American Lied To Me About Why My Flight Was Canceled

It's strange that inspite of such massive bad reviews from passengers. Loss of performance quality by U.S. government authorised bodies American Airlines is authorised to make wrong right. More than two and half hours of customer's call hold up by customer care service is justified by AA customer service, even though my repeated shout, frustration, anxiety and helplessness are sent by emails to Mr Doug Parker, CEO and other dignitaries. Such service lapses cannot make America great ever.

Wow, AA does it again. First off let me say I am a professional commercial pilot. After sitting 2 1/2 hours on the taxi way, last night our flight was cancelled due to crew duty. After taxiing back to the terminal, 178 passengers were told the flight was being delayed as there was no other crew available. Funny thing is, during the time sitting on the taxiway I was watching the DFW weather. SURPRISE, the weather was VFR and the storm had passed through the area 2 hours ago.
AA rep giving all the passengers in the terminal an update. "NO HOTEL VOUCHERS!", flight was cancelled due to weather. B.S., The flight was cancelled due to a pilot unwilling or unable to make a command decision, or the worst dispatchers in the world.
DO NOT FLY AMERICAN AIRLINES!!!

Also on the 14th and 15th of June 2019 we were cancelled on AA in Hawaii going to Phoenix. How can I find out about why my plane was cancelled 2 days in a row? I am a carpenter wirth a wife and 2 small children, we could not wait in line for hours to talk with someone. What can we do? What are our rights? Here are the details...
It was flight 1945 with American airlines. Flying from Maui to Phoenix on the 14th. We were supposed to land on the 15th. It was canceled two days in a row. We finally spent another 2000 for another airline. We have to get two hotel rooms and transportation to and from. Plus two extra nights of feeding everyone.

Any help would be appreciated,
James

I had the exact bad experience on AA, I flew from Houston to Dallas and was suppose to be on the next flight to San Francisco on 3rd June 2019. I came from Malaysia on Philippine Air and had my return flight on the same day but I made sure I had about 8 hours margin between the domestic and international flights.

I only found out the flight from DFW-SFO is cancelled when I landed at DFW even though I already had the boarding pass issued for the next flight. I explained my situation and requested the AA staff to help me out but they said you have to waitlist for the next flight (already overbooked) like everyone else. I didn't get the seat on next flight and missed my international flight as well. Philippine air told me that I have to pay rebooking charges as their flight was on-time and I ended up paying $1050.

I couldn't make it back in time for end of fasting celebrations with my family and my 1st trip to US which till that point was going very well suddenly became stressful and caused me mental stress as well financial burden.

Just experienced a hellacious American Airlines experience myself, Euro-style
Imagine planning for a European vacation for months ahead. Hours spent arranging and meticulously planning the flights, hotels, tours, outfits, saving $$ up for the trip, excitedly counting down the days.... You come in on your connecting flight from Tampa to Philadelphia, only to have your flight to Paris CANCELLED 30 minutes before boarding.... NOT for weather related reasons, or any justifiable reason at all. Yes, this happened to my husband and I last night on American Airlines. And the “reason” for cancellation turned out to be that a completely unrelated flight to Dublin, Ireland; that was supposed to leave somewhere around the same time, had an issue with THEIR plane... so they decided to royally screw everyone on the Paris flight by using the PARIS plane for the Dublin flight, and just straight up cancelled Paris. Buh-bye Paris, Au Revoir vacation plans, AA sorry not sorry.... One would think American Airlines would at a minimum have some empathy/concern/kindness for the affected passengers who just got their entire vacation screwed up, but instead we were met with nothing but sarcasm, attitude and apathy from the get-go. (Shout-out 2 Michelle at gate A21 at 8:35pm in philly, you really topped the charts on awful.) Incredible. I have nothing but time on my hands right now since our rescheduled flight plans are a whole 24 hours later, have a connection thru a completely different country, and land us in an airport an additional 33 KMs from our hotel than the airport we were supposed to arrive in. Sorry for rambling post, but AA- you suck and have left us with a lot of time to vent. Never, ever fly American (or American for british airways)- ESPECIALLY not to europe

@Derek UAL tried that one on me from ORD to YHZ. Announced to us that the Friday night flight was canceled due to weather but they had so generously saved us standing in line and booked us on the morning flight the next day. I was apparently the ONLY one on the flight who did not live in the Chicago area and, b being in a wheelchair, I had to wait for a red cap so I asked the gate agent about the claim that it was weather (I HAD noted that there were only 15 adults and one baby at the gate when the announcement was made). The gate agent reiterated "there is bad weather in Halifax." So I showed her my weather radar app on my phone. Clear sailing (per, flying) from ORD to YHZ. I then offered to call my mom about the "bad weather." The agent then capitulated. No, it wasn't weather....the airline decided to consolidate the two flights because neither had sold sufficient tickets. Even with both flights together the plane was not full. Great. So I asked for my hotel voucher and meal vouchers. No argument.

