American Airlines: poor customer service - Page 2

lulu2 · ‎03-09-2010

Sorry for your misfortunes with AA. Truthfully I find them no worse than any other airlines.

When we fly we try to take the flights with the fewest connections. Each time you connect you chance another mishap.

wonderfulworld · ‎12-05-2012

I have a good friend who is a travel agent who gave me this advice: when you have a cancellation of a flight while at the airport get on the phone with the airline. You will get better service than with agents aand they have access to more info.

I have tried this and it is true.

wonderfulworld · ‎12-05-2012

@GCR18 wrote:
I haven't flown American in a bunch of years. I flew United today. Before boarding, they announced they need ten volunteers to take the next flight. They offered $400 credit. After twenty minutes they got two volunteers, so they upped it to $500 credit. The seats went empty, so I'm assuming they had cargo on board. I didn't know at the time, but the next flight was 12 hours later. The ten people were happy with their credit.

Weight of cargo and passengers is very important to safety. I wonder though why they would 'accept' so much cargo and then let passengers stay behind?

FrostyBabe1 · ‎05-09-2016

Stuff happens when you travel. Flights get delayed or canceled and passengers have to be rebooked. Sometimes it's issues beyond the control of the airline, like weather, and sometimes it isn't. I'd certainly like a mechanical problem to be taken care of on the ground! Rebooking is usually done by a computer, using a program that takes in to account, among other things, your fare class and frequent flyer status, if any, with that airline. An "Executive Platinum" customer of AA is going to get rebooked faster and with more consideration than a "Platinum Pro" who will get more perks than the infrequent flyer, and quite honestly, that's how it should be. If the gate wasn't able to rebook you on an earlier flight, it may well have been that those seats were being held back for customers with a higher fare class or higher status. Or perhaps the flight still hadn't been released to gate control. That's just the way it is.

~The more someone needs to brag about how wonderful, special, successful, wealthy or important they are, the greater the likelihood that it isn't true. ~

FrostyBabe1 · ‎05-09-2016

@wonderfulworld wrote:
I have a good friend who is a travel agent who gave me this advice: when you have a cancellation of a flight while at the airport get on the phone with the airline. You will get better service than with agents aand they have access to more info.
I have tried this and it is true.

Not always. If you're just an occasional customer of an airline and don't have any status in their frequent flyer program, you can be on hold for hours, especially if there's a lot of bad weather around the country. I just called Delta to fix something for my nephew. When he called in the wait time was 3 hours. I called in on the Diamond line and got thru immediately.

~The more someone needs to brag about how wonderful, special, successful, wealthy or important they are, the greater the likelihood that it isn't true. ~

FrostyBabe1 · ‎05-09-2016

@zitawins wrote:
Sorry for your troubles, but these complaints belong on AA's Facebook page (that often gets quick results) or in a letter to the CEO.

There are also a number of flyers' websites out there. Flyers Rights comes to mind and they have some clout. We here on the Forum can only sympathize with you.

Respectfully, the OP doesn't have a legitimate complaint of any kind. Their flight was canceled, they didn't care for the flight they were confirmed on, but were able to get on an earlier flight as standby passengers. It happens. It stinks to be inconvenienced, but stuff happens when you travel. The airline complied with the terms of the contract of carriage. They got them from point A to point B. When the gate told them they couldn't help them, they likely really couldn't.

People really, really need to read the fine print/contract of carriage when they purchase their tickets.

~The more someone needs to brag about how wonderful, special, successful, wealthy or important they are, the greater the likelihood that it isn't true. ~

bonnielu · ‎03-11-2010

My go-to airport does not have that many American flights and if they do we have to change over to in another airport which does not even make sense to go there in the first place. I do have points and am going to donate them to my daugher who lives in a hub city but even she has to change planes. My favorite way it fly is Southwest.

VaBelle35 · ‎03-10-2010

I've missed connections due to there not being any steps or jetway available to get off the plane or the person who drives the steps/jetway over was nowhere to be found.

I've missed connections due to being stuck on the plane due to lightening and having a ground stop. But once the ground stop lifted and we got off the plane, the connections all left without their connecting passengers. ????

Once around Christmas, the pilot got lost after landing at Dulles and couldn't find the terminal. I was reading my book and wasn't paying too much attention until I started to hear grumblings from passengers and I looked up. That's when I realized we had been driving around on the ground for some time. He eventually stopped the plane in the middle of nowhere and parked. He made an announcement that he doesn't fly into Dulles often and it was at night and he missed the turn for the terminal somewhere. He requested help from the ground crew to find us and show us the way back. A ground crew had to drive a truck out to find us and lead us home. He was very apologetic as we got off the plane.

I'm sure he'll never live that down.

===================================
QVC Shopper - 1993

# IAMTEAMWEN

BabyYoda · ‎03-09-2010

@VaBelle35 wrote:
I've missed connections due to there not being any steps or jetway available to get off the plane or the person who drives the steps/jetway over was nowhere to be found.

I've missed connections due to being stuck on the plane due to lightening and having a ground stop. But once the ground stop lifted and we got off the plane, the connections all left without their connecting passengers. ????

Once around Christmas, the pilot got lost after landing at Dulles and couldn't find the terminal. I was reading my book and wasn't paying too much attention until I started to hear grumblings from passengers and I looked up. That's when I realized we had been driving around on the ground for some time. He eventually stopped the plane in the middle of nowhere and parked. He made an announcement that he doesn't fly into Dulles often and it was at night and he missed the turn for the terminal somewhere. He requested help from the ground crew to find us and show us the way back. A ground crew had to drive a truck out to find us and lead us home. He was very apologetic as we got off the plane.

I'm sure he'll never live that down.

Wow just wow. Inexcusable for a pilot not to know how to get to the gate area.