Does American Airlines have good customer service?
Once again, I find myself on the "I can't believe this is happening" end of a telephone conversation with a customer service rep.
Here's the story.
I had booked a flight using reward miles to fly someone from Dallas to Denver in a couple weeks.
As it turns out, he is going to drive here a few days early and won't require the initial leg of the flight. But he fully intended to use the return leg on the scheduled date.
The lady at the Aadvantage desk told me if he didn't get on the outbound flight, the ticket would be cancelled.
What's more, there would be a $100 change fee to reschedule... the same return flight.
What?
Ok, so I told the bottom level rep that I really needed to speak with a supervisor.
So I'm greeted by Margie Foster, who essentially tells me the same thing.
She notifies me that I have "broken contract" with the airline by not getting on the outgoing flight and they would need to issue a new ticket.
I tell her I don't need a new ticket. She insists that I do, and that there will be a $100 change fee.
I tell her that I have been an American customer for years, have Gold status, and would like them to waive the fee.
She laughs and tells me she can't do that.
I say, "you can't or you won't?"
She says she won't under these circumstances.
Now we're just talking $100, but it is the principle of the thing here. You know me. I am a stickler for principle and believe that policy should be flexible on a case-by-case basis.
Finally, she relents and says she can change it for $75 instead of $100.
So, it turns out that she DOES have the authority to make the change. She's just not going to waive the entire fee for a reticketing a ticket that really hasn't changed.
I tell her that this is why American is struggling and the other airlines are kicking their butts.
I would NEVER do this to a customer. Never.
I told her that it was a stupid policy, as they were alienating a long-time customer over an obviously ridiculous set of circumstances. She got all huffy and in my face, telling me that I shouldn't call her stupid. Geeez...
I ask who is her superior. Of course, there is no one above her. Power in the hands of someone entirely unable to manage a simple customer service issue to the satisfaction of the customer. Typical.
She then tells me that I can appeal to customer service later.
I say, I'd like to appeal now.
She tells me I can't do that. I have to wait until after the flight.
I say fine. Just go ahead and do the ticket.
She puts me on hold, goes about her business and comes back in a few minutes.
I ask her, "So let me ask you this. I am going to be contacting American customer service AFTER the flight and expressing my displeasure. In all likelihood, they will refund the money. So why not just save time and effort by going ahead and making this customer happy now?"
She tells me that it is very rare for them to waive the reticketing fee. It just doesn't happen. Uh uh. No way, charlie.
And I think to myself... "Is there no common sense left in the world? Clearly not with this lady who just thinks she is doing her job."
She asks me what I think American should do with every passenger that wants their change fee waived?
I think to myself, if they are wanting the same flight they have already booked than you waive the fee!
I proceed to tell her that this is why American Airlines is suffering. You HAVE to deal with customers on a case-by-case basis. It's the only way to fly. (yes, the pun is intended...)
You know what she says?
"Sir, I don't have to listen to you bad mouth American Airlines!"
... and she hangs up on me.
Unbelievable.
Airlines like Jet Blue and Southwest understand customer service.
American has become a bloated beast of a corporation that just doesn't get it. And unfortunately, the team at the Aadvantage desk doesn't know how to handle situations that require independent thought.
I hope that some folks from American Airlines read this entry.
And to Margie Fowler, I have nothing against you personally. You are cog in the machine and you think you are just doing your job.
From where your supervisors sit, they may think you are doing your job just fine.
From where I sit, you blew it big time.
And since I'm the customer, it is only my opinion that matters.
AA lost my business this past Christmas as well. For the amount I pay for the ticket and the extra $75 each way for my 13 year old son to fly unaccompanied should warrant better customer service.
I have received crappy service on more than one visit, more than one terminal and more than one boarding gate.
Southwest has earned my business for his next trip. I'd rather him fly a bit "lower class" and be treated as a human.
Good for you, Joel. Buh Bye, AA!
Continental appreciates their customers. When I have to call the Elite desk for assistance they are always friendly and helpful.
Employees seem to like working there, and it shows in the way they treat customers.
Happy employees = happy customers.
Thanks a bunch for sharing that Joel. It's a great example of really bad customer service (obviously). In a former life I managed a group of software support guys. It's so easy to do what you can to please a customer. We used to call upset customers 'opportunities' - I'm sure you've heard that one a million times. Hopefully this post will get legs and other Big Corps will do a little to tweak their service centers.
Walk a mile in Margie's shoes and I bet you'll sing a different tune.
Customer service is a terrible job. I hated every second of it.
Companies with stupid policies and procedures that only concerns their bottom line regardless of customer impact or satisfaction.
Customers who are self centered arrogant individuals that don't care about any policy or procedure. Just their own opinions (which usually conflicts with each other from customer to customer)
I'm so tired of people signing up for something and then thinking they can change the rules / policies / procedures afterwards because they don't agree with it.
Paying fees suck... don't get me wrong... But if you bought the ticket under the agreement that if you change or cancel it you would have to pay this fee, why are you now complaining?
If American Airline has the fee hidden away in 100 page terms of service, then yes it should be waived because no one is expected fully read the terms before buying, however if the fee is clearly marked and known to the customer before purchase, then sorry man... stop winning and pay the fee.
Just my 2 cents worth from a customer standpoint and a customer service rep standpoint. I've been on both sides..
Just as a side note.... Customer service jobs really truly are one of the worst jobs in the world. The job gets to you and changes your personality.
On average in an inbound call center the average customer service rep will take between 30-50 calls per day. At least 80% of those calls will be from someone complaining about one thing or another. Before you think that 80% seems like a lot of complaints... When was the last time you called a company to say what a good job the're doing? Right, that's why most calls are from unhappy people. To the company's overall customers it might be only a small percentage, but to the individual rep it's 80% of their calls are from someone complaining.
How long can you maintain a happy cheerful personality when every day for most of your working hours you are listening to unhappy complaining people?
You try it... Spend 8 hours of your day responding to only your unhappy customers. Do this for 6 months. Do nothing else but deal with your unhappy customers. I guarantee you that by the end of the 6 month period you wouldn't give a rat's ass about the next customer who wanted to express their complaint.
File this under: "This is Majorly Broken."
It's sad how much one runs into experiences just like this when it comes to customer service these days.
Man, my last three airline experiences have been disasters. In each case, I could have made better time driving.
Joel is certainly doing the right thing.
Rules should bend on exceptional case.
And on top of that, Margie Fowler is dealing with Joel Comm who has thousands of visitors.
Thus it means... she is killing herself and American Airlines indirectly.
Woohoo.. way to go, Margie!
Wow... are AA & Sprint of the same cloth? Greed is a wonderful entity, huh? At least you talked to an English speaking rep and sup, seemingly more and more rare these days of outsourcing.
Joel,
Once again, you've taught an important lesson.
We switched from American, leaving countless (worthless) miles behind, to Delta, who always treats us with great respect.
One of these days, companies like American will listen to customers like you because they never know when they're talking to a blogger with power.
Recently, I told Verizon that they didn't want to mess with an hysterical widow with an email list of 62,0000 and three blogs. They listened to me. And I don't even compare to your online presence.
Write on Joel!
I thought American company are good in servicing the customer. Never have major complain with Malaysian Airline...
LMAO Joel
I feel ya. It's like what my mate says back in the UK.. "I bloody hate post office women"...
I ask him, why's that. He turns around and says, they can never do a job properly, no matter what you suggest they think they know it all.
What ever happened to the first rule of Customer Service...
"The Customer is always right".
After all, we're the commodity of their profitable gains, it's about time companies like AA who I absolutely hate started to listen.
IMO, British Airways is good. Traveling inner state, I found Delta Airways to be ok and very open to listen and help out a distressed customer.
All the best
Loz
I can't agree more. I am a Canadian and fly all of the major airlines in NA but fly alot of Air Canada and Westjet (the 2 major Can. ones)
I have had the same experience with Air Canada ALL the time and just had another experience with Air Canada customer service this last weekend.
Two week prior I was on a flight with Westjet that was delayed 3 hours due to weather (not even the airlines fault) the next day I received a vochure from Westjet for the price of my flight. Westjet follows the same models of Southwest and Jet Blue and also really focus on CUSTOMER SERVICE, I could not rave about this company more as they ALWAYS have helpful services reps that go out of the way to help you before you have an issue.
The great thing about this story is that as I was sitting on the Air Canada plane steaming about the customer service I look over to the person sitting next to me reading the financial post...and what does the cover story say? Westjet locks up top spot!
Exactly why I don't fly American Airlines anymore. After a similar experience while trying to book a last minute flight under a bereavement circumstance, I was appalled and went through Delta instead. The customer service with Delta was phenomenal every step of the way --from the phone rep to the Flight Attendents.
I will never forget that during an already extremely difficult time, Delta came through and showed compassion while American Airlines showed me that they don't care about their customers and were so short sighted that they could not see how this one instance caused me to tell countless people how horrific and non-existent their customer service is. Think that one customer doesn't matter and can't make a difference? Guess again American Airlines!!!!
Jeeze Joel and I thought it only happened to me!
I booked a flight with American a couple years ago only to cancel for medical reasons. I was under doctors care for a "paralyzed" leg.
I went through the same runaround and ended up LOSING my flight payment all together. Over $300 bucks!
After speaking to customer service, both before and after the scheduled flight, the result was the same, "It's company policy."
That was my first and last attempt to attend a seminar in Florida or anywhere else for that matter.
Business of any size needs to keep their customers happy. Word of mouth hurts a biz more than any form of advertising helps!
I fly a lot out of the country and i noticed that foreign airlines have much better customer service and policies than most US airline companies. I say "most" because few of domestic companies (jetBlue, SpiritAir, Airbus) do have higher IQ than the others. But in general, the days of "best customer service in the world is in US" are over.
I don't understand why large companies just don't get it. Nowadays, I save my self so much time and energy and headaches by simply going with what ever company has the best customer service record. I suggest everyone else do the same.
I'm willing to shell out hundreds of extra dollars just so that I get to deal with a kind helpful person who will treat me with respect just like I would treat them.
Please post this on consumerist.com as well.
Hi Joel,
I can sympathise with you about poor customer service! I recently had a situation where I asked to send back some seminar DVDS because the sound quality was so bad and the direction in some of the guru DVDS was appalling. So much so that when the guru pointed to his powerpoints, the veideographer preferred to take pictures of sleeping attendees! I complained to customer service and they were so concerned, they offered to pay for a full refund including shipping and handling...but wait there's more! They later RENEGED and told me that they would only pay for outbound shipping and not return shipping! Can you imagine that? I appealed and appealed and still nothing. They stood their ground. Now bear in mind that I was not returning the item because I didn't like it. I was returning it because it was not fit for purpose and not of merchantable quality!! Under such circumstances, return shipping should have been paid - in particular as it was offered in the first place, don't you agree? Wonder who's customer service that was? One guess!
Good for you, Joel.
Ranting is a good stress reliever, and a rant on your blog may get their attention. Whether or not they acknowledge, apologize and best of all, do something about their stupid rule is another matter entirely.
My guess would be that they do not. Airlines like American and Air Canada have gotten to the point where they think they can do no wrong.
Airlines like JetBlue and Westjet on the other hand - the 'underdogs' so to speak - actually still appreciate their customers and their business.
We really need to vote with our wallets and withdraw support from those that show no respect.
Cheers,
Ros
Joel,
I couldn't agree more. On more than one occasion my wife and I were using that Advantage miles that we had racked up, and have had extremely poor customer service from them.
Our New Years resolution this year is already resolved we cut up our American Airlines credit card, canceled our American Airline mileage account, unsubscribed from all there emails, and have told everyone of our story, on how they tried to ruin our honeymoon trip.
Nice post Joel, way to go! These typo stories need to be brought to light and with the power of the Net and blogs etc. a company really can hurt (or help) itself. Sad to see what AA has become. I used to live in DFW in the 80s and because Herb Kelleher (founder of Southwest Airlines) UNDERSTOOD Customer Service he became a Business icon and Texas legend.
Joel,
Airlines in general are notorious for this type of crap. They don't value their customers. It's the only industry where you can be late and loose people's personal items and no one gets fired. Try doing that in any other industry and heads roll. Go figure!
By the way although Jetblue is pretty good with customer service for the most part I've had a few nightmare stories with them where they caused me to miss a cruise that was worth over $2000 and they didn't do squat to reimburse the money.
All they did was put me up in a hotel for a night and gave us some Mc Donald's vouchers but I think that's little consolation for a $2,000, once in a lifetime cruise to Alaska.
So JetBlue is on my sh#@t list too!
People should show AA the power of the people and of the net. But before folks can call and complain......might want to get your facts straight Joel. Since you are big on principle it would not be quite fair to a Ms. Foster if her last name is Ms. Fowler now would it?
So if this is not a fictitious name you may want to clarify for all the activists out there: is her name Margie Fowler or Foster??
Keep fighting the good fight Joel! I do the same out of principal. It is easier and less time consuming to give in, but then they win. Companies owe it to their customers to provide a good product or service and if not, they should go out of business.
A fellow consumer advocate
Wow! I can't believe how bull headed people can be. I am taking a trip in March through my company and I have the option of flying Southwest or American. I just made my choice. Thank you for the information Joel.
Thanks for sharing this Joel.
We the people need to stand up more and complain when these companies do not treat us right. And, name names as you have. Otherwise, they will feel more comfortable running roughshod over us.
This is yet another example of the sickness that has infested American corporations in recent years and damaging our economy.
Joel,
Welcome to the world of air travel today with the major air carriers. They are approaching the extreme arrogance of Verizon. If Verizon was my only choice for communications, I would hightail it to Home Depot and get some wet blankets and kindling for smoke signals.
JetBlue, Southwest, AirTran are going to continue to eat the majors for lunch. It's the transportation industry's version of bloatware, like Adobe or Windows. THEY get it, they value customers, whereas the majors do not. I have over 10 million air miles and less than 500 on American just for this reason, because I discovered their true colors early on.
People should not put up with crappy service and non-sensical policies, yet they are intimidated to do so. Kudos to folks like you who raise the flag and say WTH.
I used to have a training contract with the old TWA prior to American merger. TWA thrived on customer service but was torn apart by Carl Icahn. American is comprised of a bunch of haughty employees and a bunch of angry TWA customers and very well might just lose everything.
More and more, I try to fly as little as possible. It is all just too stressful and I try to travel as little as possible with my business.
This just goes to show the mentality of another hourly employee that does not understand the ebb and flow. Customer retention is a lot cheaper than the cost of acquiring new ones. I have had to pay this before too, so I feel your pain. Sucks bc I am sure they lose a ton of people to the competition. Sucks for them.
I believe such bad experiences for such bad and depriving policies should be reported to consumer union to publicize and take up with such Airline for corrective action. Currently they are working on Cell Phone cancellation service charges.
"Consumers Union, nonprofit publisher of Consumer Reports"
Jim Guest
Consumers Union of the U.S.
101 Truman Ave.
Yonkers, NY 100703
American employees have been battered by their own company. They have been forced to give back wages and take what amounts to permanent wage cuts while the management of the company has manipulated the books to pay themselves hefty salary increases and bonuses. The employees accepted the wage cuts under threats from management that the company would file bankruptcy unless the employees gave in. There was a promise that once the company was profitable, the wages might be restored. Because of the changes in accounting, the company is not showing sufficient profitability and thus the employees are working at 1992 salary levels.
While this does not excuse the poor service, I think that the travelling public should expect less than stellar service from employees who have been battered by their company management.
That is no way to treat your custumers, to make them pay to reschedual a flight you should have been on had it not been cancled by them. If I had a customer requesting a refund, I'd just give them a refund. If they purchased an ebook from me, and they say they weren't able to get it, I'd just email it to them without charging them anything extra as long as I can verify that they've already paid for it (i.e. they're emailing me with their paypal address and I can look up the paypal payment). What American Airlines is doing would be the equivilant of me charging $40 extra to email a $90 ebook that the custumer already bought, yet never recieved because their browser shut down on them, therefore, not allowing them to get to the download link. Such a thing, in my opinion, is worse than bad customer service, it's downright deceitful.
