[veritas01]

The Zurich flight had been sitting at the gate for a few hours, loaded full of ****** off passengers. They happened to be in the gate that was assigned for our flight to Buenos Aires. When we got to the gate area I told my wife...look our plane is already here. There was nobody at the gate 35 desk. Then a couple of AA personnel showed up at the Gate 35 gate and announced our flight would be leaving from Gate 37. Sure enough a little while later a plane pulls into Gate 37. There were no AA personnel at the Gate 37 desk. More time goes by and all of a sudden the passengers from the Zurich flight come pouring out shouting in German and surround the desk at Gate 35. I was shocked. I told my wife...holy crap there were people on that plane. I asked one of the guys coming out what happened and he told me the plane was having mechanical problems and they had been sitting in the plane for hours. Bummer I thought. I went back to my side near Gate 37. 30 minutes go by and all of a sudden the AA staffers from Gate 35 walk over to our new gate 37 and announce...passemgers on flight 64 to Zurich will not be departing from Gate 37 and boarding will now begin. Wait a minute I think. That's our plane. In terms of number of people the Zurich flight had at least the same if not fewer passengers than the Buenos Aires flight. So I get to the gate 37 desk and ask....isn't that our plane...will there be a problem with our flight? No problem said the attendant. We need to get these people going and then someone will announce where and when your flight will depart. Ok ....good. I go sit like a good little boy. After the Zurich flight is fully boarded and the door is shut the AA personnel at Gate 37 take a powder...poof gone. Ok I think. A few minutes later my wife who is looking at the departure boards while holding our sleeping 1 year old bekons me over and says...look our 10:30 pm flight now says 10:30 am. I look...sure enough. Must be a mistake. Deep down I figure I am in for a screwing. Everyone gets agitated but nobody is at the gate to explain. I go over to the other side of the gate area and find a gate that has AA people who are not busy boarding. The woman checks on her computer, turns red, is clearly embarssed, shakes her head in disgust and says...they are delaying your flight ...I will call and make sure someome comes to the gate and explains. Nice lady. Classy. I say they gave the other flight our plane didnt they. The woman's expression said it all but she said...I wouldnt know about that. Anyway....we go back to the gate 37 area. I see the AA people coming and I have my son in my arms at this time and I say...what's going on? This lady had the courtesy to tell me...your plane is having mechanical problems...you should leave right now...go out to ticketing in the main terminal and get vouchers for the hotel and meals. I say...they gave our plane to another flight...she looks me in the eye and says no they didnt...your plane has mechanical problems. So we are one of the first to get our vouchers and we take the bus to the hotel which is a total zoo. Dumpy place. Awful. Next morning the shuttle is overwhelmed by the number of people trying to get to the airport. So I pay for a cab. I am pretty ******. I go to the desk...confirm my seats....we had three in the miiddle behind 1st class and a car seat. No problem. So I say...are you going to continue the lie and tell me our plane had mechanical problems or are you going to tell me the truth that our plane went to Zurich. Again embarassment. No sir your plane had mechanical problems. So it went. Everyone I asked told the same lie.

That is what sucked. Tell me the truth. Sure the people will be angry but if you cant tell me the truth about this how can i trust the airline to tell me the truth about anything.

A letter to customer service confirmed they gave our plane to the flight from Zurich but they had the balls to say it was our safety? How did our plane carrying a bunch of Germans to Europe safeguard a bunch of Argentines who were delayed 12 hours? They basically told me to go to hell. I wanted a free ticket.

Awful airline. Awful decision. Smells of prejudice and American clearly cant be trusted to tell the truth.