On 16-JUL-2022 I was booked for LHR - DUB - ORD - CLE. Flights EI 163 13:25 - 14:50, EI 125 16:15 - 18:45, AA 1853 20:39 - 22:54. All one ticket, which I bought through American Airlines.
The first leg was delayed. A customer service agent at Heathrow said the second leg would be held. I spoke to someone else doing the same transfer.
When we landed, I heard the flight attendant say something along the lines of, people transferring should look for a uniformed agent when we disembarked. I was somewhat near the front of the plane and didn't see anyone I should obviously be speaking to. I powerwalked to the departure gate, through the border check, but had missed my connection.
Someone at the airport told me how to get a hotel for the night. Two others were with me, who'd been on the same flight, but were going for a different connection. The person who was getting the same connection as me did not appear.
After settling into my hotel I called Aer Lingus to see what to do, since they'd done both of the relevant legs. They said to call American. I called American, who said their records showed I was on that flight, was I sure I'd missed it? I insisted that I was not on that flight. They booked me on a DUB - ORD - CLE connection for Monday, since there wasn't anything for the next day. That connection was uneventful.
I'm now trying to get compensation for this delay, since I was more than 3 hours late to my final destination. I submitted an issue through resolver because that was what MoneySavingExpert directed me to. I wasn't sure whether to direct the issue at American or Aer Lingus but went with American.
After about a week they replied:
Thank you for taking the time to share your travel experience on Aer Lingus. I am disappointed to hear that things didn't go very smoothly. Please accept my sincere apology.
Our records indicate the flight concerns you've mentioned were on their flight. With that in mind, my colleagues at Aer Lingus would be happy to address your concerns directly. Please reach out to them.
So I guess my main question here is: aah this is stressful, help?
More specifically: should I open an issue with Aer Lingus, or try to follow up again with American? (If I go with Aer Lingus, is it fine to use resolver again? If I follow up, can I just reply to the email, or do I have to do something else?)
I guess I could do both, but that's more effort and stress, and I feel like there might be things that would be helpful to know that aren't obvious?
This won't help me now, but: I'm also wondering whether I probably could have made my connection? My current guess is there was someone I could have talked to, either I didn't see them or they weren't at the departure gate by the time I disembarked, and if I had done they would have gotten me to the flight faster. Does that seem likely?
And, I also wonder: I was able to find flights to Cleveland for the Sunday, at least listed on Google Flights. I don't know if they were actually available. Suppose I had bought one of those instead of taking the Monday flights American offered. Is it likely my insurance would have paid for that? (I know this will depend partly on the details of the policy (World Nomads explorer plan), but I tried to read that and still wasn't sure, so I don't really know how to find out other than asking here and hoping. I currently don't think they'll pay for anything that actually happened, except maybe if American refuses compensation.)
