Originally Posted by AinA
Last week I had an AS flight that had a mechanical delay. Rather than book a non-stop I had chosen this specific flight (slightly higher cost) so I could take care of some business while waiting for my connecting flight.
As it turned out, my flight was delayed (mechanical) so we would arrive in the layover town after the close of business. I knew this was going to be the case so I went to the gate agent and requested the same flight the following day. She was nasty, to say the least, and told me if I paid the difference in fare (equating to something like $400) she would be happy to rebook me.
Instead I took the delayed flight, spent an extra day away from my family. Intentionally missed my connecting flight so I could overnight and take care of business the next day and flew standby on the same ticket to finish the trip. It cost me a hotel room and rental car.
I can understand gate agents not being very helpful when faced with weather delays but when facing mechanical delays this is something they should go above and beyond for.
A
You indicate you would have made the connecting flight, but chose not to take it. I understand you had business reasons for taking the layover, but from the airline's perspective, a layover (less than 4 hours) only serves to facilitate a connection to your final destination. If leg 1 wasn't going to be delayed long enough for you to miss your original connecting flight, then I think the agent was justified in trying to charge you the fare increase for flying the next day. However, if the delayed leg 1 was going to result a delayed arrival at your
final destination as opposed to the connection point, then I think it would be a legitimate rebooking request.