Here's the story about getting to CR. It's what I sent to family and friends. I have, of course, changed the names of the mongers to protect them. We left from the mid-Atlantic coast area.

Justin picked me up at about 3:15a. Got to the airport at 4ish. All flights are American Airlines. Got on the plane, got to Miami ahead of schedule.

Met monger3 in Miami, got on the plane to San Jose, sat on the tarmac in Miami for about 2 hours while they tried to fix pneumatics on a cargo door. Air conditioning wasn't working either.
Multiple times during that two hours, "Please don't get off the plane. We can fix it". Couldn't fix it.
"We have another plane that you can transfer to. Get off the plane."

Get to the waiting area off the plane.
"I'm only one person. I can't process all of you quickly enough. Go to where the new plane is." All the way on the other end of the airport. Miami is a big airport.

Get to the new gate. Everyone up to about three people in front of us get boarded, including the people who just stayed at the first gate. (Also including passengers from a fucking DELTA flight that got canceled. Also could have driven to Tampa Bay? airport and flown out of there. Didn't find these out until later.)

"Next flight leaves at 8:15p. We have you booked on it."
"W...T...F? That's 7 hours from now."
"Tough shit."
"We're losing a whole day of vacation here!"
"Tough shit."
"We want some kind of compensation here."
"Fuck you. And tough shit. See you later, get out of my face."
"Upgrade us to first class on that flight."
"OK"
"Can you hold our carry ons for us?"
"No. Tough shit."

Get in monger3's truck and drive to a parking lot to sleep and watch a movie. Private property, cops come and hassle monger3 for his outstanding warrant for about an hour. The state the warrant was from is too cheap to extradite, so we can go.

Head back to the airport and to the gate we were told to go to. Flight moved to another gate on the other end of the airport Again, Miami is a big airport.

Get to the other gate, hang out for a while. "Ladies and gentlemen, this plane is broken. Go two gates over to another plane." FUCK!

Wait until 9 something to board. "We're supposed to be upgraded to first class."
"No you aren't."
"They said there were first class seats available. We want them."
"There were people willing to pay for them. You don't get them."
"But they said we had them."
"Tough shit."
"Now hold on just a minute. You're fucking us here!"
"Sir, do we have to call T.S.A.?"
"No. Just give us our first class seats."
"Fuck you. Get out of my face or I'm calling T.S.A."
"OK, but you haven't heard the last of this."
"Fuck you. I don't care."

Get on board, wait for like an hour for them to fill the plane. Take off, actually slept for a good part of the trip. I was all Xanaxed up and drinking.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're approaching San Jose...."
"Ladies and gentlemen, very bad weather in San Jose. We're trying another pass..."
"Ladies and gentlemen, weather sucks in San Jose. We're flying to Managua, Nicaragua."
Collective, "WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?"
"We're going to land there, refuel, and hope the weather breaks in San Jose."
"Oh, ok."

Land in Managua. Sit for at least an hour getting refueled.

"All right ladies and gentlemen, let's try this again. If weather is too bad in Costa Rica, we're going to land in Panama and put you up in a hotel there overnight."
"Fuck me. I'm going to kill myself."

Get to Costa Rica, and everything is actually a-okay, except it's like 4a EDT. Breezed through immigration. AA counter where I had to reclaim my checked bag gave us a voucher for the cab. Customs didn't even make us open our bags, just waved us through. Sweet!
Taxi cab driver thought he was a rally car driver, but it was cool. Very friendly guy, too. He had a Toyota Corolla w/ a 2.0 liter diesel. Neat. I think I'd like one, except they don't sell them in the U.S.

Got to the hotel. We were afraid they would have given our rooms away for being 14 hours late, but they didn't. All very friendly people here. Eager to please customers, seem genuine...

The rest is bullshit I sent them to fill in the hours we spent mongering.

**The language I wrote that AA people were using isn't accurate, but that's the impression I got from them when this was going on.**

Damn dude. AA must suck majorly. I have never had that much trouble getting on a plane to anywhere.

American Airlines has earned the nickname "Sky Nazis" for a reason. I'm sure that somewhere in your story the readers will formulate how and why

CFK

So your claim is that American booked passengers from Delta before their own passengers?

This sounds very odd to me. It sounds like you fly about as often as you monger. What you should do when in a situation where your on the plane but held because of a mechanical is to call the airline and get a protection seat on the next flight in case yours does cancel.

