Using the current “bankers” rate of $1.9730 = £1.00, that’s $4,932.50!
Here in the States one can hire a decent lawyer for about £100.00 an hour. If American wanted to appeal the case all the way to the House of Lords, you probably couldn’t afford it. However, having a go at them, in a lower court, might be worthwhile in this case. At best, American’s disclosures, prior to your making the purchase, were inadequate.
If you feel you must travel with a US-based carrier (UK to the US), I would suggest Continental. £2,500 might buy you a return business class seat (on Continental) to just about anywhere in the US, except Alaska or Hawaii. If your final destination allows it, flying trans-Atlantic to Cleveland or Houston is preferable to Newark because of the congested Immigration and Customs facilities in Newark.
Flying on a better airline, from the UK to the US, appears to involve some inconvenience. Many Continental passengers will start-out with KLM (Continental “code share”) to Amsterdam, then connect to Continental for the balance of their journey. Likewise, Lufthansa (“LH”) takes you through Duesseldorf, Frankfurt or Munich. Even with the out-of-the-way routing, and higher cost, LH is probably worth the price in return for the quality service. This year, even with high fuel costs, LH posted a profit into the millions of Euros.
The following link should provide some idea as to the comparative quality of US-based airlines:
http://aqr.aero/aqrreports/2008aqr.pdf
You’ll notice that, for every 100,000 passengers carried, American received about 56,000 more complaints than Continental, during 2007.
American: 1.65 complaints per 100,000 passengers
Continental: 1.09 complaints per 100,000 passengers