Trip Reports - American Eagle Airlines in San Juan wrecked our vacation!

My girlfriend and I flew with American Airlines from Hartford, Connecticut to San Juan, Puerto Rico on Saturday, July 30th, 2005 on Flight AA 1141. There were no problems on this flight.
Soon after we arrived in San Juan and entered into the terminal of American Eagle Airlines, our problems began. We were preparing to board Flight AA 5184 for Saint Lucia when we were informed that the flight had been delayed by bad weather. We were soon further informed that the flight had been cancelled because of low cloud cover. When we inquired about flights later in the day, we were informed in a perfunctory manner that, much to our amazement, none of those flights would be available to us. We were also informed, again in a very abrupt and callous fashion, that our lodging responsibilities would be our own. The only positive note was that we were told that special charter flights would be added to the schedule the next day to accommodate us. (This turned out to be a lie, one which would American Eagle Airlines would repeat often.). However, the first warning sign that this whole operation was off-track occurred when we were also off-handedly informed, and only after repeated and forceful questioning of the ticket agent, that our recently checked luggage was now in the baggage claim center and would need to be reclaimed and rechecked.
Jean and I then secured a $150/night room in the Best Western at the airport.
A little later on the afternoon of that same day, Saturday July 30th, 2005, I called the AA reservation number we had been provided by the ticket agent. I was first told there was no room for us on any of the next day’s regularly scheduled Saint Lucia flights. When I pressed the representative concerning the promised additional flights, he replied that there were no additional flights. It was only after I became insistent to the point of obnoxiousness that the service representative relented and suddenly discovered that, yes indeed, we were booked on Flight AA 5058 the next day, scheduled to depart at 2:20 p.m. This pattern of behavior, where no meaningful response of any kind would be offered by any San Juan American Airlines employee with whom I was dealing until I became visibly angry, sadly marked almost every exchange throughout my brutal encounter with American Airlines at San Juan International Airport.
To cap the pain of the first lost day of Jean’s and my long scheduled and expensive vacation, imagine, if you will, our consternation as we witnessed an American Eagle flight to Saint Lucia leaving, with no room for us, late in the day on Saturday.
On Sunday, July 31st, 2005, as we checked our baggage for flight 5058, we experienced the first indication that American Airlines clearly had no intention of allowing any passengers to depart for Saint Lucia that weekend, for reasons that only you know, but that certainly were not entirely weather related as your ticket representatives claimed. The earliest flight for Saint Lucia, we were informed, had been cancelled for claimed mechanical reasons. There was now a host of visibly distraught consumers floating around the San Juan American Eagle boarding area at Terminal 1. Some were there, as we were, for their second day and some had been actually trapped in the terminal for three days. Meanwhile, there was no outreach or organized attempt by American to deal in any way with the dozens of obviously upset consumers. The ticket representatives would only lamely and repeatedly insist that it was a weather concern and out of their hands as we watched all the other flights merrily leave on time.
As the day progressed, and before our scheduled 5058 flight, we were able to get ourselves placed on a connecting flight (for which I don’t have the number) that was going to deposit a load of Saint Lucia travelers in Antigua. They were going to be transported to Saint Lucia by British Airways. Jean and I and another couple were sitting on the shuttle bus waiting to be transported to the plane when we were asked to get off because it had been decided that the connecting flight would arrive too late for British Airway’s schedule. We went back to the airport and were soon joined by a host of travelers who had been waiting on the plane itself.
For the final indignity, American Eagle mysteriously decided that while it was not able to transport passengers to Saint Lucia on Flight 5058, it would send their luggage. Flight 5058 had originally been designated as a two-stop flight, the first stop being Saint Lucia, before reaching the destination of Canouan. When the Saint Lucia leg of the flight was cancelled, the luggage was apparently left on board. As I tried to explain this fact to the person apparently overseeing the Baggage Claim area, he heatedly denied it was a problem and that the bags would probably show up and then he just left the area, not to return. When I informed the one English speaking employee who remained in the area of our problem, he punched the flight number up on his computer screen, phoned someone and repeated the flight number in Spanish several times. He then assured me that the bags were on their way and that all was well. After over an additional hour of waiting for our bags, when I asked this same employee where they were, he started hollering “I don’t know! I don’t know! I don’t know!“ At that point, Jean and I stopped looking for our bags.
Jean and I discussed our situation at that point with an American Eagle ticket representative. We were not prepared emotionally or economically to stay in a hotel and eat in San Juan for three more nights. (Our scheduled vacation at Sandals Grand in Saint Lucia was prepaid.) The American Eagle Airlines ticket representative confirmed our worse fears, saying that because Monday, August 1st was a holiday in Saint Lucia, he honestly believed we could not reasonably expect to successfully fly to Saint Lucia the next day (Monday). He in fact said he honestly felt that Tuesday was the earliest day we could possibly expect to get to Saint Lucia. We believed him because of our experience up to that point but also, as I already stated, because we had talked with several passengers who were at that point trapped by American Eagle Airlines in the San Juan Airport for their third consecutive day.
Since our vacation was scheduled to end Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005, and the American Airlines ticket representative told us we stood a very good chance of not leaving San Juan until Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005, we threw in the towel and decided that it was in our best interest to start making arrangements to return to America. Feeling overwhelmed and completely drained, we secured seating on AA Flight 1312 Sunday night and returned to America without our luggage.
We are out the cost of our vacation, we are out the cost of two intermediate flights, we are out the cost of the two main flights because they were worthless exercises in stress, we are out the cost of a forced stay in the Best Western Hotel at the airport and we are out our luggage (which remains unfound), with all of our most important daily clothing. We unnecessarily sacrificed vacation time from work . We also have been subjected to incredible stress and discomfort because of overwhelmingly arbitrary and unresponsive customer care from American Airlines.
And the final kicker? The only response I’ve officially received from American Airlines are three auto-responses to email complaints. Not one person in any capacity has called or written or responded. No-one!
This entire experience with American Airlines was one of the most intensely disappointing consumer experiences Jean and I have ever suffered. It was clear from the beginning that there was more than weather (politics? Business arguments?) driving the American Airline flight cancellation decisions and that no passengers would make it to Saint Lucia from San Juan unless they were arbitrarily permitted to do so. The American Eagle Airlines staff was very unresponsive and unmotivated.

I think you should call up the consumer relations and also write a letter to the VP Consumer Relations with your experience. Also try calling Sandals and see if you can reschedule your vacation (you might get lucky !!)

Best of luck, it was truely a nightmarish experience.

GRR_Flier :( :(

I found myself in a similar situation about a year ago. Went to the SJU airport and found that our flight was delayed repeatedly. Beginning at 11:00 am it was delayed at least 5 times before being cancelled at 8:00 pm. I took matters into my own hands, made new arrangements, saved all of the receipts and when I landed back in the USA wrote American a letter included the receipts. No response. I sued them in court and am the proud receipient of a favorable judgment against AA. Their payment check is framed on my wall of shame. Don't ever rely on an Airline to solve problems they create. Be prepared to adjust your plans and deal with it after you've enjoyed yourself

Small claims court is a very effective remedy depending on the total of your claim. First try with AA - keep you letter short and simple and propose an amount of compensation you deem fair.

This sounds like a horrible experience. I have taken the liberty of posting a link to this thread in the AA Forum. You should check for that thread over in that forum as I think it will get more attention from the AA experts.

Good luck.

A genuine nightmare...

I would document carefuly what happened, write a letter to upper management at American Airlines. They should provide you with some compensation, in my opinion. Do be aware that American Airlines and American Eagle are separate companies, IMO making it more difficult to communicate and gain swift remedial action. (AE at SJU can be a nightmare antyime...)

For future planning:

Also, this is, in fact, the time for potential weather problems in the Caribbean (not just hurricanes.) To complicate the issue, there are two airports at St. Lucia: SLU (St. Lucia - Vigie) which is pretty primitive in terms of what it can offer aircraft in bad weather, and the much larger, but not well utilized, UVF - Hewanorra airport on the south end of the island (poor location, given the tricky road system in St. Lucia.) Hewanorra is capable of accepting larger aircraft, and in fact American Airlines has a daily flight (AA2279) from Miami operated with a Boeing 737-823, much my preferred method of transport when going to St. Lucia (it has been operated for a long time on a seasonal basis - I have flown to UVF on the old AA B727-223 Adv in the past.)

(BTW, BA flies ANU - UVF Wed Su only - Antigua is a hub for LIAT - LI - and Caribbean Star - 8B; LIAT is not known for its timeliness nor customer service. The SJU-ANU AE / ANU-UVF BA substitute would have been to Hewanorra anyway, not SLU.)

Given the large non-cancellable amount of money at risk, the propensity for poor weather at this time of year - and even hurricanes - I'd recommend anyone considering a summer trip to St. Lucia or similar take out trip cancellation and interruption insurance for just these eventualities. These can vary in cost, but can cover the costs involved. One can have the greatest selection and comparison of available policies (be sure to read the terms and conditions for those you are considering!) on
www.insuremytrip.com - which often displays twenty or more policy possibilities and can save you serious money.

In the OP's case, I hope AA and Sandals do the right thing. If not, small claims court may indeed be a reasonable recourse against AA / AE - but he still lost the holiday, considerable time and some expenses that will be completely lost. Trip planning is essential particularly where transport may be limited, iffy and weather even worse, and trip cancellation / interruption insurance can take up some of the slack when there are high amounts of money at risk.

I read Conde Nast Traveler magazine every month and there is an Ombudsman feature in there where the magazine basically takes some travel vendor to task for completely screwing over some poor travelers like you. The results as you can imagine are usually pretty good, given that the vendor is going to get some pretty bad publicity if they dont fix the mess. Your fiasco sounds perfect, and I think it's been a while since American Airlines has been featured. I'd try them over small claims court. I think you have to submit via regular mail to: Ombudsman, Conde Nast Traveler, 4 Times Square, New York, NY 10036.

Thank you all for the great suggestions! Your input made us feel much better. I'll let youknow how we make out. So far, no response from American Airlines at all.

