phorid

Just prior to boarding our 8am flight from LAX to DFW, AA gave Flight 2428 a new flight number and magically changed the destination from DFW to BOS.

AA then changed gates for flight 2428 and said it would leave at 9am. It later changed gates again. At 10am, AA cancelled the flight. Before being told that 2428 was cancelled, I was on the phone for around 30 minutes with Reservations trying to find a way to book a new connecting flight. I also spent 2 1/2 hours waiting in line and talking with customer service at DFW. Because AA took so long to cancel the flight, it made it hard to rebook.

My best result was the ten-hour delay due to all of the morning AA flights to DFW being overbooked. Needless to say, with a ten-hour delay we have missed our connecting flight. As a result, instead of arriving in our destination city at 6pm today, we are arriving at 1pm tomorrow and missing work.

On top of all of this, AA wants us to wait until landing at 11pm in DFW to receive a hotel voucher to some unknown hotel. I have been told that no one on the phone can help me and that only the flight agent at the gate at DFW can help in regard to the hotel voucher.

I don't expect AA to be perfect, but I have never experienced so little help with a ten-hour delay resulting in an overnight when I had clear skies, no explanation, and a commandered plane. Two of us are traveling on miles and another is a paying Platinum.

Any suggestions as to what I can do for all of this wasted time and money? Is this why AA is in bankruptcy? Is anyone else looking at switching to another program?

Thanks.

gemac

Pretty much. AA filed a preemptive bankruptcy in case they had to cancel this flight.

Flight delays can be frustrating. They happen on all airlines.

tylerdurden4543

Yep, sole cause!

will2288

Can anyone explain what this means?

skylady

Aircraft swap?

FWAAA

I have never had any issues getting hotel and food vouchers at the forced overnight layover station, and I suspect you will not either. Just present your boarding pass to the agent when you get off the plane and they'll hand you the vouchers.

Yes, your ten hour ordeal is why AA is in bankruptcy, not because its labor costs have far exceeded those of the competition for years.

Looking to switch to another program? Nope. I've flown enough to know that sometimes things don't go as planned, and that neither UA or DL are immune to the same problems.

Sagy

Best guess is that the gate in which flight 2428 to DFW was supposed to leave showed flight xxxx to BOS when flight 2428 was canceled or delayed past a certain point.

Often1

Overnight acommodations are arranged while you are inflight and vouchers, likely preprinted, are done so that they are available on landing. Having a voucher in hand at LAX may be reassuring, but it isn't going to get you to your hotel room, if you need one, any faster.

I would recomend refraining from snarky bankruptcy comments to AA people. Not likely to get OP a 4-star hotel.

FlyerBeek

Sure. Sounds like the morning LAX-BOS flight (AA222) went mech and AA decided to use the OP's aircraft to fly to BOS instead. I'm not one to get inside AA's aircraft dispatch and decision making process - but considering that AA222 turns around back to LAX as AA145, perhaps it made more sense to cancel the OP's flight (on a route with roughly 18 frequencies daily) than cancel two transcons. Makes sense to me.

-FlyerBeek

skylady

Don't forget the exhorbitant bonuses

ESpen36

Looks like a big combination of factors. I will let somebody else decipher the details....



LAX 805A T4 45
DFW C4 C C4 105P 205P C C11
STL M1 D18 340P
5LAX/6LAX-DFW NRML B75W OPTG IN 7673.CHGEQ DFW TO NRML B75W DUE N5ES
OTS LAX. FTWDP J.T.ARENA *0455
3LAX/DCSN1000 SVCG *0958
1LAX/LX CANCEL LAX -DFW -N378 OTS LAX *1154
7LAX/AUTO REACCOM CANCELLED FLT SEE N*2428FEB26LAX P3 *1204*CRCYMG
2DFW/PRE1456 *0947
7DFW/AUTO REACCOM DELAYED FLT SEE N*2428FEB26DFW *1016*CRCYMG
5DFW/FLT 2428 STUB ORIG PLN DEP DFW ETD 1405 -- DFW .FTWDP P.HOUCK *1027
3DFW/ETD1520 A/E 1332 *1431
4DFW/OUT1523 OFF1538 *1538
2STL/IN1656 *1657

will2288

That makes sense, thanks. I guess when the OP said 'AA gave flight 2428 a new flight number' he meant the plane that he was supposed to board was used for a different flight (the one to BOS). I didn't pick up on that at first.

phorid

I appreciate the comments. What I meant by the bankruptcy comment was that the agents knew the flight was never going to happen but online reservations gnored reality. My point was that management seems far removed from what is actually happening. One rep told me that if AA had just canceled the flight earlier, people could have rebooked easier and that she was embarrassed. Also we had flight canceled on way to LAX just too make sure next flight was full.
Hey, I have endured delays and never felt this way before. Our flight was canceled with no reason and they waited for six flights to rebook us causing an overnight.

skylady

That's why you can't blame low level employees for a management decision. We are always having to explain the unexplainable!

brp

As others have noted, this is unrelated to the bankruptcy. It's common of late for people to blame the bankruptcy for everything from delayed flights to poor movie choices to not getting their meal choices. Never mind that all these things happened before.

And, while I can't speak for others, I can say that I'm not looking to switch airline allegiance because you had a 10 hour delay.

Cheers.