American is giving me 11 minutes to connect in DFW

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For a while there, I used to get nice deals from a local travel agency, on flights home on Continental. Cozumel, w/ layover in Houston, then on to Atlanta. These particular flights always had about a 50 minute layover in Houston, and me and my trusty backpack literally sprinted from plane to plane (with a stressful delay at customs), and always barely making it.
One time, the ladies were actually closing the door behind the check-in desk, but saw me running towards them from 40 yards away, and held the door. Even though i was at a full run, they were waving at me to hurry up, like it was the last plane out of Vietnam, LOL!
 
For a while there, I used to get nice deals from a local travel agency, on flights home on Continental. Cozumel, w/ layover in Houston, then on to Atlanta. These particular flights always had about a 50 minute layover in Houston, and me and my trusty backpack literally sprinted from plane to plane (with a stressful delay at customs), and always barely making it.
One time, the ladies were actually closing the door behind the check-in desk, but saw me running towards them from 40 yards away, and held the door. Even though i was at a full run, they were waving at me to hurry up, like it was the last plane out of Vietnam, LOL!
We did one of those running hold-the-door adventures changing on AA in MIA to get to Barbados. The problem is, they forgot to scan our tickets so not only did our bags not get on the flight, they claimed we were never on it so they would not even send the bags along. Luckily, I'd purchased some food on the flight with my AA credit card, so when I explained they could send the bags to Barbados or I'd have to explain -- with proof -- to the FAA that they had let two people on their flight without checking them in, they seemed to change their mind. Coming home repeated the adventure.....they had no responsibility to fly me home from Barbados because "I had never flown to Barbados with them." Some explanation from me, same results from them. PITA. Moral: get your damn ticket scanned, no matter how late you are at the gate.
 
American has not bothered to contact me about a problem, but I check every now and then. I am still holding an issued ticket for Aug 18 LBB-DFW-CZM and Aug 27 CUN-DFW-LBB, and when I check online the record still looks good. Except that American is not going to fly DFW-CZM on the 18th! I've changed this trip so many times that I'm not going to bother calling them today. I'll wait until August 1, my deadline on my actual decision to go or not. They may contact me by then.
dfw-czm.JPG
 
I'd given myself until today to decide if I still wanted to try this trip the way things are and keep changing, AA finally did send me an email letting me know that my last trip plan was canceled yet offering me change or refund options, but I was having some difficulties getting myself interested in working this again. At noon today, AA called me, yet called-ID didn't show who from so with all of the scam calls these days I usually let those go to voice mail, except this time I answered to get the ringing to stop and we talked. The lady was very nice as well as patient with my tired attitude, and I barely talked myself into replanning again.

Now I leave on Monday, August 17, with a three hour layover in DFW, then return from Cancun on Wednesday, August 26 at noon with a four hour layover in DFW - ugh. I'm sure that the reservations guy at my little hotel is tired of all of my changes, but I got that changed again. All of these dates are starting to blur in my consciousness but I think I have the details right. I do hope they don't cancel flights on me again, that the planes actually do fly around the times booked, that I can catch a ferry operating that morning in time to make it to the Cancun airport by 10 am, my van driver shows up on time, and so forth. So many details to keep lined up and hope that they work.

I keep telling myself that travel is an adventure so enjoy it, but that's getting old too.
 
FWIW. Not really related to DandyDon, but one thing I wish I had realized in the early days of the pandemic is that it is generally better to wait and see if the airline cancels/re-routes your flight (making you refund eligible) as opposed to cancelling weeks/months in advance and getting stuck with credit/travel certificates. Obviously don’t no-show for a flight and lose the value , but not much point in cancelling far ahead of time unless you want to re-book immediately. If they are going to cancel/re-route , it is usually done at least weeks in advance unless it is weather related. Had a trip booked for later this month that I have known for a while I wasn’t going to utilize due to quarantine rules (not to Coz). I just let it sit out there and United finally tried to re-route me this week (still didn’t send email, I had to check) which made me eligible for a refund as opposed to a travel certificate or further flight credit.

