I flew in the midst of the storm yesterday–the operational storm that American Airlines has been battling for several days–and actually made it home…but it was very, very late.
Flying American Airlines In The Middle Of Its Operational Chaos
American Airlines has had a horrible week in terms of delays and cancellations and yesterday was particularly brutal. Per FlightAware, on January 27, 2026 American Airlines:
- cancelled 1370 flights (45% of all flights)
- delayed 1064 flights (34% of all flights)
For about a week, I was booked to fly American Airlines yesterday from Chicago to Los Angeles…via New York JFK (as one does…). As I watched AA’s meltdown unfold, I stood by ready to book on United Airlines, but my flights seemed to be spared from delays or cancellations.
The 737-800 operating my flight from Chicago (ORD) to New York (JFK) was supposed to be coming in from Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ) but was severely delayed. I wondered whether AA would only delay my flight at the last minute or find another aircraft. The latter occurred (AA snagged an inbound 737-800 aircraft from Fort Lauderdale) and we ended up boarding only about 15 minutes late…and departing more or less on time.
However, I had been tracking my JFK-LAX flights as well noticed that the aircraft assigned to it was on a severely delayed SFO-JFK flight (original departure time was 10:35 am and now it was showing 2:30 pm departure and had not even taken off yet). Would AA be able to swap this aircraft too?
Nope…
While in the air from ORD to JFK, I received this lovely flight update:
3:03 am? Oy…
I looked to see if any earlier flights were delayed and I could hop on one, but they were not…so it looked like I’d be having an extended stay in the Greenwich Lounge.
My hope was simply that the the crew would not time out…I wanted to get back to LA!
My time in the lounge was actually quite productive (though I regret snacking on the food) and we did end up departing around 11:30 pm.
The flight was actually quite pleasant…good service, good food (I tried the beef filet, which has been a very bad bet out of JFK in the past, but it was good this time). Most importantly, I got four hours of solid sleep, so it’s not like I had a totally sleepless night. Wi-Fi (free) also worked well and the cabin seemed quite clean.
I made it back to LAX…eventually…but think I’ll fly nonstop next time. Making the extra stop is nice to secure the lie-flat bed, Flagship Lounge access in both ORD and JFK (LAX too, had we arrived earlier), and an extra flight review for my blog, but yesterday was quite tedious.
Did you fly AA this week? How was your experience?
Matthew, you live near LAX and you flew FROM Chicago 3 days AFTER a gigantic snowstorm (that created chaos for ALL airlines in the area). How and when did you arrive at ORD; flew before the storm, by train, stagecoach, Scotty beamed you over?
And in the interests of journalistic integrity, since it reads as if it was an “operational storm” only for AA, please tell us if other airlines (flying in the same areas) were similarly affected. Thank you.
That is a fair question and I flew from LAX-ORD on United as the storm hit. Arrived on time but had to wait 1hr for a gate.
SDQ-MIA on Sunday was 2h late, but I was advised in advance and appreciated the extra time in the sunshine.
MIA – ATL Monday was on time.
ATL-DFW-AUS today. I’m in the air right now, and I’ll be about 3h late back to Austin. All-in-all, could be worse.
I didn’t fare as well. Pasco WA to Phoenix was fine, but the flight from PHX to STL was delayed while I was in the air and moved 12 hours from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. by the time I disembarked. I dutifully arrived early the next morning only to be delayed over and over. And over. My mistake was not trying to get out on the 10:00 am (ish) flight and hanging tough for my original flight which only continued to be delayed. I eventually backed up my choice by booking a seat on the same flight only a day later! Eventually sometime late afternoon they cancelled my original flight and I reconfirmed with the gate agent that I actually had a seat on that evening’s flight to STL. I eventually got home by 2 a.m., a full 24 hours late.
The gate agents and admiral’s club staff were phenomenal throughout.
Neal
That dessert looks really tasty.
It seems that everything has finally worked out for you.
“as one does…”
This is the way, Matt. Don’t bother with a lame recliner… lie-flat for transcon is worth the extra leg. Glad it worked out, even if late. A321XLR would’ve been nice, but a321T still gets the job done for now.
Chelsea and Soho are better, but Greenwich is still pretty nice. I like the seats in the extension (the bridge area), super comfy.
I really like that flagship lounge at ORD. how did you access it? Via the fact you had a business ticket from jfk to lax?
Correct. And I was expecting to have to go to the third floor, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Thankfully, I didn’t have any travel going on this week, but as a consolation prize, I haven’t been able to get to the office at all this week because of the sorry condition of the roads. (As an aside, this has probably had as much of an effect as whatever user error is cascading on the AA side – from Saturday morning until this afternoon, most neighborhood streets and secondary roads have been undriveable, so I’m sure a good number of both airport and airline employees have faced major delays getting to DFW.)
I did, however, save my sister from getting stuck in this debacle. She was visiting from Florida, and was supposed to go home Saturday morning. The winter weather that hit Dallas was forecast very well in advance. I called her up Tuesday night and told her to get the h*ll out of Dodge by Thursday. Fortunately she listened to me and rebooked for Thursday morning. That flight went out fine, her original eventually canceled, and my guess is she’d still be stuck here if she hadn’t left early.