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.

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.

Man, my last three airline experiences have been disasters. In each case, I could have made better time driving.

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.

I thought American company are good in servicing the customer. Never have major complain with Malaysian Airline...

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!

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 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.

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

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.

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??

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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).

Thanks

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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

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.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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!!!!!