Folks, I’ve had quite the travel day on American. I’d like to think that I’m understanding of the complexity of airline operations, of how maintenance delays can happen, and of how unpredictable they can be.
But I think my travel experience today perfectly sums up what’s wrong with American. It’s not the lack of TVs on planes, but rather it’s just how customer unfriendly the airline is, and the extent to which employees either just truly don’t give a crap, or aren’t empowered to care, partly due to the carrier’s lackluster technology. Let me explain, and this doesn’t even account for my rude check-in experience…
In this post:
How many American flights can have maintenance delays?!
I was scheduled to fly American from New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Miami (MIA) at 10:40AM this morning, on flight AA1937. In retrospect, I should’ve probably walked, or taken Amtrak, or flown through Newark, or asked the Qataris for a plane, as I’m sure they would’ve all gotten me home faster.
As usual, I checked the flight status prior to leaving my hotel, including monitoring the inbound aircraft. While my flight was showing as being on time, I noticed that the inbound aircraft was showing a rolling delay, due to aircraft maintenance (according to the flight status notes in ExpertFlyer — interestingly, these notes were later updated to indicate it was for weather, but that’s a different topic).
Fortunately American swapped in another aircraft, which decreased the delay from around two hours to one hour. Okay great, an hour delay isn’t a huge deal (not that a two hour delay would’ve been a huge deal either). So I headed down to the departure gate for the delayed departure time.
“For those traveling to Miami, the captain has asked us to hold off on boarding, as there’s a maintenance issue. That’s for those traveling to Miami on flight 2039.”
I was worried at first, but whew, that wasn’t my flight, but rather the flight scheduled 50 minutes later, at 11:30AM, just a few gates down. Literally a minute later, there was another announcement. “For those traveling to Miami on flight 1937, there’s a maintenance issue with the aircraft, and we don’t have an update on when the flight will depart.”
At the same time, it was announced that the other flight departing from this part of the terminal, flight 4379 to Nashville, also had a maintenance issue, which prevented boarding. Like, what on earth is going on here?!
Long story short, both flights to Miami ended up being delayed indefinitely, as both aircraft had to be taken out of service due to maintenance. Okay, I don’t fault American for that, but it’s mighty strange when two aircraft that just landed are both taken out of service for maintenance, no? I’m not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, or anything, but I’m just saying that I should’ve probably bought a lottery ticket.
Fortunately for the people on the 11:30AM flight, they ended up being assigned another aircraft after some time, and were only delayed by a little over two hours. Grrr, those special people.
The flight I was on, on the other hand…
The problem with my seven hour American delay
Let me cut to the chase. My flight ended up being delayed by around seven hours.
Delays happen, and I’m probably the most patient customer you could possibly have with an extended delay, because I understand that being angry or yelling at people doesn’t fix the problem any faster. My issue with the delay was twofold — the service, and how bad American’s technology is.
Let’s start with service. There were (at least) two sets of gate agents working over the course of the delay, and they were all horrid:
- There was no “we’re sorry about the delay and please see us at the gate if you have any questions,” but instead we got condescending announcements about how we shouldn’t ask them any questions because they don’t know anything, and to call American or use the American app to rebook (as if there were any rebooking options, lol)
- Over five hours into the delay, the lovely Admirals Club ladies had phoned the gate, and were informed the plane would be back in service at 4PM; so I headed down to the gate then and approached the gate agents, and they just couldn’t have been ruder, claimed that wasn’t true, and said they knew nothing
- When I asked the gate agents about my checked bag (since I was rebooked on another flight and then rebooked on the original one), they refused to even check what the status of my bag was, claiming they don’t have access to any bag information
- When boarding did finally start (way later), there wasn’t an apology from anyone about the delay, but just tone deaf announcements off a script about “thanks for choosing American Airlines, because you are why we fly”
Let me be clear, of course I understand that employees aren’t at fault for the delays. But when literally not a single gate agent, flight attendant, or pilot, even acknowledges the delay and thanks passengers for their patience, you can’t help but feel a little disappointed.
I also understand that they lack information about when a flight will depart, but contrast this to the communication at the gate on my last delayed Delta flight. How hard it is to say something like “while we don’t have any information on when the flight will depart, feel free to see us at the gate if you have any questions, as we’re more than happy to help?”
