In a viral video, a passenger called out American Airlines for delaying his flight about 15 times in one day.
In a recent video, popular creator Carson Shofner (@carson_shofner) explains that he and his partner got to the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport bright and early at 7am for their 10am flight. The flight was delayed four hours and moved to 2pm due to weather.
“Totally fine, understandable. Things happen,” Shofner says he thought initially.
Shofner says he rolled up to the gate at 1pm, 10 minutes before boarding was supposed to start, yet the departure time came and went, and the gate agents allegedly weren’t telling the group of flyers anything.
While Shofner says he and his partner tried to get information from the Twitter agent and online ticketing agent, neither had any updates of information.
“Sorry, we don’t have a flight attendant,” Shofner says he was eventually told.
Two more hours go by, marking 12 hours that Shofner’s been at the airport.
“You know what goes with 7 o’clock? The captain of the ship,” Shofner says. “We can’t fly anymore because they’ve timed out.”
The flight was delayed a whopping 15 times
Instead of canceling the flight, Shofner says it kept getting delayed by 30-minute increments. Shofener says his email inbox was full of at least 15 flight delay emails from American Airlines. It was not until 10:30pm that the gate agent announced the flight was delayed until the morning but had no information about what time the rescheduled flight was.
“I’m sorry. You’re telling us to leave but not when to come back?” Shofner questions.
Eventually, Shofner says he was told the new flight was at 7am, so Shofner got there by 5:30am. To his utter frustration, he says that the rescheduled flight then got delayed again for the same reason as the day before—no captain and a missing flight attendant.
For Shofner and many others, the issue with flight delays isn’t just the delays themselves but the fact that they’re eating into people’s precious time and schedules.
Shofner says that he and his partner (who works 60-hour weeks) only get a week of vacation a year, and because of this situation with American Airlines, a quarter of their vacation time was spent at the airport.
“I’m in no way blaming the personnel. I’m blaming this corporation,” Shofner clarifies.
He adds that he felt completely powerless as a consumer. Even rebooking the flights with another airline would cost thousands of dollars and get them to their destination three days late.
@carson_shofner sorry for the terrible sound quality, im truly so upset right now #americanairlines #fyp ♬ original sound – Carson_Shofner
Airlines are now required to give passengers money back for canceled, delayed flights
Hopefully, Shofner will at least get his money back, given that the Biden administration ruled a few weeks ago that airlines must provide cash refunds within a few days for canceled flights or flights with significant delays, the Los Angeles Times reported.
American Airlines ranks high in reliability
Given the constant complaints about American, you may be shocked to find out that American is among the airlines with the fewest delayed and canceled flights, coming in at No. 3 on the list, according to Reader’s Digest.
The airlines with the most delayed and canceled flights are reportedly Silver Airways, Frontier, JetBlue, Cape Air, and Spirit.
Shofner has yet to post an update video.
American Airlines has recently gotten complaints online about flight delays, poor customer service, and inappropriate employee behavior. “Seeing lots of American Airlines rants the last few days,” one viewer of Shofner’s video noticed.
The Daily Dot reached out to Shofner for comment via Instagram direct message and to American Airlines via email.
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