thunderdeacon

(update)

​​​​​​MY UA ERJ flight IAH-LFT just went mechanical and we are headed back to the gate to get a new aircraft, already 38 minutes past scheduled departure time.

(End update)




That was my assumption. This was the very rare occasion where I'm up against a hard deadline and was able to negotiate a significantly higher fee for the contract. It figures that in this very rare case where I just had to be there that this would happen. This was also the first time in a long time that no decent alternative offered by AA.

The incoming flight from Dallas that was providing the plane canceled last night. The weather in Dallas was fine yesterday, and the weather in Phoenix was certainly okay. How far back is an airline allowed to go when claiming weather? It's almost like the butterfly effect. It's just sad that with every single DFW-PHX flight booked full and not even selling seats, they couldn't find another aircraft/crew at a major hub. That left a full 737 full of pax with no good options. I was number 17 out of 24 on the upgrade list, so this wasn't just a covid era flight packed with tourists.

Service on United was pretty good this morning. The flight attendants seemed happy to be doing their jobs and being able to provide a full service. I am now sitting in the regional cattle holding pin at IAH where they send out multiple flights from the same gate. It reminds me why I don't like to fly regional flights out of CLT.

I'll send an email to AAdvantage after the trip when I get bored just to see what happens. The agent on the phone explained that I would need to go to prefunds to request a refund for the half of the ticket that I did not end up using.

wrp96

Have you checked about flying into New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, or Alexandria and renting a car (if you can find one)?

thunderdeacon

AA would have been able to get me to New Orleans that same day, but it was impossible to get a rental car for less than $100 a day. And, I would have forfeited my really good rental car deal at Lafayette if I would have waited until the next day to arrive. The scarcity and high cost of rental cars has been problematic recently for private contractors like me. It was a bonanza during covid because cars were so cheap. But now it's become much more of a liability. On the bright side, we spent an hour and a half at the gate with maintenance and then we were able to take off. So I did finally get to Lafayette even if it was about 4 hours later then my original plans. I just hate that I had to give $380 to United instead of american. I'm going to get very close to platinum pro this year, and every dollar counts.

flyguy6

AA1389 / 6-13 / DFW-PHX, original 8:08pm-8:35pm. The flight kept getting delayed an hour at a time They kept changing the gate, including to different terminal 2 times (D to C to A). Finally at 10:59 they announced the flight was canceled. I then went to the AA customer service desk which as extremely long and it took around 2 hours to speak to someone. There was no other flights out that night. I was able to book a direct flight for Monday morning on the app while waiting in line. Apparently multiple other AA flights that night had been canceled and I hear a rumor it was caused by an AA system problem.

When I spoke to the manager he said he was not able to get me for a hotel room for the night because the hotel group they partner with was sold out and he was not able to book me at the Element hotel I had found with an available room. He said I could try requesting reimbursement for the hotel later. When I asked for a food a food voucher said he was only able to give me one for $12 and even as a manager the system would not allow him to give more, even though he wanted to. I also asked what caused the delay and after checking the computer he told me me that he was not able to find out why.

AA520 / 6-14 / DFW-PHX / original 9:05am-9:43am / actual 12:25pm-12:40pm. My flight out the next morning was repeatedly delayed from what I was told was a mechanical problem (fuel leak).

So all in all I had a 14 hour and 57 min of delay in getting PHX from the original to the actual arrival time, if my math is right. Going to contact to AA for compensation and reimbursement for the hotel (will post results in compensation thread when this happens).

CMK10

Looks like the underpowered A-321NEO I'm scheduled to fly PHX-KOA today (AA 663) will have to make a fuel stop at LAX due to high Phoenix temperatures. Really makes one miss the 757.

mvoight

I remember the days when I could rent cars on weekends for less than the corporate rates available to me. This doesn't help now.
Fortunately, the company I work has good corporate rates and it was very helpful when I went to Hawaii for 2 weeks not too long ago. I also have a private AWD number with Avis for the contracting company I have registered.
The rates there are far cheaper than the public rates I get quoted. You might wan to try that.

