Had a flight booked IAH->BGR through PHL. American cancelled our 720 am flight out of IAH to PHL sometime around midnight last night. I was asleep, because that's what you do when you have to get up at 4 am for a 720 am flight.

Still not sure how we found out because the reservations were made under my email, and I still have not gotten any emails or texts saying the flight is cancelled. Only an email asking if I am "flexible" and want to "move flights at no charge

Luckily, my BF saw the change. We are a group of 5 - no flights until THURSDAY.

Rebooked on JetBlue to BOS, so we get to pay 2X for the rental vehicle and drive 4 hours to our final destination.

Customer service rep who rebooked us on JetBlue said flight was cancelled because no pilots.

So American booked you on JetBlue?

Yes, after a 40 min call to customer service at 1 am.

They start off by offering options via email, none of which were viable. Then he called and went through various different options (drive to Dallas, fly to Portland instead of BGR, etc. etc.), and finally they landed on JetBlue to BOS. AA must have some sort of agreement with them. I can see the flight in my AA app, but can't see the seat assignment and had to download the JB app to get my BP.

JetBlue charges for all seats, and we had to pay for those (in addition to the almost $600 we paid for the original AA tickets). We are going to try to get that refunded.

I really shouldn't complain. We are very lucky we are still able to get out today, and lucky we could get a minivan in BOS (even if it does cost 2X).

I just hate these middle of the night cancellations. And I'm ticked that I still haven't even received a cancellation notice or text. The if you are "flexible" and "change your flight for no charge" email made me fume, like AA was doing me some big favor.

AggieOO said:

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you can thank crowdstrike.

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Wow...is that really still affecting flights?

when flights are cancelled and the airline says no flights for X days I always wonder how that's possible. Did they look into connecting via DFW? Charlotte? any of the AA hubs? All of them were full?

I've had problems with all the airlines, as I'm sure most have, but AA always seems to have more problems than most. Last few times I've flown them there's been something.

TXTransplant said:

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AggieOO said:

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you can thank crowdstrike.

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Wow...is that really still affecting flights?

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Delta has over 400 cancelled flights for today, still being affected by Crowdstrike.

I think they were all full.

However, we were on two separate reservations (2 none 3 on the other), and the cancellation notice only came for the reservation for 2.

There was an alternative flight option on AA for later today when he first clicked the link in that cancellation notice. But because both reservations had not been cancelled, my BF called to see WTF was going on. By the time he got someone on the phone, that option was completely gone. And since there were 5 of us, that limited things. Finding 5 seats on a flight last minute is tough.

He asked about flying to Portland instead of BGR, flying out of HOU instead of IAH, driving to Dallas, and flying to BOS. The only caveat was he didn't want to drive 4 hours to Dallas to catch a flight to BOS and have to drive another 4 hours. I don't know if he asked about Charlotte. Our return flight routes through there, but he may have forgotten about that.

I don't really understand why they can't get a crew here. They had 7 hours. But the airlines don't have any incentive to do that.

Aggie87 said:

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TXTransplant said:

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AggieOO said:

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you can thank crowdstrike.

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Wow...is that really still affecting flights?

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Delta has over 400 cancelled flights for today, still being affected by Crowdstrike.

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What a cluster. I would have thought they'd have that straightened out by now.

I book travel for all of my employees (12 people), many of whom travel every Sunday, majority on American. Because of everything that happened with crowdstrike, I left my phone on all weekend so I could help troubleshoot. Only had one person traveling Saturday, so it wasn't so bad. I figured it would be smoothed out by Sunday, but that turned out to not be the case.

Sunday morning I was woken up by notifications going crazy at 4am with flight cancellations/rebookings for employees departing from Boston, DFW, and Atlanta. I straightened out the DFW and Atlanta people out pretty quickly by rebooking them myself on Delta flights. I canceled the American rebookings because they were not going to work, and got travel credit for them.

