The whole point of this post is that this chain of events was created not by the weather but by the intransigence of the AA employee. What happened here is the customer tried to get a common sense solution, but was refused for the convenience of the airline.
The weather delayed the initial flight. The customer was aware that this would result in a missed connection in JFK and asked to be taken off the flight and rebooked the following day. This was refused.
That was unreasonable, and the whole chain of events which created a nightmare for the customer could have been avoided. Airlines will not act in the interests of passengers because they operate complex monopolies. Monopolies never act in the interests of consumers, which is why most countries impose significant regulation on industries in which this is a problem.
Since de-regulation, the US has seen it's airline industry go down the pan. They are poorly managed, often loss making, have stripped employees of decent pay and benefits and are utterly immune to normal market pressures and the need to compete for customers. They also pay large sums of money to line the pockets of members of Congress to ensure that it continues to be that way.
The only people who benefit from this are stockholders and senior management, who get rich at the expense of the ordinary Joe, whilst treating them like crap. Why that is allowed to continue in the worlds greatest democracy is beyond me.... or maybe it is just no longer the worlds greatest democracy.
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