Turns out worse tho. Not one person on our flight got their luggage. It was all still sitting in Chicago despite having 18 hours to get it on the new plane. The couple with the baby had no car seat (UAL agent at YHZ told them to go buy one and they would be compensated....yeah, no suggestions on how they were to get to the mall, 30+ min. away, with the baby and no car seat). Thankfully the airport had a loaner and asked that they just return it within 36 hours. Yay Stanfield. Another couple was getting on a cruise Sunday up the coast to the St. Lawrence and on to Montreal. Too bad, so sad we will have your luggage forwarded to you if you just provide us with your itinerary. Sure. I had images of the luggage following them and behind them by ½ day the entire trip. MY luggage took 5 DAYS to be delivered to where I was staying. Thankfully I was staying in my own (summer) home and had clothes there. Did NOT have a suitable dress and shoes for an event on Sunday night so I went out and spent the max allowed under international agreement.....UAL was not pleased but too bad.

So yes, they all lie and use the weather excuse. You just have to call them on it if you can and demand your rights. Document, document, document.

@lucky

I banned American 5 years ago and let all my miles expire after horrific customer service time and time again. When US Air merged with American, I let all those miles expire too and I was a loyal US Air customer but refuse to give AA my money. I now use Delta (was a longtime flyer with them anyway) and JetBlue who has some excellent service out of FLL. I don’t care for SouthWest but will fly them in a pinch.

If time allows, I would definitely fly into FLL and rent a car to go to your business dealings in Miami. Your options are far more expansive there.

Ben: I too live in Santa Barbara. Ex Plat. I fly United a lot now. American has been going downhill (slowly) since the merger with US; United (which has a lot of delays and cancellations out of California) gives the impression of actually caring about its passengers.
When I travel internationally or to the East Coast I generally take the airbus. (Its actually pretty effective if you want to work).
American used to fly to LAX and i could connect there. For some reason (I think they wanted to drive traffic to PHX) they terminated the LAX service, and PHX just isnt as good as LAX. (I love American's flat beds to JFK). My wife and i were both coming back from Chicago (different flights, both 321s) 2 weeks ago through PHX. Both had mechanical issues, both pulled out of service. Both replaced. I couldn't make the SBA flight so I re-routed to LAX and American re-booked me on the late United flight. (with a little perseverance on my part; at the Admirals Club). American's 319 service to Dallas is ok but the timing is useless if you want to go anywhere else. They seem to have a second DFW early morning flight now, though.
My taxi driver yesterday tells me the Delta is bringing back the SLC flight within a couple of weeks. Don't know whether this is reliable information.

Up until recently lived in SBA for several years, loved it. With that being said, flying in or out of SBA, mostly on AA or UA, was always a crapshoot at best for a myriad of reasons given for cancellations.

Driving or taking SB Airbus the 100 miles to LAX is not a sure thing either. Due to regular traffic, accidents, mudslides, fires, you are stuck on the 101 with no place to go. Part of that stretch of highway is physically at the foot of the ocean on one side and at the foot of the mountain on the other side, with no alternate routes. If you left 4 hours or less before your flight took off, you still ran the risk of missing out at LAX.

Love the weather delay vs hotel voucher circus. If the plane was waiting for a crew, perhaps they weren't able to get there because of weather? Viola! No hotel voucher. However, stating that American lied to you is a non-starter, it's just a silly headline, since you really don't know. A better comment is "American incompetence rules". It is beyond me why people fly on American … much less on a little feeder plane. Those are the first flights affected by anything, since the number of passengers is much smaller than a big plane. Just avoid small airports and small planes … a major inconvenience, but not as major as waiting days to reach your destination.

I was in that Dallas mess. Flying to Omaha, my Austin to Dallas flight at 9:30 am was rebooked to 10:30 pm and then all flights were cancelled by noonish. There were no outgoing flights to DFW the next day from Austin, so I drove there myself and right as I got there they cancelled my 2:55 flight. They booked me standby on a 4:40 and a 10:30pm

Like you, I had Admirals club (the line at customer service easily had 200 people in it) and they coached me to go to the desk as soon as it opened and let them know that while I was booked first class, I would take any seat.

