Can I get my 2 days back, American Airlines?
Footnoted regulars know that I really stay focused on the filings. But on rare occasions, it seems worthwhile to share a personal experience involving a publicly traded company to provide a perspective that’s not readily visible in the filings. And my experience with American Airlines (AMR) these past two days shows just how bad airline customer service has gotten in this country.
On Tuesday, I was scheduled on a 3:35 pm flight from Dallas back to LaGuardia. But because of tornado warnings that oddly seemed to impact American more than other airlines, including Southwest (LUV), whose hub is also in Dallas, I was automatically bounced to a flight a full 24 hours later that was set to depart at 4:05 on Wednesday. Unlike Jet Blue (JBLU), which allows passengers to rebook their flights via their website, American automatically rebooked me, with no regards to my schedule. An automatic message prompted me to accept or reject the change and when I finally got through to a live person, I was told that this was the best they had available.
On my way to the airport a full day later, American’s automatic updates to my mobile alerted me that the flight was now rescheduled to 5:30. Then 6:20. Then 6:40. The final update — announcing a new departure at 7:40 pm came when I was actually on the jetway boarding the plane. Once we pushed back from the gate, the captain informed us that we were going to be sitting there for another hour and 15 minutes and would be getting into New York at around 1 am. The captain said the delays were due to both weather and a last minute crew change. Flight attendants passed out water, but that was the extent of the customer service. Or the information.
Since we were allowed to use our cell phones while we waited, my second call was to American to inquire how they planned to compensate me for getting me to New York more than 24 hours late. There was an extra night in a hotel room, an extra day of a rental car, plus two meetings in New York that I missed on Wednesday. The woman, who was a supervisor, told me that the delays were due to their over-riding concern for my “personal safety”. When I asked whether that deep concern for my “personal safety” extended to me having to drive the Saw Mill — a road that often floods even after a light rain — at 2 am in the morning, I got a sorry that sounded about as genuine as a three-dollar bill. Adding insult to injury, when we finally arrived at LaGuardia at 1 am, we had to wait for someone to tow the plane to the gate and then wait again for someone to move the jetway into place. So we finally got off the plane around 1:30 this morning and I rolled into footnoted world headquarters at 3 am, which required me to cancel two additional meetings today.
In its 10-K, AMR only mentions the “airline passengers bill of rights” in passing. But judging by the $5.4 million it spent on lobbying Congress last year, it’s clear that this legislation is going nowhere fast. In the meantime, those of us that don’t have access to GV’s are left to sit and stew or voice our concerns on boards like this.
Sorry, American, but saying sorry — even several times — just doesn’t cut it here.
UPDATE: Judging by these comments on Consumerist, I was in good company.
RSS
March 20th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Yep, I had four such experiences in the past two years. It is not Katerina, but sleeping on concrete floors with no accountability from those who put you in this situation is a familiar theme. And I’m not talking about weather problems, I’m talking about crews not showing up, ground crews not doing their job, and under staffed gates w/ huge waits. Of course, “weather” is ALWAYS the airline’s excuse. Nothing worse than being put in a bad situation and being told a lie on top it.
This is a quote from a wonderful blog called “View from the Wing,” which has a way to cut through the weather excuse:
Checking the Status of Your Flight
Scott McCartney’s latest column is on the various flight status websites you can use to track a flight, monitor position, gate changes, etc.
Frequent travelers know that airline websites, and those from the major booking services, are often lacking. The conclusion of the piece? That my own favorite and most used, FlightStats.com, comes out as most useful and reliable. (This is also the one which the KVS Availability Tool integrates with.)
Not mentioned in the piece, one of my favotire tricks for United Airlines flight status is to check United Cargo, when a flight is delayed this site will give you the real reason why — useful when the airline doesn’t want to give you compensation, claiming that a delay is due to ‘weather’.
