Shanqx

I'm traveling from Toronto to GSP, connecting through PHL. Flight AA5120 PHL to GSP was canceled tonight (9/10/2023) after multiple dealy announcements...unfortunately I'm not compensated for anything. (too bad I didn't use my own AMEX to book the flight, my company's travel agent booked for me this time, and they don't know anything about delay coverage.)

I spoke with an AA customer service agent on the ground who had to consult her colleagues, and also called AA customer service number who put me on a long hold, both told me they only issue hotel vouchers to EU passengers, and passengers from Canada are not entailed for hotel compensation. I had to pay the hotel myself...

They also told me the cancellation was due to weather conditions. To me it was just an excuse, the local condition was fine, the ground was dry, no rain and no snow (at least from 5PM to 10PM!) I took some photos and videos. The inbound flight was delayed that's not my concern. They should have done a better job of scheduling and building up some redundancy. what my options? is it fair to ask them to reimburse my hotel and meal?

Thanks you guys in advance!

jagoffee

The inbound flight being delayed due to weather would be a concern.
Obviously they owe you a full refund if you do not accept AA’s replacement flights.

AirborneLocksmith

Lots of delays and cancellations in the NYC/PHL region caused by weather conditions.
https://gothamist.com/news/travelers-weep-as-storm-cancels-hundreds-of-flights-at-nyc-airports

https://www.flightaware.com/live/airport/KPHL

Shanqx

I have to give them some credit here. they did manage to put me on the same flight tomorrow ( no seat assigned yet...which is concerning, fingers crossed)

Repooc17

Weather is a noncontrollable event. The condition being okay in your area is moot. Unfortunately, no reimbursements or compensation are due.

Lots of planes could not take off the past few days up and down the east coast and mid Atlantic not because of the airport conditions, but storms popping all over the area. Your flight was not the only one affected but thousands, and while airlines have spare aircraft, they don't have thousands. Also consider the crew may be out of position due to all of the delays and cancellations.

IADCAflyer

Welcome to the flight cancellation club. Had my flight cancelled two days in a row. And had to spar with one agent to rebook me onto another carrier so I wouldn't be stuck onto a third day.

msmayor

I live 35 minutes from PHL and our weather was brutal last night...we lost our satellite TV for almost an hour when the storms started moving in (right in the middle of the Eagles game, so sure lots of fans at home were not pleased) and the rain was relentless. Once the initial cell moved on, there was thunder/lightening all around us until after midnight.

One of the flight patterns PHL has goes right over our house. It's easy to believe weather was a big problem last night.

PHL

it's frustrating and most of us have dealt with this, albeit begrudgingly. It's even worse when it happens on your connection where you're basically stranded and forced to either sleep in the airport or find a hotel on your own dime. But the old "the weather looks fine outside the window" complaint misses so much of a big picture. Inbound flight delay due to weather is still a weather event that cascades to other flights. To suggest the airline should have 'redundancies' built in also ignores the fact that the schedules are highly padded already as it is, and there are also reserve crews to cover staffing issues.. A 40 minute flight wheels up to wheels down may have a block time (scheduled gate to gate time) of 90 minutes. This allows them to have a fudge factor and still claim they have good on-time performance. But even with that generous schedule padding, some events are just out of their control.

Brooke.E

I agree! On this occasion, weather seems like a completely legitimate and honest reason for the cancellation. There were pop up storms throughout the Carolinas yesterday as well. I'm in NC but when I would check the radar I was looking SC as well.

Sorry, OP! It sucks but I don't think you're owed any compensation this time and it sounds like the AA staff followed their policy correctly.

safari ari

Same here, flight Friday night flight ended up being a Sunday morning return. Part of having a good credit card to reimburse you for expenses and realizing it's part of travel these days.

ijgordon

Travel delay insurance would definitely cover a hotel/meals for this weather-based cancellation. Canada and the US don't have a regulation that requires airlines to pay for "duty of care" like this for weather delays, like the EU and UK. If the delay is the fault of the airline, they often will reimburse, but this is not the case here given the bad weather others have mentioned. If you are on a business trip (you said it was booked by your company's travel agent), then your employer will pay for the hotel.

jagoffee

The EU and UK airlines are responsible to pay all of a passengers additional costs until they can travel on another flight in the case of any cancellation or delay for any reason? For instance the weather delay in the OP’s example?
if true, 9/11 must have cost them a fortune.

ijgordon

Yes. It wasn't in effect until 2005.
The airlines are incentivized to get you to your destination as quickly as possible, which is a good thing. That may mean booking you on another airline, which otherwise they don't like to do. Certainly US carriers almost never do this for weather delays. And not to get too detailed (there are LOTS of threads on this, EC261), ALL airlines are subject to this rule for flights departing from the EU or UK, not just airlines domiciled there.

dblumenhoff

There probably would have been some government support to the airlines to make up for it had this law existed at the time.

Pickles

I get it it's the "weather", but there has to be an element of combined incompetence/system stress to be apportioned between AA and the airport/ATC. I flew BOS-JFK on Eagle on Thursday afternoon. Flight was delayed by a ground stop, but not flight was uneventful, maybe 30 minute delay. Every flight BOS-JFK and JFK-BOS on AA Eagle after mine (except the last one late at night) was cancelled. Same for all the afternoon AA Eagle flights BOS-JFK/JFK-BOS on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I had a flight returning JFK-BOS on Saturday, but seeing the evolving CF, I just bought an Acela ticket, which worked out well. When my flight was canceled for Saturday afternoon, I was offered a flight for Sunday evening. Obviously, I canceled and got my refund pronto. But that is just some terrible uptime statistics, a pathetic excuse for an air transportation system we have these days.