My Dad, Emily and I header out to Orange County, CA today to be with our family out there after our Uncle Vic passed away. He had a heart attack a few weeks ago, but the passing was still a bit sudden because many of us were expecting a recovery. When our family first heard the news, we all naturally tried to get flights out of our hometowns as soon as possible, so none of us really coordinated. My Dad & sister booked first on AA. I was fortunate (at the time) to get on the same exact itinerary on American Airlines to John Wayne Airport (SNA). Uncle Albert took a flight to LAX via Virgin Atlantic. Cindy booked about a day later, but was able to get the same schedule as her father. Uncle Mariano flew out of Philippines a day earlier and was scheduled to arrive a bit earlier.
Our flight was scheduled to arrive mid-afternoon, plenty of time to check-in to our hotel, get settled in and visit the grieving Auntie Clarita. When we first arrived in Laguardia, the schedule was looking good. Flight 313 to Chicago was cancelled and all passengers were moved to a flight an hour earlier. That didn't do anything for our final arrival time, but it meant less of a rush to get to our connecting flight. We got there on time and made it to our gate with plenty of time to eat a meal an make a few phone calls. Things were still good as we boarded the plane, but we got a sense that something was wrong when we were sitting in a closed cabin for 30 minutes. The finally announced that there was a problem... the control panel was missing a bushing (a silicone or rubber piece used to stabilize 2 or more hard components). The estimated time of repair was 30 minutes. After that time, they made a second announcement that they were unable to get the missing part and had to take the plane out of service. We quickly called the 800 number to rebook the flight. There were 2 options at the time:
- 3pm flight to LAX
- 5pm flight to John Wayne w/ Dallas connection
Though the LAX flight was better for our schedule because it was where the rest of the family was headed, we couldn't take it because AA wouldn't send our checked-in baggage to that location. So we were stuck with the much later flight (arrival @ 10pm). The agent at the booking desk was able to help us a little bit. She actually put us on a later, but direct flight to SNA in order to get the arrival time down by an hour. It was pretty obvious that there was no real mechanical problem on the original plane. They were just making a head count at first and when the total was lower than some limit, they decided to take the plane offline to save money. The issue with the bushing was fabricated. I've heard that AA does this kind of thing a lot and many passengers aboard mentioned that they've had a similar experience before. Other clues were:
- Ground crew was emptying the check-ins before the announcements
- The plane had no problems arriving
- How could they be so ill prepared to not have spare parts readily available? A missing bushing is also easily MacGyvered.
So we eventually made it. Because of our late arrival, Uncle Mariano had time to get to LA first, pick up Uncle Albert & Cindy and then drive to Santa Ana for us. Cancelling an entire flight should've at least warranted some kind of bonus for all of the passengers... especially since we saved the airline money by not flying out a whole plane. AA offered nothing... not even a free meal! Also noteworthy is the overall friendliness of the staff was not as good as other airlines I've been on. They didn't do anything particularly bad, but it was just the was they talked and answered questions that evoked a feeling of rudeness. We were already stressed and anxious to be with and comfort our family. AA did nothing to help. From now on, I will certainly pay attention to airlines while shopping and never fly AA again!
What a long day... a 29-hour one to be exact!
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