Then there’s just American’s generally awful tech, which only gets worse when there are delays. Like, the plane was fully taken out of service. So why constantly push the delay by a matter of minutes, and show a departure time that’s imminent, when there’s clearly a zero percent chance of that being realistic?
I could write a 3,000 word post about the number of tech failure during this delay, but I’ll just stop by saying it was terrible, and American needs to take a look at what the competition is doing.
Credit to Rhina, the American Admirals Club AAngel
As longtime OMAAT readers know, I’m not an American hater, or anything. I want the airline to succeed (they’re my hometown airline), they just suck at doing so, and can’t help but get in their own way. American has some great employees. The issue is that they go above and beyond because they take pride in everything they do in life, and not because it’s any part of the company’s culture.
So I want to give a shoutout to and share my thanks for Rhina, working the customer service desk in the Admirals Club at LaGuardia. Several of us passengers were essentially “trauma bonding” (as one lady described it to me) over the delay, and how awful the airline handled it. But we all agreed that the ladies in the Admirals Club, and especially Rhina, were fabulous.
They did absolutely everything they could. The issue is that it’s like trying to stop the Titanic from sinking with a shovel, while other people are taking sledgehammers to make bigger holes. Their hard work and kindness is undone by the people working at the gates, and the technology is of absolutely no assistance to them.
But Rhina couldn’t have been lovelier. She was so helpful during the delay, and even came and sought me out when she realized there was another flight she could rebook me on, after it apparently looked like the original flight was canceled (not to toot my own horn, but she told me “when I saw that it looked like the flight was canceled, I wanted to make sure I could help you, because you’e been so nice all along”). 😉
Though go figure that literally two minutes after she rebooked me, it was announced in the lounge that the original flight was boarding, and then she immediately rebooked me again. But then when we got to the gate, it was announced that the flight wasn’t actually boarding. That partly gets at how bad American is at communicating.
That’s the funny thing about flying American. It was a day where I dealt with the rudest check-in agents and rudest gate agents I’ve had in years, and then you interact with such a lovely person in the Admirals Club.
Then you get on the plane, and have more bad service. The flight attendant greeted passengers as if we personally offended her. We’re now approaching Miami, and you want to guess how often the flight attendant has come through the cabin to offer drinks in first class? Once. I haven’t seen her in around 90 minutes. I hope she’s still onboard, or else we’re under FAA minimums!
By the way, due to the delay, they didn’t end up catering meals. A supervisor did briefly board the aircraft (the only professional employee I saw outside the Admirals Club today), and she said that all first class passengers will receive an email from American with compensation for that issue. What do we think the odds are that actually happens?
Bottom line
I wasn’t expecting to have a 14-hour door-to-door journey flying from New York to Miami, but that’s exactly what my travel day looked like. Delays happen, but what’s so frustrating is how it was handled.
You end up dealing with a seven hour delay, and despite that, are treated like you’re an inconvenience for flying with the airline. The only exception is the ladies at the customer service desk in the Admirals Club, who do their best (the supervisor who briefly boarded the aircraft was nice enough as well, but where was a supervisor for the seven hours leading up to that point?!?).
American recently appointed a new Chief Customer Officer, and she really seems to be trying. She has her work cut out for her, and I hope she’s able to address the absolutely lackluster state of service on American.
I don’t care about TVs on domestic flights, I just want to be treated like I’m not an inconvenience, especially when things go wrong. Is that too much to ask for?
WHY WHY WHY? Do you give AA any money at all. I have not flown them since 2013 and will go out of my way NOT to fly them. I paid $250 more on UA and changed flights to get to LAX recently. AA does not care about passengers, nor about customer service, nor about service. UA and DL can be a tough go as well, but I have not had such ghastly experiences as I have @ AA.
American had better make sure they don’t devalue their FF program because that’s the only thing keeping people flying with them. Ive been on a flight where the plane was sitting at the gate for an hour after arrival, board the plane and then tell us we’re being delayed because it’s gonna take 30 mins to fuel the plane. What the heck were u doing while the plane was sitting idle for the last hour??? Ridiculous.
I feel for you.
Attitude breeds attitude. And I can say as a flight attendant/purser for over twenty years I enjoy my job and consider myself pretty customer focused.
The airline (non US legacy) I work for went through a really bad period about ten years ago. A new CEO stepped in, slashed costs. The product we were offering became embarrassing. The catering was trash. Nothing was fixed on the aircraft, business and first...
I feel for you.
