interactiveguy

Hey guys, I'm a Delta flyer, but my wife is flying AA today. This is her first flight on AA, she doesn't even have an AAdvantage account. She booked a non-stop flight TPA-ORD, getting her into ORD around 3:30pm. When she checked in they told her the original flight had been cancelled and she had been rebooked on a connecting flight through CLT, arriving ORD around 7:30pm. The original flight was cancelled due to a maintenance issue, not weather related. On Delta I would have received meal vouchers, drink coupons and bonus miles for something like that. When she inquired at the ticket counter, she was told her compensation was them still getting her into ORD today. She explained that she will miss her evening activities tonight and they told her that was too bad, but they don't provide any compensation. Is that really true?

beachfan

PHL

For a 4 hour arrival delay at your end destination, there is no compensation by either AA or DL in their contract of carriage. As mentioned, the best thing to do is ask the agent. The worse they can say is no, and they would still be within the policy.
https://www.aa.com/i18n/customer-ser...rvice-plan.jsp
"If the delay or cancellation was caused by events within our control or you were diverted to another city, and we don’t board to your final destination before 11:59 p.m. local time, we'll arrange an overnight stay at your connecting airport, if available"

Delta's customer service plan is similar.
https://www.delta.com/us/en/legal/customer-commitment
"In order to mitigate inconveniences due to a delay, cancellation, or irregular operation:We will automatically rebook you on the next available flight and will make every reasonable effort to reroute your checked baggage on the same flight as you.
We will provide hotel accommodations at Delta contracted facilities, based on availability, if you are inconvenienced overnight while away from your home or destination due to a delay, misconnect or cancellation within Delta's control. If accommodations are unavailable, we will compensate you with a transportation credit commensurate in value with the contracted hotel rate up to $100."

Often1

DL and AA have roughly the same policy. There is no compensation, but there are reimbursements and possibly CS gestures.

The difference is that you are a top-tier DL flier while she is nobody on AA. If your wife were an EXP on AA, she would likely have been handed a meal voucher and would already have some miles in her account . I have no idea how long she had to hang around either TPA or CLT and thus whether a meal was feasible, but she would likely have been provided a smallish voucher on request.

Try flying DL sometime without adding your SM# and thus having your status showing up. You will find that you will have to beg for scraps too.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

Unless she's forced to wait around the TPA airport for a considerable time (more than a few hours) I doubt she'd get anything. When "a flight" is significantly delayed AA does provide food and beverages to paxs. In fact they are generous to the point one could have a sandwich and drink and take one each for the flight. Not sure what DL does in that circumstance.

interactiveguy

Thanks for you replies. I have been an elite guy for so long, I forgot how abused disposable customers are treated.

As an update, she got to CLT and the flight to ORD was cancelled - not sure of the reason yet - and has now been routed through BNA, arriving ORD after 10pm.

Honestly, I can't imagine another industry that could get away with such poor service.

redtop43

Airlines are not like "other industries."

Last week I ordered two unbaked pizzas to go. When I arrived at the restaurant, they gave me two baked pizza. They apologized, gave me a soda while I waited, and gave me the pizzas I ordered plus the baked ones - heck, they couldn't do anything else with them. Restaurants that mess up do typically comp you an appetizer or desert. I've had CS issues with car dealers, movers, all that stuff- happens.

But for one thing, airlines don't have an infinitely elastic product supply. They can't upgrade you gratis because they have only so many F seats. Sometimes at a hub they can roll out a spare planed but at a lot of non-hubs they just don't have a plane sitting around. They bend over backwards for safety, with admirable results. They also have way more "act of God" type challenges than most businesses, although as experienced travelers we understand the difference between Wx and Mx.

I agree they can spring for a meal voucher. (Phone call vouchers are pretty pointless these days.) And you'll usually get some miles if you ask. They tend to be proactive with elites. Last year I got miles for being moved from a F seat on a connection to an F seat on a nonstop that even got in earlier! (The original routing had lie-flat seats on the transcon leg.) But I did have to ask.

I agree they could be more proactive with explaining the reason for delays, but in practice it only actually matters if it's Wx or Mx. Do we really care if it's a faulty fuse or if the landing gear fell off? If the plane won't fly, it won't fly. It's obviously helpful to get more information as between "The plane is broken and we hope to have it fixed and leave in an hour" and "The incoming aircraft was delayed, it's currently 100 miles away, and we expect to have it emptied, cleaned, catered, boarded, and ready to leave in an hour" - we trust the second one quite a lot and the first one about as much as a politician's campaign promise.

Every time stuff like this happens, I'm just happy that I know what to do. My ex-wife lived in another city and even though she was the one who traveled to see me, I was the experienced one, so whenever something went wrong at least I knew how to swing into action and get done whatever could be done.

MADPhil

The CLT-ORD cancellation may have been a consequence of the 737MAX problems and wouldn't even qualify for compensation in Europe. It's still a pain.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

3Cforme

I was AA Plat (before Plat Pro) for many years. Never, ever was I offered compensation by AA proactively. Yes, I have been given DL miles and vouchers without asking.

rumboj

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I'm thinking someone (likely of high status) on your flight(s) made a big stink to AA and at that point AA decided to throw miles at either all paxs, or just elites (with miles given likely based on your status) rather than AA proactively looking at significantly delayed flights and providing compensation.

ibrandsguest

Same, but airlines are near-monopolies. They get away with this because they can. We consumers really don't have a true choice.

jjglaze77

This exactly matches my experience. They once offered me a pitifully low mileage amount after some issue I've long since forgotten, I told them to keep it, and they did! I actually am not sure they ever gave me any CS gesture miles during my time as an EXP. Admittedly, after only getting a "sorry for your inconvenience" reply to my first few complaints, I generally quit writing in to them. Maybe that is their goal.

nrr

While different industries: Amazon if they make an error (= mechanical on airline), you don't have to return the merchandise, but you get to keep the merchandise^
Billing issues: when you book a flt on an airline they charge you immediately (after 24 hours), a credit can take days; with Amazon, when you return merchandise, when the UPS return label is scanned (even though they haven't received the return), your acct is credited.