Perche

I recently traveled JFK-SFO in J. I went to the bathroom just before I anticipated that the flight attendants would start buckling things up during the last hour of the flight.

The J toilet was full, and wouldn't flush. Coming out, I notified the FA's, and they said, "we know." I went back to my seat and shortly thereafter the pilot announced, "Maybe you all have noticed that the toilets are not flushing in all three cabins. We don't want to inconvenience our passengers, and so we are going to have to divert to the nearest airport, which is Denver."

There was a collective groan, as he had already announced that we were only one hour and five minutes away, and getting ready for descent. The flight was supposed to have landed at SFO at 8:30 PM. We stayed on the ground in Denver for two hours, with no announcements.

Since this was a flight from JFK to SFO for me to spend about 12 hours in SF to see my grandson, I asked the FA, "If we stay here any longer, this is going to be a flight in vain."

Her response after we had spent two hours on the tarmac in Denver was, "So what? If you want to get off the plane and claim a flight in vain, go ahead, the door is open."

I chose not to, since it didn't appear as if I'd be doing anything other than sleeping at the Denver airport late at night, then catching a standby back east without seeing my grandson.

I've never sent complaint to AA, except for one time when I redeemed miles for a hotel stay in Rome, and when I arrived the hotel had no record of it, and I was stuck overnight sleeping at the train station because it was very late at night. AA just gave me back the miles that I had redeemed for the hotel stay.

Now, having gone to SF just to see my grandson and instead of arriving at 8:30 at night I arrived at 12:30, after the trains and shuttles buses to Marin had closed down. I took a cab to Marin for $130.

I understand IRROPS, but why divert to DEN, which was the same distance away, and that was obviously not wanted because of the booing and hissing of the passengers, as the pilot had announced that we were only 1:05 away from landing at SFO, and instead, we took a four hour delay?

I wound up getting to Marin after everyone was asleep, just giving them a kiss in the morning, then going right back to the airport, instead of spending the evening with them.

Does "trip in vain" mean much, when all that it led to was the FA saying, "If you want to get off the plane, go ahead, that is your right." When we left Denver the pilot announced that our flying time to SFO would be two hours and something. Do you even get miles credited for the extra thousand or so miles that I flew beyond my original route?

I think that anyone would rather tolerate a stincky toilet for one hour and five minutes, over a four hour delay in arrival time.

Is this a cause for complaint?