darkrider

Hi all. I had tickets to travel to Venice on American Airlines in premium economy leaving through Philly. I was all set on a convenient 350pm shuttle flight from DCA, when I was notified that the flight was cancelled and I was put on a 630am flight. When I researched other options, I found out they essentially took out all DCA to PHL shuttles. I'm not sure why this happened. The most convenient option I could find required I leave from BWI which was a hassle I had hoped to avoid and partly why I picked the original flight to begin with. Another post said AA was cutting back its DCA to JFK route. How are we supposed to take AA internationally if they make it so difficult to take short flights to get to the destination? Are there other disappearing shuttle routes? Do others have this experience?

linglingfool

Date(s) would help.

darkrider

It is for mid May flight leaving on a Saturday and arriving in Venice on Sunday.

TWAL10114Ever

Your problem is it is a Saturday and often there are reduced schedules on a Saturday. Looks like with the latest schedule change your 350pm DCA-PHL flight got the axe. If you look up flights for Monday on the same route you'll see that same flight is back on the schedule. So the flight hasn't disappeared, but as usual, a reduced schedule is showing for a Saturday.

JJeffrey

Since this is an AA schedule change, you can call AA and ask to switch to pretty much any other available WAS-VCE routing within reason for no fee. You don't have to stick with the original PHL-VCE flight. I would ask for DCA-ORD-VCE.

Often1

The easiest reroute here is Amtrak. There is no way that I would fly DCA-PHL (and even less so, BWI-PHL). Those flights are the first to be cancelled / delayed when inevitable weather, ATC, and other issues arise in the corridor between RIC & BOS. Even Amtrak has a reduced Saturday schedule, but there is still at least one train per hour.

Your profile shows you as based in DC itself. Thus, Amtrak to PHL followed by either Uber or SEPTA to the airport is likely faster, less prone to delay, and more certain. It's certainly nicer than DCA-ORD-VCE which involves additional flight time on both segments.

AAir_head

This. And, depending on where DC metro area you live, it may actually be faster to drive/uber to PHL...not necessarily cheaper (but it could be close depending on when you go and discounts).

darkrider

Awesome! Great suggestions. I had no idea those shuttle flights get cancelled frequently. I would have thought a quick hub to hub in order to feed an international flight would have been a great idea. Lesson learned!

USFlyerUS

I've been flying DCA-PHL for years to connect to onward US/AA flights. And, I've also flown DCA-PHL (no onward connection) on its own many times. I've rarely had a cancellation DCA-PHL, so I wouldn't say they get cancelled frequently. I think the issue here is you're traveling on a Saturday.

AAir_head

They do, however, get delayed frequently in my experience. If you're looking at an onward connection, you'd do well to give yourself a pretty good buffer. My personal rule is 2+ hours for international and 1+ for domestic--but I'm fairly conservative. YMMV.

cheers and happy travels!

ijgordon

Cancel and fly DL, you’re better off. I think you can do DCA-JFK-VCE.

guv1976

DCA-PHL is not a "shuttle" route. AA operates shuttle-type service on a few Northeast routes with frequent service; DCA-PHL is not one of them.

Whatever you do, don't just fail to show up for the new DCA-PHL flight without talking to AA: if you fail to show up for the first flight on your ticket, AA will cancel all remaining flights on the same ticket. Whether AA will let you drop your DCA-PHL leg and permit you to fly just the PHL-VCE leg is something you need to discuss with AA. I suspect that they will be accommodating because of the schedule change, but I would not expect them to reimburse you for ground transportation between D.C. and PHL Airport -- regardless of whether you go via Amtrak, Greyhound, or a one-way car rental.

lalala

I was going to to say the same. Way less of a hassle to go via train, unless you have a ton of luggage.

A318neo

So short, any O&D traffic?

I once flew DCA-PHL, too. It was a rebook having been ticketed on a cancelled IAD-PHL flight on UA.

DCAAlex

I had a similar accommodation. In my case departure airport was changed from DCA to PHL. A Platinum line agent told me that they have the ability to change the departure city in some circumstances.

the agent suggested that long as the change is within X miles of the original, it can be adjusted themselves. I didn’t received any compensation for ground transport but I didn’t ask. I doubt AA would provide.