Flight cancelled - What to expect from AA?
 

We were to fly home from Quito, Ecuador to NY on <u>Thursday</u>. At airport at 7AM, noticed our flight was cancelled (mechanical difficulties - same thing happened the day before, apparently).

Finally got rebooked - with 4(FOUR) fights! Made it home <u>Friday </u> evening.

Had to stay overnight in Bogota, Columbia. No one at AA at the Quito airport helped us with this and we paid for it ourselves.

Put in a claim with AA for "Cancelled fight" - but that's only to get the paperwork for our trip insurance.

Should AA pay for our hotel? Should they give us some compensation in terms of free trip, etc?

We also are not getting our FF miles because they rebooked us on Avianca, not a OneWorld partner.

Please help.

Decide what you consider to be fair and ask for that. Typically (for me), the airline has given me the frequent flier miles i would have received and paid for my hotel. Rather than paying for your hotel, they may give you a certificate for that amount to be used on AA.

Write to the airline's customer service department. Give all of the details of what happened and make your request.

You should ask for original routing credit to get the FF miles you would have received if your trip had gone as originally planned. Use those words: "original routing credit."

Usually an airline does pay for hotel expenses if the cancellation is due to mechanical difficulties. AA in Quito probably had no way to issue vouchers for a hotel in Bogota. But if your trip insurance reimburses you for those hotel expenses, then it works out.

AA is not going to give you a free trip. They'll probably deposit some extra miles in your AAdvantage account, above and beyond the original routing credit.

Read my response in the Lounge.

AA should have put you up in a hotel. No excuse if it turns out they didn't have arrangements in place.

A couple of years back we had a mechanical on Delta in Lima. Same situation but Delta sent us to prepaid hotel rooms. As we approached the front desk they had the keys and vouchers all laid out and everyone told to just grab a key and an envelope and have a good sleep.

Interestingly, the plane had already boarded so we were legally no longer in Peru. So before we boarded they took passports to Peru Immigration where the exit stamp was "annulled" thus making another day in country legal.