r/AirlineChaos

Recently had my worst-ever travel experience with American Airlines, and I wanted to share the details in case it helps someone deciding whether to book with AA.

Day 1: Repeated delays and cancellation

My trip was supposed to take me from Hartford (BDL) to D.C. The initial flight was scheduled to depart at 2 PM, but after I arrived at the airport, the departure time was repeatedly pushed back every 30-60 minutes. At around 10 PM, after roughly eight hours of delays, the flight was finally cancelled.

I understand that weather happens, and I don't expect an airline to control the weather. But the way the disruption was handled made things so much worse; I was repeatedly strung along with 30–60 minute delays until it was essentially impossible to make alternative plans except sleeping at the airport or paying for a last-minute hotel.

Once the flight was cancelled, I:

• Waited about one hour in line for American Airlines customer service
• Was placed on standby for a flight the following morning
• Had to pay for a hotel because American Airlines did not provide a hotel voucher or discount
• At that point, I figured I'd get some sleep and try again the next morning.

Day 2: Standby, multiple lines, and an overbooked flight

The next morning, I returned to the airport and waited in line at ticketing because I didn't actually know whether I had a seat on the standby flight.

I waited for nearly an hour. When I finally reached the front, the representative dismissively told me to go wait in a different line about five feet away.

I did that. After waiting some more, another representative told me to skip the ticketing lines altogether and go to the gate. So glad I waited.

So I went to the gate...and waited for another hour and a half, because planes had been assigned to the wrong gates. Eventually, it became clear that there weren't actually any empty seats available for standby passengers. In fact, the flight was overbooked, to the point that American was looking for passengers willing to give up their seats.

I went back to customer service to ask what my options were. I was told that essentially every other flight that could get me to the Washington, DC area was also full or overbooked. I was willing to fly into DCA, IAD, or BWI, but no luck.

At that point, I gave up, cancelled the remainder of my trip, and took a bus back to D.C.

In summary:

After two days:

• I spent approximately 12 hours waiting in airports
• I never actually got on an American Airlines flight
• I paid for an overnight hotel
• I paid for bus transportation back to DC
• I was repeatedly sent between lines, ticketing, and the gate without clear information
• I was unable to get an available flight to DCA, IAD, or BWI
• My online complaint resulted in what felt like canned responses
• I did not receive a refund for the cancelled flight, instead just American Airlines credit

Again, I know American can't control the weather or every operational problem. What they can control is how they manage delays, what resolutions they offer for travelers whose plans are disrupted, and how they treat people who are just asking for help.

The most frustrating part wasn't simply that my original flight was cancelled. It was spending roughly 12 hours over two days being repeatedly told to wait, being sent from one place to another, ultimately discovering that every possible replacement flight was overbooked.

I know I'm probably shouting into the wind, but if you're considering flying American Airlines for a trip and want to be sure you'll actually get to your destination, it may be worth paying more to fly another airline.

My sister and I flew with Iberia and coming back was a DISASTER! Some guy at check in gave us the wrong boarding pass and tagged our luggage under someone else's name! We didn't notice til last minute cuz we were so overwhelmed and also we had confidence at the time that the guy printed our boarding passes correctly (big mistake). How do you mess that up? We showed our passports and everything! Got the boarding passes fixed and had to sprint through the airport to make it to our flight but now our luggage is in Puerto Rico and we have never been to Puerto Rico! Now we're struggling through customer service to get our luggage back!

Tonight I was supposed to board a Ryanair flight from Zagreb, Croatia to Rome, Italy. Booked the ticket months in advance, did check in hours before due, traveled 5 hours with a car to Zagreb, got a 20€ uber to airport, got there among the first ones - only to be refused a seat because, apparently, they sold more tickets then they had seats. What’s even more infuriating - upon doing online check in I was given a seat but during my uber ride they simply decided to scrap me off the flight and my awarded seat was gone.

