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Angela E
Verified | Aug 20, 2026
- Pittsburgh-Buenos Aires
- Economy
Insulting Compensation for Horrific Experience
American Airlines left our family stranded overnight in Miami with two small children! We were traveling to Buenos Aires with our two young children and intentionally booked an overnight flight so the kids could sleep on the connecting 9-hour flight from Miami and Buenos Aires. Our first flight from Pittsburgh was delayed due to weather, which I obviously understand was outside American Airlines' control. That delay caused us to miss our connection to a different AA flight in Miami by only a couple of minutes. The plane was still there, but the gate was closed and employees at the airport refused to even acknowledge us. Unfortunately, American's handling of the missed connection was the part that was completely unacceptable. We waited in an enormous line late at night at the American Airlines counter in Miami and were eventually told that the earliest flight they could put us on was the following morning. We were traveling with two small children, but American provided essentially no useful assistance in finding a hotel. By the time we were trying to find one, all of the hotels were completely booked. So our family spent the night in the airport. Our children got essentially no sleep. We were exhausted, and the airport was an awful environment for two small children to spend an entire night. This was particularly frustrating because we had deliberately booked an overnight flight so that our kids could sleep through the trip to Buenos Aires. The next day, we finally boarded our flight. This flight happened to be during the World Cup final. A flight to Buenos Aires coincided with the World Cup final that Argentina was playing in. The atmosphere on the plane was completely chaotic. Passengers were screaming in the aisles and pushing into our seats, and flight attendants did absolutely nothing to try to get people to calm down. Our children were absolutely miserable after spending the previous night awake in the airport, and the entire flight was an incredibly stressful experience. After the trip, I contacted American Airlines to explain what had happened. Their resolution? $200 in travel vouchers and 10,000 bonus miles. This resolution is worthless to me because, after this experience, I will not be flying American Airlines again. And $200 in travel credit for three passengers after being stranded overnight in an airport with two small children feels almost insulting. I understand that American cannot control the weather. What they can control, however, is how they take care of their passengers when disruptions occur. Rebooking a family with two small children for the following day without providing a reasonable solution for the overnight, leaving us to spend the night in the airport is hardly a reasonable response. We weren't expecting American to magically fix the weather. We expected them to help us navigate the consequences. They didn't.
Overall
Horrible Customer Service
Horrible Customer Service- Pittsburgh-Buenos Aires
- Economy
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