[cstrdd]

I was booked on travel from Austin to DFW on Friday March 28th at 2:15pm. After arriving at DFW, I was to connect on a 4:15pm flight to Atlanta.

Although I was told repeatedly the two previous days by AA CSRs that my flights were not delayed, by the time I got to the airport on Friday, my flight had already been delayed 45 minutes, leaving only a 15 min connect time through DFW.

CSR at Ticketing told me that she was not sure they would be able to get me to Atlanta on Friday - even on the late flight arriving almost midnight. So, she gave me a voucher for a Delta direct flight; but this late-ticketing, of course, signaled that I was a security risk!!!

My 4:00pm return from ATL on Sunday March 30th was delayed 1-1/2hrs, Also causing me to miss my connection in DFW. And, when my plane arrived at DFW, it had to wait on the tarmack for 25 minutes because there was not a gate available!!

A gate-clerk told me that the rest of the flights to Austin were fully booked for customers with "confirmed reservations". When I pointed out that I too had a confirmed reservation on a flight that AA's delays made me miss, she conveniently found me a seat on the next flight at 8:40pm...which became 9:10pm...which became 9:50pm....which finally started boarding at 10:10pm. Oh, but we couldn't leave as soon as the plane was boarded: another plane was parked behind ours, FURTHER delaying our departure.

Just how stupid IS this airline?? I understand weather and maintenance delays; but they didn't have a gate for a incoming delayed flight carryiing passengers with connections?! They allow other planes to park behind those that are ready for departure?! Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. And the attitude that its more important for OTHER passengers to get to their destinations in reasonable amounts of time...well, AA has lost my business.

[Silent Bob]

You understand weather and maintenance, but what about air traffic issues (yes even on the ground it is an air traffic issue), which to me that's what it sounds like. But the big question is, why did you call two days prior to find out if your flight was gonna be delayed? There's no way they can forsee a delay. Even if they told you the flight wasn't gonna be delayed, they (AA) don't know. But your business isn't the only one AA is gonna lose after cancelling 500 flights.

[cstrdd]

When AA announced that they were cancelling flights for maintenance, I began calling a few days out - and did so every 12 hours - to see if my flights were among those being cancelled during this round. Not unlike routinely calling to check on a departing flight, this time I knew there could be a monkey-wrench in the works. AA suggested checking up on the flights & maintained (maybe bad choice of words) that there was no work scheduled for my flights. So, the cause of the delays? I still have no idea.

Dotting every "I" and crossing every "T" was making my original post extremely long; so, I had to edit some words/sentences out. I travel a lot and I've been through many delays, but AA's handling of all matters in THIS incident was atrocious.

Also, news reports and AA's line was that the cancellations of that week were their decision based on FAA recommendations, not FAA-mandated. If true, why were they unable to re-configure their flights/timetables around the cancellations? Do you mean to tell me that no one at the airline had a clue that they were going to have a PR-nightmare for that upcoming weekend? I would like to think that someone at AA would have a contingency plan that looks ahead more than 2 minutes.

As stated in my original post, I do understand delays can happen; it's the domino-effect of stupid little things after the delays - things which I believe any conscientious business would be trying to avoid - which cause such customer rage.

[ChrisH]

The FAA didn't mandate these cancellations, and inspections, but when the governing body of my business is recommending that I do something, you can bet that I am going to follow their recommendations!

American probably could have done a better job of this, by announcing that this would occur, a week ahead of time, and having people begin getting refunds, or being rebooked well ahead of time, BUT, even had they done that, I can guarantee that many people would have still shown up to the airport, with no clue, even had it been all over the news. You'd be surprised at the people who show up to the airport completely clueless, even about things that have been known for quite some time.

There is no way American could have scheduled around these cancellations. The type of aircraft being inspected, makes up the majority of their fleet, and they do not have extra planes lying around. Unfortunately these inspections needed to be made, and ultimately, are for passenger safety.