Hello AA Forum,

I'm currently sitting in SFO awaiting my flight to DFW and then onto MCO. We are a family of four flying in First on a C class fare. I am BA GGLfL and my wife and kids are BA Gold, hence we are all OWE.

I don't see how we are going to make the connecting flight (AA2872) and all the following flights to MCO are sold out.

I have a few questions, please:

a. Will AA bump others from later flights to allow us to fly?
b. Should I simply resign myself to staying overnight in DFW?
c. What compensation and/or assistance am I entitled to with AA?
d. Any other pearls of wisdom, please?

Thanks in advance.

GGL Flyer

a. No.
b. Plan for the worst but others could miss flights, opening seats.
c. No idea, since we don't know why you're delayed.
d. There are two Hyatts right at DFW that are fine. DFW itself is far from civilization.

Good luck.

See bolded responses above.

The delay is

3DFW/ETD0938 AWD-AIR TRAFFIC OR WEATHER DELAY AT THE DESTINATION-I *0950*HDQEU1
4DFW/OUT0938 OFF0950 *1038
7SFO/AURA DLY FLT IN PROGRESS *1009*CRCYMG
3SFO/ETD1220 LAT-LATE ARRV A/C DUE TO PRIOR AIR TRAFFIC DELAYS-I *1218

Many thanks!

No way that will happen.

Still possible others could miss the flights.

No compensation. They might offer you a number to call to book a discounted hotel, but you'd be better off just booking the Grand Hyatt DFW on your own, or the Hyatt Regency

Very possible any rebookings offered may be in main cabin instead of first. You can ask to wait until there is first class availability if you want, but it would be on your dime. If you do fly main cabin, you'd get a refund of the difference, but AA sometimes use an interesting formula for calculating that so be careful - if it happens, people here can help you with how to argue AA on this.

You may also have better luck offering to switch into two groups of two for rebooking purposes, as it may be easier to find two first class seats rather than four. Also, if you have access to the AA app, you may want to look and see if you are already being offered rebooking options within your reservation, and if you see something you prefer you can go ahead and grab it.

If you do misconnect at DFW (or even before you leave SFO), instead of waiting in a general customer service line, as a non-AA one world emerald, you have access to the Admirals Clubs and Flagship Lounges, so head there and ask them to help you with rebooking.

You might be able to make it. There is no guarantee that your DFW-MCO flight will be ontime, especially if DFW and Florida are experiencing delays.

I'm assuming this is due to WX at SFO, not DFW? If so, slim chance of the DFW-MCO flight also being delayed. No convective activity around ZFW or Florida right now.

Never mind. I see the FLIFO in post #3 confirms it is SFO weather that's the issue.

There wasn't any convective activity around Florida yesterday either and plenty of flights were delayed by ATC due to a high volume of traffic. Not sure if today is as bad, but no, it doesn't look good for the OP right now.

9:45PM WN DAL-MCO flight is wide open (but will be on your own dime).

Since when is DFW far from civilization. It is literally a 5 minute drive to irving and a 10 minute drive to grapevine.

Am I missing something here or aren't there THREE later DFW-MCO flights this evening? Three more flights after the one OP will misconnect to?

OP said they're all full.

That said, more space could open up with other delays and downgrading/splitting up is an option too. Haven't looked at the loads myself

yup and they all seem to have seating in coach for a flight of just over 2 hours I would take coach and keep moving the flights have fairly large fc cabins so it is always possible something opens up but it could be days to get four confirmed fc seats,

If you are looking at seatmaps, those aren't reliable. OP will likely have to hope for some other misconnects or no-shows. Flight arrived at gate at 5:53PM and AA2872 had 6:00PM gate departure according to Flightaware, so assuming OP didn't make it (unless gate arrival time is off - 14 minute taxi time on arrival seems on the high side).

6:47PM has 1 seat in F for sale
7:40PM has 1 seat in coach for sale
8:40PM is completely zeroed out

I was looking at expert flyer but misconnects can cause rapid changes in availability depending on when you search,