American Airlines
Flight Cancelled After Crew Could Not Find a Pilot

My husband and I traveled back with our baby, who was then five months old, from San Juan to Antigua. The flight should have left at 10.00pm on 5 December 1999. However, close to the departure time they announced that there was a delay due to late arrival of the plane from Antigua. At 10.45pm they announced that there was a further delay because the crew had not arrived.

Another announcement followed shortly with the news that they couldn't find the pilot. Eventually at 11.45pm they announced that the flight would be cancelled because they couldn't find a pilot. My husband had several business meetings on Monday and he didn't have a chance to call his office until Monday morning. We would expect that it would be courtesy of American Airlines that we could make a phone call to make necessary arrangements.

However, we had to pay the overseas phone call. Furthermore, due to this cancellation my husband had to take unpaid leave, which in effect costs us another US$250.00.

I wrote a letter to American Airlines and complaint. I didn't receive a response and called early March to customer service. According to them they had mailed a letter on 8 February.

Since I hadn't received the letter the customer service agent told me their response. We would not receive any compensation because no flights are guaranteed, it was due to weather circumstances that the flight was cancelled and they can not afford to have a standby crew. I could not believe this answer. After a long discussion I still did not get a satisfying reaction and decided to try other ways to get our compensation.

Company: American Airlines
Country: USA
State: Nationwide

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