There are 3 AA flights a day from MIA to SJO, all Airbus 300s. That means if the plane is even half full and gets scrubbed, that's at least 125 people to be re-accomodated. If the planes are full, 260 or so. Exec Plats and paid 1st class go first, then Plats, then Golds, then everyone else. That's the pecking order. And if you're not high on that list of frequent flyers you're not getting a bump up to 1st just because you're being delayed.

Now, since it was a mechanical, you should have received quite a bit of cash for the delay. It's in their contract of carriage, as well as certain Federal regulations. Basically, a delay of close to 12 hours because of a mechanical should have been somewhere in the area of $400 or so, possibly more. And they are bound to switch you over to a different carrier - like TACA or Copa or something - that would get you into SJO sooner. But, only if you ask.

Agree with Cat. As an Exec Plat AA flier, I can tell you that there is absolutely, positively no way AA is going to give someone an upgrade because their flight was cancelled. You get upgraded because you have a track record of buying flights with the Airline that results in Gold, Platinum, or Exec Plat. AA is great if you have frequent flier status. If you don't, you are treated like livestock in transit...I have also found this to be true on most airlines these days - coach sucks...long line after long line, cramped seats, dirty lavatories, no free food, and flight attendants who don't want to bothered in between drink service.

Tampa? I'm guessing that you meant to say Ft. Lauderdale.

yeah, tampa didn't sound quite right to me either.

i've had some bad luck on flights before but this one really sounds bad.

i don't know how they can't pay $$ for the delay. i recently got delayed (mechanical) on UA for about 4 hrs in HKG (connection from LAX going to SGN) and they sent me a $200 voucher for future travel on UA. i didn't ask for it, it just came in the mail.

what is the deal with the SJ airport ? do they not have radar/computers to assist for landing in bad weather ? i've been re-routed due to lack of fuel and snow storms but it sounds like the plane had fuel and i don't think it snows in SJ.

i tried to fly from sgn to nha trang earlier this year and we had to turn back to sgn twice. i tried two days in a row. pilots have to land with visual only. both times they put the plane into a steep dive, hoping to get some visibility. but both times they had to pull up and circle. couldn't circle for long due to lack of fuel. i finally made it to nha trang but it was a few months later on a different trip.

i would at least write a letter to the airline and ask for something. it won't take much time and you might get a little money or free upgrade or something. just say you won't fly the airline again if you don't get something as partial compensation for the mechanical delay that led to this whole mess. i won't bother the board with all the specifics but i've done this several times before and it does work. here is one brief example:

i tried to cheat the system and bought a ticket from sfo to colorado springs. it connected in denver and that was my real destination (the cs fare was half what the den fare was). but i never took the CS legs. so when i got to the desk, the UA people told me my ticket was invalid.

i went to the service desk and paid $400 to get on the same flight. when i got home, i wrote a letter and said i was traveling with a group of people (a lie) and one of them had rented a car. so i chose to drive to CS. i requested a refund to my credit card for the $400 and said i'd never fly the airline again if it didn't happen. i got the credit and it was cash money back to the card. not even a voucher.

Buick,

A couple of quick points for you regarding your questions regarding airlines; the only form of compensation any airline provides is the voucher and/or a ticket for future use, no cash is ever exchanged.
Regarding the SJO airport and missed approaches [etc]. Airport facilities in the form of nav aids, runway markings, lights, approach facilities, and other technical issues all come into play. Approach minimums, type of approach available and allowed, etc all are determined by the aforementioned items and factors. I can auto-land in 0-0 conditions at "approved" airports and facilities, others are the higher and more conventional minimums which are frustrating to all. Until cities/countries upgrade their airports, closures and alternate situations will continue to always be a possibility.

A fun report to read. It reminds of the 1st time I went to CR. Pura Vida!!!

thanks CFK, i guess there were a few factors at play in SJ.

i did however get the $400 charge voided/reversed on my credit card. no voucher. i called my credit card company and declined the charge right when i got off the airplane. faxed them the form declining the charge shortly thereafter. UA and bank one (the sponsor of my UA mileage plus visa) worked it out and the charge went away (it took about two months).

perhaps the quick call to decline the charge meant UA never got their money from visa. thus, no cash got to UA and they didn't have to follow the policy of no refunds via cash. i was surprised myself and would have accepted a voucher no problem.

i also had $1,200 bill for booze at a bachelor party that ended up on my card. i declined that one too but it took several years to go away. that is an even better story but this is someone else's thread.

fly safe.

Buick,

your assessment, " perhaps the quick call to decline the charge meant UA never got their money from visa. thus, no cash got to UA and they didn't have to follow the policy of no refunds via cash" is dead on! I look forward to the bachelor party story, sounds like a good one.