[tht]

I'm traveling Miami to Santo Domingo and the other way on a regular basis. The norm is now that these flights are three hours delayed because of late incoming flights, that's both ways!! I left SDQ on the 26th of July on AA 680 supposed to take off 08:45 and took off 12:00, three hours and 15 min delayed. I missed four connections on NWA (Miami and Memphis), KLM (Amsterdam) and Gulf Air (Bahrain). When talking to the AA reps. on Miami Int. (including the shift supervisor) in the afternoon the same day, their response was: "We have a contract to fly you to Miami, that's it end of contract". This is AA's attitude these days, ship you somewhere delivery sometime in the future today or next year, we don't give a rats ass.
I'm now considering substituting NWA across the Atlantic with KLM from Amsterdam to Curacao and Aeropostal from Curacao to Santo Domingo, purely to bypass American Airlines. It's by far the worst airline I have been dealing with lately that's including NWA, KLM, BA, Gulf Air, Emirates and Aeropostal.

[Suga00]

Did you purchase the entire trip in one reservation? or did you purchase each ticket seperately? From my experience (from what I've learned working with airlines) If your tickets are purchased seperatly the airline is only responsible for getting you to where their specific ticket states, ie. SDQ to MIA. however if you made a through reservation, ie. SDQ MIA AMS then the airline is responsible to rebook your entire trip. I know it sounds like a load of crap but those are just the rules. Alot of times travel agencies will book you on seperate tickets and the airline is unaware of the continuing flight, and therefore is not responsible for what happens once you get into MIA, their contract was to get you to there, and that was it.

[tht]

Yes that's a lot of crap. The three hours and 15 min delay was because I had separate tickets!!??!! My point was AA is three hours delayed on a regular basis and don't care.

[tht]

If AA was a mam and dad company run from a home office with a little help from kids and grand parents, yes, I could possibly accept it, but not since it is what it is and have monopoly on certain routings. It's a complete lack of professionalism and it is a lot worse than any other airline I know of operating today.

[Silent Bob]

I think you are missing the point of Suga00 statement. No one's questioning the delay, the delay was not because of your tickets, however if your trip was booked under one itinerary, then AA was definitely responsible to get you to your final destination. Which means they would have to rebook the remainder of your trip until you reach your final destination. Now to say they "don't care" well that's an understatement. Considering the losses and all the bad press they're facing, I am almost certain they do care. the big question is, what can they do about? depending on the reason of the delay (sounds like an air traffic issue), and if it is they don't have control over it. Just remember, a tip to anyone, if you have multiple connections try to have them booked on one itinerary. Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia does it and it helps with misconnects as the airline that brough you in late will rebook the trip, even if it means calling the other airlines.

[Leatherboy2006]

another lesson I learned the hard way was I had book a trip which was booked separately because British Airways didn't have a ticketing agreement with the carrier I was connecting to and thus could not reticket or rebook me if they wanted to.
They didn't even have a record of me continuing past London(they had a 4 hour delay due to air traffic control out of JFK).
I was on my own in London but once I realized the problem knew it was my problem and not theirs.

[tht]

Originally Posted by Silent Bob

I think you are missing the point of Suga00 statement.

OK thanks for all tips. I'm not missing Suga00's point and I'm not against AA. One thing I didn't mention is this: My last seven flights between MIA and SDQ (both ways) this year has been on average three hours delayed, one was almost six hours delayed. Fortunately this is the first delay where I missed a connection. It's not an air traffic issue in SDQ for sure. Something is seriously wrong. What AA can do about it? I don't know. If these delays continue I'm for sure rerouting my flights to bypass the problem.

[jimworcs]

There are loads of great leather bars in London to while away the hours

Originally Posted by Leatherboy2006

another lesson I learned the hard way was I had book a trip which was booked separately because British Airways didn't have a ticketing agreement with the carrier I was connecting to and thus could not reticket or rebook me if they wanted to.
They didn't even have a record of me continuing past London(they had a 4 hour delay due to air traffic control out of JFK).
I was on my own in London but once I realized the problem knew it was my problem and not theirs.