Trying to help out my aunt and uncle who are elderly.....I am a DM on Delta therefore do not know the in's and outs of AA.

They were scheduled to fly MEM-GCM (via CLT) on March 10........they received a call on March 9 that there flight MEM-CLT was delayed and they would not be able to make the CLT-GCM leg on 3/10. It gets worse as they were told they could not get out until Monday (3/13). They were to late to cancel their condo booked in GCM so were already out almost $1500+. They asked for other options and the only option was to drive to BNA and fly to CLT that night and catch the flight the next morning. This required an overnight hotel in CLT at their expense. This also required them to drive their car to BNA, pay for parking, and then fly back into BNA and drive back to Memphis. There was little time to spare so they did this.

Trying to help them I helped them send AA an e-mail requesting reimbursement for mileage cost and hotel accommodations. They received an email back today stating they would get a "$150.00 voucher per person for future AA travel" and then called me visibly upset. I realize we have no EU261 situation since its all US related but this seems OBSURD to me due to the fact its an AA "maintenance" issue. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to further escalate this or deal with it?.

This is a tough one. Did they purchase trip insurance or have trip insurance on the credit card used to purchase the tickets? If so, I'd claim all of this there and let the insurance carrier deal with it. AA almost surely won't pay for mileage -- e.g., when there's an issue and I voluntarily fly into BWI or IAD instead of DCA, AA won't cover the cab to get back to DCA, for example. The hotel is a tough one, too, since they chose to go to BNA and have the overnight in CLT instead of waiting until March 13 or taking a refund. I agree it's frustrating.

I'd be shocked if DL were any different. DL has stranded me MANY times in various hubs and given me nothing in return, and I was the top tier at the time (before DM existed).

Credit card is a good idea......I totally didn't think of that route.

Did the passengers ask for a reroute on another airline?

They may or may not have done it but my last IROPS experience with AA got me a rebooking on Air Canada, as we as all the other passengers on our AA flight ( we have regulations that require this in Canada though).

There is no compensation for delays/cancelation but if the delay was AA's fault they reimburse out of pocket expenses as well as provide a goodwill gesture.

They did not ask.....they didn't know to ask and I did not get involved until after.

There is no obligation they reimburse out of pocket expenses even when it is their fault. Yes, they will do it at times, particularly if you are an HVC. But in most cases they will just offer a travel voucher as above.