I read Conde Nast Traveler magazine every month and there is an Ombudsman feature in there where the magazine basically takes some travel vendor to task for completely screwing over some poor travelers like you. The results as you can imagine are usually pretty good, given that the vendor is going to get some pretty bad publicity if they dont fix the mess. Your fiasco sounds perfect, and I think it's been a while since American Airlines has been featured. I'd try them over small claims court. I think you have to submit via regular mail to: Ombudsman, Conde Nast Traveler, 4 Times Square, New York, NY 10036.

This strikes me as a very good idea. But you might expand on it by contacting other travel publications and travel columns for widely read newspapers such as the NY Times. At the same time, hold onto small claims court as a fallback option.

My best advice from many years of flying - during blizzards, union job actions, bomb threats, etc. - do not talk/complain/b***h with other passengers who are also "stranded" in the airport. It only makes things more frustrating. Everyone gets more angry and tons of misinformation gets spread around. Keep quiet and focus on getting yourself and your significant other to where you want to be. Remember that it is hurricane season in the caribbean and flights do get cancelled. Also, it sounds to me like you lost your temper at least once (I could be wrong). The best thing that could have been done at that point is to stand back and have your travel companion do the talking. When tempers are flaring and everyone is frustrated like that, things can get out of hand and you could have wound up in jail.

My other piece of advice is that when you encounter unusual operations like this, call a friend or family member at home who has internet access and see if you can figure out what is going on and come up with alternatives. Perhaps you could have gotten in touch with Sandals and switched to one of their other resorts where you might be able to get a flight to from SJU. Hey, there might even be a Sandals in Puerto Rico. I have found that, when you have alternate suggestions/plans when you talk to the customer service representatives, they will usually accomodate you. Especially in situations like this where they have pretty wide latitude - they just want you out of there too. But when you are just frustrated because you want to go to St Lucia and all the flights are full, you end up in a conflict. Someone mentioned that AA has a flight to St Lucia from Miami - they might have been able to get you to MIA to connect with that flight.

Also, your friend at home may have been able to call AA reservations for you (armed with your record locators, etc.) and see if they can get you out of there. I can't even tell you how many times that my friends/coworkers/family have called me to check flight loads, delay status, book cheap hotel rooms, buy Amtrak tickets (HUGE east coast blizzard - all flights cancelled)

Don't worry about the auto-reply emails from AA - you'll always get them just confirming that they received the email. This sounds like a complicated situation that happened over several days. Give them a couple of weeks to investigate and get back to you. I have always gotten excellent customer service from AA and hope that this is resolved to your satisfaction.

Their payment check is framed on my wall of shame.

Well, it sounds in your case AA got the last laugh. I would have cashed the check instead of framing it.

Well, it sounds in your case AA got the last laugh. I would have cashed the check instead of framing it.
Rest assured; to be more exact, The check was cashed, the repro was framed. ^ ^

<skipped>
To cap the pain of the first lost day of Jean’s and my long scheduled and expensive vacation, imagine, if you will, our consternation as we witnessed an American Eagle flight to Saint Lucia leaving, with no room for us, late in the day on Saturday.

<skipped>

Feeling overwhelmed and completely drained, we secured seating on AA Flight 1312 Sunday night and returned to America without our luggage.
.

Wow, that was a mess. Of course, airlines don't have available extra planes and crews to replace every weather canceled flight. It is understandable that they would not have room for extra people on full weekend flights. When they told you they couldn't put you on a later flight, it was because they were full, not because they wanted to mistreat you. And It is good that you "returned to America" in one piece. We wouldn't want you to be worried about being stuck in another country, like Puerto Rico. Did they check your passport when letting you out of SJU airport?

Thanks to all again for your advice.
Update - the luggage has been found. I just received a weak, barely audible phone call from a very nice lady in Saint Lucia who informed me that she had located our luggage and was booking it on a flight home. The side story to all of this is that American Airline's Central Baggage Service had informed me yesterday that Saint Lucia had been scoured, even Antigua and St. Thomas, along with San Juan International Airport, all to no avail. Our bags were lost. I received what amounted to a resigned, fairly condescending lecture about not having good identifying tags on our luggage. When I explained that we did tag our bags carefully, the American Airlines Baggage expert just clucked at me and said, 'Well, the tags had to come off somehow...' Then he proceeded to email me a complicated, almost incomprehensible greyscale luggage identification chart that was supposed to help American Airlines identify our luggage. He also emailed me two .pdf forms that wouldn't open at all. Apparently our bags had been flying in a holding pattern for the past few days and just descended on the island now.
Just a quick comment for the folks who responded advising me about the weather - I understand that it is hurrican season in the Caribbean. But it would seem to be an unusually targeted hurricane that could afflict one half of a fairly small island, while missing the entire rest of the Caribbean. No, I don't believe there was any weather emergency at all. I believe American Eagle was using that as cover because they overbooked. And keep in mind, when the weather story wouldn't hold, suddenly the plane had mechanical issues.
And to the last commenter who said that an airline can't be expected to have additional flights available for weather cancelled flights. Why not? It would have been very possible to schedule one or two extra charters the next day. In fact, they promised to do just that and then reneged on that promise. They took our money with a commitment to deliver us where we chose. If they could deliver others to that location safely, why not all of us for whom they agreed to provide that service? Again, this wasn't about weather. It was about American Eagle overbooking. And as far as your last comment about my reference to 'returning to America', I get the point. Yes, Puerto Rico is part of America. And no, they didn't ask me for my passport when I left San Juan International Airport. Puerto Rico is probably a friendly, warm, inviting place of great beauty. We considered going out into the San Juan community and making our vacation there, but we had invested a considerable amount of money in our scheduled vacation. We just didn't have the economic resources to do a different vacation on such short notice. So our frame of reference was a feeling of being trapped in a hostile and unfamiliar environment where we had nobody in any official or administrative capacity whom we could trust. To be honest, we didn't feel welcome or at ease or at home for one second anywhere by American Airlines employees in San Juan International Airport. In fact, American Airlines employees lied to us repeatedly during this whole frustrating mess. And believe me, we were not alone. This feeling was commonly discussed among the travelers who hailed from several countries, as well as residents of a couple of Caribbean islands. They all felt that they couldn't wait to get back to 'their country'.

You deserve another vacation at The Sandals St.Lucia where AA pays for the room,flight and other expenses that you incurred on your "unplanned stay" in Puerto Rico. In this case I would have said to AA fine you can only fly me on Tuesday to St.Lucia then you will book me at the same resort on your dime and you will pay for the rest of the flights and reimburse me for the hotel in San Juan. I would rather spend more time on vacation that flying home where I can't relax. AA in this situation does not understand total relaxation on vacation.

It's too bad you did not go on my Hawaii flights all of them arrived on time if not early.Great service in First class and everyone treated me with respect.

So you have every right to demand another vacation. Have AA book the days you would have stayed in St. Lucia and add more to make it a longer vacation. Should AA throw in your daily salary to take extra time from work?

Anyways sorry for the problems you incurred.

Our local newspaper, The North Adams Transcript, ran a front page story that discussed our travel woes. Apparently, people are interested....We're just glad that forums like this one and the newspaper are giving us some chance to be heard....thank you!!
If you are interested, here's where you go to read the story -
www.thetranscript.com
you will have to make sure you're reading the Friday August 5th edition.

Our local newspaper, The North Adams Transcript, ran a front page story that discussed our travel woes.

that's great... keep the pressure on and make sure that AA sees this. And by the way, don't be discouraged by the comments about "oh these things happen" and the like. Some things might happen, but the airline should do more than let you stand around and try to pick up the pieces yourself. I've had things like this start to happen, but as a very frequent flier I have the "elite" hotlines to call and make sure things get fixed. I've then gone back to the gates and listened as the agents there lied to other passengers about what was happening and what recourse they were entitled to. What happened to you is inexcusable! keep the pressure on...

And It is good that you "returned to America" in one piece. We wouldn't want you to be worried about being stuck in another country, like Puerto Rico. Did they check your passport when letting you out of SJU airport?

Thank you for pointing this out! ^ Although I completely commiserate with the OP, what a nightmare, this comment really irked me.

Amapola in SJU

Thank you for pointing this out! ^ Although I completely commiserate with the OP, what a nightmare, this comment really irked me.

Amapola in SJU

Thank you for commiserating with us, Amapola. As far as the comment which irked you about 'returning to America', I think if you read this section of the reply I made to "mvoight", you might understand a little more clearly the sentiment that went into that comment.

"...And as far as your last comment about my reference to 'returning to America', I get the point. Yes, Puerto Rico is part of America. And no, they didn't ask me for my passport when I left San Juan International Airport. Puerto Rico is probably a friendly, warm, inviting place of great beauty. We considered going out into the San Juan community and making our vacation there, but we had invested a considerable amount of money in our scheduled vacation. We just didn't have the economic resources to do a different vacation on such short notice. So our frame of reference was a feeling of being trapped in a hostile and unfamiliar environment where we had nobody in any official or administrative capacity whom we could trust. To be honest, we didn't feel welcome or at ease or at home for one second anywhere by American Airlines employees in San Juan International Airport. In fact, American Airlines employees lied to us repeatedly during this whole frustrating mess. And believe me, we were not alone. This feeling was commonly discussed among the travelers who hailed from several countries, as well as residents of a couple of Caribbean islands. They all felt that they couldn't wait to get back to 'their country'..."

And for all concerned repliers, again, thank you very much. Still no meaningful response from American or American Eagle.

If you are interested, here's where you go to read the story -
www.thetranscript.com
you will have to make sure you're reading the Friday August 5th edition.The good news for Melillo and Donovan is that they bought travel insurance so they can expect to be reimbursed for their flights and hotel.:confused:
Seems like a relevant piece of the story had been left out here...

:confused:
Seems like a relevant piece of the story had been left out here...
Nope - the story was a wonderful story, but the travel insurance we did have applies to the Sandals vacation only. And we have been initially informed that even that is not a cut and dried decision because of the fact that a few of the fliers made it through, due to the supposedly weather oriented nature of the cancellation. On top of that, we lost time from work, vacation time, out of pocket expenses like the hotel, etc. etc. And finally, the cherry on the top is that American Airlines has not contacted us in any way manner shape or form, refusing to respond to repeated attempts to contact them.

this is precisely why I buy travel insurance... I don't want to see my vacations ruined by illness, weather delays, lost baggage etc.

People say it's worthless but in a case like this (and this comment is not directed to you, billdonovanjr , just a general FYI) it can at least recoup some costs.

