js1993

For all you know, AA tried calling you but it went straight to voicemail since you were on a flight. Regardless, you're putting AA in a no-win position. Probably 95+ out of 100 pax would prefer what AA did. There was no way for AA to know that you preferred getting to MIA very late and then paying for a hotel in MIA at your own expense rather than fly the whole itinerary the next day. And as it turned out, you changed the flight using option #3 above, so you ended up in essentially the same situation anyway.

It seems all of this is an attempt to shift the ATC-caused hotel expense onto AA.

Maybe I missed it, but how late was it? Would you or would you not have missed the connection to TPA?

ski

Like us, pax was involuntarily removed from his original flight and seat given to another pax. Like us, original flight operated, pax wanted to take flight but AA involuntarily took his seat. AA could have just protected us with seats on flight it involuntarily moved us to and left original flight reservation intact. It wanted the seats on original flight for other pax. I would ask for hotel reimbursement and travel certificate.

golfmad

You seem to be entering a world of fantasy. AA contacts me in a number of ways; they email me, they provide me a message on the app and sometimes they call me. In this case I received an email and notification on the app. As far as I can tell they did not attempt to call me. They did not leave a voicemail. This is the content of the email:



There are a couple of errors in the email. First of all, I didn't have the opportunity to 'confirm or change' the flight. I had the option to change the flight away from the one originating in EWR but that change was already confirmed. The Twitter team confirmed that. The second error in the email is that the number of stops was still 1 not 2. I'm not sure where that came from.

I was not putting AA in a 'no-win' position. I know the rules on compensation for delays caused by air traffic or weather and unlike travel in the UK and Europe I know I would be responsible for my own costs. I had no problem booking a hotel in MIA. That would have been my preference as I would have rebooked onto the early flight from MIA to TPA the following morning and would have been back in time to honor my commitments for the day. You're jumping to conclusions about my intentions and they are not reasonable as you have no idea of the circumstances.

The final irony is that the last flight from MIA to TPA was canceled due to weather. I would not have made it to TPA even if I had taken the EWR flight and would have been stranded by AA in Miami instead.

In the end AA got me to TPA 22 hours later than planned due to continued disruption ands cancellations from JFK the following morning. If I had stayed on my original flight I would have been home an entire working day earlier.

js1993

What time was the original JFK-MIA flight and what time did you get the rebooking email?

How much time do you think each of these steps should take? If a single flight is delayed or canceled, there are hundreds of affected pax. You can't really expect AA to contact each individual passenger to see where they'd prefer to book a hotel at their expense. You appeared to be a passenger originating in NYC and AA responded accordingly.

"Stranded by AA in Miami"? I thought the whole point of this was that you preferred the overnight in Miami? And if it was weather, it wouldn't have been AA that stranded you.

Anyway, you didn't answer the question. In your OP, when you said:

... that implied that you could have flown the original JFK-MIA-TPA flights had AA not rebooked you. But how late did that JFK-MIA flight arrive? In time for the connection to TPA or too late? That's the key part of all this. AA simply isn't going to fly people into a missed connection and then tell them they're on their own for a hotel.

golfmad

I was being sarcastic with the comment about being 'stranded'. I was quoting your line earlier and I thought that would have been obvious. Apparently not.

Thanks for your interest and contributions to this thread but I'm done with your questions and comments. I have better things to do.

js1993

It was a simple question. Not sure why you keep refusing to answer it, but it's starting to become obvious.

golfmad

There were 5 questions in your previous response (count the question marks). Which one have I been avoiding?

js1993

IAHtraveler

Per FlightAware, it landed in MIA at 10:37PM, 1:59 late.

I assume OP was set to connect onto AA1921 MIA-TPA 10:45-10:51PM, which ended up being cancelled.

js1993

Thanks. Then, absent a delayed departure, almost assuredly a missed connection, hence AA's rebooking.

The OP kind of implied that AA had rebooked him off of an itinerary that he could, in fact, have flown.

golfmad

Correct.

golfmad

Please think about this carefully and then point me to any evidence in this thread that supports your assertion.

This is what I said in my original post:

I made it perfectly clear that I would have missed the connection, stayed in MIA overnight and headed home to Tampa early the following morning. I have been consistent throughout this thread.

js1993

I quoted it multiple times. In the OP, you said:

Until someone else posted it a few minutes ago, it was never clear if you could or couldn't have made the connection in MIA.

It's unfortunate that you were inconvenienced, but this seems like a very fringe case. AA had no way of knowing you were a de facto connecting pax rather than originating in NYC, and AA doesn't fly people into missed connections that result in pax needing to pay for their own hotel. It's not reasonable to expect AA to ask each individual passenger on an affected flight what their preference is. These sorts of proactive rebookings are probably a positive in ~98% of cases. That's why airlines do them.

GNRMatt

I believe AA was in the wrong here. Forget about where the OP was coming from...it isn't important. He bought a ticket from JFK. That was his preferred airport to leave from. AA should not be able to unilaterally change his departure to EWR. The person flying has their own reason for choosing JFK as their departure airport...that's all that matters. AA doesn't sell tickets from NYC area airports to a destination. It sells them from JFK or LGA or EWR, and prices them accordingly. While giving the OP an option to switch to EWR I think is perfectly fine, it should NOT be done without approval first. And giving away his seat on the original flight like that is simply unacceptable.

golfmad

Indeed.