Airlines - When did they forget about us?

I was returning from Dallas from a business trip in Alabama, using American Airlines. Everything was ok until we had to turn back after 1 hour of flight because of a medical emergency. In fact there was a passenger that had some issues (details were not given) and we landed in Houston. The flight departed 17h30 from Dallas and was supposed to land in Quito at midnight more or less.

We stayed 4 hours in Houston! We wait until fuel was eliminated from the aircraft, and the wings re-balanced. In the middle there were delays of 30 to 45 minutes. Then the captain decided to go back to Dallas because the crew couldn't stay longer with us. So at the end we landed at 00:30 in Dallas again and the airline booked a hotel for us. Standard procedure, besides the 4 hours in the Houston airport. Inside the plane, of course.

They said we would retake our flight at 08h00, which made me buy a new internal flight in my country, for another $150 USD. This flight departed 16h30 so I had supposedly plenty of time to make it. I already lost the connection I had on Saturday at 08h00 and paid for a hotel room that I didn't use.

So we are at the airport by 06h00 and nobody from the crew arrived until 07h30. They didn't know about the flight issue the night before, the plane hasn't been cleaned or secured and even all the passengers boarded the plane, the food still didn't make it. You can guess, we departed Dallas at 10h00.

When I arrived to Quito I ran like hell trying to make my connection with LATAM and even though the plane was there and I had no luggage to check they closed the door on me after 1 minute they supposedly have to close the doors. I am in the high end frequent flyer program of theirs and I had checked in the night before while I was waiting for 4 hours in Houston.

At the end I had to buy ANOTHER connection to my home city and made it 15h00 hours later. I tried to make American Airlines pay for all these issues and they gave me miles and rejected my request. LATAM didn't say anything, even though I asked for explanations.

So maybe I am wrong and the business of flying people, connecting families, human beings is totally anachronic now. It feels we are in the business of human cargo. We are the same as a package but you have to feed us. My job keeps me flying all year long and I am ok with it. But sometimes is good to have these reflections.

Good luck with your flying. Lower your expectations though.

PS: If you know an airline that's worth it, please let me know about it, I am willing to give them my 100K miles / yr.