The Boston rebooking was trickier because the employee had gotten on the first leg of the trip at 5am before I could catch him to tell him otherwise. So he went from having one short layover in PHL to going BOS-PHL-CLT-DTW. This included a 7 hour layover in CLT.

And to make matters worse, I'd originally booked him in 1st, but American rebooked him in economy AND put him in middle seats for every flight. I spent almost two hours on the phone trying to sort it out, but ultimately since he'd started the trip and had checked bags, he just had to go with it. They did move him to aisle seats (no 1st available), but refused any other compensation or miles.

I really believe that good experiences don't exist in the airline industry (at least with domestic airlines) any longer. I of course encounter people who are good at their jobs and pleasant to deal with, but usually their hands are tied by policy, etc. Receiving a poor product when flying domestically is just a fact of life that I've come to accept.

Completely agree with you re customer service. I think Southwest probably has the highest number of employees who will at least try to make it right (and be decently pleasant to you). AA might be slightly better than United. I have no love lost with United, even though my bad experience was a few years ago.

Met another family of 4 while boarding who was trying to get to Maine on United. Had a 9 am flight yesterday delayed to 1045 pm, only to have it canceled right before boarding because the crew timed out. So there are at least 9 of us on this JB flight because one of the legacy carriers couldn't get us where we need to go.

Yes. Delta is suffering big time. And others having minor issues

Yeah, saw some posts on the IAH thread. I hadn't heard much about it since Friday, so I thought things had been resolved.

Delta makes a run for the worst

Want to know just how bad Delta's meltdown is?

The airline has now canceled 5,370 flights and counting since Friday.

That's more flights than Delta canceled in all of 2018 ... and all of 2019, too (5,343).

Two years worth of cancellations in less than five days.

— Kyle Potter (@kpottermn) July 23, 2024

oof, didn't realize it was that bad. this rivals the SWA meltdown of Christmas 2022

barbacoa taco said:

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when flights are cancelled and the airline says no flights for X days I always wonder how that's possible. Did they look into connecting via DFW? Charlotte? any of the AA hubs? All of them were full?

I've had problems with all the airlines, as I'm sure most have, but AA always seems to have more problems than most. Last few times I've flown them there's been something.

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I'm almost afraid to say this and jinx my trip to Montana, Vancouver and Florida. But I only fly American, and have never. I mean never had an issue.

I am always concerned about first flight outs in the early mornings. I normally always check to make sure the inbound plane will make it.

Only issue I had was on American when it appeared the inbound plane was running late, but AA kept saying it would make it (e.g. be there in the morning). Of course the pilots timed out and it would arrive mid morning and we would not make our connection. AA took my midnight call and put us on an earlier flight flying with one of us flying standby. Wife got the ticket and I was prepared to fly in a day later. Thankfully we both got on (but with no sleep that night).

We already booked our winter ski trip flights for end of January via SW. Already received notification of flight changes in times plus layover city. Out of curiosity, I checked all other flight options for the days we're traveling, they were all changed…multiple options now having 2 stops, longer durations, etc. Besides our flight, the others were horrible. Definitely expect more changes.

Agree with all of this. Airlines are running thin, and have been for a long time. Every flight is full, and one single cancelled flight makes the dominoes fall.

I used to never have problems flying, and I've had 3 or 4 including the Southwest disaster in Dec 2022 and since.

Although we were going to kind of a remote airport (BGR). It was our flight to the PHL hub that was cancelled, and we couldn't get to PHL on AA until Thursday. When flights to major hubs are cancelled, it's that much worse.

I'll give props to JetBlue. Great service, great wifi. We did leave about an hour late, but that may have been an IAH problem. I would def fly them again (this was my first trip), just wish they went more places direct from IAH than BOS and JFK.

I'll politely disagree with the "flights are all full" comment. It depends on the route and the time. I fly United IAH to Tulum flight every 2 weeks and it rarely has more than 20-25 people on it. Same goes for IAH to MCI and MCI to DIA albeit a few more but nothing even remotely close to full.