When I got to airport and told them that I am catching a connecting flight from Rome (WizzAir) they simply told me that next time I should book both flights RyanAir and since it’s a different company they can’t help me. Of course, they didn’t check if there are any volunteers willing to give up their flight seat (supposed to do it by law) but simply decided I’m the black sheep. Later they told me they’ve actually overbooked 6 more tickets.

The staff was pretty nonchalant about it and any complaint was simply disregarded with “it’s a low budget airline”, “you’re traveling in high season”, “we must do as they tell us from Dublin”.

No words can describe anger and humiliation I’ve felt watching 181 person board the flight and hoping these bastards will let me in last second in case somebody doesn’t show up.

They’ve cost me hundreds of euros directly and hundreds more indirectly and I find it appalling they can ridicule us in this way and refuse service even after you’ve paid ticket. I’ve had to buy a new plane ticket for WizzAir connecting flight, wasted money on accommodation for one night, won’t get to see the things I wanted, had my trip ruined and all I can receive is a 250€ compensations.

I seriously don’t get how is this even legal.

To anyone traveling with this 💩 company - keep in mind that a ticket is not a guarantee they’ll let you on the plane.

This airline is a nightmare. Do NOT book with them solely for the risk of my situation happening to you.

I'm so angry because this whole situation from beginning to end is ridiculous.

I have a flight from JFK to CASABLANCA. I submit my luggage along with my families 3 suitcases (4 total) at the same exact time.

When I land in Casablanca, my luggage is missing. I go to the baggage claim desk. Its chaos and madness. The employees are absolutely awful like I work in a retail pharmacy so I know the struggle. I have empathy for them and I am kind to them, but all these employees lack empathy, common sense, and communication skills. They were so disrespectful to all those in the area (clearly it's a problem that so many people are there at all right?), they were on their phones having conversations/taking calls but standing around and ignoring people who tried to talk to them. I tried to talk to one of them and ask a question, she looked straight at me and ignored me by turning around and walking away. They couldn't give anyone any straight answers, like literally everyone just waiting around not knowing anything because they won't SAY ANYTHING. They started hiding in the office at some point and decided that doing their job was just an option.

Anyways, after someone FINALLY sat at the desk, I made a claim. We were going straight to Marrakech so I asked for it to be delivered there. They said I would receive an email update.....if only it were that easy :)

No emails no updates, I'm starting to get anxious because I'm only in Marrakech for two days. I'm emailing RAM (Royal Air Maroc), JFK terminal 1, I'm calling RAM headquarters. But eventually I ran out of call minutes on my Esim, so I asked my family back home to help me out. I contacted RAM headquarters and the agent told me she has no updates on my luggage and has no idea where it is but she'll "email" and ask for it to be sent to Fez (where I'll be on the last day) because I told her i wont be in Marrakech for long. I told her there's no point because thats literally my last day here so please send it back to JFK.

At this point I technically have no idea where the luggage is and neither do they because whatever system they use to track luggage claims wasn't updated according to the agent.

I keep emailing because no one from JFK or RAM is responding......

My mom gets in contact with someone who tells her my luggage is being sent back to JFK and should be back there at like 6:45 pm tuesday....so I guess my luggage WAS sent to Morocco but how did NO ONE UPDATE ME?? no email was sent to me like they said would happen??? How would I know if my luggage is here or not if they don't email or call me? Ridiculous. Incompetent.

Anyways my family is at the airport and they are like "it was supposed to be sent back but it wasn't, it was tagged to be returned to JFK but it was not on this flight so it will be retagged..."

So basically its just hopes and vibes that my luggage is even in Morocco, that it gets retagged, that it gets sent back, that it isn't lost with the wind :))

They said this process can even take weeks. They don't know why it wasn't on the return flight like it should have been since their system says it was tagged to return but it didnt arrive and they dont know why....they also said they can't control what happens in Morocco so "retagging" it and asking for it be sent back to JFK again is all they can do.

my brother also said the face of the guy he was talking to at JFK didn't look hopeful, almost like they knew something they weren't telling.