I can relate SO MUCH to what you went through Joel! Summer before last I was in Nevada for a vacation. My uncle lost the vision in one eye while I was there, and I needed to extend my stay. (By 2 months actually!) I was told by the Airline (uh Southwest in this case) that all I needed to do when ready to leave was show a letter from the doctor, and I'd be able to proceed on my vacation, (was going to Oregon after Nevada) and because it was a family emergency, it wouldn't cost anything. LIES! LIES! LIES! When I was ready to go, I was told that if I wished to proceed to Oregon, I would have to buy a whole new ticket. I also had to pay $100 on my ticket, just to get home to Wisconsin. Because of this, I don't know if I'll ever get to see my Grandfather again, as I'm on disability, so this was a LONG planned out trip. (He's the one that lives in Oregon.)
Anyway, I feel better since I vented. You?
Joel,
It is reassuring to know that I am not alone in getting hot under the collar when dealing with situations like this!
I find banks and insurance companies are the epitome of corporate stupidity. They have internal rule books inches thick and train their staff to keep to them under any circumstance. Conseqwuently, you get absurd situations similsr to the one you encountered with American Airlines.
I always say to the poor functionaries trying to justify corporate stupidity that I understand that they are merely applying rules and there is nothing personal in my remarks, which hopefully are always polite, but in spite of this some of them take them personally anyway, such as Margie Fowler. I suspect they are afraid that if they report a customer's dissatisfaction it will be a reflection on them and their bosses will believe they cannot do their job properly.
I think that the American Airlines of this world will always be with us so the only thing you can do is to try and use a competitor.
I am not holding my breathe for a radical change any time soon.
Cheers
John
Hi Joel!
We're totally with you on this one! My daughter, Jenny, and her husband recently made arrangements to fly from Nashville through Chicago and on to Jackson Hole, WY for their anniversary. Unfortunately, their baby sitting arrangements didn't work out so they called American Airlines to make sure the new plan would work. What they intended to do was drive their kids to Chicago and drop them off with her brother's family and then pick up the AA flight out of Chicago and on to Jackson Hole. AA told them that if they didn't fly the first leg of their trip, they would forfeit their ticket for the rest of the trip even though they had paid for them. After much argument with American Airlines, Jenny decided to buy seats for the kids and drop them off during the stopover in Chicago.
They called American Airlines to see if they could get any assistance in getting the kids to the securtiy gate for the exchange, maybe a golf cart ride or someone to help them so they wouldn't have to stand in the security line again. They were hoping for help, especially since AA changed the stopover time from 1 1/2 hours to 45 minutes after they purchased the kid tickets. Of course, their answer was no.
I contrast this my own recent experience where on two legs of a Southwest flight, the takeoff was delayed in order to allow some passengers who were running late to make the flight. Their explanation was, "If it was you, you would want us to wait".
American Airlines' attitude was pretty much "Up yours - you're on your own - it's not our problem!"
On the trip out, the exchange was made with 5 minutes to spare as the security line was very short. On the return exchange, they basically ran with the kids and their luggage and missed the flight by a couple of minutes. American Airlines told them where they could find a discount hotel for the night since there were no other flights to Nashville that day.
Needless to say, none of us will be flying American Airlines again.
Thanks for letting me vent! I feel much better now! See you on Southwest!
Jim
Hi Joel!
We're totally with you on this one! My daughter, Jenny, and her husband recently made arrangements to fly from Nashville through Chicago and on to Jackson Hole, WY for their anniversary. Unfortunately, their baby sitting arrangements didn't work out so they called American Airlines to make sure the new plan would work. What they intended to do was drive their kids to Chicago and drop them off with her brother's family and then pick up the AA flight out of Chicago and on to Jackson Hole. AA told them that if they didn't fly the first leg of their trip, they would forfeit their ticket for the rest of the trip even though they had paid for them. After much argument with American Airlines, Jenny decided to buy seats for the kids and drop them off during the stopover in Chicago.
They called American Airlines to see if they could get any assistance in getting the kids to the securtiy gate for the exchange, maybe a golf cart ride or someone to help them so they wouldn't have to stand in the security line again. They were hoping for help, especially since AA changed the stopover time from 1 1/2 hours to 45 minutes after they purchased the kid tickets. Of course, their answer was no.
I contrast this my own recent experience where on two legs of a Southwest flight, the takeoff was delayed in order to allow some passengers who were running late to make the flight. Their explanation was, "If it was you, you would want us to wait".
American Airlines' attitude was pretty much "Up yours - you're on your own - it's not our problem!"
On the trip out, the exchange was made with 5 minutes to spare as the security line was very short. On the return exchange, they basically ran with the kids and their luggage and missed the flight by a couple of minutes. American Airlines told them where they could find a discount hotel for the night since there were no other flights to Nashville that day.
Needless to say, none of us will be flying American Airlines again.
Thanks for letting me vent! I feel much better now! See you on Southwest!
Jim
Regarding American Airlines, unfortunately I too have found airlines to be inflexible, but knowing the rules they have in advance helps.
Regarding the "using one half of a return ticket" it's a common problem. Basically the airlines got miffed because people were finding they could book two returns on some routes (and just use one leg) cheaper than travelling.
I've encountered the American Airlines rescheduling fee too (with an American that wanted to go home a week early, twice).
Unfortunately airlines often have a monopoly (or near monopoly) on routes. Try looking at a route and you'll usually find if you're lucky two different airlines fly it at the time you want.
There is also only compensation (minimally) under extreme circumstances (eg your flight got there 5 hours late, your luggage was lost/damaged).
Another thing is that airlines give travellers who are foreign nationals travelling to America the third degree, "Who are you visiting? How long have you known them for? etc etc". Your country's tendency to fingerprint everyone (apart from US citizens) on arrival travelling under your Visa Waiver Program just makes people think you're being mildly xenophobic.
However, as a seasoned air traveller I am used to silly, pointless security for show that doesn't stop in any way people getting offensive weapons on flights & a whole load of other stuff. Generally I just deal with it though and always book tickets at the last minute (eg last 48 hours) to prevent these sorts of problems (you also get cheap tickets that way too).
I understand where Joel is coming from. And I know where the 4th from the top poster is coming from. They are both right.
I am co-chairperson of our customer service committee in a local supermarket. Like that 4th poster I have been on both sides of customer service as well.
I don't agree that customer service is the worst job, but it is a challenging job. You don't always get complainers, you also get your happy customers complimenting you.
It is a challenge sustaining a good mood when you have one person after another complaining to you. But it is also your job, as a customer service rep., to help satisfy your complainers. Policy is policy, but it's not written in stone. You can be flexible. It can be flexible on a case-by-case basis, as Joel mentioned.
We have two different personalities clashing here: The customer who thinks the world revolves around him, and the employee who is just trying to do his job. Most of us have been on both sides of the equation, haven't we? It's interesting that most of us forget how it is dealing with customers when we are customers, then forget how customers feel when we are the employee.
That little saying "The customer is always right," is not true most of the time. And we all know that. A more accurate statement is "The customer always FEELS right." Even though we are wrong we still feel we are right.
What it all boils down to is this - Whether you are the customer or the employee, be more considerate and patient to each other. We would probably need a shift in consciousness as a species for this to happen. ;)
Thanks
I couldn't agree with you more Joel.
A good example of how it should e done is Japan's Airlines.
Dan here from Germany, in the mood for a rant ;~)
This is funny now!
Joel, you just lost Margie Fowler as a client! She would probably be the perfect
candidate for your next internet millionaire thingie as well!
She has a stupid job, she would like to get rid of and start make money on the
internet instead. She would buy ANYTHING YOU OFFER TO HER (credit card
in hand) to get out of the hell of complaining idiots all day long, day
after day, year after year. How can you be so blind, to not take this occasion
to make her a proselytized affiliate, recruiting all her staff and coworkers at
AA into your programs and buy your products? Why didn't you tell her on the phone,
she could escape the 9-5 job and make millions on the internet and then buy AA
and kick ass all the bloody superiors and supervisors with their nonsense stupid
policies, she had to follow in order to NOT LOSE HER JOB.
Yeah right, everybody should quit the lousy 9-5 job and make money on the internet.
If you then call customer support, nobody would be there to complain to, because
everybody is busy to make a fortune on the internet. No reason to get angry with
anybody there, because it is nobody there to complain to.
Joel, you not only lost Margie Fowler as a client (what you probably could
cope with), ***if you really mean, what you write, you lost overview and interrelations
of the world you live in.
You would be NOTHING without 9-5 idiots.
You would not even have a phone to complain about anything, if there would not
be ordinary people doing their ordinary, HATED, jobs, building phones, instead
of making millions on the internet.
You would not even have a computer or a house to live in.
You would be lost, if everybody would do, what you say.
In one of your posts you wrote, that you just call somebody, when you have technical
problems, because you just are not able to solve technical problems yourself.
Your marketing strengths are obviously very specialized and your abilities are
self-evident, for you, yourself. Does that give you the rigth to derogatory judge
over people you totally depend on?
With your arrogant and ignorant attitude for hard working people you should not
even have a 9-5 staff (making millions online instead) for your customer support,
better do that all yourself.
And when you or one of your 5-9 slaves come to your grocery tomorrow, I wished
there is a sign at the door,
"closed, busy on the internet, grow your own stuff in your back yard."
You recently posted, how much you like gardening or yardwork or whatever you call
that, Joel ...
To the millions of Margie Fowlers: Be glad you only have to follow given rules,
you can always blame it to someone else, not your fault, and your are right.
Be glad you don't have to make your own rules and not break them, like we have
to do here in the Internet Marketing Arena.
***PS: I think you know exactly, what you do, and how to move around puppets
on a string ... ;~))
And one more point here, that probably will prevent publishing here definitively,
blogs are not free speech righted, right so, but forums are: most posts
on blogs like these read like writers are some kind of brainwashed ...
On the other hand, recently a controversy post on Rich Shefrens blog
got some ATTENTION.
PPS: Sorry for my lousy Kraut English, hope you get my point.
Big corporations had better start "getting it" that the mood in this country is changing. More and more people are deciding not to put up with this type of treatment. Our politicians better listen and start putting more pressure on banks, insurance companies, airlines, etc.
The last 3 out of 5 times I flew American they lost my luggage. I realize some os that was probably a strange coincidence but here's the kicker....the third time it happened I was returning home for the birth of my son and I had no clothes or any or my personal in the hospital for over 1 day.
I called them and after 3 hours on the phone and countless people telling me they would do nothing at all I finally got them to agree to a $100 credit for loosing my luggage 3 times and causing a ridiculous amount of angst to me personally.
Guess what. The credit voucher never came in the mail...big surprise. Needless-to-say I fly anything I can besides American at this point and Southwest whenever possible.
Way to go Big J! Couldn't agree more with everything you say!
The post by "Shh" (19 Jan) is completely missing the point - I also worked in and managed a call centre for several years. Yes of course cutomers will call in to complain - but if the complaint is handled quickly, without fuss and with a smile, the customer goes away happy, with an elevated opinion of the organisation and a significantly increased sense of loyalty. Hey guess what that means??? Mo' money!!!
Keeping customers happy aint rocket science - its just about a positive management attitude and allowing staff the authority to make on-the-spot decisions. My old company won national awards for customer service because our boss understood the simple correlation between happy customers and business success...and the bottom line result was that the business became incredibly successful over a very short period and was eventually purchased by Charles Schwab.
In my 9-5 world I'm now a business consultant - and I despair at how even the biggest organisations can't seem to grasp such a basic fundamental point. The sad thing is they don't even teach this stuff in the business schools...
Dan in Germany... thanks for writing, but your post is way off base.
Who said that everyone should quit their job and make money on the internet?
I just wanted her to provide quality customer service, something that the other replies to my post would indicate that they are sorely lacking.
Not everyone hates their job and their life. I have spoken with plenty of customer service representatives with cheery dispositions and obvious concern that I as a customer am satisfied.
I have an arrogant and ignorant attitude?
Hmmm...
Methinks thou prostesteth too much, Dan. Should your post be signed "Unhappy in Germany"?
What's the real irony?
That you come to my blog, abuse me with your words, and then proceed to pimp your own Internet marketing blog. Now THAT is what I call funny. ;-)
Joell,
I really enjoyed your comments about American Airlines. These arrogant #@%$# need to be taught a lesson. I just hope some of them read your blog.
Now, if I'm not out of order, I would like to vent my frustations to another group of arrogant, self centered people,The selfish American driver. To many drivers today think they own the road. They think that giving a turn signal gives them the right to pull in ahead of anyone. They pull out in front oncoming traffic at the last minute. They won't wait for other vehicles to pass before changing lanes. They pull out into traffic and then go slower than the traffic flow. The list is endless.
The worst part is their attitude. If one tries to stop one of their stupid and unsafe maneuvers, they get all hot and bothered because they didn't get their way. There always have been unsafe drivers, but today, you find them everywhere. As drivers, We all make mistakes, but for the miserable immoral drivers that I am reffering to, it would have been better for the rest of us had they not been born.
Joell,
I really enjoyed your comments about American Airlines. These arrogant #@%$# need to be taught a lesson. I just hope some of them read your blog.
Now, if I'm not out of order, I would like to vent my frustations to another group of arrogant, self centered people,The selfish American driver. To many drivers today think they own the road. They think that giving a turn signal gives them the right to pull in ahead of anyone. They pull out in front oncoming traffic at the last minute. They won't wait for other vehicles to pass before changing lanes. They pull out into traffic and then go slower than the traffic flow. The list is endless.
The worst part is their attitude. If one tries to stop one of their stupid and unsafe maneuvers, they get all hot and bothered because they didn't get their way. There always have been unsafe drivers, but today, you find them everywhere. As drivers, We all make mistakes, but for the miserable immoral drivers that I am reffering to, it would have been better for the rest of us had they not been born.
I here what is being said. But the biggest problem the big guys have is managing the front lines. Easy to get things right when only three people to the top a bit harder when it is 100. They need to give front lines more power of control and shorten the food chain to the top along with good PR training for sure. There are some bigger companies that get it they are doing great business for there efforts. Wonder when the rest will catch on?
Wow Joel,
What a story! Kind of like the same service I received from your customer service in trying to return DVD's from you that were unuseable due to major scratches on the dvd's that were already there when they arrived. You must have hired your customer service from american.
Oh Boy, I hope AA is reading this. I am an ExecPlat with AA and you know what? I no longer fly them for all the obvious reasons. Wanna hear my rant about Adobe? go here. www.vandendries.wordpress.com
I'm sure this post will get to them one way or the other, just like the other one you posted.
But question is, would they care? Seems like they have more than enough customers and are gaining some more that the ones leaving don't really bother them.
But at least, you've voiced out your opinion. It could serve a rallying point for others.
AA could then apologize and change its ... "uh" ... stupid policy or lose out bigtime.
What a freakin' joke! I've had my share with companies this damn week. From Time Warner all the way to Kontera! Seriously... this was like fight week for me. I don't understand what's going on with some people.
Hey Dan,
I don't think it is the same thing at all.
People and products will occasionally fall through the cracks, but beligerate attitudes towards a customer is something completely different.
If you had scratches on your DVDs, we would be all-too-happy to replace them.
If you received anything but that from my team, I would definitely want to know about it.
I doubt AA management feels the same way
Joel
The truly sad thing is it's almost a sure bet that Ms. Foster doesn't want to treat customers badly. She's trapped in a process - literally between a rock and a hard place. She's been beaten down into a surly cog in the machine.
AA is still suffering from the traditional Big Company command and control mentality. Ah, the good old days when customers couldn't easily talk to each other and there were limited information conduits.
Now, here we are on the Web, talking, talking, talking (And NOT flying AA.)
My own little dust-up with them is over a $50 luggage fee. Service Snafu: You're Overweight.
The airline is being run into the ground by poor management. They are rapidly gaining a bad reputation. It is as though they expect to coast on the name American Airlines like it is the most prestigious airline in the industry when it is not. After 9/11 AA needs to get it together. I have actually had a flight with them where the stews were having sex with the pilots. I will never fly this line again. It is ridiculous.