In my recent experiences, SW has fallen far behind United and American to the point we're giving away our SW points to family because it's become such a nightmarish experience.

Southwest into and out of DIA has become a total **** show. The DIA to Hayden connection has been so bad that we don't even book it anymore. At one point this spring it was arriving less than 1/2 the time on time and cancelled 20% of the time. That's crazy. Now, we fly from IAH straight into EGE or DIA and then drive up. Not as convenient but better than getting stuck in Denver with a cancelled or delayed flight w all of our luggage in Hayden or circling the US for a week before they can get it to us.

bthotugigem05 said:

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In contrast to tamc93 above, I try to only book the first flights of the day when I can help it. Airlines put an immense amount of effort behind getting the first flight of the day out on time, since the knock-on effects can be so severe.

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Clarification - we also try to book the first flight. Just monitor for equipment delays like any other flight since a late night miss can cause major issues as noted.

I could see flights to MCI not being full. I flew to JAN a few times this past year, and one time it was like flying private. But no one wants to go to JAN.

I'm surprised about DIA. I wonder if this is because there are so many stinking flights to DIA from IAH (and HOU)…maybe too many. I haven't been to DIA since Aug 2020.

But United has been routing flights that used to be direct through there ever since coming back from Covid.

There are definitely fewer direct flights from IAH than there used to be.

And as another poster said, the flight options with layovers are just awful, no matter the airline.

We've been lucky with SW since the Christmas disaster. But I'm really disappointed they are pulling out of IAH.

Lots of problems with airlines in general. 7 of my 12 flights in June/July have been delayed. Three different airlines for those 12 flights.

AGpops1923 said:

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barbacoa taco said:

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when flights are cancelled and the airline says no flights for X days I always wonder how that's possible. Did they look into connecting via DFW? Charlotte? any of the AA hubs? All of them were full?

I've had problems with all the airlines, as I'm sure most have, but AA always seems to have more problems than most. Last few times I've flown them there's been something.

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I'm almost afraid to say this and jinx my trip to Montana, Vancouver and Florida. But I only fly American, and have never. I mean never had an issue.

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Friends don't let friends fly through DFW. If you can avoid DFW and going through customs in Miami, American is usually a pretty safe bet. But I have had terrible luck going through DFW and DAL no matter what airline and most of the American flights out of Austin go through DFW on the way to wherever.

TXTransplant said:

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Agree with all of this. Airlines are running thin, and have been for a long time. Every flight is full, and one single cancelled flight makes the dominoes fall.

I used to never have problems flying, and I've had 3 or 4 including the Southwest disaster in Dec 2022 and since.

Although we were going to kind of a remote airport (BGR). It was our flight to the PHL hub that was cancelled, and we couldn't get to PHL on AA until Thursday. When flights to major hubs are cancelled, it's that much worse.

I'll give props to JetBlue. Great service, great wifi. We did leave about an hour late, but that may have been an IAH problem. I would def fly them again (this was my first trip), just wish they went more places direct from IAH than BOS and JFK.

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Another thing I've noticed lately is it's now common for the gate to be occupied when you arrive at your destination airport. This has happened to me several times this year alone and before it used to be very rare. Usually it's nothing crazy, but in the spring I was flying through CLT and we sat there waiting for a gate to open for over an hour, and the flight was otherwise on time. The airport folks couldn't decide where to send us so we just sat there and the entire plane was losing their minds. I only made my connection because it was delayed an hour. There were some people who missed international connections, I felt bad for them.

Six of us flew from Heathrow to Austin on last week but not on the same flights...

Two lost bags (British Air).
Two were delayed two days in JFK for cancelled flights (American).
Two made it with no issues except long, long immigration lines in Chicago (American).

Glad we had iTags to track the bags or they still would be missing.

We're you on the BA non stop to Austin and your bags were lost ?

Yes, our friends' two bags were lost on the direct BA flight - the Heathrow conveyor belts apparently broke and snarled up the entire airport.

