Passengers left feeling frustrated
Father’s Day weekend turned frustrating for some American Airlines passengers who watched their flights get canceled due to the company’s inability to staff.
“It has been very frustrating — hectic as well,” said Jamal Rieves, who was attempting to fly back to Charlotte out of Boston’s Logan Airport Monday.
Rieves told the Herald he had three flights canceled earlier in the weekend before he made it into Boston for a wedding. When he got into Logan, the rental car agencies had closed for the night.
By Monday afternoon, his flight back south had already been canceled once.
“I just checked my email and noticed my flight had been changed,” he said, as he waited in line to check his baggage. “It has inconvenienced us greatly.”
Mom Milly Saing was also trying to get back home with her large family in tow Monday afternoon. She said their travel plans hit a speed bump when they tried to fly American out of Atlanta last week. She said she was shocked by long lines for ticketing and checking bags at the American Airlines counter.
“We missed our flight because there were not enough people to help out all the customers that were there,” she said.
Mary Jane Turner and her mother Harriet Wallace decided to extend their New England vacation over the weekend when their flights home were canceled, again and again. They said they simply got notifications from the airline in rapid-fire, without context.
“We got an email that we had a gate change at 6:30 a.m., and then at 6:35 a.m., they told us the flight was canceled and we never got a reason why,” she said.
Travel experts predict planes will continue filling back up as more people get vaccinated and crave summer getaways. But without some speedy hiring, a ticket through American Airlines could give travelers more of a headache than they bargained for.