[ChrisH]

Sounds like your experience was obviously not great. When a flight cancels, sometimes passengers are booked to cities that are "nearby" their original city, when no more flights, or not more flights with seats open, are available to their original destination. The agent should have confirmed that this was okay with you, and she didn't. It is a good thing you caught it.

Air traffic delays, or cancellations are basically just too much traffic congestion in the skies, like when the interstate backs up. Air traffic control will cancel flights due to this, to reduce the congestion. The airlines are not liable for these cancellations, as it is not within their control.

It sounds like the agent was not very helpful with regards to a better explanation, but keep in mind she may not have known herself. Many people think that airline employees know the ins, and outs of every delay, and cancelation. The truth is, we can only go by what the computer days, which in this case, would have been "air traffic". Being a customer service agent for an airline, and also having my pilot's license, I understand these things better, and can explain them to passengers, but a lot of agents do not know anything more than the computer days "cancelled - air traffic", when I pull up the flight information on a particular flight.