Mileage for delayed flight?

We were booked on an AA flight that was so severely delayed that they told us to deboard and go to the counter for alternative arrangements. AA put us on another carrier (CO), but I'm curious to know if we are still entitled to the miles we would have earned had the AA flight not been delayed.

The delay was a due to a missing "lens" and AA was unable to locate the replacement part in any of the neighboring airlines so they had to have it flown in from another airport.

You can call, email or write AA and ask to be credited for the cancelled flight. You may or may not have success. Did you get miles for the CO flight? If you have status on AA you might be more successful. Actually I would write a letter and ask not only for your miles but for additional compensation(miles or vouchers) for the delay in getting to your destination. Be very nice but make sure you point out how inconvenienced you were.

My AA story

Thanks for the responses.

Here was the itinerary:

IAH -> ORD
ORD -> SFO

(don't ask .. this was what was available when we booked last minute for President's Day Weekend ...)

We boarded the IAH plane and 10 minutes or so later, were told there were some missing parts they were trying locate at the airport in order to be able to fly. We waited another 20 minutes and then were told they had to fly the parts in from another airport -- so everyone deboard and go to the counter to make alternate arrangements. We were going to miss our flight in Chicago at this point.

Also, when we checked in earlier, we were solicited at the terminal (by the computer) to upgraded our ORD-SFO flight to first class. We paid $360 for the upgrade.

The line at the counter was really long. We waited 2 hours before we got to the front. In the meantime, I got on my cellphone and called AA Customer Service. The woman told me the flight was not cancelled, only delayed. It didn't matter to us what the status was since we would miss our ORD-SFO flight. AA CSR put me on hold for over 30 minutes. When she came back she said she could not reach Continental -- she apparently knew that was the carrier we were going to be rebooked on -- but she was checking the system and it looks like we had already been rebooked on a 9:15pm flight -- that's only about 3 hours away. There's nothing more she could do for us so she would have to let us go.

Before letting her off the hook, I asked her for a refund of our upgrade cost ($360) on the ORD-SFO leg since we would miss the flight. She told us no refund since the upgrade was our own decision and the flight was delayed NOT cancelled. (HUH?) We didn't ask for the upgrade; the terminal asked us if we would like to upgrade and I consider that a solicitation. In any case, I was fuming at that point. I let her go.

I stood in line while my husband went downstairs to baggage claim and collected all of our luggage -- 3 huge bags that we had checked in. I should mention that we had a crying, cranky 1 year old with us. This was not fun at all.

Finally, we got to the front and got our boarding passes on Continental for a 9:15pm direct flight to SFO. Thank goodness. The CSR at the desk also told us she would take care of the refund for the upgrade on our ORD-SFO flight.

We're not sure what we are entitled to but I'd like the AA miles since we were originally booked on AA but were rebooked on CO for our flight home through no fault of ours. We are not CO frequent fliers and do not have an account.

What did AA do wrong here?

How late did you land in SFO compared to when you were supposed to land? While your flight was delayed, you ended up direct to SFO, and thus probably made up time. If you weren't delayed much, I wouldn't expect much in terms of compensation. I would call and ask for AA miles if they don't automatically give them to you (we have gotten miles from both airlines when something similar happened a few years ago, but things may have changed).

Melinda, you are right.

We didn't lose any time in the end -- we arrived within 15-20 minutes of our original schedule. It was just a lot of aggravation of having to deal with our own luggage when AA failed to come up with the part for the flight and the manner that AA dealt with us. But I could be a little too harsh in this situation -- except for the part where the AA CSR refused to refund us for the upgrade we had paid for but could no longer use.

We aren't expecting any compensation unless you count the miles we would have gotten on the AA flight. We want the AA miles.