Artpen100

I'd sure hate to have to go through IAD without GE. And I've stood in some pretty long lines at CDG Terminal 1.

AllanJ

Just my 2 cents worth.

The airline should honor the existing ticket for travel on the next available flight after the unexpectedly long time needed to clear customs.

A transportation provider knows that each and every customer who travels that particular route is going to clear customs at that particular station. And the provider knows that delays do happen during the clearing of customs.

With that in mind I believe that the provider is responsible for using its best efforts to complete the customer's itinerary for the agreed upon price at time of purchase despite foreseeable irregularities beyond its control during the itinerary although the net effect of irregularities that cause delay will result in a delay in completing the itinerary.

I would not expect the provider to provide amenties for the comfort of the customer during irregularities.

The provider is free to price the itinerary taking into account the possibility of delays and the resultant need to reschedule a customer together with having reserve system capacity to handle the results of these delays.

ft101

Longest sentence of the week without a comma?

"Airline pays" would have done.

Collierkr

A 4 hour tansit is more than enough and perfectly legal. Thus AA is NOT responsible for missed connections due to CBP issues.

tentseller

How can an airline be held responsible for one's special immigration issues?

MSPeconomist

Similarly AA isn't responsible for weather or especially ATC issues (which are caused by a government agency much like immigration issues), yet we would expect the airline to rebook the customer rather than just cancelling the ticket and saying that it's not the airline's fault/problem.

Of course, it would be different if the immigration problems were the fault of the passenger in some sense or even if the ticket were deliberately booked with a very risky connection time when other more reasonable choices were available on the same day (even at a higher price).

cdn1

I'm totally with the OP on this one.
Immigration is a big "formality" when traveling international. At other airports they often give priority to passengers whose flight is leaving soon when there are lineups, they try to speed it up in whatever way they can.

Not the BS crap about glorifying themselves (CBP, CBSA etc) and treating people like ..... There is something seriously wrong with making a person wait 3 hrs, and then just handing them back their passport and then not even helping out a little when the passenger asks. ... did they do in 3 hrs? They purposely delay, work as slow as possible and don't give a damn about anyone else cuz they're already on the job and wanna do as little work as possible in secondary. It's like nobody cares.
How about you help that pax to clear security quickly so they can get thru faster when they already had a crappy 3 hr wait ??

What if someone is from a poor country and can't afford booking hotels at their costs? There are many many such travelers who can't afford and who don't have super hispeed at their fingertips at every airport while traveling.
Are you guys going to tell them at their faces that oh too bad tough luck go deal with it?. Such arrogance?

You do that to someone today, pretty sure its gonna come hit you someday when you're down and can't rebook your marriots and hiltons.

If CBP can't deal with it, then either hire more people and make process quicker and smoother, or put a notice for ALL travelers that hey, we can't process people efficiently, so don't bother coming. Stay away aand go somewhere else!

JumboJet

https://www.sleepinginairports.net/

Collierkr

In your example the affected flights are assumably still flying, albeit late, and so they either keep people on the later flight or move them per the rules of their ticket.

In the CBP example, the passenger flat out missed their scheduled flight, and so AA would have to accomodate them using another potential revenue seat, which they can do, but are not REQUIRED. Now, most airlines, AA included WILL accomodate as a gesture of good will and customer centric service.

MSPeconomist

I'm not thinking about a case where there's a delay posted to a flight due to ATC and passengers try to move to an earlier flight but rather the case of an ATC delay causing a late arrival and therefore the passenger missing the next connecting flight. Just like the CBP delay, the passenger has "flat out" missed their scheduled (next connecting) flight and the airline needs to give the person another "potential revenue seat."

kb9522

There's an actual website supporting this? An airport is not a hotel. Don't act like a hobo or be a cheapskate, get a hotel room.

pinniped

I won't judge...I fly enough through ORD every winter that I'm afraid it would be bad karma. I don't know how bad a blizzard has to get to shut down the CTA and the shuttles to nearby hotels, but at least once a year we all see the images of hundreds of cots in the terminal.

javabytes

There are plenty of times it does not make sense to find a hotel room. For instance, when you would only have an hour or two to sleep by the time you made it to the hotel, and have to catch the shuttle back. In bad weather when hotels are sold out. Etc...

javabytes

Airlines set their MCTs taking into consideration what a customer must do to get from one flight or the other. They do this knowing passengers passing through customs may take longer, thus I-D is longer than D-D. If the actual time taken to get from one flight to the other is longer than expected, the airline takes on the responsibility of rebooking the passenger, provided the passenger's connection time exceeds MCT. I would obviously have no sympathy for someone who missed their connection because they went drinking in an airport bar for a few hours, but for a longer than expected trip through customs, the airline should absolutely rebook. I agree the airline is not on the hook for hotel accommodations though, as this was not within their control.

kb9522

There is never an excuse to act like you're a hobo. Unless you actually are.

Want to sleep? Get a room. Otherwise, man up and stay awake.

The lounge is not your personal bedroom. Neither are the four seats you take up at the terminal.