AA167 JFK-HND on August 30th was cancelled due to MX, crew time out.
We was literally about to board the plane in jet bridge before they stopped us in front of the aircraft. waited around for 30 min wondering whats going on. pilot came out and said something was wrong and maybe it will take 30-45min so we should wait in the gate area. so we trundle back out. an hour later, no update and everybody is curious and asked the gate staff. gate staff finally announced they don't know whats going on or how long its going to take so we should go get lunch and they will update us. so back to the lounge i go. another 1-2 hours later, nothing is announced so i ask the un-friendly lounge staff do they know anything and they have no clue either and told me to sit tight. at 3 pm or 5 hours later, we get a message the flight is now 9pm instead of 10:30am as crew timed out. at 4pm, then was told flight was cancelled as plane couldn't be fixed that day.

i wandered back to the lounge agents trying to rebook myself and they said nothing is available for the next day and have wait for flights in 2 days; all jal flights were 0'ed out. even flights through europe were packed as british students were all en-masse returning back to london for school. there was a couple next to me that was beyond pissed as they were losing 2 days of holiday in Japan and losing all the prepaid bookings.

While asking the agent for any hope on CX or through helsinki with finnair, she exclaimed, "oh! you are on tonights jal flight! Did you talk to someone already?". whoever my guardian angel is, she saved me and somehow got me on a flight that was 0'ed out. AURA looked to have saved me.

Later returning to recheckin at the 1:30am flight that evening, i needed to rush to the AA desks to reticket my ticket as the exchanged tickets got stuck... gave me a minor heart attack at checkin at jal.

a poor fellow next to me was pissed at checkin. he was in PY on AA and they put him in Y on jal. i don't know if one should be mad or happy at that point as the other alternatives was arriving in japan 2 days later...

The worst part of this whole ordeal was the seemingly indifference of some of the AA staff - they had no clue and just shrugged things off like it was another typical day at work; AA is consistently inconsistent