Man, this is amazing - everyone's holiday nightmare. Sorry, honestly, dont know what to say. Its amazing companies can get away with this, and cant be 'reached' by the customers. Best of luck getting something back, let us know! And dont stop fighting!

Problem is, $$ wont bring back the time lost, but at least...

If I understand the series of events, you flew BDL-SJU on AA1141 with a connection to SJU-SLU. Then there's a weather delay which caused a flight cancellation. At this point you have the option to return to BDL or wait for the Jul31 flight.

You chose to wait, and paid the hotel expense out of pocket. In the mean time, you're upset to see a SJU-SLU flight leave without you, but don't know anything about the load (100% full or not) and whether your ticket could have squeezed you into the flight (almost certainly not).

On Jul31, you were rebooked (#2) on AA5058, which departs at 2:20pm. Rather than simply accept that flight, you decided to go to booking #3 on AA1857 (SJU-ANU) which departs at 12:07pm in order to connect to the BA2157 flight (ANU-SLU). The only possible benefit I can see from switching from a non-stop to this itinierary is that you arrive about 35 minutes earlier in SLU.

But you were pulled off AA1857 due to delays which would produce a misconnect. At this point, your #2 booking is no longer valid and someone else is sitting on that flight. Your luggage, unfortunately, didn't get pulled off the flight correctly and it left without you.

At this point, you flew back SJU-BDL without your luggage.

-------------------

First of all, you said you "sacrificed vacation time". Yet you were home in BDL by Sunday night and presumably could have gone to work on Monday with no vacation days spent.

Secondly, you are implying that AA was lying about the fact there are weather problems, yet it seems monumentally unlikely they'd do so just to ruin people's vacations and get them upset at AA. Why not accept the more likely answer - there was weather problems.

Third, you unnecessarily complicated your own life with booking #3 for SJU-ANU-SLU. While AA is obviously at fault for losing your luggage, you were an accessory to the act by attempting to do a end-run when you already got rebooked on a non-stop.

Fourth, since the only time in which your luggage was lost was times when you were at home, AA's procedures will severely limit the amount of compensation you might be due. Presumably, there's nothing in your luggage you can't live without since you are at home.

Finally, given the delays were weather-related and that you chose to use the return portion of your ticket, AA's own procedures and rules means they could simply deny any further compensation. Enough bad PR would do the job and make them offer it, but they would certainly be on solid legal ground to simply refuse.

The lesson is this. During irregular operations and flying on a plane like the intra-island turbo props, avoid checking luggage until the last moment in the event of cancellation. The baggage handlers can toss it into the limited cargo capacity just as easily while you board, as if you checked it at the counter. They can't do it with a big jet, but it's easy with the small planes.

If you have been rebooked, don't screw around with the rebooking just to shave 30 minutes off your arrival.

Remain calm.

Make a decision on whether to try to reach the destination on the day the misconnect happens. It might have been a good idea to simply turn around on Jul30 and avoid the hassles which followed, especially if you had trip insurance.

And finally, the cherry on the top is that American Airlines has not contacted us in any way manner shape or form, refusing to respond to repeated attempts to contact them.

How long ago did you contact them? You've mentioned this fact three times in the last two days, but if you only wrote them within the past few days (a given if you only flew July 30-31), you have to be realistic in your expectations.
If you haven't heard from them in, say, a week or two, that would be a "refusal to respond" perhaps. Right now it's more likely to be a "haven't opened your letter yet."

And yeah, that was a pretty lousy vacation experience. My sympathies. I will keep it in mind if I end up on those island hoppers again and have my "outs" and "point of no return" calculated before I go.

Again, folks, those "island hoppers" could have been avoided with the daily AA B737-823 MIA-UVF (St. Lucia - Hewanorra, navaids, large enough to accommodate BA's 777.) I've even stayed RON at MIA to assure my mainline flights to various Caribbean islands, but the OP didn't even have to do that:

AA709 Lv BDL 06:01, Ar MIA 08:58 (738)

AA2279 Lv MIA 10:40, Ar UVF 14:06 (738)

It would have required a significant vehicle trip, as Hewanorra is 40 miles form Castries, but as I remember SLU (St. Lucia - Vigie airport) it's a scummy frog pond for BW and AE puddle jumpers, and it's often like flying into a bad movie about banana republics. Closer to Sandals resorts, but nasty - they often overbook for the return, chaos reigns, and basically it's a big palapa with postage-stamp runway. The time I had to transit through there (the UVF 737 is seasonal) my status saved my bacon - but we left many people behind for next day's flights, presumably.

Trip planning helps immeasurably.

Well, there's been no official response from American Airlines to constant emails, as well as ten priority mail letters sent to various company officials , all with our contact info, but the moderator of the AAdvantage Forum, Plato90s, responded above. That's probably as close as I can expect to come right now to an actual response from American Airlines. At any rate, I selected some quotes from his response and answered them.
I guess the most important response, though, is remembering that American Airlines led us through many hoops in our two and a half-day encounter with their San Juan operation. We finally gave up and came home, because an American Airlines Rep, who seemed like one of the few professional, decent guys with whom we dealt, told us to forget flying out of San Juan until Tuesday.

But I felt compelled to repond to this first and only even quasi-official response from American Airlines. His individual points are highlighted n italics and my reponses follow:

First of all, you said you "sacrificed vacation time".

Reply: I am a supervisor in a 24/7 manufacturing environment where vacation time is rigorously scheduled and coverage involves a lot of work to obtain. Once set, it's set.

Secondly, you are implying that AA was lying about the fact there are weather problems...

Reply: No, they were. When weather failed, they used other reasons, like mechanical difficulties. At one point they were reduced to admitting to being overbooked and offered over the loudspeaker to pay for people to give up their seats. It was chaotic.

Third, you unnecessarily complicated your own life with booking #3 for SJU-ANU-SLU. While AA is obviously at fault for losing your luggage, you were an accessory to the act by attempting to do a end-run when you already got rebooked on a non-stop.

Reply: We had no idea the non-stop (5058) would fly and it was in fact cancelled. Every single Saint Lucia passenger in that terminal was scrabbling for flights. In fact, American Airlines' ticket and reservation representatives had lied to me at least four different times by then about my booking status since the first flight was cancelled on Saturday afternoon. They would tell me that I wasn't booked until I pressed them repeatedly and angrily and then all of a sudden our names would appear on a seating list. Again, it was chaotic.


Fourth, since the only time in which your luggage was lost was times when you were at home, AA's procedures will severely limit the amount of compensation you might be due.

Reply: American Airlines told me my luggage would be in Bradley last night. Still nothing here, only an hour and forty-five minutes away.


Finally, given the delays were weather-related and that you chose to use the return portion of your ticket, AA's own procedures and rules means they could simply deny any further compensation.

Reply: Yes, you're right. They could probably deny we exist. But, they could also be a responsible company and work with us to find an amicable solution. We're not looking to benefit in any way. We don't want anything above and beyond what we lost. Actually, right now we we would just like someone from Aamerican Airlines to acknowledge us, period.



The lesson is this. During irregular operations and flying on a plane like the intra-island turbo props, avoid checking luggage until the last moment in the event of cancellation. The baggage handlers can toss it into the limited cargo capacity just as easily while you board, as if you checked it at the counter. They can't do it with a big jet, but it's easy with the small planes.
If you have been rebooked, don't screw around with the rebooking just to shave 30 minutes off your arrival.
Remain calm.
Make a decision on whether to try to reach the destination on the day the misconnect happens. It might have been a good idea to simply turn around on Jul30 and avoid the hassles which followed, especially if you had trip insurance.

Reply: No, the lesson is this - don't fly American Eagle out of San Juan.

Well, there's been no official response from American Airlines to constant emails, as well as ten priority mail letters sent to various company officials , all with our contact info, but the moderator of the AAdvantage Forum, Plato90s, responded above. That's probably as close as I can expect to come right now to an actual response from American Airlines.

...

But I felt compelled to repond to this first and only even quasi-official response from American Airlines. My response is completely unofficial as I don't work for AA and have never done so in the past. I just know what to expect from them in a lot of situations, and your expectations/actions seem to be out of line with reality.Reply: No, they were. When weather failed, they used other reasons, like mechanical difficulties. At one point they were reduced to admitting to being overbooked and offered over the loudspeaker to pay for people to give up their seats. It was chaotic.First of all, the fact that AA was overbooked by Jul31 can easily be the result of weather. You seem to believe overbooking is somehow evidence that there wasn't a weather problem even though evidence like the cancellation of the SJU-SLU leg of a 1-stop flight using the same aircraft would indicate otherwise.

Again, I have no way of checking the exact reason for the canceled flights, but it seems logically inconsistent to claim that AA was trying to screw passengers because they overbooked, and then AA decides to cancel even more flights (despite no actual problem) to make the situation worse.

Reply: We had no idea the non-stop (5058) would fly and it was in fact cancelled. Every single Saint Lucia passenger in that terminal was scrabbling for flights. In fact, American Airlines' ticket and reservation representatives had lied to me at least four different times by then about my booking status since the first flight was cancelled on Saturday afternoon. They would tell me that I wasn't booked until I pressed them repeatedly and angrily and then all of a sudden our names would appear on a seating list. Again, it was chaotic.What you've stated here obviously conflict with the reality that you checked your bags on the day of Jul31. Since the luggage flew in the plane scheduled for AA5058, that means you did check in for that flight.

Ergo, it could not be possible for AA to have lied to you about the booking status of AA5058. You were booked on it, and did check in.

Then you made it worse by trying to change flights after you'd already checked your bags. Obviously the AA agent didn't lie to you about booking #3 either, since you had BP's and was on the bus waiting to get to the plane.

It was chaotic, but my point is that you helped to create a good bit of that chaos yourself.Reply: American Airlines told me my luggage would be in Bradley last night. Still nothing here, only an hour and forty-five minutes away.How does it reply even address the fact that you are at home, and that's a very different situation than to be stuck with no luggage while at your destination? Reply: Yes, you're right. They could probably deny we exist. But, they could also be a responsible company and work with us to find an amicable solution. We're not looking to benefit in any way. We don't want anything above and beyond what we lost. Actually, right now we we would just like someone from Aamerican Airlines to acknowledge us, period.As you've said, the situation at SJU was chaotic and no doubt there are more pople who are waiting for AA's assistance. You've given them very little time in which to respond to your complaints, especially since your situation is pretty complicated with 3 rebookings. The expectation that AA would get back to you immediately seems to be out of line.Reply: No, the lesson is this - don't fly American Eagle out of San Juan.If you think that's the lesson, I would not be too surprised when you fly another carrier to the Carribean out of MIA (or another gateway city) during hurricane season and encounter the same situation.

