American Airlines

Flew home from London with them Saturday, LHR to SEA. On time, great crew, plane less than half full.

You might get more responses if you put this in the Transportation forum.

My husband and I flew out of Orlando on Friday. We were on our way home to Indianapolis and had a connection in Dallas-Fort Worth. As we were taxi-ing to our gate at 1:30, my husband first received an email that our 3:30 flight had changed, and then one that said it was cancelled. We were re-booked on a flight leaving at 7:40 in the morning. We changed that booking to a 10:30 flight so that we wouldn't have to be at the airport so early. We paid extra for seats on that flight. We then waited in the costumer service line almost 3 hours to pick up vouchers for hotel and food--not mentioned in any of the rebooking emails. The airline put us up in a Courtyard Mariott and gave us each a voucher for $12.00 for food. The hotel didn't have a restaurant, just a bar with a limited food menu, and we had no transportation to an area restaurant unless we wanted to pay for it.

We returned to the airport on the hotel shuttle at 7:00; if we had taken the earlier flight we would have had to pay for a taxi, since there was only one shuttle on Saturday morning. We got through security easily and went to have breakfast before going to the gate. While we were waiting for our coffee my husband got an email that our flight was cancelled and we were rebooked on a flight departing at 6:50. We resigned ourselves to spending the day at the airport, but on one trip to the restroom my husband happened to notice a 3:42 flight. He hurriedly rebooked that one and got the last two seats on it.

The flight did not leave on time. Two crew members were AWOL from checking in although they were at the airport. They (or their replacements) eventually showed up and the flight departed 2 hours late. Every person on standby was able to get on the flight because many passengers just gave up. And today my husband was reimbursed for the extra charges on the second flight that was cancelled.

This is not the first time that we have been less than impressed with American Airlines. We had a similar experience in Miami upon returning from Costa Rica several years ago. We will not book on American again.

Musicmoll, it certainly sounds like an unpleasant experience!

I did note an article in the newspaper that had this statement
"For American, those dominoes were toppled earlier this week, when three out of the five runways at Dallas/Fort Worth International airport — its home base — were closed because of high wind. The airline canceled 1,023 flights a Sunday — some 36% of its schedule, according to FlightAware. "

It sounds like you were caught up in the middle of this. I know that they (and all airlines) are struggling with staffing, but this sounds like weather played a major part of the issue.

Musicmoll, your recent experience sounds awful although it seems to me that you made the best of a bad situation. Speaking from someone who lives just north east of DFW the winds were tremendous! My husband said we had wind gusts up to 50mph. At one point walking back from my mailbox I literally stopped walking in order to brace myself against the wind. If only I’d had an umbrella I’m sure I could have done a decent rendition of Mary Poppins :)

I’m so sorry you got caught in this. I had also seen the news about the cancelled flights because of the bad weather at their main DFW hub. Flight crew got stuck in different parts of the country because of the weather and they don’t have as many active because they offered early retirement to so many during the pandemic. Sunday afternoon we flew LAX to Las Vegas on Alaska Air, a route we’ve been doing every two weeks for the past 2 months and I’ve never seen so many American pilots deadheading. I hope this a one and only for you.

High winds were a problem on Friday, when we first landed. They did not seem to be significant on Saturday, when we were able to leave.

cancelled flights because of the bad weather at their main DFW hub.

All airlines are affected by bad weather. Airlines which commit to schedules for which they are adequately staffed can overcome various obstacles such as weather, mechanical problems, and air traffic control delays. Airlines which over commit to schedules they cannot realistically operate, particularly given the myriad unknowns of air travel, end up cancelling hundreds of flights, missconneting thousand of passengers, and potentially destroying the vacation plans for scores of people.

Ultimately, these are management decisions, and two US airlines have not planned particularly well.

JHK- Thank you for future reference! Didn’t even think of it!