American Airlines passenger filed a 19-page complaint after the airline rebooked his family's return tickets from a different country, report says

• A passenger said American Airlines rebooked his family's return tickets from a different country.
• Sam Taussig said he'd intended to fly home from St. Vincent but was put on a flight from St. Lucia.

An American Airlines passenger said the carrier changed his family's flights back to the US to depart from a different country in the Caribbean, Denver7 reported on Wednesday.

Sam Taussig told the broadcaster he was checking the seating arrangements on the airline's app on July 4 when he realized the flight had been changed from what he booked in January.

"I noticed we were flying out of a different country," Taussig said.

"We were flying out of St. Lucia instead of St. Vincent, and I thought that was really strange. It must have been a mistake. The customer service agent said, 'Yes, I'm sorry, sir. You're in an overbooked situation, and we have moved your flight from St. Vincent to St. Lucia,' which is about 100 miles away as the crow flies and five islands north. And I said, 'Well that's insane. We have to change this back. This is not acceptable.'"

He added: "Then, they're going to charge us exorbitant change fees and reticketing fees and split reservation fees totaling almost $30,000 to bring us home a week later."

Taussig said he eventually rebooked a return flight from Barbados and hired a private plane to get his family there from St. Vincent. He said he had filed a 19-page complaint with the airline.

He told Insider that American Airlines offered him $2,000 on Thursday night to get back from Barbados.

T said: "I am glad AA made us whole eventually. I am upset this happened in the first place but I hope my letter spurs a conversation at AA about unreasonable schedule changes, difficult to read – if not deceptive – customer notifications for those critical schedule changes, and highlights how their customer service agents ought to be able to better solve problems with customers in real-time."

American Airlines did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, but a representative told Denver7 that the airline had informed Taussig of the changes in April. The representative added that if flights were overbooked, customers could seek a full refund or changes to their itinerary.

The aviation industry has had a difficult few months as demand for travel has returned, with staffing issues that have triggered a wave of flight cancellations, travel disruptions, and chaotic scenes at airports.