Attitude breeds attitude. And I can say as a flight attendant/purser for over twenty years I enjoy my job and consider myself pretty customer focused.
The airline (non US legacy) I work for went through a really bad period about ten years ago. A new CEO stepped in, slashed costs. The product we were offering became embarrassing. The catering was trash. Nothing was fixed on the aircraft, business and first class seats remaining broken for months. Wifi unserviceable, galley equipment unserviceable.
Every day I would come to work with a positive mindset and basically have to don a bullet proof vest because the minute I got on the plane I would have one complaint after another.
And here's the thing, as a manager on the plane I had no support from above. The management didn't care. Well, apart from slashing costs and making more money. We would feed back and feed back to the management how unhappy our customers were, how appalling the state of the product was and it was like - we don't care...just deal with it.
Over time, the staff morale suffered. The constant barrage of abuse every time we would come to work took its toll over time. Instead of arriving with a positive mindset we would arrive with a defensive mindset and as soon as someone would start complaining the defences would go up because we had just had ENOUGH. And of course, all our colleagues felt the same so it was almost like a virus that spread.
Thankfully, eventually the board had decided the brand and product had been trashed enough, they were losing customers left right and centre and they started investing in the product again, we could take pride in what we were offering and the positive mindset returned.
I do not condone AA's people at the gates. But the tone has to be set from the top. And it has to be more than just words, it needs action and money as well.
I am retiree and Platinum for life having achieved 3 million miles status. I don’t fly nearly as much as a retiree and what I do fly is mostly Oregon to Mexico or Oregon to Boston. Due to scheduling and routing, Alaska Airlines has been the most convenient and thus gets most of my business.
Recently I have used American for several trans US domestic flights so can compare American to Alaska. American can’t hold...
I am retiree and Platinum for life having achieved 3 million miles status. I don’t fly nearly as much as a retiree and what I do fly is mostly Oregon to Mexico or Oregon to Boston. Due to scheduling and routing, Alaska Airlines has been the most convenient and thus gets most of my business.
Recently I have used American for several trans US domestic flights so can compare American to Alaska. American can’t hold a candle to Alaska’s superior attitude, customer service and on time departures.
I fly mostly first class or premium economy when I can’t. Both services on Alaska are worth the expense, not so much American.
I don’t know why American seems to have gone downhill from the Randall days, but it surely has.
Also the issue with AA is they delay the flights each 5 minutes so you get 30 notifications for a flight they should have just delayed for 3 hours. In addition, there are 0 rebooking options on the app, not even for same day change as an elite member, imagine someone who flies once a year!
Could you have camped out at the Chase Sapphire Lounge and day-drank/indulged yourself for 7 hours?
Those aircraft were needed for our newly arrived white African refugees. Welcome to America ! I hope they have been given $10000 and a months stay at the Omni to help them get settled in. What an honor to have these immigrants.
The gate agents for AA at LGA are the worst I’ve ever encountered, anywhere in the world (3m+ miles traveled). It’s like they hate the customer.
Every time I talk myself into going back to AA, I regret it and swear I will not return. Tried again last month. Frankly immature employees on the ground. Absolute comedy of errors resulted in countless delays and a thoughtless response from their employees who seem to enjoy their cellphones and talking to each other more than doing the job. My takeaway was that AA has hired people who don’t belong in an airport—anywhere. I...
Every time I talk myself into going back to AA, I regret it and swear I will not return. Tried again last month. Frankly immature employees on the ground. Absolute comedy of errors resulted in countless delays and a thoughtless response from their employees who seem to enjoy their cellphones and talking to each other more than doing the job. My takeaway was that AA has hired people who don’t belong in an airport—anywhere. I am really done this time. I have a 1000 credit that will not be used. They are that bad. They are incapable of handling a delay for which they should be experts because that is the norm. Their response is don’t worry, you will fly out 9 hours from now. Yet somehow you can find better answers on your own.
Man reading stories like this make me so happy I bolted for UA a few years ago. One of the most annoying things I found about that airline is how often the employees would complain to you / make fun of thier airline or in some cases ask you to fill out a complaint form online and when you say "oh no it's really OK i was just curious when the bags would be delivered"...
