My Flirtation with American May be Over - Already

I've been doing a lot of AA lately, in an attempt to learn what their service is like for high mileage people.  I had been impressed, nice clubs, not so many elites, less chaos regarding first class, etc.

But it may be over this week.  They seem to have the same problem Delta has with small markets which are outsourced to regional carriers - their cancellation rates are high.

In this case, the final destination was Del Rio, TX.  It's not easy to get to.  The logical choice is to fly to San Antonio and drive about 3 hours.  But all their flights to SAT were full, coming and going.  So I had to settle on San Angelo, a much smaller market served by the infamous American Eagle.  The drive from SJT to Del Rio would have been longer also.

So the flight from Tampa to Dallas goes well, with 3 hours to kill, which I did in the very nice Admirals Club in Terminal D.

After 2 hours, my phone rings and it shows an 800 number and I know damn well it's AA.  And yes it is, CANCELLING my segment to SJT.  It just makes your heart stop as the agent proudly proclaims that I've been "accomodated" on a flight that arrives in SJT on MONDAY.  Only problem is, I gotta be in Ciudad Acuna, Mexico at 7 am on Monday.  This is not going to work.

So I have to rent a car from Avis and drive 375 miles through the backroads to get to Del Rio.  And it's a helluva difficult drive.

I get to Del Rio, call AA and tell them that I need to re write my ticket home, cancelling all SJT travel and turning it into a simple TPA/DFW roundtrip.  Which they do without charging me a change fee of $200.00.  That surprised me.

So I do the job in Mexico, cross the border, pick up the car and begin the arduous drive back to DFW.

I get home to TPA on time.  Louisville is next, but SDF is typically easy on DL.

I've got some thinking to do about AA.  I should probably try to stay away from EGF flights into small markets.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL1309/history/20130609/1540Z/KTPA/KDFW

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL2044/history/20130611/1240Z/KDFW/KTPA