Welp, it happened again. First, it was Miami, which I detailed in this post here. That was just a bit of bad luck and a completely avoidable mistake. Now, I’ve been stranded overnight a second time, but this time it was in DFW. And this time, there was nothing I could have done to create a different outcome.

The Backstory

I was flying ICT to LAS returning from the Travel on Points Meetup in Wichita. While there was a nonstop flight on Southwest, it left right around when the meetup finished at 2PM. I instead booked on American, as there were 3 flights that I could have taken. Depending on when I finished, there was a 2:40PM, a 4:15PM, and a 6:30PM flight. Regardless, I should arrive in Vegas by 11PM.

Since we ended right on time, I headed over to the airport to try and standby for the 4:15PM flight. Number 1 on the list and with 2 seats left, I was confident I would clear the standby list and get home a little early.

But as I got to the airport, the inbound flight for the 4:15PM gets held at DFW due to thunderstorms and weather. We were delayed 1.5 hours as the inbound flight couldn’t leave until the FAA lifted the ground stop.

While the flight finally arrives from DFW at around 6PM, the gate is still occupied by the previous flight leaving for DCA. So we see a further delay for another 30 minutes, until 6:30PM. Ben Gold, I blame you!

We finally start boarding around 7PM, and boarding finishes quickly within the next 30 minutes. But then we wait, and wait, and wait, and wait… By 7:30PM, the Captain tells us we’re still waiting for some bags to be loaded, but unfortunately due to this delay we had to reroute as the weather pattern was expected to change. This means waiting for more fuel and further delays for us, all the way until 8:30PM…

I will say, our routing was indeed quite comical:

Even if other flights were still going the shorter route:

My connecting flight to LAS had left about an hour and a half prior, long gone by now. So yet here we are again, stuck at an airport overnight.

The Dilemma

I’m normally fine with sleeping in difficult places. But I had to work the next day, so wasn’t really keen on mediocre sleep in a loud airport environment.

If you’re unfamiliar with DFW, it’s a Hyatt lover’s paradise. There’s a Grand Hyatt and Hyatt Regency onsite, with a Hyatt Place a short shuttle ride away. And of course with the latest Hyatt Place double points promo, going a little out of my way and saving a few dollars was a no-brainer. Plus, I feel it would be a little easier to justify a cheaper hotel room for reimbursement purposes.

In most cases, you would wait in line for a hotel voucher at the airport customer service desk. I’ve waited in my fair share of airport lines, so I know that would mean at least an hour waiting behind frustrated passengers trying to get rebooked onto the next available flight. I didn’t have the time nor the patience…I was already on track to get just 4.5 hours of sleep.

So, I booked my own room at the Hyatt Place and paid for it out of pocket. Left on the first flight out of DFW at 7AM the next morning.

My Luggage

When I land, I get a notification that my luggage didn’t make it onto my flight and will instead land 2 hours after me. Talk about cherry on top…

Unfortunately, despite all my best efforts, I still couldn’t start working at a reasonable hour. My work laptop was in my carryon, but the charger was in my checked bag, and with just 5% left, there was nothing I can do.

For those who don’t know, if an airlines delays your luggage, they are required to provide an opportunity to get it to you via courier. While I was tempted to try this out just for the sake of trying it out, getting the laptop charger was top priority, so picking up was a better choice.

I know, I know. Donald checked a bag??!!?!?! Let me be clear, this doesn’t change anything, I’m still #TeamCarryOn all the way. If anything, this has helped strengthen my case of never checking a bag! But since I was going back home to LAS from Wichita, I wanted to bring back two of the four suitcases taking up space in my tiny studio (leftover from my move from Boston). So exCUSE me for wanting to take advantage of free checked bags to do a little bit of clearing out.

The bad part was deciding to put my charger in the checked bag – that was a dumb decision. But that still wasn’t the last thing to go wrong this trip…

Seeking Reimbursement

Airlines are responsible for providing hotels if an overnight delay was a result of something within their control (like baggage delays, maintenance issues, crew availability, etc.). Airlines will not provide hotels for issues outside of their control (such as ATC, weather, or civil unrest). When an airline won’t pay, this is where credit card trip delay insurance would kick in.

Unfortunately, this trip was booked solely with American Airlines trip credits, so no credit card insurance would cover any hotels.

Now at this point, normally I wouldn’t mind paying for a hotel if an overnight delay was weather-related. But the whole reason I missed my connection was a long wait for baggage and a further delay for fuel as a result. Even the flight strip declared as such, spelled out as clear as day:

So in my head, this is definitely something within the airline’s control. Had we pushed back quickly, we would have been able to get to DFW by 8:35PM (leaving a 40-minute connection, just enough for DFW). Had the baggage arrived on-time, we wouldn’t have needed a reroute and a further delay for additional fuel. So the root cause of my overnight delay was due to baggage.

But of course, American Airlines is trying to blame the weather for it all, which to be fair, isn’t the most surprising response. I will say the most surprising thing was that I got an answer to my inquiry within an hour!

Now I have a pending complaint lodged with the DOT, so we’ll see what happens.