Man reading stories like this make me so happy I bolted for UA a few years ago. One of the most annoying things I found about that airline is how often the employees would complain to you / make fun of thier airline or in some cases ask you to fill out a complaint form online and when you say "oh no it's really OK i was just curious when the bags would be delivered" (just everyone on the flight that had checked a bag had been at the carousel for 50 mins with no announcement) they say "oh- please do bc this happens all the time and they'll never fix it unless customers complain "
Lol I have dozens of instances like that under my belt and yeah those stupid "boarding in 10 minutes " and the plane is no where near the airport. Meanwhile I'll get alerts sometimes several hours before departure on UA saying my flight will be delayed which is very nice
I'm also fortunate my hometown airport is ORD
let me guess, obese POC or middle-aged white Karens, who just hide their laziness behind unions, “served” as gate agents?
It’s amazing how an airline can just go down hill. It seems as though all the service focused staff from pre merger are long gone. To think I used to go out of my way to fly them.
The employees are just reflecting the mood and the moment... If you are on a normal domestic flight, Southwest offers more consistent reliable service that's more economical and rewarding.
AA is a garbage airline, and many of their workers are the scum de la scum. Oh, how the mighty miles command our soul, that we tell ourselves to stick to such shittiness for that 60k redemption on JAL J.
The reason people keep acting like assholes is because the rest of us let them get away with it. Unless unhappy passengers start making formal complaints about unsatisfactory employee conduct, nothing will change. The flight, the date, the FA’s name, and a description of their unprofessional behaviour. Be polite, be specific, and make sure you send in the complaint.
The lack of someone who cares at AA notwithstanding, would this have any affect on a unionized employee?
Not unless management actually manages their performance.
In the article you said, "Long story short, both flights to Miami ended up being delayed indefinitely, as both aircraft had to be taken out of service due to maintenance. Okay, I don’t fault American for that, ..."
You SHOULD fault American for that. Because AA is not doing the things that you should do to an airplane regularly to see to it that those issues will not crop up on the flight line. AA...
In the article you said, "Long story short, both flights to Miami ended up being delayed indefinitely, as both aircraft had to be taken out of service due to maintenance. Okay, I don’t fault American for that, ..."
You SHOULD fault American for that. Because AA is not doing the things that you should do to an airplane regularly to see to it that those issues will not crop up on the flight line. AA used to be proactive on these kinds of things. Now they just let them go and deal with them when they break.
The DOT exempts maintenance related flight delays from on-time statistics. If maintenance delays were included I strongly believe that AA would come in dead last.
Why would you spend the delay at the Admiral Club when you could go down to the Chase Lounge?
"In retrospect, I should’ve probably walked, or taken Amtrak, or flown through Newark, or asked the Qataris for a plane, as I’m sure they would’ve all gotten me home faster." -> Truly an excellent sentence
Write a complaint and let us know what happens. If it is like my experience it will be an AI generated response that doesn’t address the issue and has fortune cookie type language.
Issues like this are why I switched from AA to UA right after hitting a million miles on AA (out of ORD there are only two viable airlines). AA just couldn’t deal with issues gracefully and while UA isn’t perfect, it is noticeably different and better.
AA’s employees hated their jobs and the airline couldn’t recover from issues (maintenance, weather, etc…). Very glad to have been 1K since 2022 and my AA status only gets used when UA has no flight.
I am on an AA plane almost every week and being delayed is the norm, not the exception. Today a 5 hour delay of bos to lax. Not only is this article a mirror of my experience.. but add to it the roulette wheel you get when you call the exp line. I actually found the AA chat feature the most helpful today. Got me on an earlier connecting flight while in the air.
...I am on an AA plane almost every week and being delayed is the norm, not the exception. Today a 5 hour delay of bos to lax. Not only is this article a mirror of my experience.. but add to it the roulette wheel you get when you call the exp line. I actually found the AA chat feature the most helpful today. Got me on an earlier connecting flight while in the air.
AA.. either ignored or verbally assaulted. Take your pick. That’s their customer service slogan. Like others I would vote with my feet but being based out of DCA, AA offers me the best route network for my needs.
American Airlines needs to begin immediately firing any customer-facing employee who gets more than, say, 2 complaints about rudeness from premium cabin or elite loyalty passengers. Wholesale culture change cannot happen without pruning the bad apples. Anything less is lipstick on a pig.
I think putting them in a performance development plan with a 'if you do not improve your job could be on the line' approach would be more effective.
As well as ensuring they have the tools to actually do their jobs.