Problem was the desk had one worker with 18 people in line (yes this impatient mind counted them) and we were an hour before flight time and each customer was taking 10 minutes-ish each due to the 29383636 different things agents type to get anything done.

There was a crowd around the counter from the cancelled flight, 60 people on standby. I was very fortunate and grateful that my seat, fare and Platinum status landed me at 3rd and in a breathless moment I made the plane. Leaving behind a room full of worried and disappointed travelers.

I do wonder, since the weather was perfect Sunday if the delays were due to the mess on Saturday and plane and crew issues.

This happened to me this weekend as well. I was doing Austin to DFW, DFW to Denver then Denver to Philly; the first flight they canceled was my DFW to Denver flight. Then the AUS to DFW was delayed, canceled, rebooked, then canceled. Then they rescheduled my Philly flight so that I could fly out on Sunday morning-they canceled that. Too. Luckily Dallas is home for me, so me and about 20 other passengers purchased a ticket on Southwest and made it home. But now it’s been 5 days and I still don’t have my bag. I’m about to cancel everything -Admirals Club and my credit cards, because this is unacceptable.

Here's another situation of bad AA customer service. Just last month on a direct flight from San Diego to DFW I ended up gate checking my bag since they were looking for volunteers and I had no reason to carry it down the aisle of the plane. I needed to meet the other half of my party at baggage claim anyway. So I gate check my bag, eventually board the plane, and endure tight seats and a persistent credit card sales pitch.

I arrive in DFW, head to baggage claim and begin the waiting game. 20 minutes turns into 30. 30 turns into 40. I head to the baggage office and I'm immediately told to go back out to the belt and wait because I wasn't being patient enough. Over an hour after my flight landed I went back. I was told the bag was unloaded from the plane and just never was put on the belt. So I asked if they couldn't get me my bag in about 10min I'd like them to deliver it. The lady at the counter apparently couldn't be bothered to fill out the paperwork for the delayed bag delivery and made me wait anyway. 10 more minutes and we are filling out the delayed bag form and was told I would receive a call by 8pm with a delivery confirmation. Great. Off I went.
9pm I call the baggage line. I'm told the bag has not been found yet and when it's found I will receive a call back. I ask why they can't find it since it came in on the 3:30 flight and it was confirmed off the plane. They read me the same script so I hung up needing to "trust the system"
Next day I called back around 8:30. Got the exact same answer down to the letter. I asked if anything was actually being done to find my bag. They could not provide that answer and to boot I was told they are not allowed to call the airport for a status update. This call and no return call continues for another three calls over the course of the day before I'm fed up and have to drive back to the airport. While driving through the entry I get an email from American that they have found my bag and they would deliver it 2 days later. 2 days???
I return to the baggage counter to try and reclaim my bag where the lady at the counter said "oh this bag shows in terminal 2". Might I add I came in at terminal 4 where I was currently standing. I head to the other terminal and find out from that baggage team that the bag arrived and was scanned into their bag locker about 45 min after my flight landed. American couldn't even tell where they had sent my bag and nobody wanted to look into the system to figure out where it was. After that flight American didn't once try to apologise or compensate me for the troubles since the "bag was delivered to the airport" until I called their customer care line. This just goes to show American doesn't care at all about their customers if their team doesn't care to look or isn't provided the tools to help

Same things happened to us with AA recently; in fact 128 + of us were in the waiting area for hours on end; plane, pilots, etc. all there--kept getting delayed awaiting flight crew from another incoming flight--they arrived, except one attendant who decided she did not want to fly--eventually pilots ran out their clock before another attendant was found--flight cancelled -- BUT, they claimed it was weather--total BS, but did not have to ante up for their screw up. They even reported to FAA flight was delayed for weather--when 128 of us watched, knew, were told the real reason. How do they get away with this?