I am sure most people have already been doing this (I have for months). Where I kick myself is that I screwed up back in March and early April and proactively cancelled some trips I knew I wouldn’t take. United was illegally refusing refunds even for massive flight/routing changes at the time unless it was flat out cancelled (and maybe not even then) United later cancelled the flights but I had already taken the credit. Wound up with all sorts of credit on the airline that is spread out across multiple certificates etc that are kind of hard to manage. Kind of wonder if they are hoping I will lose track.

Just flagging this for anyone they might have fall/early winter trips on the books that depending upon the path of the virus they may not wish to take (not just to Coz, but other destinations) Just because you may realize months in advance there is no way you are going that doesn’t mean you should cancel months in advance. The flip side of all of this is that if you know you are going to rebook for certain dates you might just want use your credit to lock in the new fare if is reasonably priced. Some fares have really gone up relative to a month or two ago.

just trying to pass along something i learned the hard way in case it might prove beneficial to someone
 
I am sure most people have already been doing this (I have for months). Where I kick myself is that I screwed up back in March and early April and proactively cancelled some trips I knew I wouldn’t take. United was illegally refusing refunds even for massive flight/routing changes at the time unless it was flat out cancelled (and maybe not even then) United later cancelled the flights but I had already taken the credit. Wound up with all sorts of credit on the airline that is spread out across multiple certificates etc that are kind of hard to manage. Kind of wonder if they are hoping I will lose track.

Yep. Shoulda known when they started offering to let people to change/cancel without fees that it wasn't for the customer's benefit. I had a Curacao trip end of May that there was no doubt was not happening by end of April and I got so many reminders from United that change fees were waived. They didn't cancel until a week before. I've seen so many forum/fb posts where people are considering canceling their flight. Whenever I see someone say something like "my flight is Aug 15, what should I do" my answer is do nothing until Aug 14.
 
FWIW. Not really related to DandyDon, but one thing I wish I had realized in the early days of the pandemic is that it is generally better to wait and see if the airline cancels/re-routes your flight (making you refund eligible) as opposed to cancelling weeks/months in advance and getting stuck with credit/travel certificates. Obviously don’t no-show for a flight and lose the value , but not much point in cancelling far ahead of time unless you want to re-book immediately. If they are going to cancel/re-route , it is usually done at least weeks in advance unless it is weather related. Had a trip booked for later this month that I have known for a while I wasn’t going to utilize due to quarantine rules (not to Coz). I just let it sit out there and United finally tried to re-route me this week (still didn’t send email, I had to check) which made me eligible for a refund as opposed to a travel certificate or further flight credit.

I am sure most people have already been doing this (I have for months). Where I kick myself is that I screwed up back in March and early April and proactively cancelled some trips I knew I wouldn’t take. United was illegally refusing refunds even for massive flight/routing changes at the time unless it was flat out cancelled (and maybe not even then) United later cancelled the flights but I had already taken the credit. Wound up with all sorts of credit on the airline that is spread out across multiple certificates etc that are kind of hard to manage. Kind of wonder if they are hoping I will lose track.

Just flagging this for anyone they might have fall/early winter trips on the books that depending upon the path of the virus they may not wish to take (not just to Coz, but other destinations) Just because you may realize months in advance there is no way you are going that doesn’t mean you should cancel months in advance. The flip side of all of this is that if you know you are going to rebook for certain dates you might just want use your credit to lock in the new fare if is reasonably priced. Some fares have really gone up relative to a month or two ago.

just trying to pass along something i learned the hard way in case it might prove beneficial to someone

I have $28,000 of credit with United for seven canceled flights. (Four were with my wife). Gonna be really interesting trying to use the credit in the next two years.
 
I have $28,000 of credit with United for seven canceled flights. (Four were with my wife). Gonna be really interesting trying to use the credit in the next two years.

You better hope they don't declare bankruptcy and wipe away all customer credits and miles. That's one reason why we insisted on cash refund.
 

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