Haven't flown AA for a long time and my how far the mighty have fallen.
Thought I'd try AA to Detroit from LGA. What a mistake. First, my flight was canceled undoubtedly because it was empty as there was virtually no one in the waiting area.
Then when booking me on Northwest as an alternative, the gate agent lied and told me that the flight was in the same terminal, obviously just to get rid of me. I had to take a cab to another terminal and beg to get strip searched to make this alternative flight.
On the way back, I was bumped from my flight and promised compensation.
Of course, it was never received and when I called CS, I was given multiple stories about how and when it would be delivered.
PS, I do class action litigation so I am interested to see if anyone else has gone through the missing voucher scenario.
Since AA and Qantas denied fixing my problem, I used 21 century technology and created a anti-Qantas web site - not a competing blog (see details of my complaints on front page posted as bberg009)
www.qantassucksworld.com
In the first 48 hours 96,521 people have visited the site and submitted over 120 newspaper and personal stories. Don't get mad, get even. The last thing airlines want is for us to share our 'fun' stories.
Our AA flight to JFK on December 19th was over 3 hours late causing us to miss our Alitalia flight to Rome. The AA ticket agent at JFK said not to worry - AA would accept our Alitalia tickets and they booked us on their 11:45 PM JFK-London-Rome flight. They kept saying this for over 2 hours but at 11:30 PM they said there were no seats. They would put us up in a hotel and we would have to return at 1:30 PM on Dec 20th and try to get on one of their flights. To get on the 11:45 PM flight we would have to pay over $2,000 each (for coach seats) and they would talk to Alitalia the next day. We paid. They never told Alitalia. Our return tickets were cancelled and we had to pay another $2,000 each to fly back to JFK.
My situation is even worse than yours. I bought two tickets to my friend and her baby. I accidentally change the baby last name by the middle name and just noticed that after I received the tickets in my e-mail. I called AA to ask them to correct the name and they charged this absurd $100. $100 just to correct a passenger name. Can you believe that?
That is for sure my last trip flying AA.
JetBlue used to be good, but they suck now. They will outright lie and say a delay that is caused by hub congestion is a weather delay (when there was no bad weather.) Worse, the same customer service person[*] will say the delay was caused by congestion, but then finish the same email by saying it was "weather" and beyond their control. Oh, and that means their famous Customer Bill of Rights doesn't apply.
Hypocritical scum.
And they don't schedule more and later flights because "no one wants to fly in the middle of the night." I do. It beats sleeping in the airport!
[*] And do this without shame, as far as I can tell. The tone is always arrogantly cheerful, and really makes me wish I had a matter inclusion option on my internet service so I could attach a dead gopher to my reply.
The same thing happened to me with American airlines. I missed a flight from Dallas to Seattle because the security check line was too long, so I was put on standby for the next flight, however all the flights for the rest of the day were running full. I needed to get to Seattle urgently so I got myself a one way ticket to Seattle from the airport. I called AA just to make sure I still have me seat for the return flight although I missed my outgoing flight. The operator said no I dont and that I have to pay an extra $100 to keep the seat. I said let me get this straight - Im already screwed having to buy myself a one way ticket, and to add insult to the insult to the injury you my return reservation is being unless I pay you more? I did theh whole talking to the supervisor thing, but to no avail, and had to end up paying those extortion artists the hundred bucks. I think this policy is ridiculous and someone aught to sue them for it.
No wonder corporate America is suffering big time.
The customer service is going out of the door.
Hang ups and on-holds is a norm nowadays.
I guess you may not be so angry if she at least listen to what you wanted to say. Letting a customer to let off his steam is part of customer service management.
Perhaps the airlines is an ultra competitive industry and they need to squeeze whatever margin they can get out of the customer.
What terrible customer service!! Stay away from this airline at all costs...
I bought an American Airlines Newark-to-San Juan ticket through Expedia a few weeks ago and then AA decided to change my ticket. To no surprise, they wanted me to depart even earlier than my early morning outbound flight and even later than my early evening return flight.
Although I can make the flight, my sister cannot. I feel that it's only right that if I buy a tickets for departing at certain times, then that is the contract. A contract is a "meeting-of-the-minds" according to law. Therefore, the fact that this contract was unilaterally changed means that the contract was broken and I should be entitled to a refund (and I'm only requesting one here). Why should I have my money tied up with the airline where they can profit from my money?
Anyway, I tried to resolve this with both Expedia and American Airlines - and I fault them both to some degree for not having an efficient and straight-forward process in place to handle these issues - and spent 2 hrs on Saturday speaking with Expedia before they eventually told me I needed to resolve this with American Airlines.
Thankfully, Expedia tried hard to work with me to resolve this issue. I think that staying on the phone with me for that period of time is a testament to that.
Unfortunately, I can't say the same for American Airlines. After reaching a representative, I explained my situation to the rep. She said she couldn't help in which case I asked to speak with the supervisor. They must not understand English or something because I got the rep 3 times with the standard "bounce-back to Expedia" line... Ridiculous. It's really not that hard... if I ask to speak with a supervisor and the rep says yes b/c they can't help me, then pass me on to the supervisor. Telling me no or making up excuses doesn't change the fact that they can't help. If they could help, then they should do that in the first place...
Finally, I was patched through to the supervisor who apparently didn't want to have anything to do with me. I tried explaining my situation to her and that I was being tossed back and forth between AA and Expedia, but she gave me the same line before hanging up on me or even asking if there was anything else she could help me with, which in fact there was. Like I mentioned before, I was considering keeping my own ticket. Now, I'm not sure I want to do even that.
Bottomline is that I'm pissed. But I believe I have a right to be. You can judge for yourselves. Did I forget to mention that the return flight was pushed off for more than 90 minutes?
American Airlines, you've been warned. I don't know who this Shandy person thinks she is to just hang up on people. Her lack of professional courtesy is a disgrace to the organization and this will be the first warning of a campaign, both to the public and family and friends and to whoever will heed my warning, about the terrible customer service I received from Shandy - a customer service supervisor at American Airlines.
Please check the call records and hear for yourself. I spoke with her between 1 and 2:15 pm today March 10, 2008.
If you have a similar story, I urge you to tell your story here. Being as detail-oriented as possible will help illustrate to others what to expect.
Thanks,
MDS
Does anyone have a phone number for complaints within American Airlines?? I can't get hold of anyone except reservation line!! it's ridiculous! I assume it's because otherwise they'd have too many complaints to deal with!
Cheers in advance!
It's always funny when people say that customers who complain think the world revolves around them. Yeah, because wanting to be able to not pay an extra $100 so that you can use HALF of what you originally paid for is sooooooo self-absorbed. Why not request a private jet because of your long wait in the security line while you're at it? **
I've probably witnessed customers complaining at airports over 200 times and they are ALWAYS in the right, with completely reasonable requests. Not once have any of these people been acting remotely like they think the world revolves around them. That's just something customer service reps tell themselves so they don't have to stray from the rules cast in stone and think for themselves.
I have a hard time believing that AA cares about this blog or any other internet complaints one bit. It'll continue to be like this until there's something that resembles competition in the airline industry. Like someone else mentioned, you're lucky if you have more than one or two choices of airlines for any given route. Even if you do, there's always one that's far cheaper than the rest, so you pretty much have to go with that one, since even the cheapest flights are still overpriced. And it's not like you have a better chance of getting good service from the more expensive airline... there are no airlines that don't drop the ball on a regular basis with regards to customer service.
** previous two sentences were sarcastic
Word of mouth is powerful...especially when you have a really "big mouth" like Joel! Here ya go, Joel: I won't fly AA in the future (and I'm sure there are others here that will give you the same juice). How many people follow your blog? AA: dumb, dumb, dumb. When will companies realize the power of the consumer is growing bigger an bigger everyday with every blog entry?
We have all experienced bad customer service. And we all have the power to change things. I have a somewhat positive experience. I left Detroit for San Francisco to attend a reunion for Alex Mandossian's Teleseminarians via Dallas on AA.When I arrived in Dallas it was in the midst of an ice/snow storm on a Thursday. All flights were grounded as the actuaries in Dallas must figure that they dont need de-icing equipment due to the probabilty of risk. I could NOT believe the chaos- for all carriers. No hotel rooms to be had . This time American stepped up to the plate for AA's customers by opening the Admirals Lounge all night to let us sleep, and provided beverage service into the wee small hours. Because it was near school break all the flights were filled to the West Coast so I was not able to be there and be back in Toronto for an event on Monday. I decided to return to Detroit. AA gave me a full refund on the entire ticket that I had incidentally bought on Priceline as well as flew me home. I thought that was fair. I then wrote an email complaint to their Customer Service Department, for the inconvenience due to weather and the lack of planning for a major facility hub not to have sufficient equipment on hand for items that seem to be second nature in Canada. I got an email several days later , apologizing for my inconvenience and a voucher for $500.00 for the problem. Small compensation for missing Alex's event. I know that the weather was not AA's fault, but all the customer service and gate agents I dealt with in person were helpful. In a tough economic time for airlines, where air travel is a pain at best, I commend AA,who did not have to give me anything due to the nature of my ticket and my choices, I think they gave a better than expected response.
Just a different view on AA.
Dealing with most of the airlines is a joke. Most of them have been in or near bankruptcy and have no clue why. When they really get in troouble financially, they whine to Big Brother (the US government) and they get bailed out. A couple months after 9/11, Big Brother gave them $15 BILLION of our tax dollars. Yes, Joel, you are right, they don't get it and probably never will.
Some time back I had made a reservation to fly from McAllen, Tx. to Dallas (DFW) so I could use my advantage mileage before they would expire on Jan 11, 2008. When I went to purchase the ticket in McAllen, Tx. the attendant at the counter told me it would be $25.00 since I do not use credit cards. I handed her $30.00 however she was not helpful at all and did not know how to handle the transaction so she called the supervisor who in turn could not handle the situation. I waited for quiet a while to not avail and decided to cancel the reservation since other customers were waiting. After the incident I decided to order some magazines so I would not loose my mileage but later received a notice that the magazines I had ordered could not be processed even though the order was placed before the expiration date. What a dissapointment.
Hey Joel,
A mega-frequent flyer of many years here and you're absolutely right -- the rules are idiotic and the term "customer service" when referring to almost any major airline is a misnomer, and it's no surprise that they've all had their share of financial woes. You'd think they'd learn??...Oh, well. Having said that, one of the unfortunate things about the "rules" is that the rule you're talking about is standard (if you don't get on the outgoing leg or another leg of a journey, all subsequent tickets are automatically made void (the airline will resell your seat)). This became a huge issue several years ago. One-way tickets are generally considerably more expensive, so people were booking round-trips that they didn't need, thinking they could hop on the return after dissing the outgoing -- not so. Many people found themselves left out in the cold. Then another interesting thing happened when folks started taking advantage of lower round-trip ticket prices when only needing a one-way -- they would alternate the dates on the round-trips in such a way that they could use the needed legs of round-trips together in various combinations. It has actually been deemed "illegal" (why it should be, I don't quite understand...sounds like being a smart and frugal consumer to me! It's not illegal to buy those shoes you're not sure about and then never wear them!). What I really think happened is that those unused tickets left the airlines with more empty seats because they couldn't overbook them as horrifically as is standard practice (cynical about the airlines? Okay, so slightly, but not without reason!). Anyway, this isn't really an AA issue. It's standard for Delta, United, AA, NWA and others. If you don't take the last leg of your scheduled flights, so be it, but don't try that in the middle of your trip for any reason, or you'll find yourself without a ticket home.
Shame on you American Airlines. I thought I could expect more from a major carrier. My return flight AA#307 from DCA to DFW on May 3, 2008 at 9:05 AM was cancelled without my knowledge. Had I not called to re-confirm my reservation as I headed to the airport, I would have been stranded in DCA. Your policy of not attempting to contact a customer during non-business hours is inexcusable. AA reservationist's cavalier attitude towards this situation only added fuel to the fire. Cancelling this flight at 1:30 AM, the morning of a scheduled departure, does not leave a customer much time to figure out alternative plans. Shame on you AA. I am deeply disappointed in you.
A typical experience these days with AA... We got to the airport in St. Thomas this morning and checked in using one of the self service terminals, which we were directed to even though we stated we wanted to wait for the full service attendant. After checking in we waited until everyone behind us had checked in with one of the full service attendant before someone finally came over to give us our baggage tags. At that point, the attendant realized that the flight was now delayed and we would miss our connecting flight to Tampa; thus she rerouted us to Orlando. At which point the computers went down (pay attention here, this will come up later). She then hand wrote out the new baggage tags to go from St. Thomas to Miami to Orlando, then to DFW. At Miami we had to check in and get our boarding passes for the next two legs. When we did get there, and went to a desk, the lady quizzed us why we weren't going to Tampa. We patiently explained the situation, and once we finished she leaned over to an older lady trying to pickup some pills that were on the floor (in a blister pack) and snapped at her that she would help her as soon as she was done with us. We finally got our boarding passes, but by that time I was too intimidated to ask her if there was a chance of an upgrade on the DFW leg. I then went to another desk where I was informed that I would have to go to gate 11 to get that question answered (note that I wasn't at gate 11 the first time). That attendant was dealing with a delayed San Jose flight even though no one else was at the desk. When we finally arrived at DFW, our bags didn't. I approached a young lady sitting at the baggage desk (slumped and half asleep), who didn't seem very concerned about my bags, nor did the other gentleman sitting there. I had to ask several times to repeat her mumbled remarks. Another gentleman then came up and we moved to him for help (with the other two still sitting there wasting space). He felt that the bags would be on the next flight from Orlando coming in about an hour later. We went to eat and came back to check that flight. There was a bag from our original flight schedule, but it wasn't ours. We went to the desk at that terminal and explained the situation. The attendant put in a claim, but referenced the original computer generated claim numbers; when I tried to explain, he kept telling me those were the correct claim numbers because they were in the computer. I explained what happened in St. Thomas, but he was adamant that they would find my bags. We left... My wife then called the 800 number, and the lady there was snappy while my wife attempted to explain the whole ordeal. I finally got on the phone and told the lady that if they were trying to find the bags with the original claim numbers, they wouldn't find them since they were not on the bags - they had been switched for the handwritten tickets. She just said they would find my bags and get them to me... after waiting over three hours at home, I called back, FINALLY got someone intelligent that listened to my story, took the handwritten claim numbers and after around five minutes came back and told me the bags had been located and would be delivered to my house tonight.
To top it off, while waiting for everyone to board and get seated, one flight attendant snapped at another passenger, then game back next to where I was sitting and started talking about that passenger and others to another attendant... WITHIN EARSHOT OF EVERYONE SITTING THERE!!!! How rude!
If I can avoid flying AA in the future I will. Unfortunately, living in DFW, it is tough to avoid.
My father and sister recently flew AA from New York and were to be traveling back from our family vacation thru Chicago. They were notified that they were being divertedto DFW due to weather in Chicago area which is understandable. To find out when they landed in DFW there was no available terminal to depart the plane and they waited on the runway in the plane for almost an hour, missing their connecting flight of course to their final destination. Long story short they had to wait at the airport for any openings on the 2 last flights leaving that evening to wait on any type of accomodations when they knew the flights were all over-booked. The next morning they were finally able to get on a flight to their final destination. Come to find out that my sisters tote bag was damaged. My father who suffers from diabetes was upset with all this and attempted to contact customer service for any type of compensation and was told they would not be able to help them AT ALL! As a frequent flier myself with United Airlines I advised them to call and complain that it is understandable to divert the flight due to weather. Of course we all want to travel safely but when you're left on the plan for an hour it makes no sense when the crew knows who has connecting flights. I think it is is ridiculous to not compensate not only for the return flight but when they called and complained about the damaged luggage, customer service told them they would not compensate because the baggage was designed to be carried on! What? This day and age it's a priviledge to fly and not a necessity! Any airline should be grateful anyone would choose to fly with them and to not meet them a portion of the way is beyond my mind. If anyone does take the time to read this please consider other airlines when flying aside from AA in the future. Not to mention they have some of the oldest aricraft! To some its impossible so I wish you the best of luck in your future travels but to those that have the option to be consumer educated do research and see that AA has the most complaints in customer service and try an alternate. Of course my opinions are biased in saying United is the best being that I have never had any problems and the one time I did was treated with the upmost respect.
