I flew in the midst of the storm yesterday–the operational storm that American Airlines has been battling for several days–and actually made it home…but it was very, very late.

Flying American Airlines In The Middle Of Its Operational Chaos

American Airlines has had a horrible week in terms of delays and cancellations and yesterday was particularly brutal. Per FlightAware, on January 27, 2026 American Airlines:

The 737-800 operating my flight from Chicago (ORD) to New York (JFK) was supposed to be coming in from Montego Bay, Jamaica (MBJ) but was severely delayed. I wondered whether AA would only delay my flight at the last minute or find another aircraft. The latter occurred (AA snagged an inbound 737-800 aircraft from Fort Lauderdale) and we ended up boarding only about 15 minutes late…and departing more or less on time.

However, I had been tracking my JFK-LAX flights as well noticed that the aircraft assigned to it was on a severely delayed SFO-JFK flight (original departure time was 10:35 am and now it was showing 2:30 pm departure and had not even taken off yet). Would AA be able to swap this aircraft too?

A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.