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The agreement states that American Airlines is not liable for special, incidental, or consequential damages arising from air transportation, including lost business or profits.
This analysis describes what American Airlines's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision limits passenger recovery to direct damages only, excluding business losses, missed connections with independent consequences, and other downstream financial impacts. The enforceability of this limitation may vary by jurisdiction and route type, particularly for international carriage governed by the Montreal Convention.
Interpretive note: The interaction between this contractual exclusion and Montreal Convention liability provisions for international carriage creates interpretive uncertainty; applicable law may limit the scope of the exclusion on certain routes.
The updated Terms of Use no longer include explicit statements about how American Airlines uses performance cookies to analyze site usage and track popular pages, or how functional cookies remember your preferences like language and region settings. Previously, the terms disclosed that cookies are essential to site operation and cannot be rejected. The removal of these disclosures means users visiting the American Airlines website will not find this granular explanation of cookie purposes in the terms themselves, though cookie collection may continue through other disclosure mechanisms such as a separate privacy policy or cookie banner.
View change record →This new provision broadly exempts American from liability for indirect damages like lost business profits, significantly limiting passenger remedies.
View full change record →Under this clause, passengers are limited to recovering direct costs related to a service failure; claims for lost business income, missed events, or other downstream financial consequences are excluded from American's stated liability. The enforceability of this exclusion on international routes may be subject to Montreal Convention provisions, which may interact with this limitation.
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"American is not liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages arising from the performance of transportation under these Conditions of Carriage, including but not limited to loss of business or profits.Excerpt from American Airlines's Terms of Use
(1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: Consequential damages limitations in airline contracts of carriage are standard in the U.S. domestic context and are generally enforceable under state contract law. For international carriage, the Montreal Convention's liability framework governs and may limit or affect the scope of this exclusion. The U.S. DOT and FTC have authority to review consumer-facing limitations for compliance with federal consumer protection standards. (2) GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Low for domestic carriage. Medium for international carriage, where the interaction between the CoC's consequential damages exclusion and Montreal Convention liability rules may require case-by-case analysis. (3) JURISDICTION FLAGS: Certain EU member states and the UK may impose limitations on the enforceability of broad consequential damages exclusions in consumer contracts under applicable consumer protection directives. California's consumer protection statutes may also be relevant for California-resident plaintiffs. (4) CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Corporate travel agreements and event-based travel arrangements should consider whether the consequential damages exclusion affects business continuity planning and whether separate travel insurance or contractual indemnification provisions are warranted. (5) COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Legal teams should assess whether this clause is disclosed with sufficient prominence in booking flows to meet DOT and FTC disclosure standards for material limitation of liability terms.
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Provision-level monitoring, governance timelines, and regulatory mapping built from archived source documents and historical version tracking.
This provision limits passenger recovery to direct damages only, excluding business losses, missed connections with independent consequences, and other downstream financial impacts. The enforceability of this limitation may vary by jurisdiction and route type, particularly for international carriage governed by the Montreal Convention.
Under this clause, passengers are limited to recovering direct costs related to a service failure; claims for lost business income, missed events, or other downstream financial consequences are excluded from American's stated liability. The enforceability of this exclusion on international routes may be subject to Montreal Convention provisions, which may interact with this limitation.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 292 platforms. See the full comparison.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by American Airlines.