Well said. In my last two trips with American Airlines to NYC, each leg of their flights was either cancelled or delayed. Unbelievable. No wonder they are heading towards bankruptcy. And their flight attendees are so arrogant that they took away our seats without our notice to seat a mother with children, which is fine for us except that they have rows of empty seats in the business class. I challenged them to put the mother and children to the business class. Guess what? They threated to throw us off the plane. I will never fly on AA again, either though my employer has special deal with AA and chooses it as the preferred airline. I would rather sign waivers and pay more from my budget then be abused by AA. Continental and Southwest are much better.
By mystake I duplicated my son's ticket over the internet and didn't realize till the following day! Call AA customer service and spoke with some older woman who, when on and on about how I should of spent 20 bucks more and did it over the phone and I wouldn't of had this problem......HELLOOO....who does that now a day? This is 2008 and the internet is very popular incase you hadn't noticed! She was extremely nasty!! Saying it was all my fault, and I'm the only one to blame, and if I just would of spent 20 bucks more I wouldn't have this problem. (She must be independently wealthy) Anyway, she said she might be able to help me and put me on hold for a few minutes, returned and said, nope she can't do anything, except cancel the ticket and I would have a credit of $440 for a year. But it was in my son's name, who's not going anywhere in another year! The reservation was made within 20 mins of each other in the same name and same flight #'s!! All because I went into the confirmation and tried to get a "deal" on a car, and must of duplicated the ticket then. Thats all I can figure out how it happen. I cancelled the car. A legitament mistake! Not like I was cancelling the ticket all together, just the duplicate one. AA used to have a good name. What happen? I have 5 other tickets on this fight and they have ALREADY changed the times!!!! scary as its July and were not going till Nov!!! What else is going to change? After reading this blog I am very concerned about my tickets and trying to get a refund. I have contacted my CC and put a dispute in, hopefully I can get somewhere with them. American Airlines customer service was REALLY, REALLY POOR!!!! I have never been treated like that before. I just couldn't believe my ears!!
American Airlines SACKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I purchased a ticket on Monday,on Wednesday I call to confirm it I am told the CC did not go through which I said was bull. Then the rep says the bank rejected because the address was incorrect which is another BULL, I have been in the same house for over 2 years and same bank for over 10 years.
I call the bank the bank says AA tried to do a transaction for $0 (ZERO) which they declined. The I call AA and they tell me the address was not verified and they called the bank to verify which the bank people on the other line asked, WHAT BANK DID THEY CALL? IF THEY CALL US WE WILL VERIFY THAT THE ADDRESS IS CORRECT. So the lady says she is not in CC department and she CANNOT transfer my call. So I asked them to send the CC a note and have them call me.
You guessed right, no one called. So this evening I call and some dude starts saying my bank does not participate in CC address authorization, which the bank rejects categorically. Now I am forced to drive to the airport to pay for my mother in laws return ticket.
What kind of BULL is this?
I AM DONE WITH AA. If my mother in law was not traveling tomorrow i would cancel.
I waited 7 hours at Miami airport because AA did not have air plane ????? anyone believe that reason???. I talked to Bill customer service at the gate and he did not want to talk , maybe after hours chasing down from angry customers like me...I called AA 1800...customer service and the lady (to bad i could not get her name) told me that's delay is normal. There is nothing she can do about it..bottom entry customer service.American Airlines showed me that they don't care about their customers and were so short sighted that they could not see how this one instance caused me to tell countless people how horrific and non-existent their customer service is. Think that one customer doesn't matter and can't make a difference? Guess again American Airlines!!!! I just wish those bad, greedy companies like AA go out business. They might not read these blogs cause those CEO live in multimillion dollars house so busy collected millions dollars bonus. AA don't know this, one customer quit doing business with AA per day, that's the end for AA even they reform later ( How many time did they reform around lately???) July 2008
American Airlines hides behind their customer service web-form. Here are some direct addresses and phone numbers.
Marla.waddington@aa.com, jane.knight@aa.com, Sean.Bentel@aa.com, gerard.arpey@aa.com, gary.kennedy@aa.com, dan.garton@aa.com, rob.reding@aa.com, tom.horton@aa.com, kenneth.wimberly@aa.com, peter.dolara@aa.com, henry.joyner@aa.com, monte.ford@aa.com, mark.hettermann@aa.com, beverly.goulet@aa.com, rob.friedman@aa.com, denise.lynn@aa.com, art.pappas@aa.com, andrew.watson@aa.com, maya.leibman@aa.com
tim.rhodes@aa.com, tom.delvalle@aa.com
817 967-2092 817 967-2121 817 967-8500
joel,
i'm sorry u had to go through that. i also had a horrible experience with american airlines. we were traveling from jfk to puerto rico on a scuba diving trip. too bad...our luggage never came with us. we bought all our clothes from walmart and rented gear from the scuba diving store. spent at least an hour every day trying to contact the airline...what a waste of time. we should've just enjoyed our vacation instead of having an ounce of hope that our luggage would find its way. we finally got back to jfk...guess where we found our luggage? in a room FULL of lost luggage with a lady sitting ON IT doing her nails and talking to her 2 girl friends. that just left me speechless...oh, to make up for it...they gave us a $50 voucher to another american airlines flight. haha, i rather walk.
You're a stickler for principle yet you expect the airline to not adhere to their principles? You missed the plane. Doh. You need a new ticket. It is not the same ticket anymore. I'm glad you're not flying AA anymore so I don't have to sit and fly with people like you.
Alex, you are obviously in a minority as just about everyone here agrees with me. Unfortunate that you'll probably have to sit next to one of us some day. Eeek!
I'll keep this as shiort as possible;
My girlfriend and I took half days off to pick up our new dog being flown in from New Mexico. We waited for about an hour before being told our dog was "delayed." After another hour of talking to "customer service" people who apparently couldn't, didn't know how, or wouldn't help us, I called AA in New Mexico and cound out our dog was not put on the plane in Dallas. SO, or puppy sat in a cage for 3 hours in a noisy warhouse.
We both missed a full days work and instead of being at the airport for an hour, we were there from 11AM to 4:30PM. AND WHEN OUR DOG ARRIVED, she was in the cage, covered in her own feces and urine, and completely out of food water. So, I wanted to het her out of the cage asap. Of course right? So I asked the AA employee who brought her in if she would please cut the plastic tiw on her cage, so we could open it, get her cleaned up and give her water. This asshole AA employee who was filling out papers said to me, "I can only do one thing at a time. You won't get to leave with your dog until I fill this out, so what do you want me to do?" I had her repeat it because I couldn't believe what she's said to me. So, I told her I changed my mind; I now wanted her to just DROP DEAD.
What really, really, really pisses me off about that day is that I spent about four months trying to contact AA, because their employee's at Oakland airport were the biggest bunch of lazy, rude and totally unapathetic people I have ever witnessed in any business. After four months, I was just given the run-around. Each number I called, I was told that's "not there department" and just gave me another number. I wrote, I don't know, about 6 to 8 letters to various addresses to AA, NONE of which were answered.
I was thinking about it tonight. This incident that happened on November 5th, 2005, and it still pisses me off so much that I still want to try and find someone at AA who'll actually investigate and take responsibility for that day.
It was supposed to be a great day; Getting our designer puppy that we paid over $600 for, and instead, AA turned it into a day I will never forget. The stupidity and rudeness of the AA employee's was beyond description. If I told you everthing that happened, and everything that was said to me by AA employee's, you probably wouldn't believe me.
I'm going to try again to find someone at AA who actually acts like a professional. I wont hold my breath.
Here is policy most people are not aware of: If you purchase a ticket for someone else, and the ticket holder is unable to use the ticket, the airline issues the credit to the ticketholder NOT the person who paid for it! So, I can purchase the ticket and I can cancel or change the same ticket...BUT I cannot receive the credit for the ticket I purchased - talk about stealing from customers! How about that for extremely poor customer relations!
Hi Joel,
I understand how you feel with such horrible experience. I've been in the customer service business for more than 5 years and everyday is just a challenge however, over the years, I realized that sometimes customer service is not totally dependent in the company's policies but the way the representatives are handling each situation. Sure, there are rules that can't be bent --yeah--company policy, but your call could've been handled better, specially the fact that she's a person with authority. I always put myself in the the customer's shoes and understand why they are upset and try to find a way to compromise. Policies will always be there but you're right, each issue should be handled in a case to case basis. People are never in the same situation even if it looks like they are. Explaining the reasons and the justifications why a fee can't be waived could have made it bearable..of course a person with authority can give the discount to compensate for the inconvenience, handling the call professionally and with sincere empathy with what each customer is going through would have made it less painful. I always remind myself each time a customer calls in complaining about something, I remind myself that I'm a customer too and I totally know I'd do the same thing if I was in his/her situation. Customer service people has the advantage of being able to experience both sides and should know better, thinkin that if I'm the customer calling to a company,I would want a representative who will understand my situation and atleast try to do something about it..much more if it's a supervisor who has to authority to really do something.
Sadly, Magie represents bad customer service, there's really no service in what she did. In a more positive note, its not hopeless, there are people and companies who would be happy to have you as a customer. That's one power that consumers have -- the power to make a choice.
I'm not sure about other companies but in our company, we tally all complaints and send them over to management so they can make adjustments, changes in their policies to make it more convenient for our customers. Customer service is a powerful tool to innovate a company's strategy, every single personnel in an organization should be aware of that, not just the people answering the phones...if there were no complaints, there will be no improvements..and you're right, your opinion matters as a customer.
Regards,
Leah
I understand your frustration and pain. Get this - I've been trying for 2 months to get 2 tickets refunded. When I called and TRIED to find a live person to speak to, the American Airlines person on the other end told me that the tickets were non-refundable and that my father would have to fly within 12 months since we canceled the flight date and changed the tickets. Now - the reason I'm trying to get these tickets refunded is because my father passed away....
Originally I mailed the Dr.'s letter and ticket copies in (end of July) but then no word back. I called again (regular AA phone number) in August and was told it sometimes takes awhile. Then, around Sept. 8 (a few days after he passed away)I called again and the nice person I spoke to provided a fax number - so I faxed the request again, along with the death certificate and I requested someone contact me asap (that never happened).
I then emailed complaint division and asked for someone to contact me (one of my concerns is that no one confirmed receipt of the information I faxed and within that information is a death certificate with person information, ss#, etc.)-I wanted to be sure that it reached the correct persons. So then I received a 'canned email' back stating someone would contact me with 48 hrs or so (that was more than a week ago and still no response).
I've faxed, emailed and called more times than I care to remember, but it is impossible to reach a real person in the Tulsa Refund office for American Airlines or the Customer Service complain area for that matter. One of the phone numbers I have is a recording loop that absolutely will not put you in touch with a live body. The other number is for customer service (complaints, etc.) when I call that, it only rings and rings and rings and finally you get a recording saying the call is now being ended.
STOP THIS MADNESS! I've about reached my limit and ready to send someone personally to Suite 600 of 7645 E 63rd St in Tulsa to confront them to get this resolved. I belong to just about every frequent flyer airlines club, but I can tell you this - I will go OUT OF MY WAY to avoid flying or doing business with American Airlines ever again if this is how they treat their customers, alive or not!
Dude, get over it, they obviously have to charge some kind of fee for cancelling flights, you seriously weren't expecting that? I know you think you are really special but you are just another A-Hole customer on the telephone, probably the 100th person that lady, who is probably getting paid 12.00 an hour, has dealt with. What do you really expect her to do? Is she supposed to go up to her supervisor and say; "oh yea this guy Joel is on the phone, he seems like a really great guy and was so nice to me so please waive this fee for him?" Let me fill you in on some secrets of life: EVERYONE HAS TO PAY FEES. YOU ARE NOT THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE.
I am very frustrated with American Airlines. I am flying to Costa Rica from Detroit via Miami. When we purchased the flight, we were supposed to leave at 7:20 am and have a 2 hour layover in Miami. Not ideal, but the price was right and I thought we'd make it work. American Airlines rescheduled the flight to leave at 6am. Now I have to get up 1.5 hours earlier just to add 1.5 hours to my layover. If it were just myself flying, I'd be unhappy about it and suck it up, but I'm traveling with my two children ages 3 and 7. There are no other flights leaving any later on any airline that will allow us to make our connection, so I looked into flights the night before. I don't want to pay for a hotel night in Miami, but it's way better than the alternative. I e-mailed customer service (since they don't have a phone number available) asking if they could change our flights to the night before and put us up for the night in Miami (I knew this was a stretch, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask). It took them 15 days to respond and there response was: "We can change flights any time we want to it's in our Contract of Carriage" They recommended contacting reservations for any further inquiries. I called reservations and asked if they could change the flights to the night before and waive the fee since they made the change, but they wanted to charge me $450 (I'm not sure if this was total or per ticket because I was so peeved and wasn't going to pay it anyway.) I know it cannot possibly cost them $450 to make a simple change for an inconvience that they caused. I really pity the people on our airline that day because my kids who travel with fair frequency and are usually pretty good on airplanes are going to be impossible on that little sleep. I feel so frustrated that I have no other recourse than to just accept what the airline dishes out. I promise never to fly American Airlines again and attempt to convince others to never fly on them either.
To whom it may concern
I went on vacation from Jamaica to Fort Laurderdale from the 16th November to the 2nd December. On my arrival at Fort Laurderdale on the 2nd of December about 6 am for a 7 :30 am flight, flight #501 we were informed that the fligh was cancelled and we would have to go to Miami airport for the next flight back to Jamaica not be proveded with ground we would have to find our own way there. The attendant who checked my document at the FL airport was refused to assign me a seat on the flight from Miami after doing so for all the other passangers whom she attended to, and after going back to her to assign me a seat she informed me the she did not have any more time for me because she had her work to do, it as at this point that I went to another attendant this a gentle man who was very nice and told me that she should have assign me a seat which he did. I am a Jamaica just a visitor to the USA my party had already left the airport what was I to do not knowing your country. This was my first time travelling with AA and I doubt very much if I will want to do so again I was not impress with this because no one informed anyone about the cancellation and when we enquried what cause we we denied an explanation. I do hope you pull up your sock or you will be left with no passengers from Jamaica.
Thanks for your time.
AnnMaeir Bailey
Five minutes after departing in DFW my daughter discovered that she left her Red Blackberry Pearl on American Airlines Flt#1955 on 11/20/08. The gate agent Loletha Bush confirmed with the aircraft that they had the phone. My daughter waited one hour. No one from the aircraft ever walked up with it and Loletha never walked down the ramp to retrieve it. Loletha's solution was to take my daughter's contact info and get it to Lost & Found to be returned later or book her on an even later connecting flight. These solutions are outrageous. Why not just give her the phone now, problem solved. It has now been 18 days and it was never turned into DFW Lost & Found. I sent many emails so American Airlines could start an investigation/inquiry. You can imagine my frustration when each response referenced the first response. SEE BELOW
December 2, 2008
We have received your email regarding your missing cell phone. However, we indicate a response was provided on November 24 to an earlier email when your mother wrote on your behalf. A copy of the text to our previous response is as follows:
November 24, 2008
I'm sorry to learn of your daughter's missing cell phone. I can understand both your disappointments and frustration.
Although I don't have the benefit of seeing the circumstances unfold, the responsibility to handle such matters rests entirely with the station's lost and found office. Learning that you have filed a report with them, just to let you know, they will ONLY contact a customer if the item is identified. Mrs. Eggert, I hope your daughter's cell phone is found.
Sincerely,
Roberto Silva
Customer Relations
American Airlines
My daughter's cell phone wasn't missing until American Airlines LOST it. I notice a common trend in these email complaints. Their inability/refusal to handle their customers. They are trained to give you the run around. I just booked my daughter a flight home for Christmas. She will spend an extra 2 hours in airports, but I would rather inconvenience her then give American Airlines my business.