For the $150 , you could have hopped over to LIAT or Carribean Star to get to St. Lucia.

Next time, just stay in SJU.

For the $150 , you could have hopped over to LIAT or Carribean Star to get to St. Lucia.

Next time, just stay in SJU.

This was all such a chaotic, mind-numbing experience that I haven't listed each and every second. Probably should've, but it would have been a four page posting. Rest assured, though, that Jean is very resourceful. Every avenue that could be pursued was pursued.
We did try LIAT, Caribbean Star (the non-American Airline airlines relegated to the neglected orphan terminal at the far, far lonely end of the San Juan International Airport), the American Airline jets flying to the southern airport in Saint Lucia, the potentiality of flights back to Miami then on to Saint Lucia, and flying to other islands then back to Saint Lucia. None were available or had seats. But surprisingly, in the midst of all of this supposed weather related flight cancelling on American Eagle, all of these other airlines were flying to Saint Lucia. The hurricane must have been following American Eagle planes exclusively.
Also, some of the above emails have alleged that the chaos at San Juan was aided and abetted by me or other passengers. Nothing could be further from the truth. I was, in fact, amazed that the passengers remained as calm as they did. There was only one incident where voices were even raised, and that was when a large family from Dominica that was traveling with small children and did not have the money to sleep in a hotel, but was instead camping in the airport terminal, had simply had enough and started raising a little ruckus. That quickly ended, though and for the rest of the time, I heard no-one raise their voice or even argue with the ticket representatives. We were all very insistent in our direct discussions with any American Eagle representatives, however, because we quickly learned that they would simply say anything to end a conversation with a frazzled customer. Jean and I were both unfailingly polite with the American Eagle people. They were the ones who would become curt and refuse to keep talking when it was clear they just didn't know what was going on themselves. In fact, when I returned to Bradley in Hartford Connecticut and refiled our lost luggage claim to be sure that it would actually be filed, the baggage representative complimented me on my cheerful and calm demeanor, given our recent experience.
And as far as 'just staying in San Juan', we would have loved to, but as I explained earlier, we had prepaid our vacation on Saint Lucia and were busy attempting to salvage that.
Finally, though, we have received a ray of sunshine. When I returned from work this a.m., our bags were on the doorstep. We are grateful to the individual on Saint Lucia who made the individual effort to locate our bags. Thank you.
Now, if American Airlines itelf would respond in any way. manner shape or form to our repeated efforts to contact it and discuss just what happened, there might be some more sunshine.

But surprisingly, in the midst of all of this supposed weather related flight cancelling on American Eagle, all of these other airlines were flying to Saint Lucia. The hurricane must have been following American Eagle planes exclusively.Again, you seem to imply that there was no issues to SLU and that AE was screwing with all of its St. Lucia-bound passengers just for the heck of it.

Completely ludicrous. Maybe some airlines are wiling to take more risks with their customers' lives than AA is. I assume you've seen the news about the Air France flight which crashed in Toronto, which landed while every other airline chose to divert?Also, some of the above emails have alleged that the chaos at San Juan was aided and abetted by me or other passengers.I said that your personal situation was further complicated through your own choices, like trying to book the 1-stop via Antigua just to get to St. Lucia 1/2 hr early.

I'm glad you got your baggage back, but if the only thing you've taken away from this experience is that AE is solely responsible for ruining your vacation, then I'd once again advise against traveling to the Carribean during hurricane season.

Well, maybe I'm different from the other posters, but I do think American Eagle wrecked Bill's vacation.

I recognize that there must have been a whole lot of confusion, and maybe Bill contributed to it a bit, but how many times have we seen posters advocate for taking initiative in being flexible about changes in itinerary.

Perhaps maybe what might help would be for recommendations on how to avoid this from happening again. It's easier for more experienced people to guide those of us who are less experienced... even if it is after the fact.

Rita

I just want to make sure that the many FT members that just lurk around here for solid, reliable info or the newbies, don't mistake this advice for "expert" advice. :) Far from it.

Well, maybe I'm different from the other posters, but I do think American Eagle wrecked Bill's vacation.

I recognize that there must have been a whole lot of confusion, and maybe Bill contributed to it a bit, but how many times have we seen posters advocate for taking initiative in being flexible about changes in itinerary.

Perhaps maybe what might help would be for recommendations on how to avoid this from happening again. It's easier for more experienced people to guide those of us who are less experienced... even if it is after the fact.

Rita
Thank you Rita - Jean and I appreciate the voice of support. We also appreciate everyone's input, pro and con.
I do want to stress - Jean and I are not looking for any extravagant, undue or unrealistic response from American. But we do feel that we deserve some formal response of some kind. The truth remains that we did absolutely nothing in any way, shape or manner to create our difficulties with American Eagle in San Juan International Airport. American Eagle was irresponsible, unresponsive and poorly organized in its dealings with us and many, many other passengers that we observed. And when we booked other flights in the midst of our troubles, it wasn't to save any time, it was because we were at that point strongly suspicious that American Eagle had no intention of actually flying the flights they had booked us on. As it turned out, we were one hundred percent correct.
We understand that every business has its moments of difficulties. Jean and I are both easygoing, relaxed travelers who are always willing to adapt and cooperate. But the American Eagle operation in San Juan International Airport treated Jean and I in a chaotic, unprofessional and uncaring manner. They did in fact, and through absolutely no fault of ours, wreck our vacation. And now they refuse to even talk to us. That's the only point I'm trying to make.

Sorry to hear about what happened with respect to your vacation.

If it has only been about 1 week, I would give AA some time to respond to you. Some airlines are prompt about providing responses such as Northwest, in my experience, while United will take their sweet time.

Typically if I email Northwest, I will get a response within 72 hours, if not sooner. Sometimes the response is what I am looking for, i.e. a refund to get processed, other times I will get a 'personal' response stating that my email has been forwarded to (fill in office/executive) and that I will receive a response by US Mail.

The second scenario happens when I write about something that needs to be looked into. I then typically get a personal response by post a couple weeks later. I also have Plat (top) status with NW which may make a small difference in handling time.

I sincerely doubt they're ignoring you, but no one has had a chance to respond yet. Your emails are likely waiting to be read - same with any snailmail you send. It's possible someone may have read it already and is looking into it -- or it has been initially read and forwarded to a specific individual who has yet to read it or get back to you.

For email, you should have a response within 3 weeks, I would hope. Anything sent by post, I would count on 30 days for a response.

BTW: It does sound like they were overbooked and there may have been weather problems at that airport. Given there are two airports, it may have been better to be re-routed SJU-MIA and then fly into the main/larger St. Lucia airport, even if it meant a trek to the other side to get to your resort. Did they even provide this as an option to you? Providing those flights weren't oversold, AA should have at least given you the option.

SDF_Traveler

You deserve another vacation at The Sandals St.Lucia where AA pays for the room,flight and other expenses that you incurred on your "unplanned stay" in Puerto Rico. In this case I would have said to AA fine you can only fly me on Tuesday to St.Lucia then you will book me at the same resort on your dime and you will pay for the rest of the flights and reimburse me for the hotel in San Juan. I would rather spend more time on vacation that flying home where I can't relax. AA in this situation does not understand total relaxation on vacation.

It's too bad you did not go on my Hawaii flights all of them arrived on time if not early.Great service in First class and everyone treated me with respect.

So you have every right to demand another vacation. Have AA book the days you would have stayed in St. Lucia and add more to make it a longer vacation. Should AA throw in your daily salary to take extra time from work?

Anyways sorry for the problems you incurred.

Since my original reply was pulled, allow me to rephrase my answer to the above.

The above advice is useless and is not based on any reality in the airline business.

I feel for the OP and I hope that something could be worked out with AA, but I just hope the OP does not get his hopes up by the erroneous info posted above.

Bill/Jean,

Please check your email registered to your flyertalk account. I know some people who can help you who work for Executive Airlines.

Hope that I can help you get in touch with someone from either Executive Airlines (American Eagle division you tried to fly) or even American corporate.

We wouldn't want you to be worried about being stuck in another country, like Puerto Rico. Did they check your passport when letting you out of SJU airport?


At first, I thought you were serious about Puerto Rico being another country. I now see the sarcasm. :D

While I was disucssing the story of our flight with a co-worker last night, I remembered one of the more important elements, at least in terms of my overall frustration level.
I made several calls to the American Airlines Reservation line while we were attempting to figure out alternatives to being trapped in San Juan International Airport. During one of the calls, the reservations representative and I started having a friendly conversation about what had happened. I explained to him that after we had landed at San Juan International Airport, our connecting flight to Saint Lucia had eventually been cancelled just as we were preparing to board. As we talked, I could hear him entering something on his keyboard. "You know what?", he asked. "Your American Eagle connecting flight to Saint Lucia was cancelled while you were still in the air on the inbound American Airlines flight from Hartford. They already knew you weren't flying out before you even landed." I asked him why they would not tell us as soon as possible, and he said it was to avoid dealing with irate passengers for as long as possible. Plus he also said that because American and its subsidiary, American Eagle, are two different entities, American employees do not like to deal with their subsidiary's problems.
As I said, this type of information certainly led to very intense frustration on my part. What a sad way to deal with people.

While I was disucssing the story of our flight with a co-worker last night, I remembered one of the more important elements, at least in terms of my overall frustration level.
I made several calls to the American Airlines Reservation line while we were attempting to figure out alternatives to being trapped in San Juan International Airport. During one of the calls, the reservations representative and I started having a friendly conversation about what had happened. I explained to him that after we had landed at San Juan International Airport, our connecting flight to Saint Lucia had eventually been cancelled just as we were preparing to board. As we talked, I could hear him entering something on his keyboard. "You know what?", he asked. "Your American Eagle connecting flight to Saint Lucia was cancelled while you were still in the air on the inbound American Airlines flight from Hartford. They already knew you weren't flying out before you even landed." I asked him why they would not tell us as soon as possible, and he said it was to avoid dealing with irate passengers for as long as possible. Plus he also said that because American and its subsidiary, American Eagle, are two different entities, American employees do not like to deal with their subsidiary's problems.
As I said, this type of information certainly led to very intense frustration on my part. What a sad way to deal with people.
What emotional distress!!!