They recommended I call the airport in Casablanca but as I said, they are terrible and incompetent so I wonder if they'll even pick up. It's 4 AM as I write this because I'm too angry and anxious to fall asleep and I won't be able to call them until 9 AM. I will have to borrow someone else's minutes to call the airport and ask if my luggage is there. If it's there I might have to cancel plans to go get it. Really I don't know what I'll do.

All this and I forgot to mention the flight itself was delayed by 2, almost 3, hours because of luggage issues... you can't make this up

I'm truly genuinely in disbelief because how does this happen? How can an airline be this disorganized and bad at communication? I'm in a foreign country without my luggage.

I will add my story below:

I am muslim hijabi woman (23) with my family i had bought a check in bag for over 100$ and got it weighted and asked should i put more stuff in my check in before i got to get my personal item sized and they said no we were putting our bags in the devil square to get bag tag and it slightly didnt fit and the employee was hovering over us waiting to let us know that didn't fit yet it was very demeaning and unnecessary because I was aware

we rearranged some items and it managed to fit but without our knowledge at the tome she put a note saying our bag may be over sized.

we get all the bag tags after some disrespectful stares and overwhelming pressure and we sit and wait for boarding to start

once boarding starts we get in line with our passports and wait to get on our plane. we get to the guy that check the passports and he says we need get our bags checked for size even though we already received our tags.

I asked him why would we need two tags to identify something we already got checked he said what if we added something to the bag which doesn't make sense if thats the case the why do we have to get the first tag when you were just going to check it again anyways

he didnt answer so we go and get ut checked again, another degrading and felt racist experience as we were the only ppl get checked twice when I see other bags with same look not even get checked and of course it fits like what was the point of wasting time like this just to disrespect us, to dehumanize us?

he then told us that there was a note on file flagging that the size may be of concern, firstly why even give the tag if thats the case and second tell us to get rechecked ahead of time why make us feel like we are accepted when we actually are being denied?

we had to get two bag tags to prove that it fits and when you get on the plane it fit like normal anyways like those bag chambers are just for humiliation. What a weird and disgusting company.

I do not recommend Flair, everyone of the staff is mean and snobby. I would like to be treated with humanity and professionalism. These workers are assholes and make your day worse

Two commercial jets from separate airlines blew tires while landing at Chicago O’Hare Monday, prompting a Federal Aviation Administration investigation.

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Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some advice regarding an issue with Air France that has become quite frustrating.

Context

I was flying to France urgently to see my father, who was hospitalized in very serious condition. Timing mattered.

Outbound flight

• Flight cancelled due to a technical issue → 24‑hour delay.
• Hotel provided was far below Business Class standards.
• Meal cost: $54.62 CAD, including $16.62 CAD out of pocket despite the voucher (this part has been reimbursed).
• Replacement aircraft had no WiFi, which significantly downgraded the Business experience.

Return flight

• Couldn’t check in online.
• Conveyor belt failure at the terminal → impossible to check in at the Business counter.
• Gate changed without clear communication.
• A350 with no WiFi and a very limited entertainment system.
• Additional 30‑minute delay due to gate unavailability.
• Extra parking fees: $53 CAD, directly caused by the 24‑hour delay of the outbound flight.

Air France’s response

They agreed to:

• reimburse the meal ($54.62 CAD)
• pay the €600 CE 261 compensation

But they refused:

• the $53 CAD parking fees
• any Business Class goodwill gesture
• any recognition of the degraded service
• any consideration of the personal impact (urgent trip to see my hospitalized father)

Their justification:

“The additional losses are not reasonably induced.”

Even though the parking fee was directly caused by the cancellation and delay.

My question

Has anyone dealt with similar refusals from Air France?
Is the French Travel & Tourism Mediator effective in cases involving:

• “reasonably induced” expenses,
• degraded Business Class service,
• partial reimbursement?

