Originally Posted by tankspectre

Date: 4th of July
•AAdvantage Status: Regular member, nothing special
•Fare class: I used Chase Sapphire Reserve points for $300 tickets (each) roundtrip SAN-MSY flights for my wife and I for a funeral. Layover each way in DFW.
•What happened: On our return flight we make our stop in DFW. Departure time for DFW-SAN is 455pm. Hang at the Centurion lounge and then go to our gate. Sign says "6 minutes till boarding." I go to the restroom. When I return our flight is now 20 minutes delayed...ok...no big deal. A few minutes later the GA announces "We have a plane and a flight crew...but the flight crew is not certified for this model of plane."


Basically they blamed the US Airways/American merger for the snafu. Because they have different submodels of planes, the crew wasn't certified on the submodel. They ask for active military to be put on standby for a flight leaving at 6xxpm. There are A LOT as San Diego is a military city and they are all on holiday leave for the 4th...so there is no way anyone without a severe hardship is getting standby for that flight. I ask the manager about compensation and he prints out instructions for contacting AA online because "Since it's a whole plane affected they can offer you far more than I could here."

We eventually get a new plane and leave DFW at 855pm...4 hour delay. I had to have our pet/housesitter stay for extra time on a holiday. We missed all of our holiday plans. We then got stuck in traffic trying to go home in an Uber at SAN...it took 62 minutes to go 9 miles.

As far as I'm concerned we were essentially involuntarily deboarded. They caused their own problem. This isn't mechanical or weather. This is strictly on the airline.

•Compensation: I contacted AA on twitter and via the website. They respond by gifting us 5k miles each. Absolutely unacceptable. I've now told them so...I figure I'll give them a chance to actually talk to me and give me something worthwhile or I'll file with DOT.

•Comments: I'm not trying to get compensated for the housesitter and Uber issues but the delay did cause us to lose holiday time and money overall. I want to be fairly compensated for what I see as essentially being bumped due to incompetence.