Which, of course, has nothing to do with the actual sequence of events which led to the wrecking of your vacation. If the AE people had been polite and forthcoming, would your weekend have been any less ruined? No. You'd still be upset at having to return to BDL without your luggage.

What emotional distress!!!


Plato - are you a Moderator or Instigator?

Really, now.

:(

Plato - are you a Moderator or Instigator?

Really, now.

:(
When I don't have my moderator hat on, I'm just another poster. What I see here is a person who ran into an unfortunate weather delay in San Juan and seems to think a lot of people at AA/AE is out to get him. Hence the various accusations that there wasn't really a weather problem, and how AA employees were rude, abusive liars.

When I don't have my moderator hat on, I'm just another poster.

Every one of your posts is tagged with "Moderator" which implies you should know better.

When I don't have my moderator hat on, I'm just another poster. What I see here is a person who ran into an unfortunate weather delay in San Juan and seems to think a lot of people at AA/AE is out to get him. Hence the various accusations that there wasn't really a weather problem, and how AA employees were rude, abusive liars.

When you are just another poster you are still expected to post in a courteous manner and not try to instigate an argument. What you have said above is complete BS, non-fact based garbage. You have no way of knowing whether AA employess were rude or not and have gone off on rant after rant to try and discredit anything the OP has said.

To the OP ... I understand your frustration. I would be devastated if a vacation I had long anticipated had fallen apart as yours did. I certainly would have been emotionally distressed over it.

When you are just another poster you are still expected to post in a courteous manner and not try to instigate an argument. What you have said above is complete BS, non-fact based garbage. You have no way of knowing whether AA employess were rude or not and have gone off on rant after rant to try and discredit anything the OP has said. The only thing being instigated is a discussion stripped of the emotional content and the one-sided story here. I have doubts about the veracity of the OP's story because he repeatedly claims that AA lied to him when they told him the cancellations were due to bad weather. The constant repetition of an baseless claim makes me wonder.

If you, like others, want to simply sypathize and blame the evil airline, that's certainly your prerogative.

My view is that bad things happen, here are the ways in which the problem could have been mitigated, these expectations were out of line, and here's some advice for the future. If that's "instigating an argument", that's because the OP insists on blaming AA/AE for everything which has gone wrong and that they were out to ruin his vacation by being irresponsible.

It bears repeating. It wasn't AE that ruined his vacation, it was the weather. Blaming airline employees won't change that basic fact, unless we subscribe to the conspiracy theory that AE cancels flights just for the heck of it to ruin the OP's vacation.

First of all, you said you "sacrificed vacation time".

Reply: I am a supervisor in a 24/7 manufacturing environment where vacation time is rigorously scheduled and coverage involves a lot of work to obtain. Once set, it's set.

Are you? I've seen your name on a dozen websites as a city councilor of North Adams County (via Google and your postings) and even read your blog.

Not a 24/7 manufacturing environment with rigourously scheduled coverage. You have backup councilors for the third shift?

Maybe being a lawyer allows one to manipulate the facts when it seem to fit the case and argument.

Are you? I've seen your name on a dozen websites as a city councilor of North Adams County (via Google and your postings) and even read your blog.

Not a 24/7 manufacturing environment with rigorously scheduled coverage. You have backup councilors for the third shift?

Maybe being a lawyer allows one to manipulate the facts when it seem to fit the case and argument.

Thank you for reading my blog, www.donovansblog.com, but just to keep the record straight, the city councillor position is an elected part-time position, not to be confused with counselor (lawyer). I really wish I was a lawyer right about now, though, because I could certainly find a place for those talents.

Are you? I've seen your name on a dozen websites as a city councilor of North Adams County (via Google and your postings) and even read your blog.

Not a 24/7 manufacturing environment with rigourously scheduled coverage. You have backup councilors for the third shift?

Maybe being a lawyer allows one to manipulate the facts when it seem to fit the case and argument.

:td: :td: :td:

Whether he does or does not lose vacation time is none of your business and should never have been questioned. Even in flexible companies this sort of thing could be a problem as people often adjust to handle someone else's workload, just as you probably bust your own arse the week before you leave so there are no loose ends. I hope you feel like a real idiot after reading his last post because you sure are sounding like one.

The guy's vacation got ruined and whether you believe AA, AE or anyone else is at fault and he is due compensation there is no reason to rip him apart and accuse of him of lying. Truly dispicable way to treat a member new to the boards ... on several people's part. :(

Actually I have more of a beef with lawyers than the OP. I shouldn't have accused him of being one or his intentions (my apologies).

That said, in my district, most COUNCILORS are counselors. But that doesn't have to be the case here. (BTW, Councilors and councillors are the same word...)

Good luck none-the-less.

Actually I have more of a beef with lawyers than the OP. I shouldn't have accused him of being one or his intentions (my apologies).

That said, in my district, most COUNCILORS are counselors. But that doesn't have to be the case here. (BTW, Councilors and councillors are the same word...)

Good luck none-the-less.

Might I suggest that people refraim from calling people "idiots".

That is just as uncalled for as other comments here.

Can we all agree that the OP had their vacation ruined due to many different factors?

They are now looking for any advice on how to get American Eagle/American Airlines to step forward and accept some responsibility for the chain of unfortunate events.

At a minimum, the OP deserves a personal response from AA. Personally, I would say AA has not been given enough time to do their research to provide a non-canned response.

Also looks like someone provided an executive level contact for possible resolution.

I would be interested in hearing if that course of action helped.

William

When weather failed, they used other reasons, like mechanical difficulties. At one point they were reduced to admitting to being overbooked and offered over the loudspeaker to pay for people to give up their seats. It was chaotic.

We had no idea the non-stop (5058) would fly and it was in fact cancelled. Every single Saint Lucia passenger in that terminal was scrabbling for flights. In fact, American Airlines' ticket and reservation representatives had lied to me at least four different times by then about my booking status since the first flight was cancelled on Saturday afternoon. They would tell me that I wasn't booked until I pressed them repeatedly and angrily and then all of a sudden our names would appear on a seating list. Again, it was chaotic.


Firstly, I'm very sorry for your ordeal, and I hope you're able to get some satisfaction from AA.

However, in all these pages of discussion, there are still some unanswered questions (unless I'm missing things), that would probably clarify your case. On the one hand you're saying that your flights (and all flights that day?) were cancelled, but on the other hand you've asserted that AA was overbooked, and even asking for volunteers. Do you know for sure if any flights made it out that day?

You also need to be clear about which flight(s) you were confirmed on, and what happened to each of them. If they were cancelled for weather (or at least the excuse of weather) then you have very few statutory rights. If you were offloaded from a confirmed flight because of overbooking, you are entitled to statutory compensation, and should have received priority reaccommodation.

A couple other questions/observations: (1) whatever else is the case, you should be entitled to a refund of the portion of your ticket value from SJU to St. Lucia and back, since you never flew there, and were not reaccommodated. [I realize this is probably very little $$$]; (2) You should at least have been offered a distressed passenger rate at an airport hotel in SJU (I assume these exist there?)--these are cheap negotiated rates the airlines make with the hotels for passengers stranded for reasons outside the airlines' control (i.e. weather). (The passenger still has to pay the $$$ for the hotel, but it's usually well under $100.) It's worth explicitly mentioning to AA that this option was not offered to you.

Most of all, though, I think you need to have somebody with Sabre access find out what the official line was on all these flights. If AA's computer lists them all as a weather cancellation, you will have a harder time getting compensated.

Good luck, and I hope you are successful!

Plato90s, while weather delays and cancellations may be out of the hands of any AA or AE employee, their manner in dealing with such an inconvenience is entirely in their control.

I have frequently seen a bad situation turned tolerable by the attitude of those dealing with -- and I have also seen a small inconvenience turned into a nightmare due to the bad attitude and lethargy, sometimes downright laziness, if not malice, of those in charge.

To assume that the OP is lying about the attitude of those in charge of 'customer service' (yes, their main job is service TO THE CUSTOMER) is to start off with a bias. While it is possible the OP is lying, he has presented his case in a reasonably cohesive manner, with many details, backing up his claims. If he had just been a raving lunatic about this, he would be much less believable.

Is it so hard to believe that this person was, not through malice but through laziness or the desire to procrastinate dealing with irate passengers, treated unfairly and unjustly by the customer service reps and the other airline employees?

*off soap box now*

I am very sorry for your ruined vacation, bill... I am about to leave on a prepaid honeymoon that has been delayed and planned for 4 years. I'm hoping nothing like what happened to you occurs. I'm off to London, which has had it's share of problems recently.

Good luck to you with AA!!!

Most of all, though, I think you need to have somebody with Sabre access find out what the official line was on all these flights. If AA's computer lists them all as a weather cancellation, you will have a harder time getting compensated.


Unfortunately, since these flights are in the past, this information is no longer accessible in Sabre. Sabre's FLIFO only contains the prior day's flight details. It's doubtful that even your PNR is still accessible at this point, so reading back the historical remarks would be difficult as well.

To the OP: I do understand the frustration and anguish that these delays have caused for you & your wife. But I do see Plato90s point as well, in that I highly doubt this was an active effort targeted at SLU passengers. In any service industry, when customers walk away feeling the level of frustration that you do, it's quite likely that there was a breakdown in communication somewhere along the way. AE probably could have done a better job at handling the situation, and at communicating what was going on. But I really tend to believe in this case that the cause could have been weather related. The later chain of events could have been mechanical or overbooking, but as many have pointed out, it is quite common during this time of year to have lots of weather related problems.

I do hope that the lesson you have learned from all of this first and foremost is to take out a comprehensive travel insurance policy that protects all aspects of your trip going forward. I agree that AA does owe you an explanation as to why such a breakdown of events occurred, but please heed others' advice here to be patient for their response. Getting a 1 week turnaround on an isolated customer service issue is 50/50 at best. For an incident affecting an entire group of passengers would definitely slow this down considerably.

