yosandr

My wife and I had a flight on 1/3/18. It was originally scheduled to depart at 5:59pm. I got a notification from American Airlines that our flight was delayed until 6:20pm. I immediately checked the status on the AA app and saw that we were in fact delayed. Soon after, I got text message that our flight was delayed until 6:55 pm. As we got these confirmations, we pushed off heading to the airport. On our way to the airport, I checked the app again, and it kept switching departure times between 5:59 and 6:55. We decided to call the airline to double check and were told there was a 2+ hour wait to speak to a representative. The automated service did say the flight was on time, but the app was still reading as delayed. We arrived at the airport to find that our flight was never delayed and had already departed. The lady at the counter tried to find a later flight for us, but nothing was available until at least Friday. My wife is 7 months pregnant, and had a doctors appointment on 1/4/18 at our destination, so we could not wait. We asked about getting on the next Delta flight, and the agent told us AA has no agreement with Delta. We were forced to pay over $750 one way that night with Delta. Usually, we have TSA Precheck, but did not qualify because we booked so close to departure. Additionally, I have an AAdvantage card and had counted on getting two free bags, but was forced to pay the fee for both of them with Delta. All of this on top of my pregnant wife and I having to traipse across the airport after being massively disappointed by American.

I do not understand how American Airlines can mess up so badly. Has anyone else been in a similar situation? What do you think we should do? The rep did say we would probably be refunded for our original tickets (we booked them with British Avios miles so who knows if this is even possible), but we are now left with a $800 bill from Delta.

Antarius

Do you have a screenshot of the App showing you and a copy of the text still?

SJOGuy

You don't tell us where this happened or what time you actually did arrive at check-in. From 5:59 to 6:20 is not a huge delay. If I were getting conflicting information, I'd have gotten to the airport in time required for the original scheduled departure. That's what I do anyway. Delays can be shortened if a take-off slot opens up unexpectedly.

So, when did you arrive at check-in?

yosandr

Yes. I do. and we showed it to them. I am trying to upload the screenshots here but it says i cannot as i am new to Flyertalk and cannot post photos (or URLs) until i have at least 5 posts apparently

yosandr

It happened at LGA in New York for a flight to CMH.
when the first delay came in (6:20pm) we were in fact planning to head to the airport at the same time we would have had the flight never been delayed. However, once we received the text message saying that our flight had been further delayed (to 6:55pm) we decided we would head to the airport a bit later. Also, many flights were being cancelled because of the snowstorm coming in so we wanted to make sure the flight wouldnt get pushed any further before heading to the airport.
We got to the airport at 5:55pm (exactly 1 hour before the new scheduled time).
we do this route all the time and never had a problem coming an hour before

SJOGuy

I think that was a big risk to delay your arrival at the airport, especially since you were getting conflicting information. Delays can turn into on-time departures at the last minute, as I mentioned above.

Dave Noble

You may be able to get BA to refund the original ticket, but no chance that AA will pay up for the Delta purchase

Do you have any travel insurance that might cover this?

yosandr

I hear you. The thing is, we didn't start getting conflicting information until we were actually on the way to the airport!
The airlines always recommend checking the status of flights before heading to the airport.
We did what they told us to do and got screwed because of it

yosandr

I paid the taxes for BA flight with a Chase Saphire Reserve card.

Also, we did try to call AA but they had an over 2 hour wait!
i couldnt wait that long as the Delta flight was in less than 2 hours from that point and i had to get to Columbus

enviroian

Your first and last mistake.

Departure delay times can change so always plan on leaving to the airport on the originally scheduled departure time.

Dave Noble

Since you decided not to wait and just go ahead and book another flight, I think that you will just have to wear the cost unless you have insurance coverage for this event

volleyca

Feels pretty rookie, and by your tone, not sure how you missed the flght. If you got to the airport an hour ahead of time- why did you not make the flight?

wrp96

There's two issues:

1) I wish AA's communication was better across the board. It is definitely bad that one source will show one departure time and another source will show yet a different one. This is definitely a problem with AA. It sounds like they did try to reaccommodate you without charging you extra so at least there is that.

2) However, you did have at least one thing saying the flight was still on time plus it is always best to go ahead to the airport at the original departure time, in case they are able to swap planes, crews, etc (advice might be different at a one gate airport, but a large airport like LGA not so much). Also, with LGA traffic issues the way they are, it's probably best to allow extra time to get there anyways.

So I think I would probably write in and complain about the differences in communications of delays vs on time. You might get some miles or a small voucher as a customer service gesture, but I would not expect them to cover the ticket on DL or the baggage fees you paid to DL.

TravelwhileyouEat

I would have gotten to the airport at the same time for the original departure since you were getting conflicting information and had an important appointment I could not miss. I understand the ire of having to wait longer at an airport but I rather that then miss a flight I really had to take.

The chances of AA reimbursing the $800 may not be in your favor since they can argue that the automated service stated an on-time departure. Further, AFAIK check-in cut-off is not moved so you still had to be there by the bag drop cut-off based on your original flight time even if a flight is delayed since a delay of 30-60 minutes can be reduced or like in your case eliminated if whatever caused the delay (like lack of a slot) is resolved.

nutwpinut

From the post it sounds like the departure time was ~6pm and it was delayed to ~7pm. If they arrived an hour early for the delayed time of 7pm, they wouldn't make the 6pm.