In September, American Airlines changed its fine-print contract with its customers. Now, if the airline cancels a flight, it will only be responsible for refunding the travelers’ tickets and fees — it’s not responsible for hotels, expensive last-minute replacement tickets, food, transportation, or missed connections.
In other words, American Airlines is now operating like a discount airline, with no guarantees: If you spent $100 on a ticket and the flight is cancelled, you’ll just get your $100 back.
That’s compounded this week by the more than 1,750 flights the airline canceled over the weekend and at least 336 canceled so far on Monday, or 12 percent of American’s flights today, according to FlightAware.com.
The airline is blaming wind gusts at Dallas-Fort Worth, its hub, according to CEO David Seymour’s memo to employees on Saturday. But the majority of the cancellations are due to staff shortages, especially flight attendants, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Southwest Airlines canceled 80 flights on Saturday and 20 on Sunday. Three weeks ago, Southwest canceled more than 3,000 flights over four days, blaming storms in Florida, and air traffic control staff shortages. Later it became evident that the airline was also short-staffed.
American Airlines and Alaska Airlines are part of the oneworld® airline partners group.
Read about how American Airlines’ new terms of service agreement may leave you stranded at Fortune magazine.