My advice is to be prepared when AA does finally respond, and to have an idea ready of what would be reasonable compensation in this matter. Present that to them as a counter offer. But a full reimbursement of your Sandals trip, SJU hotel, and flight expenses is probably not too realistic, especially if the root cause of all of this really is weather.

Plato90s, while weather delays and cancellations may be out of the hands of any AA or AE employee, their manner in dealing with such an inconvenience is entirely in their control.

I have frequently seen a bad situation turned tolerable by the attitude of those dealing with -- and I have also seen a small inconvenience turned into a nightmare due to the bad attitude and lethargy, sometimes downright laziness, if not malice, of those in charge.

To assume that the OP is lying about the attitude of those in charge of 'customer service' (yes, their main job is service TO THE CUSTOMER) is to start off with a bias. While it is possible the OP is lying, he has presented his case in a reasonably cohesive manner, with many details, backing up his claims. If he had just been a raving lunatic about this, he would be much less believable.

Is it so hard to believe that this person was, not through malice but through laziness or the desire to procrastinate dealing with irate passengers, treated unfairly and unjustly by the customer service reps and the other airline employees?Yes, it is that hard to believe. Take for example the newspaper article he refers to.

The travel agents asked for response specifically said that weather delays happen this time of year. Later in the article, the OP is once again quoted

"Although he said American Airlines was using weather as an excuse, "They arbitrarily decided who would fly and who wouldn't.

"That's what we're so upset about. We believe American anticipated this, knew it was going to happen, were fully aware of the possibilities and just didn't forewarn any of the passengers," said Donovan."

which of course reflects his stance on this thread - 1 week later.

Basically, here's a person who believe AE decided to screw its passengers in the abscence of a real weather delay, and continues to believe it. That puts the rest of his description of interactions with airline staff in doubt, IMO. Hypothetically, how would you react if a passenger claimed there was no weather delay and that you were denying him his flight to SLU arbitrarily?

I'd like to point out, here on FlyerTalk we have a wide range of people when it comes to travel experience and the understanding of how things work. In this community we have some people who only travel occassionally to individuals who travel on a regular basis.

Some of us have had a lot of experience dealing with the airlines in irregular operations, while for others it can be outright confusing. Some of us are more familiar with certain air carriers, their policies, and their quirks than others; Despite the differences, we all learn things from each other in one way or another.

The original poster in this thread was looking forward to a nice vacation at Sandal's in St. Lucia (which was already paid for), had airline tickets booked to the airport nearest the resort in St. Lucia, only got as far as San Juan, and had a terrible experience.

I get the impression the OP (original poster) doesn't travel on a regular basis; it appears that American Eagle at SJU didn't have things together & the OP while frustrated was trying his best.

I don't have the first post in front of me, but if I recall from what I've read, upon arrival at SJU his connecting flight was cancelled. There were more passengers than aircraft space to get to St. Lucia. They were told an extra flight would be added the next day, but apparently were not confirmed on a flight the next day when they left the airport. They got a hotel, made a phone call, found out they were confirmed on an afternoon flight and went back to the airport the next day. Despite being confirmed, it sounds like AA wanted to route them via Antigua and to hook up with BA; that didn't work, and then the next flight went mechanical (?). At this point it appeared they were not going to get out to St. Lucia that day -- which meant another hotel.

When an American Eagle employee finally told him he likely would not get out for a few days, the OP had to make a decision. Get another hotel, spend more $$$ to keep trying for the possibility of getting a seat or to return home. I presume they returned home based on the fact that the American Eagle said it would be a few days.... aparently the OP also looked at a few other options from SJU but nothing worked.

When American was trying to get him to St. Lucia, I think they had an obligation to let the OP know about other routings on AA and offer one; it appears he could have flown to MIA and then into the other airport in St. Lucia. It seems AA Eagle / AA did not even offer this option to the OP & I don't think the OP knew about this option - we can't expect all travelers to carry a timetable around and know that MIA is an AA hub with the 737 service.

Add to this the poor customer service the OP apparently received in SJU (i.e. baggage person just leaving) -- and if I were in the OP's shoes I'd be pretty damn frustrated.

Others may disagree, but I feel the OP is entitled to something here by American. At absolute minimum I'd say return of the airfare & hotel reimbursement. He made a trip in vain and AA should refund it.

In closing, I'd give AA some time to get back with you (the OP), but when an airline employee says you probably won't make it out for a few days because of cancellations/overbookings and the lodging in SJU is $150/night, I'd probably do the same thing if I was in the OP's shoes and also didn't know about the MIA re-route option -- because it was never offered. They didn't fly American to have a holiday (vacation) in an airport.

SDF_Traveler

I get the impression the OP (original poster) doesn't travel on a regular basis; it appears that American Eagle at SJU didn't have things together & the OP while frustrated was trying his best.

.....

Despite being confirmed, it sounds like AA wanted to route them via Antigua and to hook up with BA; that didn't work, and then the next flight went mechanical (?). Not quite, which is why I don't think the OP is an inexperienced traveler at all. The OP was the one who instigated the re-route via Antigua. There's no way that AA would suggest that routing. It forces them to pay for a BA segment for a guy they thought would sit on the AA non-stop flight. The OP has pretty much admitted he asked for the 1-stop routing in order to get there 30 min earlier.

The non-stop he was booked on didn't go mechanical either. The plane flew to a different island, bypassing SLU altogether. That's primary evidence IMO that AA did have weather issues that day, despite the OP's claims to the contrary.

Given how he continues to insist that AA was basically BS-ing him and that there wasn't any weather problems, I have personal (unconfirmed and no evidence) doubts as to how he really approached SJU ground staff when they tried to tell him there wasn't a conspiracy to ruin his vacation.

Not quite, which is why I don't think the OP is an inexperienced traveler at all. The OP was the one who instigated the re-route via Antigua. There's no way that AA would suggest that routing. It forces them to pay for a BA segment for a guy they thought would sit on the AA non-stop flight. The OP has pretty much admitted he asked for the 1-stop routing in order to get there 30 min earlier.

The non-stop he was booked on didn't go mechanical either. The plane flew to a different island, bypassing SLU altogether. That's primary evidence IMO that AA did have weather issues that day, despite the OP's claims to the contrary.

Given how he continues to insist that AA was basically BS-ing him and that there wasn't any weather problems, I have personal (unconfirmed and no evidence) doubts as to how he really approached SJU ground staff when they tried to tell him there wasn't a conspiracy to ruin his vacation.

Nope - that's not what happened at all, at least as far as the Antigua-Saint Lucia flight was concerned.
I was not the only stranded Saint Lucia hopeful headed for that flight. And I did not ask to go on that flight particularly. We were starting to hear rumors that the 2nd flight, 5058, which we were already booked on, was going to lose its Saint Lucia stop. What I did was ask the ticket representative if there was any other possible way to get to Saint Lucia that day. The ticket representative placed us and one other couple on the bus to go out to that airplane. After we were yanked off that bus, the entire Saint Lucia contingent soon followed from the airplane. That group was given hotel vouchers for that night. We could have received them for our second night, but after 5058 was also cancelled and we had a conversation with an American Eagle ticket rep who assured us we could not expect to see Saint Lucia until Tuesday, and our vacation was over on Wed. night, we gave up and came home.
I should've been more specific in my original description of this moment, but i didn't understand the importance of the nuances. Rest assured, Jean and I tried every conceivable avenue to work with American Eagle to achieve any kind of happy, practical conclusion. Their operation in San Juan is simpy not consumer oriented. Apparently, If you have a problem with American Airlines at San Juan International Airport, you are on your own in San Juan International Airport.

The ticket representative placed us and one other couple on the bus to go out to that airplane. After we were yanked off that bus, the entire Saint Lucia contingent soon followed from the airplane. That group was given hotel vouchers for that night. We could have received them for our second night, but after 5058 was also cancelled and we had a conversation with an American Eagle ticket rep who assured us we could not expect to see Saint Lucia until Tuesday, and our vacation was over on Wed. night, we gave up and came home.


I still don't get it! Why were you "yanked off" the bus--because the flight was cancelled? Did you have a confirmed reservation for the flight, or were you denied boarding? Did you ask for hotel vouchers for your first night? If the cancellation was caused by weather, they didn't need to offer them, but if they were giving them out, does that mean that this cancellation was due to a different reason? If they were giving them out for a bad-weather-cancellation, I would have thought that was excellent customer service from SJU ground staff.

Not quite, which is why I don't think the OP is an inexperienced traveler at all. The OP was the one who instigated the re-route via Antigua. There's no way that AA would suggest that routing. It forces them to pay for a BA segment for a guy they thought would sit on the AA non-stop flight. The OP has pretty much admitted he asked for the 1-stop routing in order to get there 30 min earlier.

The non-stop he was booked on didn't go mechanical either. The plane flew to a different island, bypassing SLU altogether. That's primary evidence IMO that AA did have weather issues that day, despite the OP's claims to the contrary.

Given how he continues to insist that AA was basically BS-ing him and that there wasn't any weather problems, I have personal (unconfirmed and no evidence) doubts as to how he really approached SJU ground staff when they tried to tell him there wasn't a conspiracy to ruin his vacation.

More BS. Spare us anymore of your ill-sighted speculation. Now you are even speculating on how well traveled the OP is. :rolleyes:
You are more concerned with being right in your own opinion than anything else at this point. It's become a debate to you rather than a request from a new member for a little help. :td: :td:

I have been reading this post from the start and I just want to say that regardless of what you think or your assumptions on how billdonovanjr conducted himself at the airport, it is not our place to judge that. I thought that Flyertalk was here to offer help and suggestions, not to personally attack, in the way that Plato90s has. None of us were there and so, without first hand knowledge, none of us have the right to assume what his actions were. We are all grown-ups here and should act like them. I have had horrible flights too and re-routings that have forced me to be so angry that I have just cried. Would I want you to judge me on my actions? No way. Give the poor man a break. His nice vacation got screwed over and of course he wants to put the blame somewhere. Try to help him find a solution...don't badger him!

I should've been more specific in my original description of this moment, but i didn't understand the importance of the nuances.

