Woman thought her American Airlines flight couldn’t get worse until gate agent admits they can’t locate one crucial thing

A traveler recently shared her terrible experience with American Airlines. Jessee Gettins described how multiple problems led to a gate agent admitting the airline couldn’t find the flight crew or even the plane for her departure. She said she would “rather chew glass than fly American Airlines ever again in my entire life.”

According to Bro Bible, Gettins’ problems started before she even reached the gate. When she checked in for her trip to Toronto, she got the wrong terminal information for her first flight. On the next leg, she was put on a smaller plane that had no working bathrooms for the entire three-hour flight. She found this unacceptable, saying, “I’ve seen flights be delayed because a f—ing buckle doesn’t clip right and an armrest is broken. But, apparently, bathrooms are not a necessary function to have.”

Things got worse when she arrived at Toronto Pearson International Airport for her connecting flight to Orlando. The airline first told her the flight was delayed. The rebooking options were so bad that she joked “the devil himself would not have concocted them.” One option would have sent her from Toronto to New York, then to Miami, before finally getting to Orlando.

Multiple failures show why airline communication matters

Gettins figured out she could still make her original connection in Philadelphia despite the delay. But just 15 minutes before boarding time, all passengers got a message saying the flight was no longer delayed and would leave on time. This caused everyone to rush to the gate.

“So I run my s— from the lounge that I’m at down to the f—ing basement, because that’s where we’re boarding from, to find out that we’re not boarding,” Gettins said. The flight wasn’t delayed anymore, but there was a bigger problem: “there’s no f—ing plane.” This isn’t the first time American Airlines faced unusual flight issues that left passengers frustrated.

The airline kept saying boarding would start in five to ten minutes, then 20 minutes, even though the plane was still coming from Washington. Gettins pointed out this was impossible because the plane had to land, let passengers off, get cleaned, and go through safety checks. “I’ve never seen that be done in 20 minutes in my f—ing life,” she said.

The final problem came when the airline admitted the flight was delayed again, 30 minutes after the original boarding time. The gate agent said they could not “locate the entire flight crew.” This delay made Gettins miss her connection.

Gettins posted her video after weeks of severe winter storms that scattered pilots and flight crews across the country. While many airlines were struggling to reorganize their staff, this doesn’t excuse the misinformation and chaos she faced. She missed her connection and switched to WestJet, which she said was “great” and got her on a direct flight that evening.

Despite gate agents repeatedly saying the delay was the airline’s fault, American Airlines refused to give any compensation or points. They officially said the delay was weather-related, meaning they didn’t have to compensate passengers. 

Gettins said the airline “reiterated it was due to weather, would not take accountability for what their gate agent told everyone, and basically said, ‘It doesn’t matter if the gate agent never mentioned weather or explicitly said the delay was avoidable – the airline maintains weather as a cause, and that’s the end of it.'” Her experience shows how airline gate confrontations can escalate when passengers face poor service and communication.