#delayedflight

Philadelphia International Airport April 16^th, 2014

To whom it may concern,

 
I was meant to fly out of Québec City International Airport (YQB) on April 15^th, 2014 with American Airlines on flight n° 4134 departing at 6:00 a.m. My original itinerary was: Québec City – Philadelphia; Philadelphia – Miami; Miami - Cali.

Thus, on April 15th I grabbed a taxi (40$) and got to Québec City International Airport (YQB) at 3 a.m., to find out that flight n° 4134 was actually postponed to 12h30 p.m. “because of the fog”. Since this meant loosing my connection, aUS Airways agent (representing American Airlines in Québec City) offered to put me on the same flight departing the following day. Hence I caught another cab - paid another 40$ - headed back to Québec City and paid another 100$ to spend an extra night at the Cabaret du Capitol.

OnApril 15^th, at 10.46 p.m., I received an email from US Airways (American Airlines partner) informing me that flight n° 4134 departing from Québec City and headed to Philadelphia was delayed. Instead of leaving at 6 am, just as the US Airlines agent had ensured, it would leave at 9:45 a.m. – implying, once again, that I would’ve lost my connecting flight to Cali and spent an excessive amount of hours in Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). I suppose you can begin to understand my frustration at this point.

I therefore spent an hour on the phone with American Airlines to try to find a solution, which actually seemed acceptable: Québec City – Toronto; Toronto – Miami; Miami – Cali, operated by West Jet.American Airlines sent me the tickets via email and I therefore got back on a cab at 2h30 a.m. – paid another 40$ - and rolled back to Québec City International Airport.Yet once I got there, I was told that the ticket issued from Québec City to Toronto appeared to be UNPAID (American Airlines never paid for that ticket). I therefore called American Airlines (as I was advised to do) at 4h30 a.m. from my cell phone. I was put on hold for 40 minutes (obviously) until Alan Chong could finally take care of my case. He spent 1h on the phone with me, that is an extra 60$ for me. The problem was that my new itinerary conflicted with the previous one operated by US Airways, who still had me registered on flight n° 4134 for Philadelphia.  I therefore went to the US Airways counter but by the time my ticket was paid (6h00 a.m.) the flight for Toronto was already closed (departure 6h25 a.m.).

I therefore got back on a cab – paid another 40$ and an extra 20$ - to get some rest.

At 3:00 p.m. I got back on a cab – paid another 40$ - and finally managed to fly out of Québec City at 5:30 p.m. to reach Philadelphia International Airport at 7:15 p.m. You’d think the nightmare was over at this point, but no. It is 11 p.m. and I am currently stuck at Philadelphia International airport with my luggage. That until 4:30 a.m. tomorrow (April 17^th) - when 4:30 a.m. will finally be able to check-in my bag. For this reason, I cannot go through security - and therefore can’t access the lounge area to get some sleep nor the restaurants to have something to eat and drink.  

I believe this story deserves a full refund. In fact, I request a full refund and I hope you won’t force me to insist.

Best regards,

Felipe Martinez