Some people around here are more particular about nuances than others. I recall reading a post in another forum about a couple who also had a problem with AE. I believe they were headed to Antigua and their flight was canceled due to not having enough people to warrant the flight...this happened after they were in transit. I will see if I can dig up the thread.

More BS. Spare us anymore of your ill-sighted speculation. Now you are even speculating on how well traveled the OP is. :rolleyes:
You are more concerned with being right in your own opinion than anything else at this point. It's become a debate to you rather than a request from a new member for a little help. :td: :td:
If you'll scroll back, I tried to explaned what most likely happend, cleared up expectations, and offered advice way back in the first post.

You, OTOH, have consistently stuck with a personal attack because I am not sympathetic toward the OP's demands for compensation due to a WEATHER DELAY. Pardon me for not being as quick to blame the airline for events OUT OF THEIR CONTROL, despite the OP claiming otherwise.

In fact, I find the continuing attacks by the OP on the character of people working for AA/AE to be rather disgusting because he's blaming them personally for his misfortunes. In reviewing his blog, which the OP has thoughtfully posted, I have doubts on how he treated people that he continue to claim lied about a weather problem at SLU. Your opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, I think the OP doesn't deserve compensation from AA beyond a partial refund for the unused legs of the ticket and whatever the standard compensation for the lost-luggage-while-at-home.

I still don't get it! Why were you "yanked off" the bus--because the flight was cancelled? Did you have a confirmed reservation for the flight, or were you denied boarding? Did you ask for hotel vouchers for your first night? If the cancellation was caused by weather, they didn't need to offer them, but if they were giving them out, does that mean that this cancellation was due to a different reason? If they were giving them out for a bad-weather-cancellation, I would have thought that was excellent customer service from SJU ground staff.
Again thanks to all of you for the seasoned advice. We are very appreciative that first, this forum is here (we will use it for researching our next flight), and second, that so many responders have taken the time to offer such well written, clearly practical advice and insight.
Jean and I sincerely appreciate all of the guidance and input.
As far as the shuttle bus referred to in the above posting, that was confusing for us also. We were 'yanked off' the shuttle, along with another momentarily happy Saint Lucia-bound couple, because, as we were informed, British Airways, who had agreed to provide the Antigua-Saint Lucia link, had decided the American Eagle flight would not arrive in time. This seemed a little strange to us, as American Eagle had arranged the flight, but that's the reason we were given.
As far as vouchers, we were neither offered vouchers or a distress discount of any kind the first night. The rejected Sunday travelers from the Antigua-Saint Lucia link were offered vouchers, along with the travelers from an earlier Sunday flight cancelled for 'mechanical' reasons, because those were two of the non-weather related cancellations. As I explained, we elected to not gamble any more time and money because we sincerely believed we would not fly out of SJU until Tuesday.
Again, I want to stress that we sincerely made every effort we could think up to meet American Eagle more than halfway, but American Eagle had no intention of reciprocating.

nevermind ... not worth the effort.

Dude- what's with the shouting and caps? Can't we just all get along and if you don't agree to the point where you deem caps necessary, don't post.

Anyone here who's been around enough (and it doesn't take much) knows that airlines are essentially free from any liability to the passenger for delays/cancellations caused by weather. The frustration of a wx delay is compounded because it's hard to independently verify so you're at the carrier's mercy for information...especially when other carriers are conducting business as usual to the same destination.

Now, I know better than to just look outside at blue skies and assume the airline is lying to me (like that idiot on "Airline"..."what weather? Do you see any weather outside?!?!!?!") as there could be issues enroute and at the destination.

I don't blame the OP for his frustration and skepticism. He came to the right place, presented his story well (made the local paper so is obviously not trolling), and sought advice. I would like to echo those that suggest you be more patient in getting a response....they probably get a zillion emails a day.

I think he's due something but not sure how much I'd expect to get. Unfortunately, airlines are no LL Bean when it comes to satisfaction.

Thought you might be interested. It's the a.m. of Thursday, August 11th, a solid ten days since I first emailed American with our complaints about our trip, and a solid week since eight of their top management and operations executives received my priority mail complaints. And the only responses I've received have been auto-generated email responses that say someone will respond to me soon.
Since filing our original complaint, we have encountered several people who have suffered similar fates at the hands of American Airlines and American Eagle Airlines. What a terrible way to operate a business...
There's still a happy ending to all of this. Jean and I have been seeing each other for a few years. She claims she didn't hear me, but I proposed to her when we were in the middle of our Gilligan's Island adventure, beachwrecked in the Best Western Hotel room at the San Juan International Airport. I also distinctly heard her sleepily accept. At any rate, since we survived this imploded vacation with no real wear and tear on each other, we decided that we must be meant to be together. Yesterday I gave her a diamond ring, which she accepted. We are now formally engaged.

Congratulations, and long and happy life together! Perhaps this is one of those stories you can tell your grandchildren in your old age... :)

Thought you might be interested. It's the a.m. of Thursday, August 11th, a solid ten days since I first emailed American with our complaints about our trip, and a solid week since eight of their top management and operations executives received my priority mail complaints. And the only responses I've received have been auto-generated email responses that say someone will respond to me soon.
Since filing our original complaint, we have encountered several people who have suffered similar fates at the hands of American Airlines and American Eagle Airlines. What a terrible way to operate a business...
There's still a happy ending to all of this. Jean and I have been seeing each other for a few years. She claims she didn't hear me, but I proposed to her when we were in the middle of our Gilligan's Island adventure, beachwrecked in the Best Western Hotel room at the San Juan International Airport. I also distinctly heard her sleepily accept. At any rate, since we survived this imploded vacation with no real wear and tear on each other, we decided that we must be meant to be together. Yesterday I gave her a diamond ring, which she accepted. We are now formally engaged.

Congrats. Best wishes to both of you.

Thought you might be interested. It's the a.m. of Thursday, August 11th, a solid ten days since I first emailed American with our complaints about our trip, and a solid week since eight of their top management and operations executives received my priority mail complaints. And the only responses I've received have been auto-generated email responses that say someone will respond to me soon.


It has generally taken me at least 2-3 weeks to get a personal reply to an e-mailed complaint (or praise for that matter). They really will get back to you personally, but in my experience, they also check out what happened on their side first. Your story is why I try to have at least a couple of ideas of alternative ways to get to a destination already in my mind at the beginning of a trip. TUL and DFW are notorious for stormy weather, and even if the sun is shining at my house, things may not be operating at the airport on one end or the other because of legitimate weather problems.
Congratulations on your engagement.

Yesterday I gave her a diamond ring, which she accepted. We are now formally engaged.

Congratulations! Hopfeully, you'll get some positive news from the airlines as well :)

Congratulations Bill,
At least something wonderful came of your trip to nowhere.
Rita

For those who might be interested, an American Airlines Customer Relations representative contacted me via email today. While his communication stressed repeatedly that American Airlines considered the entire episode we endured travel related, which we dispute, he was very gracious in the nature of his communication. He also said that American was sending travel vouchers to us. He didn't say how much travel the travel vouchers would allow, but we were happy to receive any formal corporate response. Thanks again to all of you for your involvement and support.

Congratulations on your engagement. I wish you years of happiness.

Keep us posted on the travel voucher amount - personally I think you deserve at least $500 each.

I just wanted to post an update on our travel woes.
We booked our flight and vacation through Adams Travel in Adams, Massachusetts, owned and operated by Sandra Kleiner.
She has been working tirelessly on our behalf since we returned and has made some very positive headway for us. We know that it is becoming popular to book flights and vacation packages directly via the Internet, but to be honest, we would have been lost without someone to be an advocate for us. We simply encountered too many travel snafus at once to be able to receive any fair treatment on our own. This whole experience has made us much more educated travelers, mostly as the result of the great replies we received on this forum, but we are also grateful we used a reputable travel agent.

If you'll scroll back, I tried to explaned what most likely happend

Somehow you think that what your own hypothesis on what happened, as someone who wasn't even present and has no actual data at all, is more relevant than a first-hand account. That is heavy handed, closed-minded and entirely unhelpful behaviour. You are effectively accusing the OP of lying, when you have absolutely no basis for doing so. You're making the thread overly long and providing no useful input whatsoever, except to tell us that the OP's experiences differ from your world view.

As another poster said, you should know better. A moderator's position is to make the FT environment more pleasant, not to piss people off for no reason.

Thanks again to all of you advisers and posters, especially those of you who were directly empathetic and helpful.

We have made an important first step in our struggle to recover from our deep-sixed vacation. American Airlines gave each of us a $300 flight voucher. We are not sure exactly what the flight cost since it was part of a pre-booked package, but if you calculate the least expensive route from Bradley to Saint Lucia, it comes out to anywhere between one-third and one-half of the fare. While our travel agent is still negotiating with Sandals, we feel this is a step in the right direction and that at least American Airlines responded. We will keep you posted and thanks again for all of the great suggestions.

Thanks again to all of you advisers and posters, especially those of you who were directly empathetic and helpful.

We have made an important first step in our struggle to recover from our deep-sixed vacation. American Airlines gave each of us a $300 flight voucher. We are not sure exactly what the flight cost since it was part of a pre-booked package, but if you calculate the least expensive route from Bradley to Saint Lucia, it comes out to anywhere between one-third and one-half of the fare. While our travel agent is still negotiating with Sandals, we feel this is a step in the right direction and that at least American Airlines responded. We will keep you posted and thanks again for all of the great suggestions.

Great news. Let's hope that Sandals is willing to extend you a free stay, since you didn't spend even one night of your packaged stay.
Rita

We have made an important first step in our struggle to recover from our deep-sixed vacation. American Airlines gave each of us a $300 flight voucher. We are not sure exactly what the flight cost since it was part of a pre-booked package, but if you calculate the least expensive route from Bradley to Saint Lucia, it comes out to anywhere between one-third and one-half of the fare. While our travel agent is still negotiating with Sandals, we feel this is a step in the right direction and that at least American Airlines responded. We will keep you posted and thanks again for all of the great suggestions.