Update: Upgrade: Travel Better reports that American’s cargo website offers useful delay information as well.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
Thanks, Bubba. I wasn’t aware of flightstatus.com and checked it out. Turns out my flight was 291 minutes late — the worst performance of the day, with the exception of a 9:30 flight that was canceled. And I’m pretty sure that 291 minutes doesn’t factor in the extra 1:15 we spent on the tarmac in Dallas.
Also, after posting, I sent an email to American Airlines’ customer service. While the response was relatively speedy, it was basically a bunch of BS. So counting the excuses, I’ve been told it was the weather, the crew and now air traffic control:
March 20, 2008
Dear Ms. Leder:
Thanks for contacting Customer Relations, and I am so sorry for your unhappy
experience as you were scheduled to travel with us on March 18. There’s probably
nothing more frustrating than having to travel when bad weather conditions play havoc
with airline schedules. From your description it certainly sounds as if the delay was
aggravating and uncomfortable, and it’s unfortunate we didn’t do a better job of
overcoming the many challenges we faced. I am especially concerned that we missed
opportunities to mitigate the effects of the weather disruption.
Unfortunately, many times we don’t have too many options to help make such situations
less trying. Still, your comments enable us to understand things from our customers’
perspective, which is crucial as we strive for better performance next time.
Additionally, flight 742 on March 19 was delayed because of air traffic control
problems, and there’s nothing more frustrating than when the activity of controlling
the flow of air traffic impacts the scheduled operation of airline flights. While we
wish we could get all our customers to their destinations on time, and operate each
and every flight as scheduled, we just can’t do so. There are too many uncontrollable
factors — like air traffic congestion — that can affect our flights. Controlling
the flow of airplanes is about the safe and effective coordination of flight arrivals
and departures. Sometimes, this activity can result in delays or cancellations.
Although we do whatever we can to minimize weather and air traffic control related
problems, our schedules are not guaranteed; there are simply too many uncontrollable
factors for us to make such a commitment. For this reason, we cannot assume financial
responsibility for our customers’ personal time lost or for out-of-pocket expenses
incurred as a result of operational difficulties. Instead, you have my assurance that
we will always work hard to get you to your destination on time. I hope you will give
us another opportunity to do so.
Sincerely,
Debbie Mahan
Customer Relations
American Airlines
March 20th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
With their constant bending over to the power of the lobbies, It become difficult to measure to what extent our politicians really do not give a sh*t about their constituents in this country until you travel to Europe.
The EU recently adopted a directive that forces the airlines to financially compensate travelers for any delay superior to 8 hours, (1,000 $ per traveler for cancellation, free meals, hotel rooms and phone calls for long delays > 20 hours) forces them to measure delayed flights starting at the scheduled departure time from the gate (believe it or not, it is not the way they do it in the USA)
Furthermore, no more dismissal of travelers’ complaints with the excuse of “staff shortage” or “operational difficulties” or “maintenance errors”.
But of course, everyone knows that Europe is so retarded compare to us!
March 21st, 2008 at 10:54 am
I have had so many bad experiences with American Airlines. This airlines is the one with the most poor customer service record! They have good people working at this company, but I think the corporate culture and disregard for customers make this airline with bad service.
This airline must change its culture toward customers. In some company, customer service and treatment are a #1 priority! I have had experiences in which the airline cancel the flight and they do not do anything to accommodate the passengers in a different flight. They just leave the people in a “Limbo” in the airport.
If this company would treat the customer (Passengers) with more respect and decency, this would have been a great airline.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:12 pm
I disagree entirely. As a very frequent flyer, allow me to correct a few misnomers and answer some questions:
The storm impacted AA more than Southwest because it was in the Ft. Worth area (where DFW is). Southwest doesn’t fly out of DFW; they fly out of Love Field (DAL) which is in a completely different area across town.