I am sorry this has happen to each of you dealing with American Airlines. I am having a horrible experience with them as well. I purchased 2 tickets and never used them due to military orders. I am paying for them however! I have been trying to pay my card off in full since 11/04/o8. I called to pay and they told me there would be a $14.95 charge to pay by phone - no problem as long as I can be done with AA. So on the 11th I noticed the monies had not been taken out of my account. I called and was told I had a $25.14 finance charged on something I had thought I paid in full. Not happy, I wanted to speak to someone who knew what was going on. Needless to say that didnt help. AA customer service can't find my banking information in the system so without calling me or sending me a notice in the mail just said I neglected my account. Now they are charging me several late fees, more finance charges, still want me to pay the pay-by-phone charge, and a returned check fee. The routing and account number have been checked several times and are correct. I have wrote letter after letter and sent fax after fax and can't get any answers about my account except that they refuse to remove any charges. Southwest has my approval and have been great!
Stay away from American Airlines!!!!!
I am sorry this has happen to each of you dealing with American Airlines. I am having a horrible experience with them as well. I purchased 2 tickets and never used them due to military orders. I am paying for them however! I have been trying to pay my card off in full since 11/04/o8. I called to pay and they told me there would be a $14.95 charge to pay by phone - no problem as long as I can be done with AA. So on the 11th I noticed the monies had not been taken out of my account. I called and was told I had a $25.14 finance charged on something I had thought I paid in full. Not happy, I wanted to speak to someone who knew what was going on. Needless to say that didnt help. AA customer service can't find my banking information in the system so without calling me or sending me a notice in the mail just said I neglected my account. Now they are charging me several late fees, more finance charges, still want me to pay the pay-by-phone charge, and a returned check fee. The routing and account number have been checked several times and are correct. I have wrote letter after letter and sent fax after fax and can't get any answers about my account except that they refuse to remove any charges. Southwest has my approval and have been great!
Stay away from American Airlines!!!!!
Joel I used to be an acting customer service supervisor at AA and all you had to do is ask the Gold Advantage Desk Supervisor to waive the change fee if she didn't do it you could have called in to the Exective Plat line they will ALWAYS do it you just got a rotten apple supervisor that's all.
Last year my wife and I were checking in for our flight from Costa Rica to Miami when the lady at the desk completely wrecked my wife's passport in the scanning machine. She calmly proceeded to carefully tape it back together again and move us on - I couldn't believe it!!!! Uh Uh - no way!!
We were our way back to the UK witha planned 6 days visiting family in Miami, so after making them speak to the UK Consulate, we were advised that a passport with damage such as had been inflicted by the lady from American Airlines would require a replacement passport - basically she'd ripped the main page in half!!
To cut a long story short they put is up in a hotel for two nights - gave $10 vouchers each for hotel food - which bought a hamburger and pepsi each - and a reluctantly paid for a taxi to the passport issuing office for the two days refusing to pay the driver for the waiting time.
The new passport cost $75.........American Airlines offered $200 off our next flight and refused to pay for the replacement passport - or the cost off moving our ongoing Virgin Flight to london so we could still have our 6 days instead of 4 with family we hadn't seen for over 10 years!!
This is the type of trash that is destroying AA's reputation worldwide.
AA know people(in the majority) are too busy to trudge through their complaints 'procedure' and are happy to hold back making any cash renumeration - even when the customer - in my case - was left PERSONALLY out of pocket by American Airlines direct negligence!!
Never, never, NEVER will I fly American Airlines again - not unless I ABSOLUTELY have to.
I book travel for an organization in Portland--upwards of 100 tickets per year. Because of American Airlines' poor customer service, I have taken them off my list of airlines. Not only do they have poor customer service, they have stupid customer representatives.
I will never fly American Airlines again! Their policy of charging a $150 fee to rebook when fares go down is extremely customer un-friendly. (By contrast, you can rebook on Southwest for free.) Also, they could not explain why the taxes shown on the e-ticket confirmation were $20 more than shown on the itinerary screen. Do yourself a favor and stay away from American!
On 18 Feb 2009, my wife was informed of the impending death of her mother in Plattsburgh, NY. The Doctors gave her three to five days to live. This later proved to be incorrect as she didn't pass away until 5 March 2009.
I called American Airlines the same day to inquire about purchasing two tickets at the bereavement rate. I was told that the rate would be $586 per person. I didn't book the tickets because I couldn't provide a return date to the agent. I have since found out that the return date could be changed without a penalty and the travel could take place up to 30 days. If I knew this at the time I would have purchased the tickets.
I then went on the internet to Travelocity.com and found two round trip tickets from DFW to EWR for $261.40 per person before taxes and fees. Tickets 0017407104036 and 0017407104037 were issued at a total cost of $639.58. We also purchased the travel protection plans for an additional $39.90. We selected 21 Feb 2009 as our outgoing date and 3 March 2009 as our return date.
As 3 March 2009 approached and my mother-in-law was still surviving despite liquid and food restrictions, we decided to change or cancel the return leg of the flight. The agent advised that the best method to proceed was to cancel the return flight in its entirety. The surplus cost of the initial leg of the travel would later be applied to the new ticket. Additionally, we were informed that we would be charged $180 each for changing the itinerary of the return flight and these change fees would be waived upon presentation of a death certificate. We were advised that these transactions could also take place at the flight terminal.
At approximately 13 March 2009, 5:00 PM, my wife and I proceeded to the American Airlines ticket counter at Newark airport. We proceeded to determine the availability of aircraft seats to DFW for this day and were advised that seats were available on flight 2075, Class K, departing at 7:35 PM. The ticketing clerk made a phone call lasting almost 15 minutes to determine the cost of each ticket. This is where I feel we were ripped off. Tickets 0012191831373 and 0012191831372 were issued for the travel. Each ticket was charged $980.47 for travel, and another 105.33 for fees and taxes for a total of $1085.80 for each ticket. An adjustment of $312.80 was then made to each ticket to bring the final return cost to $773.00. Finally when I add the outgoing flight cost of $339.74 and the return flight of $773.00 I arrive at a flight cost of $1,112.74 each.
I fail to see how the initial bereavement flight cost went from $586 per person to $1,112.74 per person I feel that I was substantially overcharged during a particular emotional time and am entitled to a refund of such overcharges.
Please respond to me at emarin@sw.rr.com. And let me know if you require additional information. We travel on American Airlines when we go back to the East coast from Texas and feel we are entitled to some consideration. Thank you.
On 18 feb 2009 I purchased two online roundtrip tickets Bogota - Miami - Bogota for me and my wife. What a surprise when I received an email with my reservation but not my wife's one. I tried the call center and they told me we have to wait because there was an homonym and they cancelled her reservation due that. I exposed my complaint once again and finally we could get the two tickets, but there was no the problem. The real problem was they charged three times the total costs of the tickets and not the price they offered us on their web page but higher ...INCREDIBLE..., so my vacations had been a complete disaster, I couldn't rent a car, we have to go to a friend's house instead a Hotel and we cannot do some other activities because of this extracharge.
Tomorrow I will present my complaint personally in Biscayne Blvd office (Miami) I hope to get a positive answer about this problem.
I cannot imagine my flight back to Bogota by the same company. I forgot to say you this was not my first problem with AA I had others minor obstacles some time ago.
I hate American Airlines ...Is the worse air company of U.S.
Thank You!
Incredible, I give up with American Airlines I had travel with this company which is supposed to be the most prestigious airlines in industries,but i had discover that is the most incompetent company that I'd ever used,my first flight with them was in december 2008.new york(jfk)miami/medellin(colombia).medellin(colombia)/miami/new york(jfk)the checking was great no problems once i get to miami nightmare start i lose my connection flight to medellin(colombia)they put me in a hotel like it was a great incentive plus a couple of dollars to buy food but only in the hotel,ok i gave them the benefit of doubt for been in december to much air traffic and stuff but once again i used them on march of 2009 i was really thinking of what happened to me but like i said i gave them the benefit but i honestly regret this decision now everything when smooth until i got to new york after an hour of waiting and the pathetic staff changing belts first belt #8 them belt#10 finally my baggage don't show up what happened it was at miami airport them they said we will take it to your house well what i can do? ok i waited for my baggage the whole day well finally it arrive at 9:30 pm, i said wow thx GOD,nightmare is over guess what? still more to come mi suitcase was missing a wheel all broke down, anyway i didn't tell the guy who brought me the suitcase i just said to myself what a bastards and i definitely wont travel with this incompetent company
How can making a change to tickets that are five months away cost American Airlines $300?
Charging $300 is American Airline's policy for changing the two tickets that I reserved using reward points.
I know the airline industry is struggling, but a policy that gouges customers to make a few dollars, does not produce good will for American Airlines.
For $300 I can purchase a new ticket on Southwest Airlines.
For me, a previously happy AAdvantage member, waiving the $300 fee for ticket changes would go a long way to keep me from taking my business to Southwest Airlines.
Thank you for posting this, Joel.
I won't add to the long list of complaint descriptions, but what I will say is that I am sitting at La Guardia, without my luggage, thinking about how American has hijacked what has now amounted to 24 hours of my life and $250 of my money.
I cannot remember the last time I was on an AA flight that left on time.
I'm done. I'll fly anything. I'll take the train. I WILL WALK, but I won't fly American anymore.
When is someone going to finally bring a major class action suit against this company?
-Regina
Here is my story from hell:
Dear Customer Support, American Airlines,
re xxxxxx . xxxxxx is my Aadvantage #.
Last weekend was the Weekend of Hell, sponsored by American Airlines.
First of all, Friday 4.03.09, CID to EWR, I was held up 11 hours in ORD. I was told there were problems with cancellations due to weather, BUT ONLY 25% OF THE FLIGHTS WERE CANCELLED. Fine, but how come, my flight/destination got cancelled about 6 times during the day? If 75% of the flights were going out, why was our passenger group delayed repeatedly? The odds of us getting on 75% of the time, but cancelled 6 different times, are MINISCULE? Who does booking algorithm?
Secondly, my main complaint:
Delays with American Airlines on OVRSIG on return flight April 5th.
I had set phone alerts for the return portion; Called me to announce flight was One hour late, realized I could fly EWR to ORD, but would miss my connection to CID, and then would have to be put up in Chicago. So I called and requested I be put on tomorrow's flight, and that AA issue vouchers for hotel, taxis, food and internet. They agreed and put in record locator, and told me to go to airport and pick up vouchers. I told them I would do later in the evening, and stay in NYC a couple of hours later, and was fine.
The agent failed to mention that the Ticket Desk at EWR was closed on Sunday night, so I arrived too late to get there. No one was at the Ticket Counter, it was closed!!!!
cOMPLAINT one: cOULDNT THEY ADVISE THE CUSTOMER OF THE sUNDAY NIGHT HOURS OF aa SO I COULD HAVE COME? THEY KNEW I WAS PLANNING TO STAY IN nyc A COUPLE OF MORE HOURS, WHY WASTE MY TIME? This is total negligence, and wasted 2 hours in EWR airport and with AA Customer Service trying to get my hotel vouchers.
HOW UNLIKELY IS IT THAT A MAJOR AIRLINE IN A HUGE INTL AIRPORT IS CLOSED SUNDAY NIGHT???
When I finally found AA baggage claim, the supervisor (Raymond) challenged my request for a room and I told him just to look at my record locator xxxxxx.
2nd Complaint on return flight : Raymond wasted my time confirming the previously-setup voucher . Why waste both of our times trying to re-negotiate what your phone agent had set up already? This is insulting.
3rd complaint: Never kept me, the customer, informed of their progress to get taxi, meals, and hotel booking. Raymond was the Supervisor, his people skills need improvement. They had 3 employees there, one of them was doing nothing. They weren't working too hard on my case.
4th complaint, the major one:
Your flight had mechanical difficulties, not an act of Nature, and you put me up, eventually, in a hotel.. The re-booking was the following day to ORD/CID at 2:55. When I got to the Airport, I was not on the flight, and the American Eagle attendant told me I had a confirmed flight at 9:40 PM!!!!! Here I had spent 11 hours waiting for my Fri flight in ORD's wonderful K concourse, now I was asked to wait another 7 hours in ORD waiting to get to CID!!!! Shouldn't I be on a higher priority than that?
The agent- who shouldn't be an agent, she couldnt communicate, she spoke English very poorly, didnt know the meaning of the word "typical" -- told me the reason that I wasnt on the flight was that I made the booking on April 5th. I explained to her that the booking was actually made on the 21st of March, and she saw a yesterday date for booking b/c of the flight cancellation due to mechanical problems of AA. She insisted I made the booking only yesterday, I repeatedly told her no..... she wouldnt listen. I should have been taken WAY BEFORE the standby's. She claimed she could do nothing for me in the airport, the decision was being made outside of the airport.
Meanwhile, I am checking on my status trying to get someone to help me and was told by an alert AA phone agent to find a Gate Supervisor who monitors many gates. Even though no gate clerk could find a seat, the Gate Supervisor found one on the 4:45 flight, saving me 5 hours, but still wrecking my appointments. I still got in 24 hours late after driving 2 hours. It could have been even 5 hours later, with the help of your incompetent gate clerk.
I am extremely disappointed with your customer service and ill-trained and poorly-selected agents. How can I recover the lost time?
The last thing I want is a perfunctory form letter, that would only upset me more. Pls investigate these agents. I want a free flight and whatever else you can give.
Pls contact me at xxxxxxx in the afternoons.
Sincerely,
Big corporations are going to learn the power of twitter and social media
the hard way. Gone are the days where customers dont have a voice. I hope everyone who reads this diggs it and tweets it.
Scott McCollum
http://YourGameChanger.com
On 3/25/09, I booked 4 tickets for a multi-destination trip. 5/2/09 SJC to RSW for 1 week, 5/9/09 RSW to NAS for 1 week, 5/16/09 NAS home to SJC. As normal the agent repeated the flight dates and times, I confirmed that they were correct, authorized the total charge of $2,689.84. I trusted that our conversation was sufficient, I assumed wrong. On 4/9 I printed my itinerary and upon closer investigation realized that my lap child was not included and my Saturday, 5/16 flight home was incorrectly listed as Monday 5/11. I contacted AA to correct the problem. I was informed that in order to get the 11:00 a.m. flight I had originally requested, I was going to be charged an additional $1,200.00 in increased flight fees and ticket change fees. My only other option was to accept a 6:30 a.m. flight with a $245.96 fare increase and $600.00 ticket change fee. After explaining the circumstance as they had occurred and the great inconvenience (to my family of 3 children under 6) the supervisor agreed to waive the $600.00 change fee. I authorized the $245.96 fare increase and requested the add on of the $12.00 lap child ticket. Once again I foolishly assumed my flight headache was over. Upon checking my new itinerary I found that once again, my lap child was not included and I was in fact charged the $600.00 ticket change fee. I called AA again only to be told that there is no record of the supervisor agreeing to waive the $600.00 ticket change fee. I asked for the name of the supervisor that charged my credit card, so that I could resolve the issue directly, only to be told that there is no way to look up her name. AA is unwilling to correct the problem. Now our $2,690.00 flight is going to cost us an additional $600.00. One honest mistake is an acceptable inconvenience. A second blatant error and refusal to correct it is unforgiveable. Our anniversary and 1st born sons' birthday are on the same day in May, we celebrate with a vacation every year. We will never fly AA again.
Wow that fee is ridiculous!
In marketing, customers who do take the time to complain are some of the most loyal customers to your company!
You must retain these customers by waiving fees.
I had a dumb 10 dollar fee from my bank and I complained. They waived it in a heart beat!
Helloooo... everyone.
I'd been a frequent traveler of AA, specially for international flights, and the service is one of the worst. 4 flights of my 5 last flights have been delayed, 4 to 5 hours waiting for a plane (the only good thing about it is that i know very well the Miami airport, JKF airpot and Liberty -Newark- i had to walk around the airports to kill the time lol. and i had met too much people because of the delayed flights it's the only good thing because of the bad service of aa), and the employees of AA doesn't care. For that reason i decided to change my airline company, now i travel with continental or delta, i would like to fly with southwest, people say it has a good customer services, but they don't fly to south america.
