IRROPS PHX July 29 2016
Flew from IAH bound for PHX last night when storms starting kicking up in PHX area. After circling 200 miles outside of PHX, the pilot said that we were going to divert to TUS for more fuel. Landed in Tucson, eventually got our fuel. While waiting for new flight plan which pilot said was taken way longer than it should, the weather in PHX which had been getting better began to turn again. PHX was on a ground stop and the pilot informed us that we would be on the ground for another hour. That announcement was followed by one that said that we were going to wait for a gate because the pilots would end up timing out.
We were instructed to deplane and the AA agents (it is now 11:00 PM or so), were handing each passenger a scrap of paper off of a pad that basically said call this 800 number and get rescheduled. They tried getting away without providing any assistance whatsoever.
Given that is was "only" 11:00 PM and the weather was due to clear, I feel like AA was responsible for putting us up for the night. Instead, they just kept repeating "we were told that this cancellation was due to weather" and we were instructed to give you the telephone number to call to get rescheduled. Besides, they continued, there are no hotel rooms available near the airport.
IMHO, it seems like AA was either responsible for scheduling the pilots with no leeway in case of an issue OR, they should have provisions (like a spare deck crew, even in a non-hub station).
I finally caved, took responsibility for myself and found a room at a Hilton Garden Inn at the airport. When I got there on their shuttle, the agent (now its midnight) told me that it was good that I called when I did, because Delta took the balance of their available rooms for their PAX in similar situation.
What strikes me oddly is that the average kettle wasn't putting up much of a flight. No rooms, no food and they generally accepted it. To me this is totally unacceptable.
I am no better than anybody else, but this ExPlat is not happy. I am going to write to AA and send them my hotel bill and see what happens.