Just curious to see if anyone here has had anecdotal evidence one way or another on this topic:

AA Just canceled my upcoming flight in September and put me on another flight that is 6.5 hours earlier in the day (Original itinerary was a 4:30PM flight, new itinerary is a 10AM flight.)
I had originally booked this flight because it would allow me and my girlfriend to be able to go to work the day of travel, but now this is not a possibility for her (her job doesn't have much capacity for remote work).
We need to get to the destination on this day and unfortunately this is the only direct flight of the day. (Other connecting flights exist, but have the same issue of starting much earlier in the day). The route is DFW-STS, so definitely a small airport (after this cancellation it looks like it is only once a day service). When I booked it they had scheduled flights twice a day.

I'm frustrated because the AA twitter team is pushing for me to officially 'accept' the change before they will allow me to confirm my seats (They also split up me and my girlfriend's seats even though they left the seat next to me empty). I'm afraid that if I accept it I will lose any possible leverage I might have, but they don't seem to want to cooperate with me until I confirm the changes.

The part that frustrates me is that we are going to have to use an extra day of vacation from work to take this trip now. I asked the twitter agent if they will compensate me by giving me an upgrade and was flatly refused (It's just an an American Eagle flight, so it's not like the product is much better in Main Cabin Extra or First). It's really just on principle at this point.

Has anyone received any compensation from AA in a similar situation? Would I be better off calling their phone number, or will it just be a waste of my time? I was under the impression that itinerary changes of more than 90 minutes should give customers some kind of compensation. GF doesn't want to have to take another day off of work for this trip since she has limited vacation, so she's talking about us cancelling it. What she doesn't know is that I'm planning on proposing to her and already have made all of the arrangements, so canceling is not an option, lol. Just curious if anyone has had success with compensation or upgrades in this type of situation.

In general, itinerary changes like that don't result in any extra compensation. They make you eligible for a full refund to your original form of payment (as opposed to being rebooked or getting a flight credit). At least that's my experience.

For flights that far out, itinerary changes are almost a given these days. I can't remember the last time a flight booked more than 2-3 months ahead didn't have some sort of departure, plane, and/or itinerary change.

Your only chance of compensation, in my experience, would be 5000ish AAdvantage miles. No financial compensation.

American is guilty of "schedule-packing" just like most airlines are. They'll throw a huge schedule out there, knowing that they cannot fly it, and cancel down to what they actually can fly. This is getting regulatory attention at the DOT.

Why dont you cancel the flight and book with another airline if in SEptember?

As someone said before they should give you a full refund for a cancelled flight on their end

It boils down to the fact that there aren't really any other good flights. AA is the only airline with a direct flight to STS from DFW, so my options are:
1) Take the earlier flight and just burn the vacation day
2) Take the flight the next day and lose out on a day of my actual vacation
3) Change the flight to be a connecting one and still leave early in the day
4) Fly to SFO/SMF and pay double for a rental car + drive 2 hours instead of 15 minutes

Just a crummy situation all around, and honestly the early flight wouldn't bother me so much if it didn't require me taking the vacation time tbh.

I don't really understand why AA would schedule an evening flight when they obviously don't have one currently, just to cut it. But I guess I don't work in AA logistics.

You're getting engaged! Imagine missing an opportunity for incredible engagement because of 1 day of PTO.

I promise you, she will be ok with it.

Sadly no. You can get a refund but that's about it. I've argued with them many times and they won't budge.

Take the earlier flight.

eiggA2002 said:

---

You're getting engaged! Imagine missing an opportunity for incredible engagement because of 1 day of PTO.

I promise you, she will be ok with it.

---

Yeah, first of many pto lessons. Hell that's worth an unpaid day.

Wait until y'all have kids that get sick and require taking pro to care for. The fun figuring out in-laws for holidays, and then running out of pto so it doesn't work.

If this is that big of a pto issue, your marriage isn't gonna work.

Take the PTO.

Lol this reminds me of when AA changed the flights on our honeymoon. We were supposed to fly DFW-MIA-St. Lucia in one morning, but they moved the DFW-MIA leg to the night before and put us on an earlier flight to STL. We'd land at 1AM and the flight to St. Lucia was leaving at like 8.

I said **** it we'll sleep in the airport. My dad just laughed and said if I didn't purchase a hotel for 5 hours for my new wife on our honeymoon, that my marriage was gonna be really short. I got the hotel room

Take the PTO or fly into Sacramento. Sacramento is a super easy airport to get out of.

Interstate drive with little traffic from there. Don't do SFO.

Thanks for the perspective everyone.
Since we're gonna have to take the PTO regardless I'm going to call tomorrow and see if AA will move us to the inbound to Sacramento the night before. We'll get in and get a good night's rest, and then have a full extra day basically. Plus it will give us a chance to take our time going through Sonoma rather than rushing!

I appreciate everyone's input! Lemons to lemonade, right?

I'd going to wine country definitely look at Oakland or Sacramento not San Fran. Yuck.

Take the pto

I remember that thread LOL. I remember thinking the exact same thing as your dad!

Haha I looked it up. You had the most starred comment telling me to get a hotel. Props to you for saving my marriage

Brilliant! The power of TexAgs!!