How can AA claim a weather cancellation? False excuse?
 

Today, AA/MQ 4086 CLE-LGA 710 pm -854 pm is cancelled, citing weather. United Express to EWR is not cancelling any flights.
DL/Endeavor 5475 departing CLE 4:45 pm and DL/Endeavor 4075 departing 7:28 pm both operated.

While there are some storms in upstate NY, is this a case of "there's weather somewhere in the US so we blame weather for cancellation"? Or maybe, "there's not that much bad weather but we can't get our ducks in a row like United and Delta, tough luck for you"?

I've actually seen worse. The plane arrives for a flight, no delay. The same plane intended for the next flight is cancelled and used for another flight. They cite "weather" for the cancellation, but that is weather only in the most remote sense.

How about “the incoming flight was delayed / diverted / cancelled due to weather”? That’s certain,y possible, and it’s even possible the crew timed out because they ebpnciuntered delays because of weather. Another possibility is en route weather. It could even be field conditions (density altitude, winds velocity and direction, etc.) and type of aircraft, it’s loadout. Lots of possible reasons, but we can only speculate as to actual cause. No airline wants to cancel a flight, as it’s terrible OR and has knock on effects down the line.

Doesn't look like it was

Looking at the aeroplane details ( as listed in flight radar 24 ) it seems that the aeroplane yesterday did

New York to Baltimore departed on time at 08:30 and arrived on time
Baltimore to New York departed slightly early at 10:27 and arrived 30 minutes early
Then its New York to Boston at 12:46 was cancelled , as was its return journey at 14:33
the flight to Cleveland seems to have arrived 4 minutes late at 18:49 rather than 18:45
The return flight was cancelled and the aeroplane seems lined up to be used for the 06:16 flight on monday morning

Maybe it was the airplane that was delayed . :p

I thought that I had not clicked send on the post - What I found was that the aeroplane that should have been used for that flight was held back to be used for the 06:16 service in the morning

Another flight from New York that should have been used for the 06:16 service was cancelled - according to EF - for weather reasons

It seems to be possibly disingenuous to claim that the OP's flight was cancelled due to weather - seems to me more likely that it was a commercial decision to cancel that flight so that the monday morning flight could operate instead

Sure, but if an airline does need to cancel a flight, they sure DO want to be able to blame it on the weather. It's their ultimate trump card that gets them off of having to do anything that is truly costly to them.

I had a flight canceled by Delta years ago due to 'weather' which made me miss a connecting trans-atlantic flight, and a day of vacation. The weather in my departing and arriving/connecting city was good, the weather in the city the inbound plane was departing from was good, and there was very few storms or even delays in the entire country. It was highly suspect but I didn't know about the resources then to track airplanes more deeply into the system. I am sure Delta had some sort of squeeze in their operations and just made a decision that operationally my flight was the easiest to cancel. By using the weather excuse, the bottom line was that Delta got off with having to do very very little for causing the major inconvenience to me (all they would do, even after prodding and then arguing, was rebook me on the same flight 24 hours later).

Is there any recourse for misleading "weather" blame?

Airlines will do what they can when a flight is delayed or cancelled to seek a cause of force majeure. They will try to relate to weather, etc. as much as they can. It reads better and they can save substantially in reaccommodation, compensation such as lodging and meals. There’s not much recourse, either - any more than from the contract by adhesion Conditions of Carriage, Warsaw or Montreal convention provisions, or FAA requirements the airline submits to the FAA for approval.

If we don’t understand that, we don’t have a basic understanding of how the system is biased against passengers. If we don’t fly defensively and we fail to understand the need for effective self-advocacy, we’re pretty much at their mercy. And Mercy left town years ago.

However , the question would be what a court would say on such a situation where the aeroplane to operate a flight was available, but the airline decided to cancel that flight so that the aeroplane could be used to replace a flight being operated by an unrelated seroplane which was impacted by weather

I would have thought that there would be a decent chance that it would be ruled as a purely commercial decision rather than actually being cancelled due to weather conditions

It would require taking it to court - unless this is the sort of thing that could refer to DOT

It is a shame that more regions do not have the protections that the EU provides

Lesson for the OP to fly Delta into/out of LGA? They have the more reliable operation there.

Hypothetical: I'm flying from A to B; the pilot for my flt (at the "last minute:) chose not to fly, so they tracked down a pilot in Z and was flying him from Z to A, but bad weather suddenly:rolleyes: popped-up in Z, so the Z to A was cancelled leading to my flight being cancelled because of weather... should AA (or any other airline) get off "free"? [If my street was NOT plowed after a snow storm and couldn't get to the airport, could I claim a weather waiver???]
Since CoC is written by the airlines to benefit the airlines, the passengers get ZAPPED.:td:

EF shows the flight cancelled due to ATC Congestion. There was weather in NYC yesterday. What likely happened in ATC in LGA told AA and everyone that due to WX or issues at LGA, x flights will be cancelled. AA ops then looks at how do they minimize the disruption. Typically that means a small RJ plane will get the axe. Unfortunately, you were on the short end of the stick.

Someone who actually makes sense, without trying to blame the airline.

BOS-ORD #1360 also canceled due to "weather" per AA but EF shows ATC congestion on outbound. (ORD-BOS)

Sounds like a ripe target for a class action and discovery into AA's trip scheduling and dispatch computers for the correct reasons for a cancellation....