Recently, an American Airlines flight was delayed for over nine hours. United has since come under fire from angry passengers who were given just one room each to share during the delay. Experts say airlines should give their passengers more than a hotel room as compensation but it remains unclear whether or not this is now standard practice in order to avoid legal liability.
The “how to get airline compensation for cancelled flights” is a story of three passengers who were given one hotel room to share during a mechanical delay.
During a mechanical delay, American Airlines provided three passengers with one hotel room to share.
on October 24, 2021 by Gary Leff
Passengers on American Airlines are dissatisfied with the hotel room that was allocated to them due to an overnight technical delay (and also about getting rebooked to a different city than their destination). Three individuals were apparently assigned to one room, leaving one person on the floor.
@AmericanAir Classy AA. I am aware of the need for upkeep. A hotel coupon for three people in one room with a double bed, on the other hand? Yes, someone has to be thrown to the ground. We were also rebooked on 1160/5516, which places us about an hour from where we purchased a ticket. Will you cover the cost of our taxi to PNS? pic.twitter.com/9mYU6vvmKC
October 24, 2021 — Jarchow Gregory (@GregoryJarchow)
Cranky Flier insisted that it was appropriate for American Airlines to state that passengers would accept whatever hotels are offered to them and that the company will never compensate a client for a hotel stay. When rooms are available to reserve outside the channel, I pointed out that American’s provider often runs out of inventory for hotels.
Agents who are already overburdened are being urged to contact and request extra merchandise. Good luck convincing them to do it, and good luck making it a success.
Flight attendants have been sleeping at the airport and a pilot without a room has been sleeping in a hotel lobby for the last several months since American has been unable to adequately supply lodgings to its own staff.
There haven’t been enough agents working at their outsourced suppliers, and there hasn’t been enough hotel room inventory either — customers can locate their own rooms, but American’s system will indicate there aren’t any.
Internally, though, American admits that the system isn’t always reliable in assessing whether or not you’re entitled for a room in the first place.
This means you’ll have to rely on a sympathetic agent to check into the circumstances of what caused your delay, and you risk having your eligibility coded incorrectly afterwards.
An agent was able to get a single room… for three travelers. At the very least, they seemed to be traveling together rather than as strangers. So it’s possible it might be a lot worse. On Valentine’s Day, Hainan Airlines customers were housed in an S&M-themed hotel and forced to share a room due to a delay.
When reserving tickets, utilize a credit card that provides trip delay coverage to be compensated for the cost of renting your own accommodation at a hotel that is likely to be nicer and cleaner than what the airline would supply, as well as ground transportation and food, normally up to $500 for a qualifying delay.
More From the Wing’s Perspective
The “american airlines overnight layover policy” is a policy that allows passengers to stay in the same hotel room, even if they are not traveling together. This policy only applies to mechanical delays.
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