eloraculo

Really an airline can cancel a flight due to crew availability and you get nothing?

Parents were scheduled to fly from ATL to MIA yesterday at 8:30PM. AA no longer has interline agreement with Delta and they will not pay for DL tkt market rate. So they offer refund of orininal ticket value or a flight that is 3X longer and arrives 14 hours later. No compensation, no hotel, no meal, nothing.

Mind that ATL is a short flight from CLT and MIA. How can they cancel a flight 7 hours before? Can't they send a crew from the hubs?

3Cforme

AA could, but chooses not to. AA doesn't have an interline agreement with Southwest, either, so no luck with ATL-FLL on Southwest.

eloraculo

No wonder why Delta terminated the agreement. AA was putting 5x the number of passengers that DL was putting in AA metal. AA still has interline agreement with UA but from ATL if you are heading south is worthless

wetrat0

Write to AA and you should get compensation. I was delayed a couple of hours due to Republic "unable to crew" and got 7,500 miles in compensation. Submit a request that is short and factual and details the actual expenses incurred (note that you should not expect cash, but you may get a voucher/miles).

Note that I am suggesting that AA will probably give compensation as a customer service gesture, not that they owe you any specific amount of compensation. Consumer protections in the US are pretty weak, and they satisfied their obligation by offering later transit or a full refund. If you think that shouldn't be the case, I would suggest writing to your Congressperson. Edited to add: it helps if you have status (when contacting AA, not Congress).

buckeyefanflyer

With so few airlines left do to all the mergers, you would think the big boys, UA,AA, and DL would all have interline agreements. This would benefit all 3 airlines which probably run into similar situations as pointed put in this post.

ty97

It helps to have status ($$$) when contacting Congress too

nrr

While "the contract governs everything", a possible parallel(?):
I'm scheduled to take a flight, but I was UNAVAILABLE, would AA let me off with NO penalty?--I don't think so, why should AA get off with NO penalty when a crew is unavailable?

knit-in

As you said, its their lawyers who devise the contracts. EU carriers can't get away with it. Not that they don't try.

Often1

Crew unavailability is likely the result of a crew timing out. Not that the crew is really not there, but simply that as the day progresses, all it takes is a bit of weather, a few wind direction shifts and some backed up air traffic and the crew won't have enough time left to safely fly the aircraft. AA might even have a spare at ATL, but it likely doesn't have 2 spares, so the micro-haul to MIA gets the axe.

Compensation? No. Maybe a smallish customer service gesture if they write in.

I have no idea what the AA tickets cost and I have no idea what the situation was last night, but WN has three flights later today with seats as low as $144 (to FLL). I would have grabbed one of those. Sure, AA doesn't have an interline agreement with WN, but the AA tickets will be refunded.

The interline thing is a pity, but to be frank, it was a bad deal for DL and DL is running a business, not a charity. Can't really blame AA for that decision though.

Lakeviewsteve

That is a shame. I hope the new CEO Doug Parker does something to improve customer service and put customer satisfaction at the top of his to do list. I also read due to a systems glitch many FA's scheduling is all messed up in December, 2015 and many would need to fly much more than they thought. Could this mean, during the busy Chrismas period we will see many more cancellations due to missing crews?

turkeyRIOO

OP, flight 4285 is operated by Republic Airlines not AA. They have been having crew shortages because of recent increases in the amount of hours required to get a pilots license. Many pilots who were able to fly as a crew member before are no longer eligible because they do not have enough hours. This will be be an ongoing problem as it is prohibitively expensive to get enough hours to be hired on at a regional airline.

Going forward, all airlines will probably have to make changes in their training programs and/or pay in order to run an effective schedule. There is a big increase in safety, but very costly to the flying public.

badah

I yesterday submitted a request for compensation for my daughter for a cancellation of an SFO-PHL redeye 2 hours before scheduled departure for crew availability -- she was rebooked on another flight the next AM, got back 10K of the 12.5K miles she paid for the flight, and is just an AA Gold. Never hurts to ask.

reeg2

This is total sarcasm, right?

If not, I've got news for you. AA doesn't care.

TheJACKedViking

If you're just looking for monetary compensation for the delay regardless of where it comes from, check with your credit card company. A lot of credit card companies bundle trip delay / cancellation coverage as a complementary benefit.

Lakeviewsteve

That's too funny. Doug Parker's top to do item is probably to make more money for himself no doubt.