Carolina2Cali

I HATE AA!!! I haven't had a smooth flight in a while now! Another cancelled flight. Again from GSP. And the app only wants to help me get from GSP-DFW, my only option is through Chicago which has it's own weather problems right now, rather than giving me an entirely new option to Los Angeles area. Now I am in the two hour customer service hold, and/or waiting on an email from them. There's a flight to Charlotte in two hours I could take, but I am not going to pack up, say goodbye to my ALS mother (again potentially for the last time), only to be denied at the airport. Sorry, rant over.

Carolina2Cali

I am not asking for the Wiki but do these AA cancellations due to staffing and not weather count as... force majeure or what? I just got an email from AA saying they can't even find a flight to rebook me on. 7 days of searching online and in the app come up with ZERO results, from GSP-Los Angeles though DFW and I don't know if the app is even looking at other options like CLT. I am so pissed I just want to book a Delta flight and force AA to pay it and also give me the miles and EQD.

Carolina2Cali

Is there a way to find out the official cancellation reason for a flight? Does the FAA or other government agency have to approve? AA is claiming my flight cancelled due to weather and not due to staffing, and therefore she cannot stick me on a Delta flight and has to give me a ridiculous option instead, To add insult to injury, I told her I preferred aisle seats but they have none because she isn't allowed to stick me in Economy Plus, as the second leg of the new flight is more than 24 hours out and I am merely gold. I truly feel like a tiny amount of weather is being used as an excuse to cover their real need to cancel my flight (management staffing incompetence).

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

If AA can at all attribute a delay to weather, even down the line like crew availability they're going to. You are pretty much at their mercy. If you're a GOLD AA won't do a thing other than send you a useless form letter.

thunderdeacon

I did a little searching, and I was able to find a nice corporate account for Enterprise that appears to be quite a bit cheaper than normal rates. Next to nothing rental cars helped my bottom line tremendously during covid.

thunderdeacon

Most of the flights were full before AA started canceling all these flights due to staffing. It will be interesting to see how much they attempt to blame cancellations on weather as opposed to their own inability to staff their scheduled flights. Unfortunately, it appears that if any of us are on one of the cancelled flights, there are not going to be any good alternatives. I have a lot of flying coming up this summer, and these anecdotes make me nervous.

Herb687

As do I. Sounds like business as usual at AA.

Though certainly any close-in cancellation today is far more likely to be a legitimate WX delay than AA crew shortage. With some fudge factor for OSO, diversions, holds causing longer block times, etc. on day of departure the crew shortage cancellations will be made several days/weeks before departure.

DFW was subject to a ground stop for a couple hours today.

"Official" is whatever AA wants it to be. No.As posted upthread, something through DFW today is probably a legitimate WX cancel/delay.

Carolina2Cali

It must be in their best financial sense to blame weather, so they don't owe us anything. With other airlines also F'ed, like Southwest last week and their messy systems (which also affected me), they can hope we don't just move on to another airline. I might stop when I hit platinum later this year and immediately status match to Delta, but I am sure someone is probably on their forum right now, also .....ing about something. I guess I would be less pissed if this didn't happen to me every time, on the RETURN, when not close to home. Mom having ALS likely impacts my emotions and judgement too, but alas.

Does anyone actually know how their reciprocity agreements work with the other airlines? Surely AA helped Delta earlier this year with a mess, can't Delta now take some of the burden in return? It's not that there aren't other airlines flying tonight, it's just the one I paid, and at a decent price because I booked 6 weeks ago. I am not paying $400 for a one way flight instead of 180, lol. Is the idea now to run two airlines and have two tickets for everything and always cancel one at the last minute? That sure seems to be an ideal strategy lately.

Carolina2Cali

Also, AA's automatic systems need to be stop being so obsessed with the connecting city. If there's multiple routes to get somewhere, stop offering me only routes through the same connection, or routes that END in the connection city... I need to get to Los Angeles, not Dallas, sillies!