American Airlines
Ridiculous compensation for arriving 22 hrs late to destination

I have submitted the next complaint to American Airlines and received a ridiculous compensation of $75... Pls read below what I went through and tell me if you agree I should be getting more back...

On June 19th, I and my 3 kids (8.5 & 6 years old and 11 month old baby) flew with AA from SF to NY, and from there we were to catch an El-Al flight to Israel scheduled to arrive in Tel Aviv on June 20 at 5:30pm.

Flight 178 was delayed and we arrived to NY at about 10:30pm, when my next flight was scheduled to take off at 10:50pm. Till we got off the plane (in terminal 9) it was about 10:40pm and we started rushing towards terminal 4 for our next flight. However, El-Al decided not to wait for us, and gave our seats to people from the waiting list and took off.

You can not imagine how disappointed, tired and betrayed we felt...

AA managed to arrange seats for me and my kids on a flight to London (FLT 142) the next morning at 8:30am. But I had to stay overnight at the airport with my 3 kids because they could not provide us with a hotel room since they said they were all booked. Neither did they provide us with any food coupons. My kids fell asleep on the floor. This was the most horrendous experience I have had. I felt so helpless and could not believe that no-one cared to help us get through those long night hours in the airport. Not even a drink or something to eat to give us the feeling that someone was concerned for our welfare. The flight to London was delayed as well. We arrived 15 mins. Before our next flight (163 with British airways), so we missed this one as well... I just couldn't believe this was happening to me. I felt I was in the middle of a horror movie. This time, at least, AA placed us in a hotel. We got there at 1am and left at 4:30am to get back to the airport to catch our final plane. We arrived in Israel 22 hours later than the original schedule (June 21 15:30pm instead of June 20 17:30pm).

Needless to say no-one had any idea where our suitcases were and I had to file a tracking request. They arrived 3 days later on the 24th.

I feel that the airlines deserted us, did nothing to soften this harsh situation, especially since this involved 3 small children. Traveling with small kids is no picnic in the best of circumstances... And here I was absolutely helpless and unable to do anything to alleviate the desperate feeling of abandonment.

I feel that the AA personnel at NY airport didn't show any desire to try and help me and my kids, stranded at the airport, in an extremely unpleasant situation. They showed no compassion to the fact that 3 little children were forced to spend the night on the airport floor, and even an offer of food or drink were not forthcoming.

Therefore I have come out of this experience feeling desolate and hurt, and turn to you to request compensation for what we went through.

Even if the tardiness of the flights, causing us to miss our connections, may be put down to "circumstances out of your control", at least the minimum we could expect would be to receive some sort of support while awaiting re-routing. This was not realized.

Company: American Airlines
Country: USA

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