Any advice or shared experiences would be appreciated.

Munich to ATL to SLC. Aug 17th. Anyone else on this flight today? Mostly a rant about how everything can go wrong haha. sorry for the length. But ALOT went wrong on this flight!!

We were delayed taking off by about 3hours for a mechanical issue (originally takeoff 10:30 AM out of MUC). Once the issue was fixed, they announced there wouldn’t be enough time to go to ATL as the crew was going to time out. They figured out a solution, fly to JFK and switch crews on the tarmac so we can continue to ATL. What could go wrong going to JFK🙄

When we finally got to board the plane, half of the tickets to board scanned and half didn’t. Mine didn’t scan and I was told to go to the desk. It was weird, a gate agent scanned the ticket there and it worked right away. A seat reassignment paper printed, but she didn’t hand it to me. When I looked closer… She had a pile of seat reassignment papers printed that she didn’t give to anyone. She then proceeded to throw them all in the trash. Got on the plane and it’s chaos everywhere! everyone is in the wrong seats due to Delta randomly changing the seats. Seat reassignments Would make sense if it was a different plane, but it was still our original plane. We eventually all figure it out and leave 3-4 hours after the original flight time.

We land at JFK. the crews change and the plane is refilled with gas. I get my new flight scheduled ATL to SLC while on the plane, and we all get ready for takeoff and clearance. I was excited to make it home tonight, even if it was 4-5 hours later than originally planned. After an hour and a half,We finally are in line on the runway, Waiting for takeoff. Almost an hour passes by. The pilot updates us: “a lot of flights being rerouted or cancelled due to weather. Trying to figure out what ATC wants us to do, as there are zero gates available to park at”. Next announcement 30-45 minutes later, “sorry folks we are going to have to go to the gate.”

We taxi towards the gate, which we all know takes awhile at JFK. Especially if weather is involved. Then, of course, another announcement. “Sorry folks. A plane is disabled and in the way, bottlenecking everyone up. Trying to get to the gate as quickly as possible. “ well as I write this we are still on the plane. Originally I was supposed to be home in an hour, now it looks like it will be a TBD time tomorrow. Fun times!!!
\*\*UPDATE\* 1 hour since I posted it still gets worse ha: They told everyone to get off the plane at 9pm and go through customs, get bags, go through security then reboard on the SAME plane for a flight departing at 11 pm to Atlanta. They ended up eventually cancelling that plane for a flight out tomorrow, But we still waited for luggage about an hour and got it after flights that arrived much later than ours 😑

We can’t even claim late baggage for 2500 sky miles since it’s not a domestic flight. Luckily I had my spouse exit to take care of vouchers while I waited for luggage to beat the rest of our plane out there. Our new flight that we rebooked leaves @ 6 am to slc tomorrow, as we are hoping to avoid delays out of JFK by going as early as we can and skip out on that ATL flight. We even Found out you can check your luggage early and they can store it at the airport, but of course it’s “beyond full with no space.” Sooo now We Got a hotel booked with a free shuttle that you can call when you’re ready for pickup! I got the bags, we called and the shuttle will take 1.5 hrs to get us because it’s NYC and traffic. Sigh. We are now in an Uber at 10:53 pm that will take 30 min to get to the hotel. seems like there are at least some late food spots open near our hotel 🤞what a messsss!

Yes, let get this out of the way... 7 people missed the flight to Kona due to 8lbs and 2 hour recommended arrival.

Traveling with family, 8 year old and a new infant in Sacramento Airport

Left at 5am arrived at airport check in at 6am, flight was at 7:30am

Tagged and paid for luggage and sat in line for 30mins to check in baggage

My son and daughter-in-law failed the luggage 50lbs limit (56lbs, 52lbs) on their bags and was told they could not check in baggage, must wait in guest services line and pay $100 additional fees. NOTE: after waiting in baggage check in line there is NO WAY to pay for them right there. I begged them to help take the luggage and I can pay them right there. They insisted I must use the other guest services line and lectured me to be at the airport 2 hours before flight.

