American Airlines cancelled my flight and booked me 18 days later. What to do?

[chris]

that's exactly what I thought after hanging up with agent # 2. he just kept saying "what is going on in Argentina?, all I see in the system are zeros, there are no flights until your return on 07/13"
he also mentioned waiting a bit until AA updates the flights and that's when he insisted on having me HOLD another flight, go for the refund and purchase the aforementioned HELD ticket.

I don't think you should cancel your ticket or ask for a refund. As I understand it, when you do that you lose your right to have a rebooking w/o extra cost. You bought the ticket in good faith so American should find you a new flight w/o charging more.

 

[chris]

The airlines are complaining that the demand has surged too quickly and they are having trouble getting new staff hired and trained. Also American is having computer problems. Meanwhile when they post a phantom flight they capture your money and your reservation. Often booking sites and home rental sites often keep their fees even if you cancel within the permitted time frame.

What's a phantom flight?

 

[Ceviche]

What's a phantom flight?

A flight which is pre-destined never to take off.

 

[chris]

A flight which is pre-destined never to take off.

Not sure there are any 'phantom' flights. Yesterday I looked at the AA website and could not find any flights in July. I saw some in August. I assume the July flights that are leaving are booked up, so they are not showing at all. Obviously some people (600) are arriving (and presumably more than 600 leaving) on every flight but I don't know how they are selecting these passengers.

 

[Silvie]

I read that flights were not showing up because it was a chain reaction caused by the government's regulations; as I understood, it seems that the whole airline system got messed up and reservations were showing blank.

 

[chris]

I read that flights were not showing up because it was a chain reaction caused by the government's regulations; as I understood, it seems that the whole airline system got messed up and reservations were showing blank.

I checked a reservation I have - long after the July date however - and it is still there. Asked a friend to do the same. Theirs is also there - again not until much later. If anyone has any personal experience with what's happening it would be interesting to hear what the airlines are doing to accommodate passengers.

 

[¡Sencillamente yo!]

The person who can wait all this out is in the best position.

If you can't wait it out, there are trying times ahead, obviously. If that be the case, expect all kinds of road blocks and roll with it. It's not worth getting a heart attack over something that isn't meeting expectations. And when things are most trying, try to remember you are not alone. There are others dealing with the same problem.

 

[chris]

Infobae reports 40,000 Argentines stranded abroad. Is that possible? I doubt these resrictions will last long. It's all speculation, however, and there has always been a lot of speculation on this site.

 

[Brian_is_here]

Doing some math..
If 2000 people we're entering a day and you reduce that to 600.

If they were doing vaccine tourism, that means at least most of them were oversease for 21 days to get pfizer. If we assume 2000 we're entering/leaving every day. that means probably 42,000 people were potentially outside Argentina to get vaccinated. Now, during this time 600/day could re-enter. Well. for 9 days there's a differential of 2000 (the rate people were returning) less 600 (the new rate) multiplied by number of days (9 currently). That means during this time only 12,900 people have managed to return out of a potential of 42,000.

I mean i don't think any way you cut it there are tens of thousands of Argentine citizens and residents stuck outside Argentina. And this will cause a bubble in the return processing that will take months to resolve. AND will play hell on scheduling because no one will want to be able to book a return flight until the stranded citizens and residents are passed through. Namely, you can leave Argentina but won't be able to return for a month.

That's going to make flying out of Argentina lead to empty planes. Jet fuel aint cheap.

 

[jblaze5779]

In the end aerolineas will be the only option in the country. The rest of the companies are going to get tired of this nonsense and go make money in countries that have a vision beyond 14 days at any given time.