More pain for travelers - American grounds 595 flights

The chaos facing air travelers continued Friday as American Airlines grounded 595 more flights, or 25% of its schedule, and stranded tens of thousands of passengers.
Friday marked the fourth straight day of trouble for American - the nation's largest airline - which has canceled nearly 2,500 flights affecting some 300,000 passengers.
Overall, U.S. carriers have shut down about 3,700 flights since late March in response to failed Federal Aviation Administration safety inspections of MD-80 airplanes. The FAA is conducting industrywide inspections of all jets that will continue through the end of June.
The canceled flights have reduced air travel to a crawl for many passengers. They come at a difficult time in air travel: Carriers are being hammered by ever-higher fuel costs and passengers are facing rising tickets prices and delays.
"It's a very troubled time for the industry," said Air Travelers Association president David Stempler. "It leaves passengers in a very unsettled state."
What American customers can do
American on Friday was asking customers booked on MD-80 flights to check their flight status on the airline's Web site, AA.com. Filers can also call the airline's standard reservation telephone number, 800-433-7300.
The company said customers whose flights were canceled can apply for a full refund or credit toward another ticket.
Any flyer booked on board a MD-80 aircraft between April 8 and 13 can re-book for free as long as they fly by April 17, even if the flight has not been canceled, according to the airlines. American is allowing only one ticket change.
American also urges customers who were forced to stay overnight due to a cancellation to request compensation by filling out an email form.
The airline is leaving "no stone unturned" to find seats for bumped passengers, said American Airlines spokesman Roger Frizzell. American will try to seat bumped passengers in the empty seats of existing flights, and even try to seat customers on competitors' flights if none are available, he said.
Bumped passengers will likely not supersede booked passengers on flights that are still scheduled to fly, he added.
The airline expects to have 60% of its MD-80 flights in operation by the end of Friday, according to Frizzell. "By end-of-day Saturday, our hopes are that our airline will be back to normal," he said.
Stempler said he recommends passengers reschedule their flights - for another time or on another airline. He urged passengers to try to get on direct flights. "You don't want to get stranded at an intermediary city," he said.
More than 31% of U.S. commercial flights were delayed, canceled or diverted in February, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That's a jump from 2007, when 26% of flights were delayed.
Last year was the worst on record for airline delays since the government began collecting that data in 1995.