I was flying CLE-MCI a couple months ago. After posting 30-minute delays for over 3 hours, CO finally cancelled my flight. It was the last of the night, and full. We were told it was a "crew scheduling" issue - they had no crew to pilot the plane. They also couldn't round one up that night, or even the next morning, and started trying to rebook everyone.

The bad thing was, everything to MCI was already oversold for the next 3 days, so they were putting everyone on various flights on standby. I was offered a STANDBY flight at 6:45pm the following day, via CLE-IAD and another STANDBY from IAD-MCI. I'd hate to think about being stranded even FURTHER from home....

I checked other nearby airports, and they had plenty of open seats on the 7am flight to STL. They gave me a hotel voucher, a couple meal vouchers, and confirmed me on the first flight in the morning. The gate agent said he couldn't rent a car for me to drive STL-MCI, for insurance reasons, but that if I wrote in they would reimburse me.

So I booked a 1-way rental car, using my (extremely good) corporate rate, and drove home the following day from STL (about 4 hours). I submitted a copy of my rental agreement and fuel receipts to CO a day or two later.

Over a month later, I heard back from CO. They said the flight was cancelled due to "weather" (no surprise) and didn't need to offer any compensataion, but would send me a $50 travel voucher via email as a goodwill gesture.

I feel like I'm getting the run around here... is there any way to determine the official reason for the cancellation, as reported to the BTS or DOT? Everyone at the airport was given compensation. I'm not looking for a refund, just to cover my additional costs.

I paid almost $550 for my ticket, and submitted receipts for ~$120.

Any advice? Their $50 "goodwill" gesture is less than half my out of pocket costs to get home within a reasonable time period. I don't consider flying on a 2-segment journey in the WRONG DIRECTION, both segments on STANDBY, a reasonable solution. I gave up 4 billable hours to make the drive. I just want them to cover the rental car & fuel. Am I asking too much?