Plane Passenger Baffled As American Airlines Changes Flight Destination

A traveler has shared his shock after an airline informed him that the final destination of his flight has been rescheduled to a different city.

Corey Chapman is due to fly to Europe in December, returning in January. With his return flights all booked, Chapman was stunned when he received a notification of a change to his planned flight.

On his return from Europe, Chapman's plane was to fly to Philadelphia before changing to its final destination in San Diego. The flight would now be ending its journey in Los Angeles—around 130 miles away from the original destination.

"I'm used to small schedule changes, especially when I book so far in advance, but I've never had an airport changed, much less to a whole other city," Chapman told Newsweek.

Booked onto the flight with American Airlines, he received an email from them that he shared a screenshot of on Reddit's r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, where it has had over 11,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments.

American Airlines told Newsweek: "We apologize for the schedule change that impacted Mr. Chapman's upcoming travel plans. A member of our team has reached out to address his concerns and provide the best available travel options to San Diego."

According to data from the airlines, American Airlines and American Eagle serve millions of travelers each year. They offer an average of nearly 6,700 flights per day to nearly 350 destinations in more than 50 countries.

The email screenshot revealed how the flight had been updated to go from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on the date booked.

There are multiple reasons that a flight may be re-routed, from airspace restrictions to airport closures or schedule adjustments. There have previously been reports of flights rerouting to Los Angeles instead of landing at the San Diego airport as scheduled. Reasons for these diversions have included runway closures, flight faults, and emergencies. However, in this instance, it is unclear why the flight has been rerouted months before it is even due to take off.

Last month, an American Airlines flight was delayed after a "strange odor" left it waiting on the tarmac while it was investigated.

In hundreds of comments on the Reddit post, people sided with Chapman who shared his frustration over the unusual flight change.

"Close enough, it'll just be a quick 2.5 hour cab ride," joked user downwardspiralstairs. User LeilaDFW said: "That's quite a change."

"Well at least they leave from the same airport," wrote mariohz05.

Chapman said that he was not going to go along with the change, and would instead try to find a solution with the airline. "I'm going to call American Airlines and get them to change it to a flight back to San Diego, as I would never let an airline just choose for me which city I'm going to," he said.

"Obviously, there are flights from Philly to San Diego throughout the day—and as of after the email, they were still selling tickets for the Philadelphia to San Diego flight I was kicked off of—so I'm not sure what happened here."

Update, 09/22/23, 02:58 a.m. ET: This story was updated to include a statement from American Airlines.