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“No Pilot Available”

written by TFOY on 10/03/2013

LGA-ATL
For an established airlines around for many years it is extremely disappointing that after waiting in a cold terminal for 5 hours with 2 young children our flight was cancelled due to staffing issues! No pilot available to fly a completely booked flight is unbelievable and unacceptable. The flight was scheduled to leave at 8:20pm. After receiving excuse after excuse, delay after delay, every 30-40 minutes, the flight was cancelled at 12 midnight. First delay excuse, no flight crew. Once crew arrived, the next excuse/delay, no captain. Third excuse, a captain is on his way. Fourth excuse/delay, captain arrived at 11:00pm and they had to “check his hours”. Fifth excuse/delay Captain is ready but co-pilot “timed out and left”.
This was a vital trip for my family. No only was our flight cancelled, American Airlines was unable to accommodate us on another flight. We had to wait on a long line for another 2 hours with other customers. For the first 40 minutes, only one agent was working on re-booking flights, answering questions, giving food vouchers, and making hotel accommodations. Another agent came to help, but the two of them were overwhelmed with the long line of customers. When it was finally our turn with the agent, she was unable to accommodate us on any other flight.
My fiancé, 6 year old daughter, 7 year old son, and I left the terminal after 2:00am. We were cold, hungry, stressed, and deeply heart broken. We had to pay to retrieve our car from the parking garage and didn’t arrive home until around 3am. On Saturday March 9, 2013 there was a family reunion/celebration for my great great aunt a resident of Georgia turning 104 yrs old. AA caused us to miss this monumental family event.