And remember the customer has the reason sometimes, sometimes the customer is wrong, but if the customer is wrong then try to find a solution, be friendly. If u are friendly you will win, and u will have a good day and the customer too.
Bye...
"And since I'm the customer, it is only my opinion that matters."
Haha, sad to say, it doesn't work this way all the time. And sometimes people are just not flexible enough to make changes. They ignore the complains made and firmly stick to their rules, thinking that it is discipline. And over time, their rules turn into tradition and culture and its gonna stick to the end . Unless a "rebel" emerges, just gotta suck it in.
Interesting entry though =]
Oh! I thought they were only good at losing your luggage! Last time my wife and I flied to Vegas for a concert, and guess what?! We picked our luggage in the airport when we returned home. I never choose AA for my next flight. We gave up calling them after the first day of our trip and tried to enjoy our vacation and the concert in jeans! I wanted to get the expenses back after we got home, but they put me in such hassle that I gave up!
American Airlines Stinks! If you think customers are mistreated...you should see how they treat their non-management employees. Bad for business all the way around.
I digged this for you because I hate fees!
AA stands for AAssholes
American marooned my wife and I overnight in Dallas/Ft. Worth on a flight back from Mexico in 2006.
I was recovering from food poisoning at the time and I was totally out of it, so my sweetie went to see what was afoot.
The service staff at the American desk in Mexico gave not one crap about our delayed flight, an ill hubby, our missed connection, or anything else.
Had my sweetie not caused a stink (note: never piss my wife off. Powerfully demonic mojo ensues when she's pissed and you DO NOT want to be on the wrong side of it), we'd have been totally screwed.
I've flown hundreds of thousands of miles with lots of different airlines but after landing in Dallas NINE HOURS LATE and being stuck in a fleabag, roach infested motel overnight, and then up at the crack of dawn to get a 7 a.m. flight back to Philadelphia,
I will never, repeat NEVER fly with American again.
aug 2008, courtesy of american airlines, we had a 12hr delay from montego bay, we were allowed to disembark at a gate under construction, leaving us in limbo between the plane and immigration, we were stranded in miami over night and then the following day put on a plane that had engine trouble and were told we would be spending another night in miami! we would have missed our connecting flight to the uk had i not kicked up the biggest stink ever! ground staff came on the plane and offered us an alternative flight.
i quote from the letter of apology sent to me from american airlines " the next time you travel with us, i know we'll restore your confidence in our ability to get you where you are going- as planned"!!!!!
well they surpassed themselves this time (june 13th 2009)!
my flight from turks and caicos was 45 mins late which meant that i missed my connecting flight. but surprise, surprise as it was another aa flight it had been delayed by an hour and i managed to pick it up. as a result of the delay we were placed in a queue to enter newark for 2 hrs and we ran low on fuel meaning that we had to divert to a remote airport to refuel!
as expected when we eventually arrived i had missed my continental flight back to the uk. the best i was offered was a flight 24hrs later, meaning id miss work. i asked for another flight but was told there werent any and the "lady" (i use that term lightly) wouldn't even phone continental to see if they would put me on standby for the later flight!
thankfully i headed over to continental and they had already put me on the later flight
american airlines you are a bunch of half wits and your company stinks!
you can stick your vouchers i will never ever fly with you again!!!!!
I just had a similarly unpleasant experience with customer service. My father, a lifelong AA customer, used his (soon-to-expire) AAdvantage miles to book us flights to Chicago. Knowing that AA recently added checked bag fees, and having little luck parsing the baggage-charge exception verbiage on the website, I called the 800 number.
The automated lady told me to expect a 2-minute wait. Eight minutes later, a brusque man named Jason picked up and told me that I would in fact have to pay for a checked bag. Frustrated, because I have to bring along liquid medication that is bigger than the TSA's allowed size, I said that I wished this baggage charge had been made more clear at the time of booking.
Jason said, "if your medication weren't liquid, then you could carry it on the plane."
I said, "well, I know that--" at which point he interrupted me to say, "yes, of course you know that, because I just told you."
I was taken aback at his rudeness, and he pushed on: "Is there anything else? Goodnight." He did not pause at all after asking the first question, and hung up on me before he'd hit the final 't' in "goodnight."
My problem wasn't a big one - $15 isn't a serious amount, and I wasn't particularly surprised that they'd tack that onto what was supposed to be a free flight - but the horrible reception I got from Jason tells me that AA doesn't even care enough to instruct its employees to be polite on the phone. No more AA travel for me, or for the rest of my family.
Does anybody know if there's a reliable way for me to let AA know about the rude treatment (assuming they care at all)? I couldn't find an email address online, and based on my experience with the 800 number, I doubt calling it again will do much good.
I had an unpleasant experience last week with Americna Airlines. The agents/Customer Service Representaitve are very unprofessional and unwilling to assist customers. It seems as though every CSR that I dealt with from Miami Internationl to New Orleans, all had the same attitude. I was very distrubed to see such poor service from beganning to end. I arrived at Miami 1 1/2 hours prior to departure and due to the lack of counter staff, it took over 45 minutes just to get to the ticket counter not to mention the rest of the fiasco. The ticket counter rep refused to let me put my luggage through and told me to take it as a carry-on. Well I didn't have a problem with it except that i had my purse and another bag with me. WELL that became a nightmare as the agent refused to let me go through unless i converted the 3 pieces into 2. Needless to say I had to over-stuff my suitcase in order to downsize to 2 items which made my carry-on too large for the over-head compartment, To top it off, I am 5 feet tall and, of course, could not readh the over-head compartment. Thank GOD for a wonderful passenger that offered to help me. Since my carry-on did not fit, an agent started shouting that I could take my suitcase with me. The flight was completely filled with passengers and seems like everyone was just staring at me when I told her I was fed-up with American Airlines services and would never use them again. When the flight arrived at NEW ORLEANS AIRPORT, GUESS WHAT, my luggage did not arrive and of course, had no ID tag. That was A scene. The airline managed to recover my luggage the next day and to avoid futher delays I asked that they send it to the Gulfport/Biloxi airport. My final destination was Gulfport.
I used Continental Airlines for my flight into Orange County and I had absolutely NO PROBLEMS.
Good-bye American Airlines, with your service you will soon be IN A CHAPTER 7 BANKRUPT STATUS.
i was just wondering. i have a connected flight leaving washington regan airport for jamaica.we are going to change planes in miami.on my itinery it states that i would have to wait at miami airport for approximately 3 hours. so i have decided to utilize that time to my advantage.my sister lives in miami so she has decided to come see me within that time frame at the airport.my question is......is it possible for me to exit the airport or for her to enter the airport?????thanks
Dear Mr G J Arpey,
Mr Arpey, I write to you expressing my disappointment at the false perception one is left with after reading your article title 'Happy Anniversary' highlighting American Airlines' Admirals Club service in the August 1st edition of American Way magazine. I attach a copy of the article to this correspondence as a reference
I am a young Australian traveller who has been saving up for some time to take a grand world adventure. When booking my flights, I choose to use the trusted name of the One World alliance and the good reputation of Qantas Airways and it's affiliates. I spent approximately $4500 AUD on my round the world fare and used my hard earned money to make an investment in premium membership to the Qantas Club lounges (and their affiliates). I had researched before leaving Sydney that my tier of patronage with the Club would provide me access to lounges on One World Alliance companies of which American Airlines Admirals Club is associated with.
So when I prepare myself to arrive at Miami International Airport early on the 18th of July to have my breakfast, finalize accommodation and tour itineraries in what should be a 'calm oasis and comfortable place to relax and get some work done among the hustle and bustle', I expect that the 'investment' i have made in these 'especially tough times' is as you say in your article is appreciated by your organization. I find that this was anything but the case this morning.
Instead of having my investment honored, I was confronted with staff who acted more like nightclub doorman than refined business lounge staff. Your article claims that after seven decades of service to patrons you now have "less formal (no dress code) and less exclusive (anyone can join)". As I am backpacking the globe, I obviously did not appear to look like the 6 other business men and women that had accessed the lounge that morning. I believe that I was judged by the staff who treated me as though I did not belong in the lounge and were not empathetic or attentive to my needs. It must be said that your policy requires that Qantas Club members show their valid Qantas Club Card to access the lounge. When I arrived at the admiral club in Gate C , I was told by your the only friendly American Airlines staff member I have come across yet in my travels, who explained that I did have right of access to the Admirals club but that it would be more convenient for me to be at Gate E as this was where my flight was scheduled to depart from. She explained that she had checked me in and that all I needed to do was present my valid ID (passport or Australian Drivers license) and I would be ushered into the lounge.
Upon arriving at Gate E, I was greeted by 3 ladies who were too engrossed in their own conversations to listen to me. I tried to explain that I had already been checked in but the lady attending to me stated that it doesn't work that way, and that she would have to check it all again. When she stated that I needed my Qantas Club Card, she was not willing to listen to my predicament, this being that I had paid my membership on the 23rd of July and departed Sydney on the 24th of July. As you would know it was impossible for Qantas to provide me with a card within hours of paying my membership. After trying to have my point understood by your staff at the lounge in Gate E for a good 20 to 30 minutes, I was told that If i could prove I had paid by providing a receipt, I would be provided access. I requested that I be allowed to walk 4 steps behind the reception desk to be in your WiFi business zone and provide proof of payment by means of the emailed receipt I had received upon confirmation of patronage to the Qantas Club. Your staff still refused to show any empathy to my cause. I tried to appeal by saying that I could give them a receipt if I could get wifi access and that I had paid over $5000 AUD for this trip (including lounge memberships) and was merely needing to have a quick bite to eat have a coffee and send a few emails. Still I was refused. I was told that I had to have my card or a receipt.
I proceeded to leave the lounge, only to become further displaced in the elevator. Believing I deserved better treatment than this, I had to find a public WiFi spot, (for which I had to pay a small fee) to be able to pull up the receipt on my laptop. I returned to the lounge to demonstrate this. By now the ladies finally thought that a call to Qantas to verify what I was saying might be a good idea and proceeded to tell me that before I went to the bar I should print out a copy of the receipt in the business centre as I will continue to have this problem all around the world in the different lounges my itinerary is set for.
As so much of my 'oasis' time was wasted, I ended up having my soup poured into a styrofoam cup, a few crackers shoved into my pocket and rushed out of the lounge as my flight was beginning to board. As I take my seat (incorrectly ushered by the 1st officer flight attendant) I open American Way to find your article praising the luxury, ground breaking Admirals Club that is celebrating 70 years.
I'm surprised that the institution you seem so pleased to promote in your magazine, can continue to attract patronage after the rude, apathetic and judgmental service I received.
I write to you asking how Sir your institution can justify treating their "VIP's" with such appalling service and how it is envisaged that your claims for a more relaxing, more comfortable and more productive travel experience are proven by the experience I was shown today. How will your 70 year old institution honor it's commitments to my investment in a better way to fly?
I seems that american really is the unfriendly skies at best. This spring my wife flew back from New Oleans while 7 months pregnant. The ticket agent working the desk actually had her in tears. My wife asked if the agent would lift the bag and stroller onto the scale because she was pregnant and could not lift heavy objects. The agent responded "Well i'm not the one who went out and got pregannt am I?". It just makes me sick how they treat people. My family will never touch that airline again.
this is a response to Shhh. If you hate customer service so much quit! If a cop can't handle drunks he gets fired for sucking. The same goes for crappy customer service robots with no seperation of personal and work life. Boo on you for even posting.
I can't belive all bad response. I have emergency no one able to help.customer service is bad. I tought i get treated like that becouse of my accent bamer
@shhh. I've got news for you. If all a manager can do is go by the book, then they are not managing--any fool could look up a policy and take actions accordingly. But when there are extenuating circumstances,that is when a manager demonstrates his/her value by over-riding a policy that is not approriate in a given circumstance. A corporation that fails to recognize this--i.e fails to empower the manager (and subordinate staff, for that matter) will most likely have dire customer service issues; and so a corporation that is customer-driven will have survival issues
A lot also depends on who you get at the other end of the line. I talked to Deborah Lee from Customer Service, who is a Supervisor. I was polite with her and she was too. She empathized and didn't waste time in playing games. She quickly offered to reduce the change price to $75 from $150. And since the ticket fare had reduced since I bought it, she also applied the discount. In all I paid $36.40 for the adjustment and was very satisfied with her way she handled the issue.
But there is no doubt that this is a stupid policy by AA. Worst of all, they don't even mention it in bold that if a customer decides to miss the first leg of the flight, the second is also cancelled automatically.
For those not satisfied with the resolution provided by customer care should read these three websites and take some action against them. Don't be a spectator, do something!!
I travelled on American Airlines 18th and 21st November respectively (Accra-London-New York-London-Accra). The travels from/to London were on AA and these are the times that I witnessed the full play of AA negativity.
First, there was this elderly travel attendant who was just not customer friendly and seems to be tired of working. I found it even difficult to ask for services from her.
Second, apart from the small snacks served it seemed to me that every other request will have to be paid for. I do not even drink alcohol, coffee and tea. Other airlines are very mindful of the passengers needs and therefore go the extra mile. Not AA.
Third, this is the SHOCKER!! I checked in at NY on my way to London-Accra. The first problem was that I was made to check-in electronically even though there were AA officils around. I asked myself whether the machine will be able to respond to any questions that I may have. Then the "explosinon"-- I was requested to pay US$50 just for wanting to check-in a second suitcase and NOT becuase of any excess luggage. Without this payment, I will either have to abandon the suitcase or abandon my trip home!! The suitcases weighed 28 kgs and 10kgs respectively, AA 34 13 48 and AA 34 13 49, refers please. I had no option than to reluctantly pay the US$50 and was promptly issued with a receipt #00114247262374/ 001 2608285578.
Other airlines across the atlantic do provide their passengers with at least two free checked-in baggages of limited weight. Why not AA?
From this unpleasant experience, I want to request a refund from AA. Otherwise, I want know from AA whether this is not naked cheating of me.
Furthermore, whilst the pilots on flight AA132/21 deserve high commendation for their efficiency, this can not be said of the aircraft that seems to be of the old type or extended usage.
AA, please wake up and treat your passengers well. I thought what I went through with you a few years ago has been corrected and improved upon.
Now Joel, have you ever worked a costomer service job?
I agree that, for the most part, pleasing the customer is really the only option. However, sometimes customers make stupid demands. Were you aware of the possible charge if you had to cancel?
If not, then I agree that you're right, but sometimes customers just don't pay any attention.
Also, some customer service reps (myself included) wave things such as fees, despite knowing we will get in trouble later (which we DO) for the sake of trying to please the customer.
The customer is NOT always right. It is 50/50, I promise you.
Hello Joel.
I just wanted to say thank you for posting your frustration with American Airlines. I had a very similar experience because of something that had to do with my 86 year old grandmother and 4 year old son. I was charged the $100 change fee as well as the difference between the price of my old tickets and tickets if I had originally planned to use only part of my flight. They informed me that I had to re-ticket a ticket that was not changing...costing me a total of $1,152.00. I've flown American for years and feel like this is unacceptable customer service.
Hello Joel,
I would like to know if you think it would do any good to call American Airlines about a problem my daughter just had on the 27th of December.
We had purchased her a ticket home from LA for Christmas, for the 19th returning 27th on the 19th flight she had to switch planes in Dallas. Upon arrival at Detroit she found out she had no luggage. They did send it to the house the next day, but, it's Michigan and pretty cold.