You were automatically rebooked as a convenience. Had AA waited for you to contact them, all available seats could have been gone (remember, you were competing with thousands of stranded passengers for very few seats). If their rebooking didn’t work with your schedule, it’s policy to change it without penalty during screwy weather incidents like this. All you have to do is contact them. Again, better to have a seat reserved for you on some flight than have nothing at all.
It’s unfortunate that you got to your destination a day later than expected and that you incurred those extra expenses, but should the blame really be placed on American, or are you just angry at the situation (understandable) want need to point a finger somewhere?
God knows I’ve been stranded enough times in situations like this - and it sucks. But this really can’t be pinned on American.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I’m a frequent flyer too and while my preferred airline is Jet Blue — there’s a lot of places like Dallas, or Kansas City where I had to be the week before — where JetBlue simply doesn’t fly. Obviously, nobody can control the weather. But this storm really seemed to cripple American and the various excuses offered up by American employees did little to lighten the mood. Where’s the CEO apologizing like Jet Blue’s did during their fiasco last year? When I left the plane at 1:30 in the morning, I said to the flight attendant and first officer (or maybe he was the captain), “I realize this isn’t your fault, but this is unacceptable,” it would have been nice to get a sincere-sounding apology. It will be a long time before I decide to try American again. There’s simply too many other choices out there.
Was I ticked off? Absolutely. You’d be too if you had to drive for over an hour at 2 in the morning after spending more than 30 hours trying to get home.
March 21st, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I was a stranded passenger as well on Tuesday, but do not bear any ill will towards American Airlines. Although having to arrive at my destination a day late was a bit of an inconvenience, I was rebooked immediately. What I especially appreciated was the advanced notice that my flight was cancelled, rather than arriving at the airport to learn of my flight’s fate. We all want our travel to go without a hitch. Mother Nature, however, could care less if we fly today, tomorrow, or next week. American Airlines made a sound and proactive decision to not attempt to fight weather that day, and all passengers that feel safety is an airlines top priority should applaud American for making that call.
March 22nd, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Michelle,
I’m sorry that you had two days out of your life disrupted, and I assure you that the majority of employees at American love their job and want to treat the customers with respect and dignity.
As stated by another poster, our hands have been tied to an extent so they can save every dollar possible. Even at the expense of customer service.
Again, sorry for the two day disruption but please realize that many, many employees have had more than two days of disruption. Many have had lives destroyed or dramatically changed by American. I’m sure you are well aware of the turmoil the industry has gone through over the past few years and though I realize the customer has paid a heavy price, the employees have suffered tremendously. Some have actually taken their own life because of the situation.
Michelle, I regret that your experience was bad and I hope things have gotten better.
But always remember as bad as you might temporarily have it, there are those who have it worse and some who always will.
Happy Easter
March 23rd, 2008 at 10:46 am
Little people are people too!
March 24th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
My family and I flew on AA 64 on March 20th 540pm flight from JFK to Zurich, which was supposed to arrive at 635am on March 21st. However, apparently the pilot was unable to land the plane at Zurich airport, due to strong winds. The flight was diverted to Milan, where we were grounded for about 4hrs, waiting for fuel and for the weather to clear up. 4 hours, without being offered anything to drink or eat by the in-flight AA crew members. Meanwhile I had an infant with me, for whom I had just one extra bottle of formula just in case of delays.
Finally the plane took off again to Zurich, and once again the pilot was unable to land the plane in Zurich, apparently due to strong winds. We were then flown back to Milan, and were told once we landed ground crew will help us further, and that we will be shuttled in a bus to Zurich from Milan. Meanwhile it is past 2pm, still have no eaten since the breakfast provided by AA at around 530am (Central European time). All the passengers were asked to disembark, and our seat was all the way at the back, and we got out, and when I asked for my stroller I was told it will be on the bus by an in-flight crew member. We all clear customs, and get our baggage, and go out in hopes to talk to ground crew, who will be able to give us more information on the situation, on how to reach our worried families, and possibly providing us with some food. However, we encountered one agent, for a flight full of passengers, who in very broken English informed us, we were to wait for the bus, and it will take us to the Zurich airport. The bus arrives at 3pm, there were 3 buses and instead of opening all three buses at the same time, they only opened each one as one got full. Please understand, that I was holding my baby in my arms, who happened to be recovering from fever, who had a runny nose, and was congested, outside where it was windy, to get on a bus.