AA has the worst app and computer system!

Landed in CLT to see that our 1022 pm flight to IAH has already been delayed until at least 11. And I can't track the incoming plane. AA app doesn't give that option for our flight and Flight Aware says the plane supposedly taking us to IAH arrived over 24 hours ago and has been sitting at the airport all day. I know that's not true.

App is also offering us the option to change for no fee, and that doesn't seem like a good sign for getting out of CLT tonight.

There is one option for an earlier flight that we can make because it was delayed but is en route. But we are on two separate reservations, and we don't know if there are enough seats.

So we go to the AA customer service desk, and the agent is unable to change our reservation. Says the computer won't let her and we have to do it on the app. We ask how we can know if there are enough seats, and she says to change our flights anyway. At this point the app starts giving error messages. Out of the five of us, two were able to make the change for everyone in their party.

But now some of us are confirmed on the new flight, some of us are on waitlist, and some of us seem to be both confirmed and on waitlist. No one can get a boarding pass.

Thankfully, we didn't walk away from the desk, and when we told the agent the app still wasn't working, she managed to print boarding passes for us.

But this system is nuts! I've never been in a situation where an agent at a computer couldn't make a change. And the AA app is garbage (we have problems with it every time we fly).

We booked this new flight because the "where is my plane" was en route from Cancun. Delay has been extended and now we are waiting on a plane from Tampa that isn't in the air yet. This is ridiculous.

Original flight we were on that was supposed to depart at 10 pm has now been delayed to 5 am tomorrow. Plane we are waiting on still hasn't left Tampa. What a cluster.

The whole incoming flight question doesn't matter so much at the hubs because dispatchers are monitoring traffic and will try to find a different aircraft to service a flight if the inbound is severely delayed. These equipment swaps happen quite a lot.

We were on a flight from JFK to AUS last Sunday leaving at 8pm. it was delayed a few hours because of incoming flight. Flight landed and we were standing in the jetway boarding when everyone's app said flight was now delayed until 8:45 AM. I had never heard of a flight being delayed 12 hours like that - it's usually cancelled. When it was later delayed another 2 hours we jumped on a 6am connecting flight. I did follow up and it looked like original flight did leave at 10:15 am on a larger aircraft.

On another note - I can't seem to find the customer service link to request reimbursement for our hotel (stayed at TWA - very cool) food, parking & our original seat upgrade from delayed flight. Thanks

csnole said:

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On another note - I can't seem to find the customer service link to request reimbursement for our hotel (stayed at TWA - very cool) food, parking & our original seat upgrade from delayed flight. Thanks

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And that is exactly the way they want it. If you find it, they will make you call and wait on hold for at least ten minutes before letting you talk to their crack team of experts in Mumbai who will give you absolutely no help whatsoever in accomplishing what you need, but will tell you it is their birthday and they would appreciate it if you would stay on the line and take a survey about how they did.

American plays games with cancelled flights and delay to the next day fairly often.

The 1022 flight we were supposed to be on was delayed first to 11 pm and then to 5 am the NEXT day. They didn't cancel it until about 10 pm. There was never an aircraft assigned to the flight. I've seen AA do this before. It sucks because people should be rebooking, not waiting on a flight that's only going to be cancelled.

When we flew to Maine last year, there were actually TWO outbound flights to PHL that left at almost the exact same time because the flight the day before was delayed to the next day. They actually both had the same flight number. When I asked the pilot about it, he said they would be fined for that, if they didn't change the flight number for one of them before landing.

Might try tagging AA in a tweet about your situation. I've had luck with other airlines responding to that to resolve an issue (rather than ignoring emails and blowing you off on the phone). We want to try to get compensated for the extra seat fees and rental car costs we incurred because of our outbound cancelled flight.

As far as switching planes goes, even the pilot for our flight that we wound up leaving on commented that the number of times the incoming flight was changed was more than usual.

I'm glad they have that flexibility. I'm used to SW, and my experience with them is they rarely swap aircraft.