If you fly enough, every airline will end up disappointing you eventually. Having said that, AA is 0% proactive when shit hits the fan. I have to rely on third party apps (EF, Flight Aware, and Flighty) since AA would rather hawk credit cards than be transparent with customers. The disdain their management (and by extension their frontline employees) have for customers is painfully obvious. With AA you gotta know how to minimize your chances...
If you fly enough, every airline will end up disappointing you eventually. Having said that, AA is 0% proactive when shit hits the fan. I have to rely on third party apps (EF, Flight Aware, and Flighty) since AA would rather hawk credit cards than be transparent with customers. The disdain their management (and by extension their frontline employees) have for customers is painfully obvious. With AA you gotta know how to minimize your chances of disruption including: avoiding DFW and CLT, taking morning flights, not checking bags, having status, and using third party apps.
Being in NYC, the only thing that really kept my business on AA for years was the amazing service in the Admirals Club, especially at LGA. It was almost like two completely different airlines- hostile employees outside the club and amazing employees inside the club. Eventually I gave up and decamped to Delta and pretty much everything has been so much better. Yes, the mileage program is terrible, but AAdvantage isn’t what it once was,...
Being in NYC, the only thing that really kept my business on AA for years was the amazing service in the Admirals Club, especially at LGA. It was almost like two completely different airlines- hostile employees outside the club and amazing employees inside the club. Eventually I gave up and decamped to Delta and pretty much everything has been so much better. Yes, the mileage program is terrible, but AAdvantage isn’t what it once was, with almost nill partner transpacific J availability, and even transatlantic availability on BA, even with the high surcharges, isn’t what it once was, as they reserve a lot for avios programs only.
I've consistently found that the Admirals' Club agents give significantly better service during irregular operations. Especially in ORD, they've gone above and beyond numerous times (and of course the remaining agents in ORD are just shockingly rude, all the time).
Just had a very similar incident at CLT coming from FRA. Original flight via DFW was delayed, they offered to switch me to the CLT flight. Get to CLT and then my connecting flight was delayed by 2 hours. Once we depart, there is long line to takeoff, then weather strikes. 2 hours later, we go back to the gate. It was so bad ramp workers couldn't tow us in, waited another 1 hour there....
Just had a very similar incident at CLT coming from FRA. Original flight via DFW was delayed, they offered to switch me to the CLT flight. Get to CLT and then my connecting flight was delayed by 2 hours. Once we depart, there is long line to takeoff, then weather strikes. 2 hours later, we go back to the gate. It was so bad ramp workers couldn't tow us in, waited another 1 hour there. Then more BS started. They went back and fort about whether we would go out or not. Then cancelled the flight and blamed it on the weather!!!! Not one employee gave a rats azz. Absolutely horrible customer service and communication.
But thankfully, I went into the lounge (at about 2am) and a rep there helped me out. I had booked on DL bc I didnt want to deal with AA anymore, but he recommended I try standby the next morning instead. About 45 mins later, I was confirmed for the morning flight (as opposed to the 9:45pm one almost 20 hours later). Thank goodness for the lounge, but my goodness AA is absolutely abysmal.
Something similar happened to me 2 months ago on my last flight with them as well. I am done with them...
I could have written this quote. I have suffered so many times at the hands of AA delaying by a few minutes at the time when they know the plane isnt going. They never tell you the true story when they clearly know different. Don’t liw to me and piss me off. Just tell me what is really going on.
“So why constantly push the delay by a matter of minutes, and show a departure time that’s imminent, when there’s clearly a zero percent chance of that being realistic?”
I couldn’t agree more. I fly AA by choice because I value their elite program and their partner airlines. When things go wrong they handle it by far the worst of the big 3. And their rolling, minute by minute delays that amount to hours are the most annoying element of air travel, period. I wish they could just do better.
Love this article! Not much in terms of hard facts in it it, but it's genuine and written with a sense of humor.
Sounds like Rhina should get a job with a different airline!
All North American airlines suck when things go wrong. This was especially obvious for me in contrast with Turkish Airlines, when a connecting flight was delayed overnight (beyond their control), they immediately printed a new boarding pass for the flight next day flight with an actual departure time (not a rolling delay), and gave vouchers for taxi and a 5-star hotel near the airport with full board, fully paid. To all passengers in economy class...
All North American airlines suck when things go wrong. This was especially obvious for me in contrast with Turkish Airlines, when a connecting flight was delayed overnight (beyond their control), they immediately printed a new boarding pass for the flight next day flight with an actual departure time (not a rolling delay), and gave vouchers for taxi and a 5-star hotel near the airport with full board, fully paid. To all passengers in economy class with no status! Proactively, without asking! In the US and Canada - you are on your own.