Guest services was a line approximately additional 30 minutes long.  We had to abandon my son and daughter-in-law and infant to get through security.

Waited and got to security and passes I printed at home on the Alaska Airlines check in web side printed in tandem and were un-scannable. We could not pass security. Security pointed us to the automated machine to print new boarding passes next to the security line. However, that machine was only for Southwest. Quickly took the tram and ran down to Alaska Check-in and used their machines....

Alaska Airlines removed the capability to print boarding passes on the machines.

I immediately started yelling at the staff I needed help, they took sweet time to respond and fumbled printing the boarding passes, their machines did not work.

My son and daughter-in-law were informed to bypass the guest services line and go to the gate with their luggage. They headed up to security line.

My wife found a security agent willing to let us through with the degraded boarding passes but at that time it was too late, we all missed the flight.

Alaska staff were pretty much unhelpful, the louder I got the more distant they got. They are not customers first, if you travel with an infant, they do not care, basically you’re just a number to them.

This was booked through Costco Travel, so all control of changing flights had to be through the 3rd party.

Apparently missing a flight causes the return flight to be deleted and resold by Alaska Airlines. We had the Alaska manager aware of our intent to get to Kona but was not able to stop the loss of return flight.

Alaska Airline and Costco could not rebook us, and the $12K paid for vacation was potentially a complete loss.

We opted to buy all new tickets with Southwest.   Southwest Airlines did a bang-up job helping us get on their flight at the last minute. Thank you, Southwest Airlines!!!

I managed to get $1200 refund for the cancelled return flight from Costco Travel. But in all a $2800 loss to buy Southwest tickets up and return flights.

• Alaska Airlines - Failed to accept credit cards for oversized baggage on baggage check-in
• Alaska Airlines - Web check in the printed boarding passes failed security agent check in
• Alaska Airlines - Automated machines do not print boarding passes (Southwest, United does!)
• Alaska Airlines - Understaffed lines with large flights on check-in
• Alaska Airlines - Staff with no empathy, regard, or care for your wellbeing (with infant) in trying to make flight
• Alaska Airlines - Resold my return tickets for a higher profit when I requested them to keep them active with the on-staff manager

It will be a cold hard day when I try to fly Alaska Airlines again. 8lbs over = $2800 loss

I will be posting this complaint in Southwest Airlines and United Airlines forums.

our flight is overbooked bc theses rich sons of bitches think that it’s a good idea to sell more tickets than seats so that some poor guy like me can’t fly and has to stay at the airport till 10pm when our flight was suposed to leave at 4pm fuck Condor,Ryanair and all the other companies that do this bs

yo I meant overbooking

Hi All,

I just wanted to share about a layover nightmate that happened this week. I learned a lot about United's inflexible systems, and I have the perfect recipie in case you want to get trapped at the gate for 14 hours.

My wife took an Istanbul -> Athens -> DC flight a couple days ago. The partner carrier noticed a mismatch between her passport and reservation, but printed her tickets anyway and let her on the first flight. They didn't change anything, even after she asked.

Because the layover is >12 hours she only got the first leg boarding pass (per the United phone rep this is policy). She is not a US or EU passport holder, so security wouldn't let her out of the gate area without the second boarding pass.

I spent 4 hours on the phone with United support, and their neither the support staff nor their supervisor could do anything because she had completed the first flight. Her only option was to talk to a boarding agent at 7 am the next day, which meant remaining in the gate area for ~9 hours overnight.

My solution was to cancel and re-purchase the second leg so that she could get a boarding pass, go get some food, and visit the lounge. I spent another hour on the phone explaining this to a United rep yesterday, and United ultimately refused to refund the price difference.

So all you need is a >12 hour overnight layover, a fat-fingered data entry, and a non-US/EU passport. Then you too can be trapped at the gate overnight!

