Dark Blue

This flight from MIA was cancelled due to the weather in Boston, but I don't see other flights to BOS were cancelled this evening. Also later AA flights to BOS seemed to fly, I am confused.

I have a connection to LHR tomorrow but in a separate booking and I don't need to go to BOS actually, so AA managed to book me on another direct flight to LHR at 17:00 tomorrow. However, this is due to the local weather, they don't prepare accommodation for me. Also, normally two separate bookings are not taken into account, I was specially offered the alternative flight to LHR because of my BA GGL status.

I have a few questions:
1) Was the weather in BOS that bad today? I see only one cancellation (on the BOS website) which is my flight AA 1875.
2) If two bookings are separately booked (but through aa.com), and if a passenger misses a flight due to another flight cancelled which is booked separately, AA has no responsibility for the missed flight?
3) Can I claim the extra stay cost in Miami? (Accommodation, food, etc)

wrp96

2. On separate bookings, you are responsible for any missed connections, not the airline.

3. For weather delays, AA won’t reimburse extra costs.

JJeffrey

1) Even if the weather in BOS isn't necessarily terrible there could be weather issues elsewhere that end up affecting your plane or crew. There was definitely a big line of storms today that moved through the south to NE.

2) Correct, AA is under no obligation to protect on separate tickets, although sometimes they will still help you out, as they did in your case today. They used to have a policy that sort of offered protection but this is no more.

3) Not sure what you mean exactly by claim the extra cost, but since the cancellation was due to weather AA will not provide any accommodation or meals.

flyaxa

This exact same thing happened to me a few months ago on a flight from ORD to BOS. They claimed weather but situations were much like yours, and I found the weather claim highly suspect. I could be wrong but I don't believe weather was an issue today in BOS. As it was weather related they refused to do anything for my overnight in ORD.

Dark Blue

Thank you, comprehensive. Regarding Q3, I meant airline (AA), travel insurance (credit card, etc), etc. I have already paid for a hotel at BOS (not cancellable or too late to cancel), and now I am staying at an airport hotel at MIA, I wondered if I could file a claim with someone.

Yes, this is the second "weather" claim in my itinerary during this hol. However, the previous one was obvious, which was around the Christmas time in the east coast. However, I looked up some news about Boston, nothing came up. Also, as I wrote, other flights to/from BOS seemed to be OK, I just wondered.

guv1976

Have you called the Boston hotel directly? I have been able to cancel hotel reservations after the cancellation deadline by calling the hotel directly and explaining that my flight was cancelled.

If you are unsuccessful cancelling the hotel and you charged your MIA-BOS flight to a credit card which offers travel insurance, you should contact the card issuer and explore whether you are entitled to the hotel charge. As part of your claim, be prepared to submit documentation from AA showing that weather was the reason for the flight cancellation. (Does aa.com display the reason for the cancellation?)

S80

To request anything from external/credit card insurance, I've always had to get an 'official' letter from https://www.aa.com/contact/forms?top.../VRFY_CNCL_DLY.

flyaxa

Exactly what I've done in the past and they are usually quite prompt in responding.
I often wonder how far down the line they can push the weather excuse. An extreme example would be the Southwest debacle. It all commenced with a weather event but fairy quickly turned into something else.

Dark Blue

No, not really but emailed. The checkin agent was working on the best solution and was not sure if they could put me on a later flight, so I did not know what to do with the hotel booking. But it's already 4:30pm or so, I just dropped a line to the hotel whilst the agent was still doing something. I am not sure if they let me cancel without any penalty.

One thing, even though the cancellation appeared in my AA app at 15:30ish, I only received an email from AA at 16:09. Also, when I got to the airport at 16:00, the board still showed the flight was "on time".

guv1976

Don't rely on e-mail for a special request like this; call the hotel and plead your case.

Fly2Connect

I was under the impression that AA specifically tries to "make things right" when a passenger has two PNRs for AA/OW tickets, protects the connections, and is treated as a thru ticketed passenger.

guv1976

The current AA IROPS policy is silent as to protection across separate PNRs: it doesn't say Yes, and it doesn't say No.

Antarius

Interesting. Good to know.

I've always just taken a screenshot of the data from EF and submitted that. Never had an issue, however this is useful for future

psychoandy

To answer your wx question, I just came from BOS and moderate rain this evening, not that much wind. Can’t comment about enroute conditions but certainly not severe thunderstorms or anything.

bchandler02

The issue is that AA regularly tries and gets away with blaming weather on the other side of the country for an extended period in an attempt to not have to compensate or be held accountable.
AA: "Yes sir, your flight is delayed because that aircraft for your BOS-MIA flight was delayed two days ago in Seattle due to rain. It's a weather delay, so not our problem". And people shut up and accept it... and that's why we have these situations.