Originally Posted by FullFare

I have not paid too much attention to this route (SFO-ORD) since I often fly out of SJC to ORD. It is now summer. AA is only running 5 non-stops on the route, one of them a red-eye. Fortunately, there are 3 SJC-ORD, one of them a red-eye. UA, by comparison, has 12 each way (UA has long dominated this hub-hub route).

I don't know how much the 737 Max thing has contributed to this, but thing hit rock bottom for me 2 days ago. I had booked an AAirpass ticket, SFO-ORD, on the first flight of the day, 7:30AM departure, over a week ago. Had to interview a prospective hire.

Then, as I was going to bed the night before at 9:00PM, my phone buzzes, with a notification from AA that my flight was cancelled. The first flight of the day between 2 busy cities. I called the Exec Plat line immediately and explained my issues, but got little help and suggestion. Called UA. They had nothing. So, I drove myself to the SFO airport and pleaded with the agent at the counter. She dug deep and got me a routing SFO-PHL-ORD, starting with the red-eye to PHL which left within an hour.

Got to ORD actually in enough time to do the interview, although I wasn't 100% prepped after a 13 hour journey.
Aftermath: AA had no explanation for the cancellation. It couldn't have been weather, or they would have gladly volunteered that, IMO. My guess was no crew, or maybe an aircraft out of place, or just plane mechanical. At any rate, these flight disruptions, particularly without a weather etiology, have gotten old. 5 non-stops a day on a route that AA once flew proudly are not enough to take up the slack on a cancellation of the first flight of the day. Airline has seen better days.