Turkish Airlines is horrible when things go wrong. I was stuck in Istanbul for 3 days and they couldn't give a crap less, even in the lounge, they had horrible attitudes.
Things go wrong at a much lower rate though. I have never had a maintenance delay with TK. Probably 50 TK flights this year and maybe 1 was delayed more than 20 mins.
Many rude service workers are rude because they haven't been punched in the face - clocked out cold.
Over the last 30 years or so the American consumer has been trained to be docile and not complain about anything (or else you are "Karen") which has empowered shitty service workers to flourish in their jobs.
If an agent providing rude service had a better than zero chance of being met with a fist and next...
Many rude service workers are rude because they haven't been punched in the face - clocked out cold.
Over the last 30 years or so the American consumer has been trained to be docile and not complain about anything (or else you are "Karen") which has empowered shitty service workers to flourish in their jobs.
If an agent providing rude service had a better than zero chance of being met with a fist and next thing they knew they were waking up in NYC Health + Hospitals / Bellevue, racking up enormous amounts of medical debt, you can bet they would be motivated to provide excellent service.
the way it should be...
Regardless of how rude are they, their behavior is still better than a fake lawyer who spends majority of his/her day on a travel website bragging about how he works for major law firms, is an equity partner, has a big penis, etc.
“interestingly, these notes were later updated to indicate it was for weather, but that’s a different topic”
I know what you’re alluding to with that last bit, but if you were tracking a plane inbound from MIA, then it was delayed by an ugly storm we had this morning. Normally those are in the afternoon, but today was different.
I know you use flight tracking services, Ben.
There were 18 flights scheduled from LGA to MIA, 10 on AA, 6 on DL, and one each on NK and F9.
2 AA flights cxld, 2 were more than one hour delayed.
the last DL flight and the F9 flight have yet to depart and are delayed.
AA has already delayed their last departure TOMORROW NIGHT.
When the operation is this messed up, it's not hard to see why employees have no empathy.
this is false. all AA flights are operating successfully and all DL flights have been canceled
Hit the nail on the head with American Airlines. There are some exceptional employees, and some truly terrible ones. The technology during delays is horrible, and it’s such a contrast to, for example, United and the United app. I want to like AA, I really do (and am EXP), but man it can be tough when things go wrong. It just seems like so many employees truly don’t care.
I hope you’re home by now and enjoying time with your family!
At least you were able to wait in the Admirals Club. Couple of months ago when I did LGA-MIA on AA they boarded us and only then informed us about and started working on the maintenance issue. Three hours sitting at the gate with rolling “they say it will be another 10 minutes” every 20 minutes. Terrible communicators, borderline just lying. And really fun with a family of four! My young kids were troopers about...
At least you were able to wait in the Admirals Club. Couple of months ago when I did LGA-MIA on AA they boarded us and only then informed us about and started working on the maintenance issue. Three hours sitting at the gate with rolling “they say it will be another 10 minutes” every 20 minutes. Terrible communicators, borderline just lying. And really fun with a family of four! My young kids were troopers about it, I complained a lot, got 10,000 miles each (so 40k miles total) and a phone call from a live human apologizing. You’ll probably get something similar - enjoy filling out their antiquated complaint form that asks for a ridiculous amount of information they already have by virtue of the fact that you are logged in.
At least the Admirals Club staff is generally consistently professional. Would be nice if more at AA were the same.
Absolutely understand how frustrating long flight delays can be so, and I sympathize with anyone caught in the chaos. That said, some reactions can feel a bit over-the-top. The theater of human expression!
"I should've probably walked, or taken Amtrak, or flown through Newark, or asked the Qataris for a plane, as I'm sure they would've all gotten me home faster"
"I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, or anything, but I'm just saying...
Absolutely understand how frustrating long flight delays can be so, and I sympathize with anyone caught in the chaos. That said, some reactions can feel a bit over-the-top. The theater of human expression!
"I should've probably walked, or taken Amtrak, or flown through Newark, or asked the Qataris for a plane, as I'm sure they would've all gotten me home faster"
"I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theorist, or anything, but I'm just saying that I should've probably bought a lottery ticket."
"Grrr, those special people."
"hope she's still onboard, or else we're under FAA minimums"
"3,000 word post about the number of tech failure during this delay"