Along the lines explored by mvoight and emma dog: So, as I understand it: the passengers on board AA0048 paid to travel from DFW to CDG, and in spite of problems it arrived at CDG, which was having serious disruptions because of European weather. "The Business Class cabin" second-guessed the crew to think the crew may have been illegal (the crew was very likely right on this one - they do not want to tangle with the airline and the FAA). Uh, what's the problem? If they had been left at Milan, there may have been one .

Other than that, I highly recommend a read of the portion of Conditions of Carriage called Force majeure. (I'd be appreciative the crew was persistent and creative enough they got us to "Le Grand" Charles...)

I am truly sorry you were inconvenienced - as were at least tens of thousands of people during the European weather debacle this December, may of whom did not get transported to their destinations.