I recently experienced something similar. On April 14th I was returning from a cruise vacation and instead of returning home in a peaceful and happy mood, I was frustrated and angry. My AA flight was from Miami to Los Angeles and was supposed to depart at noon. I made certain that I was at the airport before 9 a.m. just to be rescheduled 16 times and I boarded three different planes before actually making it home.
I was tired, frustrated and disappointed that American Airlines didn't prepare properly. I (and the other passengers) were lied to multiple of times. American couldn't get their story right. First we were told after boarding the plane the first time that there was a dent some where on the plane that was considered a safety hazard (which we were thankful for at first) but soon we were told a total different reason. We were then told the flight was over-sold by 30 passengers and asked for volunteers to give up their seats in exchange for $1200 flight voucher (useable for any future flight up to one year) and be rescheduled for a later flight that day or for the following day. Those who chose to take up their offer to be rescheduled for the following day was also told that they will receive a hotel voucher as well.
Needless to say our terminal was filled with a lot of upset passengers.
Then we boarded the same plane and left the terminal. Not 10 minutes while in line to take off the captain made an announcement that we were returning to the terminal because the crew would be timed out during our 5 hour flight and according to FAA rules that could not be done for safety reasons.
They offered to feed us and keep us content while rectifying the crew issue. While we were at the terminal waiting for an update I received 16 rescheduled notifications from American. During these notifications passengers were asking what was really the issue(s) and the agents at the terminal desk were lying to passengers just to keep the peace.
Then finally started to suggest that we call customer service for answers and any possible resolution.
They refused to communicate with us other than to apologize for the delay.
Management finally arrived at the terminal just to make more false statements before being boarded a third time on another plane. We all felt a sense if 'finally' but it was short lived since they had us waiting in the runway for 20 minutes before getting approval to take off.
I got home and immediately contacted Customer Service about my frustration and to request a refund for the funds I paid extra for my seat selection in the beginning of the main cabin but I was seated in the back of the plane right before boarding. They told me that I was unable to receive my refund because my flight information (flight #) never changed even thought my whole intinuary (time, crew, plane) did change. I felt ripped off.
There was so much that happened that I doubt that I'll ever fly American Airlines again.

The more I hear about American airlines no more I hate them they are complete assholes what they did to my friend her and other employees + 28 disabled clients was terrible they basically stranded them because of a weather condition they got stranded in Miami they offered them zero help as far as getting home zero help as far as getting a hotel they were stranded there for three days and you can imagine how freaked out these poor clients were and again they got zero help from American airlines American airlines you are a bunch of heartless assholes

American is by far the airline I hate the most. I cancelled my cards with them and always avoid their flights when possible. I will pay more to fly United or delta than fly American. Too many deceitful practices from them that I dont feel like I have gotten with any other airlines. What I don't understand is how they rank higher than United in customer satisfaction - my experience with American has been that they will screw up one in 5 flights vs United maybe one in 10.

I've experienced both of the same - AA lying directly to customers and failure to provide hotel voucher.

On lying, because I'm EP, I have experience dealing with AA personnel. A few years back I refused to except the standard excuses until the Manager relented, gave me a hotel/food voucher and explained that they "simply couldn't afford to provide to everyone". The real problem was a result of mechanics but the manager then proceeded over to the large crowd waiting an update and told them it was due to weather and the flight was cancelled

In Dallas this week, how AA handles the voucher issue is this. They know the flight is cancelled, but they don't officially report it as such (continually pushing back departure time). In Dallas this meant the AC was closed and the CS line (watch the video, it doesn't do justice to how long the line was) was a several hours wait - assuming you made it to a Rep, it would be early morning already so it wouldn't make sense to provide you with a hotel room since I was re
booked that morning

The games AA plays. While writing this, I just received an e-mail from Bridget Blaise-Shamai
President, AAdvantage Loyalty Program, thanking me for my continued confidence in AA ... LOL!!!

It seems like the fetid, rotting ghosts of U.S. Airways (and USAir before that and Allegheny Airlines before that (although they'll always be Agony Airlines in my heart)) just permeates AA, especially on the east coast. Their legendary horrific customer service is something I still have nightmares over. At DCA (one of US's former stomping grounds), AA is now routinely late, even when weather isn't a factor. I've started schlepping to IAD and taking UA, as their hub provides nonstops pretty much wherever I need to go, and at least I can get there sometime today.

The last time I took AA was MIA - DCA (spring of last year), and we had a similar issue... weather was fine just about everywhere in the country, but we were kept waiting for ONE FA to make our flight, who was inbound on a PHX flight.... This was at a HUB OPERATION. They boarded us 1:50 late, so they could avoid having to give us anything for being more than two hours late. AA is just the same, vile US with a different coat of paint.

You say "right now". I have successfully avoided AA at all osts for about 5 years now. I had a connecting flight I think at DFW on the day the pilots went on strike. We sat on the tarmac for three hours, were told weather concerns cancelled the flight. Since I missed the business meeting I did not rebook. We soon discovered the "blue flu" epidemic caused the exact same scenario many other places but AA refused a refund. This is not a recent thing. Its the culture and will not change. Agree, SW and Delta all the way.