Her return flight is what I would like to complain to them about. Her flight did leave about a half hour late from DTW to Dallas, and when she got there she was to switch to flight 2493 to LAX. When they got to Dallas, they rushed them off the plane (about fifteen of them) and into a bus to their terminal, only to find out that the flight had left ten minutes early!!!!! They said they didn't get the notification in time that there were that many people coming in and heading to LAX. She booked a flight for the next available 11:30 28th and was given a room at a hotel then was told to go wait for the shuttle. She went to wait, and had to leave her group of people. The shuttle never came, she called the hotel over and over again...no answer. When she went back to AA terminal all was closed down and there was no one there to help. Her group was gone and she was alone. She said the only person she found in the airport was a man that deals with lost luggage. He called another shuttle but they wouldn't take her because that wasn't one of his stops. He advised she call a cab. My daughter is not a frequent flier so all of this was very scary and upsetting to her, she fortunately had enough for a cab..but what if she didn't?? I'm so mad the AA didn't hold that plane, I know that they are supposed to if there are enough people coming AND THERE WERE! Like I said they admitted that they sent them notification, and were told flight 2493 didn't get it in time.
I will never book on this airline again, I know things happen, but, not once...twice her luggage was ????? and she was left alone in an unfamiliar city with very little money.
I would like to contact them, but I can't seem to find a phone number hmmmm wonder why?
I feel even worse for the others that were with my daughter, there were only two openings on the flight to LA, so they all had to fly back to Detroit today and take another non stop flight to LAX........how ridiculous.
If you know a number of even think I would get any answers that would be great.
Thank you,
Lori
American Airlines lost my luggage yesterday.
I just got in from Guatemala (first time there) and unfortunately I drank the water and ate stuff I shouldn't. Hence, I developed a serious intestinal infection. I received 7 different medications including a very strong antibiotic.
Yes, I am stupid for placing my meds in my check-in luggage. No use for crying over split milk.
What is really upsetting is that fact that they found my luggage last night. I explained to them the urgency of the meds I needed to take and I had only taken 2 days of antibiotics. I had 18 days left. Although I explained all of this to American Airlines - they placed my luggage in "storage". I still haven't seen my luggage. I've been feeling awful without my antibiotic and it is unfortunate that American Airlines doesn't care if their customer lives or dies :(. 24 hours are going to pass since they "found" my luggage but I yet to see it.
What awful service.
I went looking for a phone number to complain to on their website and couldn't find anything but a fax number. How awful.
American Airlines has a group of fake felong stews and fake felon pilots out of O'hare Airport who rape and murder women they can't sleep with or get to go out with them. After they murder these women, they try to take their identity, money and belongings to give to a group of fake felon stews who are called "sexual performers". I was gang raped by this group and they are evil. They said they murdered my coworkers and others. Please make sure when you board aircraft at AA that the pilots are legal, licensed AA pilots and the FAS are professional, legal FAs who know how to be FAs and not fake felon stews hanging at the airport to find an opportunity to scam money from passengers and men.
http://ebnlive.net/edgetube/play/Daniel_Otts_Live_Show_Archive/_Live_Show_Archive_2009/EBNs_Thursday_Reports__3rd_September_2009
This is what I've been looking for! Thank you so much for sharing this! You are a few important tips in there, i'm also bloged on http://limosbusesjets.com & just signup on http://bit.ly/4zTwpz A search on the issue, and there was agreement on most of the web log.I appreciate you as a customer for doing business with us... A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.
I am so disappointed in the service of American Airline here in Belize. I was expecting that my grandparents should comes out of the airplane first because they had to sit on a wheel chair but instead they reach out last. Not only that, they lost a package of my grandparents because they didn't gave my grandparents the sticker of the number for the packages when they are in the way from Toronto to Miami. i hope that DIDN'T happen when my grandparents go back to Taiwan! >.
not sure who you are actually supposed to complain to when you need something addressed. This is who I emailed. My email got read, but problem was only delegated to 3 really incompetent people, so can't say it got me very far.
I have had minimal problems with American in the past, but now that I have reached gold status - American has figured that I must be locked in as a customer.
jan.ferguson@aa.com, wanna.wilson@aa.com, jeanette.barlow@aa.com, maryanne.cipperly@aa.com, sean.bentel@aa.com, Ralph.Richardi@aa.com, jennifer.fuller@aa.com, charlie.sultan@aa.com, kurt.stache@aa.com, rob.friedman@aa.com, jon.snook@aa.com, Mark.Burdette@aa.com, sandy.herndon@aa.com, katie.studebaker@aa.com, bridget.blaise-shamai@aa.com, Gary.Kennedy@aa.com, tim.ahern@aa.com, craig.kreeger@aa.com
The same thing happened with my parents now. AA code share partner is striking and hence they had to rebook them on a different route. Looks like they wont be able to make it to the rebooked flight at that time since they are not in the country and now they want to charge us a change fee and difference in fare to put on the next day flight since it wasn't supposedly their problem any more. They went out of their way to call me to rebook till the flight was unconfirmed and now they won't change it unless they extort money out of us.
i have seen the american has become a bloated beast of a corporation that just doesn't get it. thanks for sharing joel.
I experienced a very similar situation. I have been an AAdvantage member for 11 years. Have flown over 500K miles on AA and have Platinum status. I mostly fly for business but on occasion I am awarded the luxury of a personal trip...not often but on occasion. Well I recently booked a flight from Dallas to Raleigh/Durham to meet up with a friend for a fishing trip. I book my flight on aa.com R/T for $369. The very next day, another friend who is traveling with me booked the same flight for $238. So I called up customer service and explained that within the last 24 hrs the fare had dropped considerably for the flight (This flight was still 30 days out) and I asked if I would be refunded the difference. I was told that since the difference in the price was less than the change fee of $150 that I would not receive a refund. What??? What change? What am I changing? Same flight, same time, same seat for that matter...the only thing that changed was the fare! RIDICULOUS!
***** SUGGESTION TO ALL READ YOUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS BEFORE YOUR PURSCHASE, AND ALL WAYS HAVE A BACK UP PLAN INCASE OF EMERGENCIES**** and if you dont want to have issuses stop shopping for the lowest fare and start looking for fares that may be slightly higher but will be less restrictive! *****
American Airlines has the *worst* "customer service" ever! I will NEVER fly on AA again. I'm currently dealing with them losing my luggage with laptop inside. Every time I call they tell me to go online and give me lip service. All you get when you call them is lip service. Customer retention is clearly not important to them, as I vow never to fly on their crappy airline again.
i just had a similar experience. booked a package on american (through travelocity), and had to go two days earlier due to a death in the family. couldn't change the package, and had to pay a $150 change fee just to keep my return flight. moreover, on the phone the american managers told me there is nothing anyone at AA could do, but as soon as i went to a ticketing agent at the airport, they gladly charged me the fee to keep my same flight (same seat too). even if this is in the fare rules, i consider it to be pretty unethical, especially when it comes to bereavement circumstances. the manager I spoke to at AA was one of the worst customer service people i had ever spoken to. after 10 minutes of patronizing, lying uselessness, i told him that i hoped when someone in his family passed away, someone spoke to him the way he was speaking to me. his response - "that's the dumbest thing i've ever heard". my response - not printable. i've been a regular american customer for many years, and now i am done with them. hopefully gas prices will spike again so that their terrible management shows through and they go down (this time sans bailout since the US has no money left).
Abhishek
1-765-807-2402, 91-9910059382
June 12 2010
American Airlines Customer Relations
4255 Amon Carter Blvd. MD 2400
Fort Worth, TX 76155-2603
Fax: 817 967-4162
RE: Unpleasant Experience with American Airlines, AAdvantage# M990T92
Dear Customer Service,
I initially flew via AA 293 on 31 March from Delhi to Chicago at 12:15 AM and I had requested a fruit platter for my meal several days ago. On phone the American airlines representative had unequivocally confirmed to me that I will get the fruit platter but once I was on the plane they told me there is no such thing as fruit platter and I thought the asian vegetarian meal was very below standard in terms of quality and variety. I could hardly eat anything at all throughout my 15+ hour long flight and felt frustrated.
I had multiple stops and en route from San Jose to Las Vegas on 03 May via AA 3115, they made me pay for both the checked in luggage, $35 and $25 respectively and also charged me $50 extra for one luggage coz it was just like 1 pound heavier than the prescribed limit. I told them I had contacted the AA representatives on phone and they had told me that I will be subject to same regulations as an international passenger, but the airport people would just not listen.
When I reached Las Vegas, I found that my luggage had not arrived in time and had to pay extra $50 approximately to get them delivered later in the night to Circus Circus hotel, so I was without luggage for like one full day as my flight reached in the morning to Vegas. Upon receipt of the luggage I noticed that zipper on both the bag had been badly damaged and the handle of my smaller bag in blue color was broken, but still usable. I contacted the Las Vegas American Airlines office and they asked me to refer the matter to the New Delhi office when I reach back home. I found this response just ridiculous.
On May 07 2010, I left for Indianapolis via AA 793 and upon arrival on 08 May 2010; I found that the carry on luggage’s handle was completely destroyed and unusable. The baggage office said I will need to contact you as you he cannot reimburse me for any expenses with respect to handles and zipper damages.
I had to buy a new carry on luggage and the cheapest one I could find at the Tippecanoe Mall in Lafayette, Indiana was of the “PROTOCOL” brand and I have attached the picture below, it has a price tag of $120.00 only.
My troubles it seems were far from over. When I reached New Delhi from Chicago on May 12 2010 via AA 292, I found that they had failed to carry my luggage piece in the airline. I was promised delivery the very next day but when I contacted them, 2 days later, they asked me to come into the office to get it. I had to waste about 4+ hours on a working day (not including cost of petrol and taxi) to come to your American Airlines office in New Delhi and get my luggage.
Ms Manju, an agent at the Delhi office asked me to contact Mr Siddharth Aggarwal for compensation and in the last one month, I MUST have contacted his office phone number about 15+ times. But every time I call, he is apparently busy at another location and I have not been able to speak to him even once. I wonder how this kind of a dynamic international airline can function with just one representative to handle such compensation matters.
I am very disappointed by my overall experience with your Company and wish to formally file a complaint with the consumer courts in New Delhi unless an immediate action is taken to help me.
I have had to spend upwards of US $300 not to mention the inconvenience caused to me, I hope you will earnestly consider this matter and resolve my grievance and offer me satisfying alternatives ASAP.
Thanks very much,
Very truly yours,
Abhishek
American Airlines lost my luggage on March 3, 2010. I filed a claim on March 31, 2010. The claim was transferred to the claim review department on May 4, 2010. This means it sat somewhere untouched for over a month. I was told today, June 30, 2010 that it might be adjusted by July 15, 2010. At best 4 1/2 months and God knows when it will actually get done. The promise on the website was 12 weeks from date of loss, then on phone, 12 weeks from date of claim. THe very kindly agent I talked to today said it is because of a change in their system for processing claims whereunder claims for replacement of items during travel when bags were later recovered and the truly lost bags and a flood of claims since April. Whatever the reason it is inexcusable.
Another unhappy AA customer here. I have just spent WAY WAY too much money with them ... and when this lot is done I will NEVER fly their airline again.
My recent college grad son, unemployed, is heading to the UK for an international sporting event. He will be in Europe for more than a month. He had a job interview for the day he was to leave. A great job. A job that will allow him plenty of funds for lots of airline tickets. (But not on American .... never again. Voting with feet ... or wings.) The job interview was postponed a day. American, who has had my money for the initial (and not inexpensive) flight for several months, wanted over $1400 to change the ticket 24 hours and reticket. The kid is NOT WORKING yet ... and I was told there was no way around this. Well ... that flight is cancelled, I rebooked with a different form of payment (reward miles) and will get a theoretical credit. Actually, the person who booked and paid for the flight is *bleep* outta luck, the person on the original ticket will have to use the ticket.
And then ... when he gets to the airport to check his bags ... the baggage agent cannot read or interpret their own rules and wants to overcharge him for baggage to the tune of $150. I am just done. And I am telling everyone I know. I have recently posted this story on the dedicated sport website that all people traveling to this event with their equipment should print out the rules and if the baggage agent looks at their stuff sideways just call for a supervisor and don't waste your time with the baggage peeps.
Another unhappy customer, venting where all can read.
I live in Peru, and because of work issues this year, had to delay a couple of flights, one with American, and one with LAN. LAN was very helpful in extending my ticket, granted I had to pay some additional fees to make it non restricted, but at least I didn't lose value.I also tried to do this with American, asking that they basically apply old value, and I would purchase a first class premium fare, with less restrictions. They refused and said I had to apply old ticket with penalties, etc. Thus I lost out on my option to extend date. I ended up buying first class, but now have lost the entire value of $3000, since I was a month late on flying. Lesson learned, LAN was adaptable, American Airlines was not, and it cost me dearly. I will never fly them again, they can keep my 300K miles. I sincerely hope they go bankrupt.
I am furious about the way how AA handle mistakes when reported to them. First of all I booked my ticket originally for the 24th of July, from Boston to Port of Spain, but when I heard that my mom was dying of cancer I needed to get there sooner than I thought, so I called in to change my ticket date to an earlier flight, which was paid for and dated to the 19th. The agent confirmed my email address and said I would recieve an email. This change took place on 7/7/10. I kept checking my email and there was non until today 7/16/10 finally checked and saw my itinery. when I opened the itinery the the flight arrival location was changed by the agent from Port of Spain to Port Au Prince. I was very angry because #1 what if I had just showed up at the airport to find out about this dilema. Anyway I called AA right away to report this mistake and I was told I had to pay an extra fee for them to change it back from Port Au Prince to Port of Spain. OMG. The state of shock that I was in. I did not recieve the service that I requested and paid for and on top of it I had to pay for a change in location that was no fault of mine. The supervisor was very rude. Not once did she apologized for the mistake that was made by the employee. She came off as if it was my fault. Never again will I fly with nor recomend my friends and family members to American Airline. This was very poor service and an apology would have helped but there was none. Just poor customer service on the whole.
I am furious about the way how AA handle mistakes when reported to them. First of all I booked my ticket originally for the 24th of July, from Boston to Port of Spain, but when I heard that my mom was dying of cancer I needed to get there sooner than I thought, so I called in to change my ticket date to an earlier flight, which was paid for and dated to the 19th. The agent confirmed my email address and said I would recieve an email. This change took place on 7/7/10. I kept checking my email and there was non until today 7/16/10 finally checked and saw my itinery. when I opened the itinery the the flight arrival location was changed by the agent from Port of Spain to Port Au Prince. I was very angry because #1 what if I had just showed up at the airport to find out about this dilema. Anyway I called AA right away to report this mistake and I was told I had to pay an extra fee for them to change it back from Port Au Prince to Port of Spain. OMG. The state of shock that I was in. I did not recieve the service that I requested and paid for and on top of it I had to pay for a change in location that was no fault of mine. The supervisor was very rude. Not once did she apologized for the mistake that was made by the employee. She came off as if it was my fault. Never again will I fly with nor recomend my friends and family members to American Airline. This was very poor service and an apology would have helped but there was none. Just poor customer service on the whole.
I am furious at the fact that American Airlines wants to charge me $150 to make a change to my ticket under the following circumstances: I purchased a ticket online for my son approxiamtely 2 weeks ago. My son is 15, so I searched diligently for a ticket that would allow him to fly without the company of someone 18 or older. I believed that I had typed in his profile and all other information very carefully, purchased the ticket and never really gave it another thought until today when I decided to go in and take another look at the times and details of the flight since the trip is rapidly approaching. Upon checking the details, I noticed that my name (Stephanie Buckner) is listed on the ticket instead of Stephen Buckner, which is my son's name. I recall entering my name for the payment since the credit card was in my name,and nowhere else. But, Stephanie and Stephen are close enough that a mistake could have been possible. When I checked all the profile information that was entered for my son, I found that except for the first name listed all other information was correct for him-age, middle and last name, etc. Upon calling the customer service number and explaining the situation to try and make the correction, I was told that I would have to pay $150. That's $150 to change a typo from Stephanie to Stephen. Is this not the most rediculous thing! I spoke with the agent, her boss, and then his boss who all decided that they could do me the favor of lessoning my fee from $150 to $100, and basically told me that since I purchased my ticket online myself instead of through them that this was not their fault or problem. What is this world coming too! $400 plus for a ticket, a fee for your luggage, and then this to top things off! Where does the madness end. American Airlines obvioulsy does not value its customers, and this ex-customer no longer values them.
