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My husband and I were scheduled to fly from San Jose, Costa Rica to Seattle via Dallas with a dog in cargo. When we got to the airport in San Jose, the agent told us that there was a problem with the dog in that it was too cold to fly into Dallas where they were having unexpected and unusually cold temperatures. It was going to be 5 degrees colder than what American's guidelines say is their low limit, 45 degrees F.

I asked what sort of waiver we could obtain since our dog is a heavy coated lab and swims happily in ice water, rolls in snow and goes for long winter walks through the snow.

I was told that there were no waivers possible. I asked to speak to a supervisor who after about 10 minutes showed up and while never looking at me or my husband indicated that there were no waivers possible.

They suggested I go back to my hotel and come back every day to the airport until the temperature had warmed up enough to fly. That being a poor option, I asked to be rerouted to anywhere in the US where it was warm enough to fly. The only option was New York's JFK because that was the only flight where my Mileage Plus ticket could be used because it was the only flight on which there was room for additional Mileage Plus ticketed passengers.

When we landed at JFK late in the afternoon, I went up to a ticket agent to see about getting to Seattle and this agent told me that she had no way to know when we could go to Seattle due to ITS low temperature. I asked if she could look at a weather prediction and she said no. She also said there were absolutely no waivers possible and that a supervisor would tell me the same thing. Like the agent in San Jose, she said I could come back the next afternoon to see if I could fly, and every afternoon thereafter until the temperature in Seattle was warm enough.

Frustrated but keeping my cool, I decided to try one more agent who immediately shook her head and said that she couldn't believe that the previous agents had not immediately told me that all I needed in the first place was a vet to verify that the dog could fly into a city when the temperature was lower than the airline regulations. In San Jose, I had been early enough to have gone to a local vet by cab, gotten the certificate and returned still with 2 hours to spare. I also could have called my Seattle vet and gotten the waiver faxed directly to the American Airlines San Jose office at the airport.

So, I was in New York for no reason. The agent checked my flight the next day to make sure we had reservations and found that we had been routed to Seattle through DALLAS! Ya gotta love it. She switched me to a direct flight. My vet faxed the temperature waiver to my hotel and the next day we flew home without a problem.

Aside from the frustration (during which no voices were raised and no demands were made) we were out the inconvenience of being delayed over 24 hours, the missed connections in getting home from the airport (we live on an island in Puget Sound), we were also out the $150 hotel in New York, the cab fares, the extra meals we had to pay for, etc.

So far, in three e-mail exchanges with the complaint department, I have been offered 5000 miles to be added to my account. I explained that I get miles for free when I use my credit card and when I travel American so that compensation was not adequate or appropriate. There have been no further responses and I'm not sure if there are going to be.

I am fully aware of the necessity of the regulations for temperature limits when flying with a pet. I should have been made aware that there was an American Airlines developed system in place for exceptions to be made and that the exception in this case would have been easily accomplished in a timely manner if it had been offered. Instead I was told there was no possibility of an exception and thus we were out a lot of money and inconvenience.

I spent quite a bit of time with American also highly praising the one agent who quickly helped out and made the effort to get us on our way.

Any ideas for further action?

Barry