I was on DFW-SMF on 12/27, aa2479. It was to depart at 10:20PM, board at 9:50PM

At 9:48PM the GA came on and said 'we will be boarding in 2 minutes'

I hadnt noticed any ramp activity, and that was disturbing. Then the departure time was moved back 30 minutes.

A lard groan ensued... I immediately got on the phone with AA, surprisingly it took only 10 minutes. I said "I am concerned about this flight, is there any way to protect me?"

Agent checked and said "next flight to SMF is on Sunday." In coach. (I was in F)

I said thats not gonna work.... lets get creative, DFW to LAX, SFO, RNO, SEA, etc...need to get to the west coast tonight or first thing in the AM

AS SHE WAS LOOKING, my flight cancelled. Text came on my phone with the update at the gate. Within seconds the agent came back and said "I can get you on the 8:30AM to LAX in F, is that OK?" I said grab it, cause my flight just cancelled.

We agreed I was tres lucky.

Couple of notes:

"AA" knew that they had no crew. GAs knew there was no crew assigned, yet they made boarding announcements. AA changed the departure time by 30 minutes, then minutes later cancelled the flight. This information around crew issues wasnt a surprise.... it wasnt some rolling delay that triggered a crew time out with an already scheduled crew that was impacted by weather.

They cancelled the 7PM and 10PM flights DFW-SMF. Both due to 'crew'. On mine at 10PM, AA said 'this was out fault'. They actually had not even scheduled a crew for that aircraft, according to the GA. They offered to cover my expenses. Im only a Pro (but did get EXP on the flight home today.)

The airports was a disaster. It had that "Last Helicopter out of Saigon" feeling. There were HUNDREDS of people in the CS lines. I didnt bother for a voucher, booked the Westin- agent told me to just submit it.

Everyone was told "its weather", at least at first.. Spotty offers of vouchers.

Some really sad stories- an older woman was having an emotional breakdown of sorts outside security.... families with kids crying.... an older black gentlemen (70, 75?) not really understanding the whole thing, telling me he cant afford a room and will need to sleep in the airport until Sunday. (I did ask an agent if she could help, she said "I can do that'.)She told me that my snagging the westin was good, she was giving out super8 vouchers for grapevine and even further out.

One point I will reiterate, some of these delays were on AA due to lack of crew. Just because there was weather somewhere in the system doesnt mean every delay and cancellation for the next 3 days is an act of god. The very frustrating fact is that we have utterly no way of knowing if AA is lying, nor what criteria they use to make these decisions. Heck, even when the agents call Flight Ops and ask, they are often simply told X or Y, with no rationale. Even if the agents WANTED to tell you, they are in the dark a lot of times.