Let me know if you have any suggestions on who to reach out to about this, we've already called united and filled out the refund form with both confirmation numbers. I think all we can do now is complain about it online :-)

A routine flight turned into a terrifying ordeal when a simple name mix-up led federal agents to cuff an innocent man on a jet bridge.

I would give a 0 star if possible. They prevented us from getting on board because they said we were missing an eta stamp to get to the uk. My daughter has a uk passport and I have an eta that is automatically tied to my us passport. Never had any problem getting into the Uk. It turns out that the check in counter forgot to give me a stamp, but instead of letting us on after I produced the eta after 10 minutes of frantically trying to get someone to forward me the eta email, they insisted we couldn’t because the door closed. But they let on someone else already after we showed the email. They then admitted that it was their mistake to not stamp it and to go out of security to the customer service desk to get another flight for free. When we did, the customer service person was extremely rude and said it was our fault and that we had to get a stamp (no one told us) at the customer service desk AFTER checking in at the counter, which is not the rule according to their own FAQ. The eta is automatically tied to a passport and no print out or email is needed! They wanted to charge us for the change in flight. And then when they heard that I wanted their number to make a complaint, the woman rudely said “i am not going to do it; i was not rude, you go and buy the change in ticket yourself.” They treat you terribly. The worst airline I have ever been on.

Bought a new ticket with another airline instead of having to deal with them. They are incredibly disrespectful and made my daughter cry.

Edit: For further clarification, we are flying out of Spain, not a non schengen zone. We already had our passports scanned and boarding passes printed at the check in counter staffed by real people. They simply forgot to stamp MY boarding pass to show that they verified my ETA. For some reason, they couldn’t or wouldn’t verify it at the gate and was super dismissive and didn’t believe me, and said “no stamp, no boarding.” They should have procedures in place for when the check in counter forgets to stamp your boarding pass. They also let in a man AFTER they told us it was too late and the doors were closed. They opened it for HIM and not for us.

Edit 2: I am still at the airport and have heard the allegation from someone who said they previously worked for Ryanair that they do this on purpose to leave no time to confirm ETA and thus force purchase of another ticket. I do not take a view of the claim given lack of direct evidence but it would be interesting to know if others' experience or any internal whistelblower information would align or not. In my personal experience, it’s plausible because the check in was very understaffed and slow, and many people were desperate to get on their flights. And the boarding queue was long and super slow moving, so even though I got there 45 minutes before takeoff, I only got to the gate door 15 minutes before official takeoff. Just curious.

Apparently if there were sufficient legal evidence (again, I make no assertion as to the facts but invite others to provide any information if they have any to illuminate), a deliberate company practice of this hypothetical nature beyond incompetence would generate significant legal repercussions and fines to hit the bottom line.

Edit 3: I finally arrived home at 3:08am, about 11 hours after when I was originally planning to be home. I had to fly to a different airport further away by over an hour with Jet2. Jet2 was very efficient. It took me only 13 minutes to check in at the counter after waiting in a fast moving line, compared to the nearly 2 hours with Ryanair. The staff were friendly and treated us like human beings, and the tickets were a quarter of the price that Ryanair wanted us to pay for a later flight (90 euros vs 350). Ryanair wanted to charge 350 euros instead of the 200 euro change fee because customer service refused to serve me after I told them I would complain because they had promised me a free change due to their own admitted error. There was no unnecessary stamp policy with Jet2 like with Ryanair. Thanks everyone for the support. My child and I went through a lot yesterday.

Delta is now locking all accounts and requiring verification after the “cyber attack” during flight 591 from Vegas to Atlanta. They have not admitted any wrongdoing yet in relation to the incident, or provided any information directly to the passengers (as I was on the plane). They currently requiring ID checks for all passengers and they are saying “To keep your information safe, we’ve temporarily restricted access to your account. Please note that these actions are a precaution and not the result of any breach of Delta or vendor systems.” To all passengers on the flights.