This happened to me one Good Friday on an International flight. It was just a few passengers on board. I simply said to the passenger next to me I don't think we will be leaving on this 8:00 a.m flight we will be leaving on the 6:00 p.m. Soon afterwards I saw the Captain walking through the aisles checking the plane as soon as he entered the cockpit an announcement was made about mechanical problems. That day we changed five gates at the MIA Airport before we left on the evening flight and only to be given a $10.00 meal voucher. Passengers heading to another International destination had the same problem.

@Lucky my wife was flying LAX to DFW on American Saturday evening. Needless to say, they cancelled her flight and every other flight that night, tried to rebook her for MONDAY, offering nothing. What I don't get is why Spirit and Southwest had no problem flying Saturday night? The storm was over. AA was just so screwed up in DFW they couldn't let any more flights come in to add to the mess. I booked her on Southwest and got her home. Now I guess I get to fight with AA for a refund and argue that weather wasn't their problem, poor management was.

This is nothing new for AA. My experience was back in July 2017. Some of the same issues on a Harrisburg to Austin andvretuen for work. Worst EVER experience on over 30 years of flying. Took a 3 page letter to AA CEO to explain everything that happened in thev2 days to get to Austin and the 2 days to get home from Austin. Letter to date has never been acknowledged. Will not fly AA for personal travel. Unfortunately may have to for work because we have to take cheapest flight but if its AA I try to find something else cheaper with another airline even if it's inconvenient (i.e., layover location or time, flight times, etc).

American did that from Mia / Phl no rain in Miami or Philadelphia , after a 3 hour wait they gave out sandwiches. Potato chips and drinks. I told them I called Phila Int Airport and their reply was the sun is shining here. No weather issues here. They use the weather excuse to avoid paying customers for there cancelations. FAA needs to fine the airlines for not telling the truth to customers. Without customers , NO AA maybe they need to change the name to every now and then airline. We fly if we want to !

We had to insist that American give us hotel and meal vouchers when they cancelled our flight for mechanical issues last February. Even then the gate agent insisted the hotel had shuttle service - even though I told her I called them and they told me they didn’t. We paid for our own transportation and - after much wrangling—got American to reimburse us.

Lying about cancellations isn’t unique to American however. United routinely cancels flights between Madison, WI and Chicago. They say it’s due to weather but the weather is fine. I suspect the plane isn’t full enough for them to make a profit.

Similar incident happened to me with AA as well. Received notice of 1st leg From PSP to DFW cancelled Sunday. Second leg was not- go figure that one. Tried customer service - on hold for 5 hours. I then receive a rebook from a different airport departing Tuesday, 2 days later with no second leg!
So, we drive 2 1/2 hours to to LAX to reach a live person. It’s now 1 am and there are 3 ppl at the booking counter- I think I’m in luck.

I walk to the counter and ask for help. Gentleman says sure, I tell him my issue, He immediately gets angry and tells me the counter is closed.

Short story- I buy a ticket on United and cancel the AA flight.

The attendant told me there were not any AA flights. But I said, I can buy one, here look. He said oh they are probably over selling the flight, you would be on stand by if I put you on that flight. - didn’t choose that Bc it only got me 3 hours from home.

Sadly I originally had a choice bw AA and UA and I chose wrong! Lesson learned.

Also had trip insurance. Thought I’d qualify for trip interruption since flight cancelled. Nope! Screwed there too!

Flying AA, better be flexibile enough to grab your ankles!

Last month I landed in IAH from LHR. Just after landing I received a mail notification that my next flight IAH-DFW (I had another more to my final destination) was cancelled and they were working on a solution. When I arrive to AA desk, the told me it was due to weather conditions.... I checked on Flightradar and it was the ONLY cancelled flight that day between those airports... so it is completely imposible that it was due to weather. I had the screenshots of that situation. I felt completely that they were lying to me...
So, no hotel voucher, I had to pay 185 usd for a hotel.
They rebooked me the next day, at the end I arrived almost 24 hours later... I tried to file a claim through AA, they just replied me yesterday, saying as it was due to weather, I am not entitled to anything. Furthermore I though, as I was departing from Europe, the European legislation should apply, but according to them, it was a cancellation between two US airports, so no European legislation neither... although I bought a ticket from Europe to Mexico!
Maybe I’ll try to fill a complaint to Uk authorities...
I’m OW emerald, so I always try to fly OW, but probably next time I would try to fly through Madrid or direct flight LHR-MEX and the internal airlines in Mexico. No more AA, thanks.

