Date: 2/25/08
AAdvantage Status: PLT
Fare class: N->X
What happened LGA-DFW-DEN; upon arrival at DFW, 2nd leg originally showed ontime 3:40p, then was pushed back incrementally (≥7 times) to 7:05p. AC agent initially said they were working on finding equipment; the inbound they eventually selected was a SNA-DFW flight in the air but already delayed 4 hrs. I ultimately switched to a later DFW-DEN showing ontime 6:40p with aircraft at the gate, but that one ended up delayed to 7:00p at the gate. (Full disclosure: there was another flight in between, but it only had middle seats in the back.) Boarded and was told the FA crew was the DFW Standby Crew and they'd been told by Operations to wait for the assigned FA crew to arrive from the other side of the airport. Crew arrived 20 min later, then Capt announced that we'd been told to wait for additional late connecting intl pax. Another 20 min passed, and we eventually pushed back at 7:36p. Others were happy to make their flight, but net delay for me was 4 hrs and I missed a dinner meeting.
Compensation: $150 voucher
Comments: No major delays or weather at DFW that day; I think there was still weather on the West Coast, though. Emailed Customer Relations to inquire about 1) whether they'd sacrificed my original flight to maintain ontime performance for other flights by choosing such a badly delayed inbound to use, 2) why they didn't just let the standby FA crew fly and transfer the inbound crew to standby. Didn't explicitly request compensation but received a form letter response with voucher. Would have preferred substantive answers on their operational decisions, but the voucher helps.