EZE-MIA Flight "delayed" 3 days before flight time?
 

I have an EZE-MIA-MCO itinerary booked in J using a SWU. 01/24/2024 AA 900 EZE-MIA is scheduled to fly 9:35PM to 4:50AM. MIA-MCO AA1712 is scheduled to take off at 8:31 AM.

According to the aa.com website, as well as executive platinum desk, the AA900 flight will be late and instead fly 01/25/2024 1:35AM - 8:52 AM. This will of course cause a misconnect for AA1712.

The Executive Platinum desk said it was very unusual to have a flight marked as late so far in advance, and it might be a glitch ... but that his computer said it was delayed due to "government action". No other departures for EZE-MIA are marked as late that day, or the day before or after.

1) Any guess what is going on here?

2) The Executive Platinum desk advised me that assuming it still shows as late on the day of the flight, I should just show up at the airport around 11PM. This seems really risky to me, showing up so late for the scheduled time ... but of course it would be nice to do so if the delay is real. Has anyone ever done something like this - and if so, what is the risk I'll have a problem checking a bag after the originally scheduled departure time?

3) The lounge apparently closes at midnight ... assume I should just plan to have an hour sitting around the terminal?

4) should i just reschedule my MIA-MCO to the noon departure now to improve my chances of securing the limited first class upgrade on that flight (only J3 now on expertflyer), or stick with the earlier departure and hope it works out to avoid sitting at MIA for multiple hours for no reason?

It's not just your flight, the early EZE-JFK and the EZE-DFW flights are also delayed to 1:30 am and 3:00 am respectively, so guessing it is not a glitch.

To answer your questions:

1. Not sure, there could be some sort of protest scheduled or airport activity that is either preventing the early departures or perhaps delaying crews from arriving at the airport in time. Google doesn't show anything.

2. It kind of depends on what actually is happening. If it is going to be challenging to get to the airport then it may be better leaving early. The ticket counter officially closes at 11pm but with three delayed flights I would think they would keep it open later.

3. With 3 delayed Flagship flights I would expect the lounge to remain open.

4. You could wait a day and see if the delay remains (perhaps whatever is causing this may get cancelled), but otherwise I would probably just rebook onto the later MIA-MCO flight.

How are you seeing these delays on the other flights? AA.com flight status doesn't allow you to search by flight number -- i'm only seeing it on my actual itinerary?

Edited to add: I guess I can see these on expertflyer in 'additional comments'

Re your point 4 i would not let the upgrade status on a 45 minute flight cloud my thinking.

Sorry, yes, on EF.

I called AA Five Star Service to try and book that service since it seems like the airport will be a mess that day ... FSS agent also said "thats very unusual, i've never seen a delay this far in advance before. I'll call the airport and see what's up"...

After being on hold for about 30 minutes, she comes back and tells me that there is some sort of government-approved strike which will be happening at the airport which is impacting that flight. She suggested showing up at the airport on time for the REGULARLY SCHEDULED DEPARTURE, and just deal with waiting a very long time at the airport as a result of the strike possibly causing unexpected problems. She also informed me that because the flight is likely to leave at 2AM, they cannot sell me Five Star Service.

There is a general strike scheduled for 1/24.

https://www.ituc-csi.org/argentina-i...s-union-action

The strike does include Mass Transit & Taxi Drivers - not sure about Uber - so I would definitely be making some backup plans for transit to EZE.

I just spoke to the front desk at the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires and asked how bad they expect this to be on 1/24/24. He said “it will be bad. For sure your flight will be cancelled.”

Unfortunately, the flights are all sold out in J the day before and after…

He said that taxis will not work, but private car services will work fine.

I’d assume that the flight will just end up leaving the next morning since the inbound flight will come in at 8am on 1/24 before the strike… and as long as I can stay nearby the airport it will just work out the next day… but it really would be nice if AA just rescheduled the flight in advance so I could make firm plans….

AA is probably doing the best it can under the circumstances, and I've witnessed many more than once when a strike has been called off. (I'd expect this one to go forward.) And allow a lot, and I do mean, a lot of time to get to the airport. While frequently it is just the traffic that causes the issue, from time to time, protesters will block the highway.

But, in essence, they have "re-scheduled" the flight to early the next day, when the workers will not be on strike.

Yes but it seems awfully optimistic… the strike officially ends at midnight. The ticket desk officially closes at 11. If security and customs and immigration officials are striking for the 5 hours before midnight, the airport will be in total Chaos at best from midnight until the 2am adjusted delay time.

AR, the state owned airline, cancelled their late evening and early morning flights from 1/24 until 1/25 morning. Of course, cancelling flights makes for even more problems when the flights were already sold out in the days before and after… but it shows that they don’t have confidence in things working normal even at 4am (when they have cancelled their own flights scheduled for that time).

AR is in a different situation than AA, since their own workers will be on strike, so the morning of the 25th they might not have the planes in place to run the flights. AA has their own ramp workers at EZE, and they are not part of the strike. It is possible that AA will be the only airline to NOT cancel all their flights, as the other airlines rely on 3rd party ramp workers who are part of the striking unions. It has happened before where AA was the only one to get flights in and out. But for out, they'll need to wait until after midnight when the rest of the airport workers show up.

BUT, that doesn't mean that it'll be the same this time. It's really impossible to know ahead of time, other than give yourself a lot of time to get to the airport. Looks like most passenger transport (buses, subway, trains) will only stop from 7pm to midnight. You should be ok with Uber/private transport past that time, but definitely ask at the hotel earlier in the day. If they are not sure what will happen, then get yourself to EZE by 7pm to beat the strike. Yeah, it sucks to spend 7 hours at the airport, but better than not getting there.

I have a confirmed ride from a private car service (welcomepickups.com), which the hotel said I can be confident will run - "it's only the taxi union and public transit union, and private cars are separate" ...
my pickup is 6:30, Which gets me at the airport at 7:15 assuming no traffic ... Yeah, that's just after the beginning of the strike, but I'm hoping to at least have a decent meal in BA before I get stuck sitting at the airport for 7 hours... and if I can't make it from the front door to the plane between 7:15 and 2AM (estimated departure time), I kinda doubt that the flight will be operating anyway...

Edited to add: I changed my pickup to go from 5:30 which should get me there 6:15-6:30

Keep us updated on this.

Looks like United and Delta cancelled their departures both inbound and outbound to EZE for tomorrow...

If AA does end up flying, looks like they will be the only one... Tomorrow will be an interesting day ;)