Traveler Reports Rude Service By Airline Workers At DC Airport

ARLINGTON, VA — Kevin Thompson and his family were stuck at an Arlington hotel Friday morning, trying to figure out how to get back to their home in Bentonville, Arkansas.

The Thompsons had just finished visiting friends living in Massachusetts for a surprise birthday party, when they attempted to board an American Airlines flight Thursday at Boston Logan International Airport.

That's when things began to go wrong.

"Five minutes before take off, they say there is a delay," Thompson said, in a phone interview on Friday. "Those delays continue on until about 4 p.m., in Boston, due to mechanical issues as well as weather. It's mostly they don't have pilots to fly or a crew to work on the plane. That was part of one of it delays."

Eventually, the family was able to get on a plane to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where they were scheduled to make a connecting flight back to Arkansas at 7:55 p.m.

"We got bumped a couple of times because of the weather," Thompson said. "There was a tornado. I felt frustrated, but we understood."

Severe thunderstorms moved though the region Thursday evening, causing wind damage, and knocking down trees and power lines. Thousands were still without power in and around D.C. on Friday morning.

Thompson, his wife, and three children, ages 6, 8, and 9, got to their third gate around 11 p.m, where there didn't seem to be any information about when and if their flight would leave.

"No announcements," he said. "The boards don't change and I go up to someone and literally the gate agent was like, 'I don't have time to talk to you or the interest to talk to you. You can go figure this out yourself.'"

Thompson tried to explain to the American Airlines employee that he was just trying to get information about his flight and confirm that he was at the right gate. She again said he was going to have to find that information himself

Not wishing to make a scene, Thompson went to another gate and received a similar response from the American Airlines employee there.

"Finally, my wife runs up to me, she has to leave our kids, and says, 'I think we're canceled,'" Thompson said. "I'm like, 'You gotta be kidding me.' I go back up to speak to someone. No one can help us. They refused to talk to us about it. They won't say a word. They literally won't even engage us, if you can even find someone."

Crowds of other passengers were in the same boat as the Thompsons, who waited in a long line for over two hours to get information about an alternative booking. Eventually, they learned that the airline wouldn't be able to book them on another flight to Arkansas until Sunday.

Thompson turned to social media to vent his frustration.

"I have never been treated or seen others treated as poorly in such a dismissive and rude way in my life," Thompson said, in a post on Twitter directed at @AmericanAir. "They took zero responsibility, refused to find other airlines to fly. It’s been a disaster."

Complicating the situation was that the family couldn't get to their luggage, which contained a medication that one of them needed to take daily.

"We are stuck in DC until Sunday without our luggage with three kids under 9. ... Rental cars are sold out or $399 a day and American threatened to call the cops on all the people inquiring about luggage last night," Thompson said on Twitter.

Last month, American canceled about 950 flights scheduled for July, after bad weather in early June forced last-minute cancellations due to staffing issues.

"They are really hoping to avoid last-minute cancellations, having to cancel flights day of, having people show up at the airports and have their flight canceled, which just — people hate. It drives them crazy," Wall Street Journal reporter Alison Sider told NPR in June.

The hope, according to Sider, was that the company would have more pilots on reserve in case of bad weather conditions.

Asked whether American Airlines had told him when they first began to travel that the connecting flight to Arkansas had been canceled, Thompson said:

"We never received any notification anything was cancelled or at risk. The flight was scheduled to fly. The gate was packed."

American Airlines did not immediately respond to Patch's request for comment.

Thanks Michael. I have been on hold with AA for over 2.5hrs. Which kinda explains everything about this company and how they treat customers. pic.twitter.com/8gpRXBCH3c
— JDynamite (@Thompske) July 2, 2021