I flew home from Seattle yesterday with my (partially) well-behaved children.  If you have small children, you know that they often play an important role of acting out how everyone feels when it would be socially inappropriate for an adult to do so (yelling "hurry up" at the line of people, or saying "he stinks" at a poorly bathed passenger).

Our first flight was delayed from Seattle to Dallas, which wouldn't be that big a deal except that the delay caused it to be scheduled to land at or after our connecting flight was to leave Dallas.  Here, without prompting I swear, my 5 year old son melted down at the ticket counter because he "did not want to be stuck in Dallas."  No offense to Dallas of course, Mom just wasn't in Dallas to meet us.  The woman at the desk offered me two options.  "We can get you to Nashville tonight, but you'll need to fly to LAX and catch a flight that leaves shortly after midnight to Nashville arriving at 5:30 am.  Or, we can get you to Dallas and put you in a hotel so you can catch the first flight out to Nashville in the morning."  At this point it was already around 2pm and I couldn't imagine the LAX option.

So while my son told everyone in the terminal that he did not want to be stuck in Dallas, I looked at my ticket.  I knew there was not much we could do, which of course makes it more frustrating.

Why are my options so limited?  Put aside the obvious, that we really needed to get home and had very limited leverage standing there in line.  Take a look at the back of your printed boarding pass or at the checkboxes you click when you print your electronic ticket next time you travel.  It will say something to the effect of "this ticket is subject to the additional terms and conditions located at www.aa.com/conditionsofcarriage."  It is a brilliant business strategy, and much easier than dropping a 30 page contract on every customer.  When you look at the incorporated online terms and conditions, there is of course a fairly broad exclusion of liability if delay/inability to travel is based on "any fact not reasonably foresee, anticipated or predicted by American."  Of course, if you really push it, they can simply refund your ticket price which is probably not what you really want (and fortunately, I think they rarely do this).  It's written right in there.

Don't get the impression that the terms only contain bad news.  One section clearly states that if American oversells the plane and bumps you off a U.S. flight, then you are entitled to up to 400% of your fare, depending on how long it takes them to get you to your destination.

For us, the quasi good news was that by the time we got to Dallas, we found out that our second flight had also been delayed (the plane broke down), and so we did not end up having to stay in Dallas last night.  Of course, our bags did get to spend the night in Dallas.

Next time you update your customer contracts, keep this option in mind: a simple contract or invoice that incorporates website terms and conditions by reference.  In addition to uncluttering your paperwork, it can give you better control over which version of the "approved" forms your employees are using.

Here is one of the funnier airline videos of 2014.

Happy New Year!

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