American Airlines – Ludicrous Reservation System

I need to travel to Tallahassee, Florida from Southern California. When I didn’t find a decent connection from San Diego, I tried Ontario, an airport conveniently located for us as an alternate. Here is what it came up with:

1292 07:55 AM
ONT
12:53 PM
DFW
  $854
  $1458
  $2997
  $2422
  $4000

2459   04:50 PM
DFW
05:55 PM
LAX
         

1254   09:15 PM
LAX
05:18 AM
MIA
         

4516   07:20 AM
MIA
08:40 AM
TLH

I get to fly out of Ontario at 7:55 in the morning, go to Dallas, spend 5 hours at the airport,  only to fly back to LAX so I can leave again from LAX, 100 miles west of Ontario, to go to Miami on the red eye. Heck, I could drive to LAX in the evening and park my car there and get there a day faster.

And if I were to book a first class ticket, it would cost $4,000 for the privilege of being caught in airline hell for a full 24 hours.

Here is an example of an automated system going completely amuck.

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