We were due to fly out of JFK 6 a.m. with conn. in Miami. 1st flight was delayed, causing us to miss our connection. AA made us rebook for the next afternoon. Causing us to miss basically 2 days of vacation. Then we find out they delayed the original connection and we could have made our original flight and only suffered a 1.5 hour overall delay. do we have any recourse to obtain compensation of some sort? We followed their suggestions ... how to we approach this? Thanks for any help
2006-07-01 05:00:44 · 8 answers · asked by Pat T 1 in Travel ➔ Air Travel
You should have made the complaint on the day of your flight. They would usually take care of it at the desk. They should give you bunch of compensation from there. It would have made your vacation much enjoyable knowing that you had compensation. It's kind of too late, what can you do after you finished your vacation with compensation? Will you be able to take your vacation again? I don't think you'll get your money back. They usually give out free stuff like dinners, car rentals, hotels, etc... know what I mean. Last thing you can do is try and file a complaint and wait for it. Be firm. Don't let them brush you off. Good Luck... Beside that hope you had fun on your vacation.
2006-07-12 06:22:11 · answer #1 · answered by tonygayles 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It depends on the delay. What was the delay for?? If it was weather related, you have no recourse. If it was mechanical then you should have been offered a hotel for your over night stay as well as meal vouchers. The way a delay works is they book you on the first available flight that they can get seats on. Read their contract of carriage, it outlines it all there, the site is below. It's always best to purchase Travel Insurance if you spend a large amount of money on a vacation. It works on a reimbursment basis only though and can not give you days back, but would help if you had to purchase another ticket with someone else to get you to where you needed to be faster or hotel stays etc. But from JFK to Miami, there are MANY airlines they could have possibly rebooked you on and that should have been the first option and depending on your destination, they could have booked you on another airline altogether.
Sometimes when you get to the ticket counter and check in the delay's are not always current. They could call for a 4 hr delay and at the last minute do an aircraft swap. The agent may not have known the details at check in and depending on your connection, may have been the best interest for your situation. Depending on where you were flying, if it was a small aiport or island, there may have only been one or two flights since you were leaving so early in the morning, you could have missed that connection based on the timing they were looking at for the delay posted at that time.
Being a 6am flight, that was the first flight out for that aircraft. If it came in delayed the night before then they were most likely delayed because of crew rest. Then at the last minute they could have swapped the crew out and taken less of a delay. These are just scenario's and I could not give you a full answer with out knowing more about why you were delayed or what answer they gave you.
If you took the flights, you are not entitled to any monetary compensation other than maybe vouchers for future flights. You should have been offered the option to either book on another airline that serviced your destination or to get you to your connection OR been offered a refund depending on the situation, some non-refundable tickets can be refunded...IF you booked with the airline itself.
Ive been in the industry for many years and I too have heard that AA is hard to deal with in situations like this. Writing a letter really will get you no where or take forever to get anything done. You may receive a letter and possibly a $100 transportation voucher for your troubles, a free upgrade for future travel, some miles in your Frequent Flier Account, but I seriously doubt you will be given any monetary compensation other than something to use with them for future travel.
It all depends on what the delay for the original connection is. If it was due to an act of God like weather...no recourse. If it was due to a mechanical issue or something that could have been prevented by human, then you may be able to get a voucher of some kind. Other than that, there really is not much more other than what I stated above. Again, read through the contract of carriage first. That has all of the legal-ee's in there. If you still feel like you received poor service also write a letter to the DOT informing them of your experience. They collect all of this information to ensure the airlines are operating with in their legal contracts or as I have mentioned...their contract of carriage. Their site is posted below as well.
Good luck! Hope this may explain a little to you as to how it works. I know it was a bad experience and you feel that you were not taken care of, but to give you a good explination or advise you to your actions, Id have to know a little more details. But, this should get you started in the right direction.
2006-07-01 05:51:32 · answer #2 · answered by southrntrnzplnt 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ask them. They probably have a policy covering this kind of situation printed on the ticket or your other paperwork, but they also want to keep customers, so they may give you some kind of compensation (air miles, a certain amount of free travel, etc). If you're persistent you may be able to set yourself up pretty well for your next vacation.
Be polite but firm. Make sure they know you're not happy, but getting mad or yelling at them will NOT make them want to keep you as a customer.
In the case of the delayed connection, they couldn't have known that when the first flight was delayed, so while that's annoying, it's certainly not AA's fault.
2006-07-01 05:12:35 · answer #3 · answered by Merovign 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all, Good Luck! You can try writing an email or letter to corporate offices and explain how the whole ordeal affected your vacation. If you're lucky, they might offer some type of deal. I've experienced similar incidents and some airlines (or individuals) are empathetic and try to work with you while others just shut you out. Unfortunately, AA isn't one of the best.
2006-07-01 05:08:03 · answer #4 · answered by Curbkindaguy 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i'm professional-upkeep, professional-pilot, professional-examine in. do not comprehend what else i'm in opt for of except the Mile severe club. Oh, yea, i'm also professional- "Flight 39 is now boarding at gate 11." guy
2016-11-30 02:30:10 · answer #5 · answered by ericksen 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
GO TO THE TOP! THE VERY TOP IF NEED BE. WRITE A LETTER AND POST IT ON THE WEB. Remember," squeaky wheel gets the grease". Don't give up.
2006-07-01 05:06:45 · answer #6 · answered by BOBBI M 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not usually. Especially if you got their discounted rate for that flight, sorry to inform you. It happened to me.
2006-07-12 09:01:00 · answer #7 · answered by thewordofgodisjesus 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
good queation ,, but no answer
2006-07-12 10:02:34 · answer #8 · answered by simbu 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