I guess I'm not alone on this one. My original international flight was set for 8/28 but I changed my plan about two weeks and decided to move my flight early to 07/27 so that I can be on the same flight with my mother. The rep told me that I will be responsible for a $150 fee for flight change and the difference in fare cost that would total around $400. Because I am the one that has plan change, I'm responsible for all the fees according to AA's policy. I confirmed the date with the rep to make sure I will be on the same flight with my mother before I gave her my credit card information. And when I thought this would be the end of the story, I received a confirmation email and receipt from AA telling me my flight was changed to 8/27 instead of 07/27 and I was charged for $400. I called AA right away and told them about the situation but they said that all the seats are booked for 07/27 and there is no way that I can be put back on that flight. I asked to speak to their supervisor Keith Stringer and he sounded like if this problem was caused by me. He wouldn't let me finish my sentence and told me that he can either move me to one of the August flights with me paying additional $2000 something or refund my $400 and out my back to my original flight. Doesn't that sound fraudulent? I only had to pay additional $400 for the flight I wanted but now I have to pay $2000 for the early August flight? I was on hold for more than 10 minutes each time when he was searching for available tickets that usually takes me only two minutes to do it on AA's website. He said that even if their rep made a mistake, they can't do anything about it and the best thing they could do is putting me back on my original flight and giving my $400 back. And then he started telling me that it is also possible that I heard the rep wrong or I told her the wrong date. I told him that the phone call was monitored and taped so he can go back to the tapes if he questions my complaint. When a rep makes mistake like this usually reflects lack of training and poor rep selection by the company and now they blames everything on the rep as if they have nothing to do with her. Now putting everything aside, AA failed to recognize their mistake. Is that what we Americans want to see or teach our children that if you are big and powerful enough, you can make mistakes without recognizing it or apologizing for it. I realized the only way to make a difference is to take legal actions but that wouldn't be practical for me as a first year medical student. But if I accept "the best thing they could do" to have my flight change back to 08/28 and take the refund, does that mean I also accept the final solution they offered? One thing I'm sure about is that I will stay away from American Airlines!
AA has recently lost me as a customer too. On a trip that included two long delays for no reason I also had to wait two hours for my bags. There was no announcement and all the AA employees could say is we're not sure where you're bags are. We called baggage but received no explanation, “you’ll just have to wait” they responded. Sorry excuse for an airline.
My husband missed a flight out of Heathrow, which meant he had to cancel the connecting flight, which was ... you guessed it, American Airlines. This was a FULL day ahead of time. Of course, his ticket was nonrefundable (very clever, as that forces you to rebook with them for even MORE money), so he rebooked "the best they had" for two days later, to the tune of $98!! For that amount, I reckon they should've found him a flight that was the closest to his arrival time at Dulles. Instead, it was for the VERY NEXT DAY.
So because he had "Boarding and Flexibility Package" we added onto his ticket, he decided to request standby for free. The rep on the phone confirmed to me that he could do this, and as soon as he arrived at Dulles. However, when he arrived at Dulles and requested standby for a flight going out that evening, he was quoted $50!! "Let us know now," they said. Of course, he spent all of his money on the itinerary change, so he didn't have the $50, and subsequently missed his last chance to get an early flight out of Dulles.
My husband ended up spending the night at Dulles before starving for 5 hours from Dulles to LAX because they charge for food! Oh, and thanks for sitting him right next to First-Class, American! You can't give him a lousy bag of peanuts, so he gets to smell a five-star meal instead.
We will never fly with AA, or any domestic carrier, ever again. We have to fly a few times a year to visit family in my husband's native country (England), so American had a chance to get our regular business and blew it. I've faxed them a letter requesting a full or partial refund, and if I don't hear back, I will be filing a formal complaint with the Aviation Consumer Protection Division of the U.S. Dept. of Transportation.
Joel, I was doing some research online and came across this post. I see it is a few years old, but reading it, and the comments others left, I just couldn't help myself. You say all you want is good customer service? Well, working in C.S., we want our customers to appreciate what we do! Now, I'm not playing Devils Advocate for all of those rude, obnoxious reps, but if we make an exception for one unhappy customer, we have to do it for everyone. It's not fair to you, or to us. We are degraded constantly. I'm in medical school, answering phones to pay off my loans, and I'm called ignorant more then once a week. Sup.'s don't always have the authority you claimed Margie had, we get in big trouble when we waive fees without permission. It's not an easy job, so cut us a break, please!
Huh!! You are right! But you will nowhere find any organization which is accurate in every things. Any way it is good post
Bear your various receiving phone calls, it's just a job that you are taking.
I SEE AMERICAN AIRLINES IS USING MD83 AIRPLANES TO GO FROM DFW TO BOSTON IN APRIL IN NOVEMBER FROM DFW LGA.AND TO GO FROM DFW TO BOSTON.
I get here searching google about me getting big time taken to the cleaners by american airlines, they said I broke my contract with them and charged me and my daughter 1003 dollar to open up my ticket again and rebook it, because I did not take the 2nd portion of my flight, just as I read top post here,
I was on time for my return flight. but their system canceled all of it because I did not use the full itinerary. this does not make sense, and I feel cheated, I paid for both seats for both planes, I did not use 2nd plane my seat should still be there for my 1st plane return to my home! I dont believe their rules are legal and believe in a court of law they would lose. but I am too small for that, AA can do as they like and in my case charge me for a new ticket single return flight. where can I go for some satisfaction? is there any help out there?
Thanks a bunch for sharing that Joel. It's a great example of really bad customer service (obviously). In a former life I managed a group of software support guys. It's so easy to do what you can to please a customer. We used to call upset customers 'opportunities' - I'm sure you've heard that one a million times. Hopefully this post will get legs and other Big Corps will do a little to tweak their service centers.
Continental appreciates their customers. When I have to call the Elite desk for assistance they are always friendly and helpful.
American Airlines is an all around poor performing airline. The flights never seem to be on time and the customer service is horrendous. I called in to reschedule a flight due to a surgery that I will undergo, and the smug reservations supervisor (Elizabeth Clayton) basically read me off the pro forma language on the site. I completely agree that this stuff needs to be looked at on an ad hoc basis. It's not like the trip needed to be rescheduled because I wanted to sleep in that day. AA really needs to terminate Elizabeth Clayton for her duly condescending and dismissive service. Just because you hold some authority doesn't mean that you are allowed to be a horrible heartless human being. How do the Elizabeth Clayton's and the Margie Foster's of this world have jobs in today's airline industry? American is operating their airline with their eyes closed and ears shut.
My Friend Caitlin is in Joplin, MO. She was suppose to fly AMERICAN AIRLINES to Phoenix, AZ today. DUE to the TORNADO DESTROYING her HOME she had to stay in Joplin and talk with FEMA and the Red Cross. She Called American Airlines ask if she could change her flight. American Airlines told her it would be $400.00 to post pone her trip a few days. Now that she is Homeless and Jobless due to the tornado she cant afford that. So, she had to cancel her American Airlines Flight. The Agent on the phone asked her if he could sent the refund to her home address. Which he knew was now RUBBLE. How could American Airlines be so Cruel!!!!!
I am so disappointed in the service of American Airline here in Belize. I was expecting that my grandparents should comes out of the airplane first because they had to sit on a wheel chair but instead they reach out last. Not only that, they lost a package of my grandparents because they didn't gave my grandparents the sticker of the number for the packages when they are in the way from Toronto to Miami. i hope that DIDN'T happen when my grandparents go back to Taiwan! >.
A man named Devin Jackson, working at the LAX airport for your airline said that he had paid for a bag but didnt give us a tag for the destination of the baggage so then when we went to go check out our other bags they said they coudnt take the bag that he checked because he didnt give us a tag. so we went back to go get the tag from him and since we did not tip him well he told us he never checked the bag, therefor trying to get us to pay him more money. He was being very rude and using inappropriate language with us and making fun of us. This is the worst service i have ever encountered in my life and that man should be fired.
Good for you, Joel.
Ranting is a good stress reliever, and a rant on your blog may get their attention. Whether or not they acknowledge, apologize and best of all, do something about their stupid rule is another matter entirely.
Thank :)
I had the misfortune to be booked on AA flight AA 1932 from Miami to Montreal on Sunday, 19 June with ETD of 20.25. I should add that I had travelled to Miami on AA flight AA248 from Brasilia on the same day.
I can say with all honesty that in over 40 years of flying in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, South America and Africa that I have never experienced such inexcusable treatment by any airline as was meted out by AA in Miami on the night of 19 June and early morning of 20 June. I shall never travel AA again and will warn friends, colleagues and anyone prepared to listen not to do so. I am preparing a newspaper article to be published here in Brasilia to the same effect.
The original gate for departure from Miami was given as D46. The ETD had been revised to 20.55 by the time I arrived at the gate around 20.00 due to an hour’s delay in the arrival of AA248 due to late departure from Brasilia and bad weather in Miami which had closed the airport for a short time. There was a flight to San Juan at gate D46 and all passengers had embarked on that flight by around 20.30. At around 21.00 AA staff at the gate announced that the San Juan aircraft had been embarked before arrival of all the crew who had still not arrived. So, Montreal AA1932 passengers were informed, we would have to wait at D46 until the gate was freed or maybe there would be a gate change. At around 21.15 a gate change to D39 was announced. On arriving there we were told that the aircraft to Montreal was still not ready and there would be a further delay of 20 minutes. This turned out to be 30 minutes at least but around 22.00 embarcation commenced. By 22.30 embarcation had been completed and dinner orders for business class passengers taken by stewardess Eva Von Bromssen although by the time she got to me on the last row of business there was no longer any alternatives.
Shortly afterwards, business class passengers witnessed the male flight attendant on the flight shouting angrily at someone trying to embark along the lines of “get off”. A few minutes later the pilot emerged from the cockpit and reprimanded the flight attendant and I caught phrases such as “I should have been consulted”. The flight attendant attempted to respond but finally turned on his heels and marched into the coach sector. A few minutes later the pilot announced that a passenger had been removed from the aircraft and his checked luggage would have to be removed. This would cause a further delay while his luggage was located and there was a critical time issue in reaching Montreal before the airport curfew there. A little before 23.00 the pilot informed the passengers that the flight could not make Montreal before the curfew and was therefore cancelled and that we should all disembark and rebook our flights.
Being in business I was one of the first to leave the aircraft and upon reaching the rebooking area I was confronted with a long queue from another cancelled flight. I waited in line until after midnight. Fellow passengers in the line told me that a young man was ejected from the flight by the flight attendant because he was either drunk or drugged and was causing a disturbance. I was also told that the flight attendant involved had also left the flight, whether ordered to by the pilot or on his own volition.
On reaching the desk I was informed that I had been rebooked on flight AA 1984 at 08.25 the next morning on coach class and that I would have to wait until 20.25 if I insisted on a business class seat. I have been delayed by volcanic ash, strikes, bad weather etc and have always been accommodated at the airline’s expense but the AA supervisor at the desk was adamant that AA was not prepared to do this. She even tried to justify the cancelation of the flight as due to bad weather which was an outright lie as the problem was caused by the removal of a passenger who should never have been allowed to embark in the first instance.
I was given a discount voucher to the Nht Courtyard Marriot and told to make my way to the exit opposite gate D25. It was around 00.30 and the Skytrain airport was no longer operating so a steady stream of exhausted passengers had to make their way to gate D25 on foot.
I waited until 01.30 for a shuttle which never came and I was subsequently informed by the driver of the shuttle to another Marriot that the shuttle to the Nth Courtyard Marriot did not run after midnight. All the hotels in the region were full as I was told by the drivers of the few shuttles remaining. The airport was closed so at nearly 02.00 I had to take a taxi to a very dilapidated motel called the Miami Springs Inn with dirty bed linen and a lock on the door which did not function. I could easily have been assalted or worse. I have given this as a personal safety share example to employees of the company I represent with advice to avoid at all cost flying with American Airlines who simply abandoned passengers to their own devices at after midnight. The discount voucher to the hotel states that a courtesy AA has negotiated a special distressed rate with the hotel. I would comment that AA has no idea of the meaning of the word courtesy.
The whole episode is now in the hands of the company I was representing who I am hoping will take a very strong stance on the issue.
WOW, powerful article. Did you ever get your money back?
I feel the same way I am never booking a flight with American airlines any more in life, I spoke to a customer service rep. on today named “Ron” so he said; and he wouldn’t even let me speck with his supervisor very rude to me and I had it up to my neck with American airlines. There customer service is just TERRIBLE.
Hi Joel,
From what I understand, you were ticketed for a DFW-DEN roundtrip and wanted to change this to a DEN-DFW oneway, it sounds like a major routing change!
I think the fee applies in that case and I don't really see the call for an exception in your story, I wonder if "saying yes to any demand from the customer" and "showing good customer service" don't often get mixed up?
Regards
Joel,
I actually worked for AA in the early 90's prior to a career change; I worked in a back line role than didn't come in contact with the traveling public. I can tell you back then the customer was king, we were truly proud to say that we worked for AA, boy how times have changed. I'm a DFW resident, you know where AA is headquartered with more than 1,800 flights per day, and I haven't been on one since 2002. I too voted with my feet... I will admit that I do carry an AA Citibank CC and do travel on them when I pick up my frequent flyer miles, just my way of reassuring myself that nothing's changed. Bankruptcy, benefits and employees all gone, the sad, sad story of AA, a once great company.
Safe Travels...
The same thing just happened to me. I arrived at the airport only to find my tickets were cancelled due to a paypal problem. I needed to get to my destination and bought tickets for over twice what I had paid the first time. I have been sitting on the phone all morning trying to get to someone who can help fix this injustice. Finally got through to costumer relations and they transferred me to a dead end after telling me I was correct in requesting a refund.
I've been sitting in the Dallas terminal for five hours
experiencing delay after delay. I've seen some
of the rudest employees here and no on is giving
an explanation as to why we are being delayed.
I will never use this airline again!!
I've never flown with AA, but I had a terrible experience with United Airlines. They lied to us three times. Terrible company.
Whilst I have no love for American Airlines (I agree that their customer service is shoddy at best) I do have to say that I think that the person making this complaint is being unreasonable. It is fairly common knowledge that when you agree to buy a ticket from an airline you are entering into a contract of sale when you state that you agree to the terms and conditions. If you violate the terms and conditions of that sale then you pay the price - it's as simple as that.
It is irrelevant that the return flight was the same one originally booked. Cancelling a ticket is not a simple process - it costs the company money to do that and airlines are not charities.
Rewards miles flights are usually flights that are not going to cost the company much money to run. Like most flights, if there are not enough passengers to justify the flight, the flight will not go ahead and if there are paying passengers on that flight then the company will lose money and public face. So therefore, people cancelling their tickets is a pretty bad thing for the airline. The rebooking fee covers the company's costs to reissue the ticket and also acts as a deterrent in regards to cancelling the ticket at a later date.
The company was already operating at a loss for you to allow your friend on a flight that was not being paid for. The reason for the cancellation may not have been your fault - but neither is it the airline's fault. You could have simply left well enough alone and let him simply use the ticket for the last leg and saved yourself the expense.
If the customer fails to meet their end of the bargain, why should the company pay?
Whatever happened to people taking the consequences for their actions?
American Airlines cooperating with Allianz Trip Protection Services/Hotwire.com. Booked March 2012, My original travel dates were scheduled for this past Novemeber of 2012, for which I had to cancel due to a no fault injury resulting in a total knee replacement. I just tried to use my so-called insured credit on 2/19/13, one month before my time limit expiration. Flights to Boston from Myrtel Beach were quoted at $910.160 for which other airlines are openly pruducing round trips for $200+. SO MUCH FOR TRIP PROTECTION INSURANCE via AMERICAN AND HOTWIRE. What a joke, American stoled $311.70 from me, I'm unemployed, disabled to the injury mentioned and homeless trying to visit my ailing Mother in ME
Sincerely with regrets, Ken Kunz