Above all, my sincere condolences to you and your friend who are clearly going through a hard time right now. As you pointed out, there is no “convenient” time to have a heart attack. And sadly, many travelers (such as myself) are complaining this time of year because we are traveling around the country to exchange silly and unwanted gifts with our family members. And then a story like this puts it into perspective. At the end of the day, you and your friend deserve a seat on any flight. Your purpose of traveling is much more important.
I preface my next bit with the fact that I feel sick to my stomach when I hear “American Airlines”. Like many airlines, I have earned elite status with them from flying so much, and I still feel like I get treated like the scum of the earth when I come in contact with their employees. In an ideal world, if I were running the airline, I would certainly give you a free flight to wherever you had to go. In the real world, I know that if I authorized my computer reservation system to provide “compassion” fares whenever a passenger asked, I’d never be able to compete and I’d be out of business. Like all other fare buckets, there are a limited number of seats on each flight so that the airline can at least ATTEMPT to break even or make a small profit (keep in mind, airlines don’t really make much profit, and AA declared bankruptcy last year). I would however keep in mind that “compassion” fares are generally unrestricted—meaning that you can generally change your flights without penalty. Sometimes they are more expensive than the restricted (non-changeable) fares that you find online. I hope you have time to check on that.
Anyway, no fare, flight, airline, or employee will be able to make up for what you’ve lost. My sincere apologies that you are going through this—especially at this time of year. You are in my thoughts.
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