I’m Probably Going To Miss My Wedding While US Airways And American Point Fingers At Each Other

Consumerist reader David is supposed to be getting married on Thursday in Ecuador, but he’s now dealt with two airlines and three different airports and it appears he might not be walking down the aisle at his own wedding.

The problem began when David’s US Airways flight from Philadelphia to New York’s LaGuardia Airport got delayed. It’s an incredibly short flight, but that delay has resulted in a nasty ripple effect.

David says that he happened to be sitting next to an off-duty US Airways staffer during the flight to LaGuardia, and that this person was very helpful in informing him about his options when it became clear that he wouldn’t be able to connect with American Airlines flight to Ecuador.

“However, when I landed, the on-duty customer service reps were not nearly as helpful,” writes David. “They said it was now an American Airlines problem.”

And so he contacted American and, after being stuck on hold — twice — for 12 minutes, he was told it was US Airways’ problem.

After some more back-and-forth between the airlines, he was able to locate a sympathetic ear on the American staff at LaGuardia. They were able to get him on a 10 p.m. flight to Ecuador — but it was all the way across town at JFK Airport.

He was able to get on a shuttle that took him across the breadth of Long Island to JFK, but when he arrived at the airport, he was told that the AA staffer at LaGuardia hadn’t provided him with a boarding pass for the flight, but just a receipt for a ticket — on a plane that was now over-booked.

So now David’s hoping for a miracle.

“I am running out of time and battery life, so I hope this all works out and soon,” he tells Consumerist. “Oh — They lost my luggage too!”

UPDATE: A rep for American is attempting to see if anything can be done to get David on the flight later tonight, but notes that it may be difficult as this flight is operated by LAN Ecuador for American.

UPDATE #2: David was not able to get on the 10:00 p.m. flight to Ecuador. At this point, his future travel plans are completely up in the air.

UPDATE #3: An American rep tells Consumerist that the airline had found a seat for David on the 10:00 p.m. flight but that he did not respond to being paged.

David has a different version of the story:
“At first they said they called me but I didn’t answer. But then they admitted they just said ‘standby.’ Then another person admitted they called at the gate. I was not allowed at the gate since I never got a boarding pass so there was no way to even hear ‘standby.'”

He now has a hotel for the night and is hoping to get into Ecuador some time Thursday evening, hopefully in time for his own wedding reception.

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