationing in Winter Park.
Fred Crandal said the American ticket counter was fully staffed, the line moved quickly and that they were rebooked by American to O’Hare on United Airlines with a stop in Des Moines.
To soften the flight inconvenience, the Crandals and Shane, who was still charged up about his snowboarding exploits, were given first-class seats for the Des Moines leg.
“I’d give them an A because we’re still getting home the same day, only a few hours later,” Sharon Crandal said.
Suzanne and Blake Prelipp of Bailey found that their 12:55 p.m. American flight to O’Hare was operating today. The Prelipps breezed through ticketing and headed to equally short security-screening lines. “We were most worried about the weather,” Blake Prelipp said.
The combination of blowing snow, low visibility and the need to de-ice planes at DIA this morning caused some minor flight delays.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
