Lack of resources
 

Due to a technical problem with the plane our flight from Boston to Port of Spain via Miami was cancelled. After 4 hours of waiting in a line we finally got to see an agent who tried desperately to get us home the next day. Flights through various cities regionally operated by alliance partners were full. Eventually we were routed through Miami and St Lucia to connect with a BA flight to Port of Spain. However, as we were late leaving Miami we failed to make the connection. Rejecting the offer of yet another night in a hotel we insisted that they provide a taxi to take us across the island to the other airport and pay for tickets on the LIAT flight later that evening. There are a number of issues here:
1. There are not enough AA agents to manage the onslaught when cancellations occur. Is it any wonder that tempers get frayed when people are forced to wait in a line for so long. The ground staff who dealt with the problems in both Boston and St Lucia had a tough time in managing the situation, and it is unfortunate that they have to pick up the pieces when it all goes wrong. There is no support and they don't have resources to work with.
2. On the way to St Lucia I warned the air hostess that we were in danger of missing the connection and was told not to worry, we would get through. Well we didn't. Of course she didn't care because once we left her plane then it was no longer her problem. Had she acted and informed staff in St Lucia in advance then they may have been able to rush us through immigration to make the connection. But instead it was left to the long suffering agents in St Lucia to fix it when it was too late.
3. Operating planes to full capacity makes good business sense, but there is no slack to accommodate inevitable problems that arise. Cancellation of a flight means that there will be a couple of hundred people to squeeze in somehow the next day and unless there are more planes laid on or spare seats available then there is no way to cope.
There is clearly a problem at the management level and I have sympathy for the agents who have to deal with the lack of foresight from above. Ignorance of the hostess who refused to acknowledge that a problem might develop indicates that she would certainly make good management material in AA.