dcv_aa

My wife is on a flight that was supposed to leave Miami nearly 2 hours ago. They sat the passengers in a hot plane, no A/C, for 40 minutes before telling them that the A/C doesn't work and the pilot is nowhere to be found. Deplaned. And now keeping them waiting while they attempt to find pilot (and presumably fix A/C). Forgetting that it's a very strange thing to tell delayed customers, what is the appropriate response from American if the flight has to be cancelled? How long can they keep passengers waiting before compensation is appropriate? Are there any requirements of the airline to provide a complete crew and working equipment to folks who have paid, or are we just victims of a strong oligopolistic market in which American and other big players don't really care about the customer experience, and in which we have little recourse because of lack of competition?

3Cforme

The way you phrase the question suggests lack of familiarity with the U.S. airline industry and the history of regulation. Refunding your fare is a legal remedy.

Dr. HFH

Yup, that's it. Maybe domestic air travel isn't for you.

tom911

The conditions of carriage state they'll get passengers out on the next AA flight with availability. Was your wife rebooked or did the pilot finally show? In rare instances that may route on a competitor.

Compensation isn't required for flight delays. AA may offer some miles proactively, so check your e-mail the next few days, and if nothing appears you can complain about the delay at Aa.com and they might offer some miles as a customer service gesture.

Two paragraphs from the conditions of carriage which you may want to read:

Tom in Alexandria, Virginia tonight

Often1

The recitation of the announcement by OP is a bit off. AA does not refer to the "pilot" but rather the "Captain" or perhaps "flight deck crew." That calls into question whether the announcement really said that AA has no idea where he is. Or whether perhaps this is an over-dramatized announcement regarding locating a replacement crew for one delayed on an inbound flight.

Either way, there won't be any compensation. If the flight is cancelled, a refund or rebooking. AA may offer some small customer service gesture in its sole discretion. The Eurocrat Nannies don't extend their reach quite this far.

CPRich

Unless you were on the flight, don't be so sure. I've certainly heard "pilot" from AA gate agents, FA's, etc.

The last time we had one missing, it turned out he was in a car accident and in the hospital. We didn't get all huffy about the oligopoly.

mvoight

That seems odd. I thought they don't board passengers until the crew is on the plane.
Which flight number is this?

swingaling

That struck me as odd too. Perhaps the first officer was present, but the captain was not (or vice versa)?

coolcoil

I thought the same. Many years ago I was stuck on the old TrAAin at DFW when it broke down between stations. I was sure that I was going to miss the flight. A captain was also in my car and he heard me calling AA to look at other options. He overheard what flight I was on, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry - I'm the pilot for your flight and they're not leaving without me." When we did arrive at the gate at T+5, boarding had not started even though they knew the pilot was on the way, as he called the gate as soon as we were moving again.

jordyn

That's absurd. I've heard gate agents refer to people responsible for flying the planes as "pilots" on a large number of occasions. AA also refers to them as pilots in official communications on a regular basis, see:

https://jobs.aa.com/job/Charlotte-Fl...201/452349300/
Newsroom - American's first female pilot inspires new award that honors women in filmmaking - American Airlines Group, Inc.
Newsroom - PSA Airlines Announces Industry-Leading Pay for New-Hire Pilots - American Airlines Group, Inc.

But I do agree that people should tend to disregard statements by people who consistently make inaccurate statements on Flyertalk.

The "small customer service gesture" you refer to is, in fact, a form of compensation, so it's hard to tell which of these two sentences to take seriously either.

aztimm

A little over a year ago I was flying PHX-AUS and the gate agent announced, "We'll begin boarding as soon as our crew arrives. We're missing a flight attendant."
When she finally showed up, everyone murmured to themselves, "is that her?" She did the walk of shame through the crowded to the gate and onto the aircraft.
I almost felt sorry for her. But in the end we were maybe 5 minutes delayed, and I don't think anyone held any hard feelings.

AlwaysAisle

If there are minimum required FAs on board then can board passengers without pilots, had it happened to me more than few times.

When my home airport was NYC airports, this happened to me once at LGA and once at JFK. Once we boarded they did make an announcement that pilots were stuck in a traffic, we would depart as soon as pilots show up.

Both flights were delayed about an hour as all passengers waited on board. Thought little embarrassing for pilots because we all had to get to the airport; passengers, gate agent's, ticket agents, ground crews, etc. all seemed made it to the airport in time for the flight and their work. I understand about NYC traffic but include me we all lived at NYC area. Felt as not a strong excuse for pilots, or AA since AA arranged their ride from the hotel. Yes, they announced and said pilots were coming from a hotel they were staying.

neo_781

The pilot and first officer are NOT required for boarding, just the flight attendants.

And it is quite possible that since there was no pilot or maintenance they just couldn't turn the air condition on and it wasn't really broken. Flight attendants wouldn't be able to "flip any switches" in the cockpit.

AlwaysAisle

Yeah, that happened to me on a flight during summer. Gate agents said our pilots inbound flight was slightly delayed but we went ahead and boarded.

No A.C. onboard, I was sitting at F and FAs at front galley was complaining that they repeatedly said to gate agents they did not want to board passengers because there wad no A.C. in the plane.

FA announced and said they called a mechanic to turn on A.C. The mechanic showed up about in 10 min. and A.C. was on.

C17PSGR

34 segments and 50,000 miles so far in 2018 .... almost every flight has been on time and every flight has had flight crew.

Over the years, I have had flights delayed because of crew issues but its a pretty small percentage. The van driving the pilots from the crew hotel breaks down. There is an accident and the pilots can't get in. The inbound flight is delayed. A pilot gets sick and they have to call in a reserve pilot. Sometimes the reserve pilot is in DFW and the sick pilot is in city XXX. All pretty normal and I suspect is a much bigger impact in the more competitive ULCC world where they don't have a bunch of pilots on standby.