‘And these plane tickets are ASTRONOMICAL’: Insane American Airlines delay takes up 25% of couple’s measly vacation time

The summer vacation rush had begun and people were scrambling for PTO, flights, and hotels for their preferred vacation destinations.

The whole ordeal can be a challenge, especially when PTO is limited, flights seem to be constantly delayed or canceled, and there are thousands of people trying to take the same vacation at the same time. Already, summer travel is riddled with trouble. People have reported mass cancellations and delays, mostly due to weather, but occasionally due to airline error.

Carson Shofner experienced those difficulties firsthand, and relayed his story to his audience on TikTok. It all started when he arrived at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport for his 10 AM American Airlines flight. It was then delayed until 2 PM because of the weather, which he found understandable. But once the weather had cleared he went to his gate and the boarding and takeoff times came and went without not so much as a peep from the gate agents.

He and his husband chatted with the “Twitter agent” (referring to whomever American Airlines has designated to respond to their Twitter/X DMs, seemingly) as well as the gate agent to try and figure out what exactly was going on, but no one had any answers for them. Around 5 PM they found out that the flight was short a flight attendant so they couldn’t take off. Around 7 PM they learned that the pilot and co-pilot had timed out.

Finally, after spending the entire day in the airport, they learn at 10 PM that their flight has been delayed until the next morning, but they don’t know when. Finally, they figure out that the flight will be at 7 AM the next morning, but when they get there, the flight is delayed again due, once again, to lacking a pilot and a flight attendant. Because of the whole ordeal, Carson and his husband have wasted a quarter of their much-needed one week of vacation per year waiting for their airline to pull a flight together. They can’t even buy new tickets because it would cost them thousands of dollars and get them to their destination days later.

Commenters were quick to sympathize with Carson’s situation, noting that if he got a refund that would be nice but he can’t get his time or very limited PTO back. Others are calling on Amtrak and other train companies to get a high-speed railway up and quick so travelers can avoid the disaster that is air travel these days.

Carson posted an update letting concerned followers know that he had finally made it to his vacation in Costa Rica, after being delayed another four hours and departing at 11 AM with a full pilot and flight crew intact. At that point, the plane was only half full because so many people had tried to switch to a different flight. Later on, though, Carson learned that almost all flights to Costa Rica had the same problems. He noted too that he was told that they couldn’t switch flights because their luggage was already loaded onto the plane, creating a sort of hostage situation tying them to an infinitely delayed flight.

Of course, actually going on vacation was an utter disaster, but their departure went off without a hitch.

Dozens of people took to the comment section to share their own horror stories surrounding delays and cancellations with American Airlines. Former AA workers even said that they had their own horror stories saying that the company itself is barely keeping it together.

With such horrendous delays, the Department of Transportation has regulated that Caron gets a refund for a six-hour plus delay on an international flight. What he’ll never get back is his time, emotional bandwidth, and precious precious PTO.