I would be extremely cautious with handling anything AA sends you... as later they may argue that issue is settled because they have offered you compensation and you have accepted it.
AX

I have been reading this post from the start and I just want to say that regardless of what you think or your assumptions on how billdonovanjr conducted himself at the airport, it is not our place to judge that. I thought that Flyertalk was here to offer help and suggestions, not to personally attack, in the way that Plato90s has. None of us were there and so, without first hand knowledge, none of us have the right to assume what his actions were. We are all grown-ups here and should act like them. I have had horrible flights too and re-routings that have forced me to be so angry that I have just cried. Would I want you to judge me on my actions? No way. Give the poor man a break. His nice vacation got screwed over and of course he wants to put the blame somewhere. Try to help him find a solution...don't badger him!

^ ^ ^

Given how he continues to insist that AA was basically BS-ing him and that there wasn't any weather problems, I have personal (unconfirmed and no evidence) doubts as to how he really approached SJU ground staff when they tried to tell him there wasn't a conspiracy to ruin his vacation.

If you have unconfirmed and no evidence, why do you keep on giving him a hard time? I thought FT is a friendly place for people to post their adventures and pain and we are hear to help. If we don't believe the OP, then we normally just skip reading and shut up. Especially as a moderator, I would think you would do the same!

To the OP, even though I didn't experience the same thing as you did, I do have experience flying through SJU onto one of the smaller islands and I can say it is very chaotic! We were in Nevis and my wife was flying SJU-NEV. Ended up flying SJU to Antigua (I think), overnight and then had to fly next morning to NEV. However, AA had no information on the reschedule, no idea what time or when the plane would arrive in NEV. In the end she managed to get on a chartered flight from Antigua to NEV. Poor girl as she had just flown SIN-HKG-SFO-ORD-SJU so it was a very loooooong trip for her.

Anyway, also had some other delays at SJU with the AA Eagle service. I'm not taking sides but I do believe if they handed their Eagle service in any other major city, they would be in trouble when people have more options.

Next time I've already booked SJU-SKB (Boeing 737) and taking a boat from SKB-NEV. Can't stand another flight through SJU!

Good luck on getting more compensation! Personally, I will guess $300 each is all they will give unless you pursue further!

American Airlines has responded once again to Jean and myself. In addition to the $300 flight voucher we each received from them earlier this month, we each just received a check for $165 bucks. So that brings their total reimbursement up to just over $900. While they still have not acknowledged that anything other than weather caused our dilemna, we are very appreciative for their response. We feel we are making some real progress in getting our needs and concerns addressed. We would like to once again thank the contributors on this forum for your input.

For those of you who read about Jean's and my obliterated vacation after being stranded in San Juan International Airport, I wanted to post the latest info about the American Airlines response.
Initially, we were frustrated because it didn't seem as if American was going to respond at all. Their point of reference was simply that our flight troubles were weather-related,and thus we were ineligible for any compensation.
But in this past month we have received a credit from American to our credit card, plus two additional checks. American continues to maintain their position that the whole series of cancellations was weather related, but these additonal monies bring the sum (with flight vouchers) returned from American Airlines to an amount equivalent to a total refund of our ticket price.
We also have just received a positive response directly from Sandals which amounts to a time at Saint Lucia next year which is actually a day and night more than our originally booked package.
Our travel agent, Sandra Kleiner of Adams Travel in Adams, MA, has been a tremendous resource and a real advocate. We are very glad we booked our vacation with her. And the readers of this journal also offered many much appreciated suggestions. So even though we didn't have comprehensive flight insurance, and it took a lot of letter writing and many emails to achieve, we have received a complete refund.
American Airlines, Sandals and our travel agency, Adams Travel, have all demonstrated sincerity and integrity in resolving this mess and I wanted to make sure that the readers of this forum were aware of the final outcome. And of course, in the '...maybe things happen for a reason department...' Jean and I ended up engaged to be married. So, life is good...

Jean and I ended up engaged to be married. So, life is good...

Congratulations on a successful resolution to this incident, and to a happy life together! :)

billdonovanjr, congratulations to both you and Jean. That's great news for you both.
Let's hope your next travel experience will be more pleasant.

Incidentally I went to HS with a Bill Donovan in Braintree, MA. Any relationship? Graduated in 1964.
Rita

My girlfriend and I flew with American Airlines from Hartford, Connecticut to San Juan, Puerto Rico on Saturday, July 30th, 2005 on Flight AA 1141. There were no problems on this flight.
Soon after we arrived in San Juan and entered into the terminal of American Eagle Airlines, our problems began. We were preparing to board Flight AA 5184 for Saint Lucia when we were informed that the flight had been delayed by bad weather. We were soon further informed that the flight had been cancelled because of low cloud cover. When we inquired about flights later in the day, we were informed in a perfunctory manner that, much to our amazement, none of those flights would be available to us. We were also informed, again in a very abrupt and callous fashion, that our lodging responsibilities would be our own. The only positive note was that we were told that special charter flights would be added to the schedule the next day to accommodate us. (This turned out to be a lie, one which would American Eagle Airlines would repeat often.). However, the first warning sign that this whole operation was off-track occurred when we were also off-handedly informed, and only after repeated and forceful questioning of the ticket agent, that our recently checked luggage was now in the baggage claim center and would need to be reclaimed and rechecked.
Jean and I then secured a $150/night room in the Best Western at the airport.
A little later on the afternoon of that same day, Saturday July 30th, 2005, I called the AA reservation number we had been provided by the ticket agent. I was first told there was no room for us on any of the next day’s regularly scheduled Saint Lucia flights. When I pressed the representative concerning the promised additional flights, he replied that there were no additional flights. It was only after I became insistent to the point of obnoxiousness that the service representative relented and suddenly discovered that, yes indeed, we were booked on Flight AA 5058 the next day, scheduled to depart at 2:20 p.m. This pattern of behavior, where no meaningful response of any kind would be offered by any San Juan American Airlines employee with whom I was dealing until I became visibly angry, sadly marked almost every exchange throughout my brutal encounter with American Airlines at San Juan International Airport.
To cap the pain of the first lost day of Jean’s and my long scheduled and expensive vacation, imagine, if you will, our consternation as we witnessed an American Eagle flight to Saint Lucia leaving, with no room for us, late in the day on Saturday.
On Sunday, July 31st, 2005, as we checked our baggage for flight 5058, we experienced the first indication that American Airlines clearly had no intention of allowing any passengers to depart for Saint Lucia that weekend, for reasons that only you know, but that certainly were not entirely weather related as your ticket representatives claimed. The earliest flight for Saint Lucia, we were informed, had been cancelled for claimed mechanical reasons. There was now a host of visibly distraught consumers floating around the San Juan American Eagle boarding area at Terminal 1. Some were there, as we were, for their second day and some had been actually trapped in the terminal for three days. Meanwhile, there was no outreach or organized attempt by American to deal in any way with the dozens of obviously upset consumers. The ticket representatives would only lamely and repeatedly insist that it was a weather concern and out of their hands as we watched all the other flights merrily leave on time.
As the day progressed, and before our scheduled 5058 flight, we were able to get ourselves placed on a connecting flight (for which I don’t have the number) that was going to deposit a load of Saint Lucia travelers in Antigua. They were going to be transported to Saint Lucia by British Airways. Jean and I and another couple were sitting on the shuttle bus waiting to be transported to the plane when we were asked to get off because it had been decided that the connecting flight would arrive too late for British Airway’s schedule. We went back to the airport and were soon joined by a host of travelers who had been waiting on the plane itself.
For the final indignity, American Eagle mysteriously decided that while it was not able to transport passengers to Saint Lucia on Flight 5058, it would send their luggage. Flight 5058 had originally been designated as a two-stop flight, the first stop being Saint Lucia, before reaching the destination of Canouan. When the Saint Lucia leg of the flight was cancelled, the luggage was apparently left on board. As I tried to explain this fact to the person apparently overseeing the Baggage Claim area, he heatedly denied it was a problem and that the bags would probably show up and then he just left the area, not to return. When I informed the one English speaking employee who remained in the area of our problem, he punched the flight number up on his computer screen, phoned someone and repeated the flight number in Spanish several times. He then assured me that the bags were on their way and that all was well. After over an additional hour of waiting for our bags, when I asked this same employee where they were, he started hollering “I don’t know! I don’t know! I don’t know!“ At that point, Jean and I stopped looking for our bags.
Jean and I discussed our situation at that point with an American Eagle ticket representative. We were not prepared emotionally or economically to stay in a hotel and eat in San Juan for three more nights. (Our scheduled vacation at Sandals Grand in Saint Lucia was prepaid.) The American Eagle Airlines ticket representative confirmed our worse fears, saying that because Monday, August 1st was a holiday in Saint Lucia, he honestly believed we could not reasonably expect to successfully fly to Saint Lucia the next day (Monday). He in fact said he honestly felt that Tuesday was the earliest day we could possibly expect to get to Saint Lucia. We believed him because of our experience up to that point but also, as I already stated, because we had talked with several passengers who were at that point trapped by American Eagle Airlines in the San Juan Airport for their third consecutive day.
Since our vacation was scheduled to end Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005, and the American Airlines ticket representative told us we stood a very good chance of not leaving San Juan until Tuesday, August 2nd, 2005, we threw in the towel and decided that it was in our best interest to start making arrangements to return to America. Feeling overwhelmed and completely drained, we secured seating on AA Flight 1312 Sunday night and returned to America without our luggage.
We are out the cost of our vacation, we are out the cost of two intermediate flights, we are out the cost of the two main flights because they were worthless exercises in stress, we are out the cost of a forced stay in the Best Western Hotel at the airport and we are out our luggage (which remains unfound), with all of our most important daily clothing. We unnecessarily sacrificed vacation time from work . We also have been subjected to incredible stress and discomfort because of overwhelmingly arbitrary and unresponsive customer care from American Airlines.
And the final kicker? The only response I’ve officially received from American Airlines are three auto-responses to email complaints. Not one person in any capacity has called or written or responded. No-one!
This entire experience with American Airlines was one of the most intensely disappointing consumer experiences Jean and I have ever suffered. It was clear from the beginning that there was more than weather (politics? Business arguments?) driving the American Airline flight cancellation decisions and that no passengers would make it to Saint Lucia from San Juan unless they were arbitrarily permitted to do so. The American Eagle Airlines staff was very unresponsive and unmotivated.

best of luck in the future!

Congratulations on a successful resolution to your ordeal. ^

I was wondering how this was eventually resolved. Thanks for the update OP, I know it must have been quite a hassle to pul it all off.