Lucky, you say you are a "hub captive" and have "no option" but to fly American, but living in Miami, you can easily hop to FLL airport and fly on JETBLUE. Sure, it might be opposite direction from where you live compared to MIA, but don't you think it's more worth the extra 30 min drive for the peace of mind you're flying with a top rated airline, than to get stuck with AA? Im tired of only seeing your negative experiences with AA. Just dont fly with them anymore!!!!! There's always an option.

My husband and I had the worst experience in New York with AMERICAN that took us ultimately to Germany in two different flights ... after having to leave my husband in London with no visa or flight because of their mistake I contacted them several times and googled the senior vp on customer service and wrote him online .... nobody even said “I’m sorry “... I have not flown with AMERICAN since then and canceled my Citi credit card with them . Nowadays we fly delta and have their credit card .... AA used to be my favorite airline .... if they don’t realize what they are doing to their customers soon enough the consequences will be catastrophic.

My experience with American at DFW last month: I schedule a ticket from SFO through DFW to my final destination on the AA website. There's only about 45 minutes between flights, but I figure AA knows what it's doing, so I book.

The plane lands at DFW, we all stand up to get off...but after 10 minutes no one's moving off the plane. Then the pilot comes on: "Ladies and gentlemen: we're sorry, but the plane door is stuck. We're working on getting it opened".

25 minutes after arriving at the gate, they *finally* get the door open. I and a few other passengers rush to our connecting flight, which is still there, but the gate has just closed. The gate attendant directs us to customer service. We go there, cluster around the rep, explain the situation, and ask for hotel rooms, as there are no more flights that evening. He's impassive and uncaring. "I have no information here saying the door was stuck". We insist he call that gate. He does (or pretends to)..."nope, no information about a stuck door". and no vouchers for us.

The rep claims the plane landed on time. We ask him if he thinks it's a little strange that, since that's the case, we all missed our flights, despite being just a few gates away. Did he think we stopped for cocktails on the way over? He shrugs.

Fortunately I know a good hotel because three days before *AA caused me to miss this same connection in the other direction*, so two nights of my four night trip were in airport hotels.

All this time, by the way, the plane is still at the gate. All they had to do was let us on.

We seethe with collective anger, and swear never to fly AA again. Later I email AA customer service through their website. To my surprise, they comp me 10k miles. Worth about 10% of the cost of my missed day at work due to their mechanical issue, but hey, it was something.

Sorry for double post - let me stipulate up front that I have no idea what I'm talking about, but if you look at AA flights from LGA-DFW yesterday on FlightAware (for example), there doesn't seem to be any LGA-DFW flight that would have been delayed in a way for any reason that would affect your DFW-DTW flight... #1056 arrived on time, #1263 was cancelled but would have gotten in way to early for the crew to then work your DTW flight... even on schedule the super-delayed #1608 would have arrived too late for the crew to staff DFW-DTW... if somebody wants to let me know what obvious fact/factor I'm missing, feel free, I'm very curious...

I'm so glad you went public with this.

I was on a flight from Rome to DFW and we had to stop in Kansas City to refuel because, as the pilot explained, we had plenty of fuel to get to DFW but since DFW was closed as we were approaching, we did not have enough fuel to circle DFW indefinitely.

Our connecting flight was a short hop from Dallas but it was delayed a few times and then cancelled. However, both pilots and full crew were standing at the gate when the announcement was made so they got on the phone with AA and argued that they had a plane, they had fuel, they had pilots, they had crew and they had passengers. AA refused to let the flight leave.

The hold time with customer service was 1 hour so we checked into a hotel and continued calling, even as we were holding and calling on other phones the wait time according to their phone announcement went up to 5 hours.

I slept 5 hours and booked a flight on Southwest Airlines for 7 AM. As we were taking off, American Airlines customer service returned my call. I couldn't answer.

I've been home for 26 hours now and still have not been able to get American Airlines on the phone. But I did notice that for my convenience, they have booked me on a flight from Dallas for 4:30 pm today - almost 48 hours after my last cancellation. I won't be on it.

American did manage to get my luggage to my destination, it was waiting for me when I deplaned my Southwest flight.

American Airlines owes me about $600.

And, thank you Southwest, for running such a reliable airline!