At this point I realized that my stroller was not here, so I ask around and someone then tells me, that it was in the baggage claims area, which they wouldn’t let me reenter.
The bus finally starts moving close to 430pm, and we head out to Zurich airport. We don’t arrive at the Zurich airport until 830pm, meanwhile we didn’t eat anything since the 530am breakfast AA provided us. Another passenger with a baby was gracious and nice enough to give me some food for my baby.
We were so disappointed in AA service or better word would be lack of service to their passengers. Please understand not only did we pay for our tickets to fly to Zurich, but we also paid to have the infant fly on our lap for a 7hr flight and not a 20hr journey. More disappointing was to find out, that our flights was one of the very flew that did not land in Zurich. My family and I flew for vacation for 2 days, because of this fiasco; we were there only 1 day because we had to fly back on Sunday morning. This was the absolute worst flight my family has ever been on, most of the passengers concur on that flight concur with us on this.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Interestingly, when I blogged about this type of topic a year or so ago, I also hit a nerve with my readership. The airlines really need to get their act together…
March 24th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Ms. Leder,
I’m not sure where you got your info on the tornado warnings, but a “Tornado Warning” is when a funnel cloud has been spotted on the ground. One was spotted on DFW Airport property at about 10:45 Tuesday morning. DFW was closed to air traffic from 10:45 until about 5PM (all airlines). Similarly, Love Field (Southwest Air Hub) was closed from about Noon until 5PM. Both airports received strong winds, lightning, heavy rain and hail for the better part of the day. For the day, Southwest cancelled roughly 50% of their Love flights and American canceled 75% of their DFW flights. I have no clue on how the other airlines did, but I would guess if a flight was coming from more than 500 miles, it was canceled.
American made a decision to cancel all remaining DFW flights early in the afternoon as the weather wasn’t expected to clear until late in the evening. There were some small windows where AA was able to bring in some of the 130 diverted flights and SW was able to operate some of their short haul flights.
AA’s decision enabled them to get the planes and crews in proper position to start the next day fresh. SW had a mostly “unpublished” operational meltdown the next day as they were overwhelmed with planes, passengers and luggage.
I’m sorry that your flight was delayed the next day, but ATC delays are common in the NY area and air traffic was disrupted all over on Wed and Thurs as well by the same storm system that affected the DFW area on Tuesday (see MO, AR floods, and ORD snowstorm on Thursday).
Unlike when you drive, airlines do not get to decide when they take off or land, they must get clearance from ATC. So, if a plane pushes from the gate at DFW and while taxiing, NYC ATC says it can’t leave, it can’t leave. End of story. And, if it can’t leave for too long and it’s near the end of the day, it could potentially cause a problem with the crew running past their allocated hours (mandated by the FAA).
Let me ask you a question, if you have a meeting in NYC and have to drive to work on the Sawmill River Parkway and it rains and the road is closed due to flooding or an accident and you can’t make the meeting, do you call the NY DOT and ask for compensation?
March 24th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
It’s true that I don’t know much about tornadoes. What I do know is that there were 5 of us who spoke at the Dallas Morning News on Tuesday: 2 from Phoenix, 1 from LA, 1 from DC and me from NYC. We all had flights that were departing Dallas at various times on Tuesday afternoon and/or evening. Two were on Southwest, 1 was on US Air and I’m not sure what airline the fourth person was on, but I know that it wasn’t American. The two people on Southwest both got home on Tuesday night (to DC and Phoenix) and the person on US Air got out first thing Wednesday morning (6 am) back to Phoenix. That may not be a scientific sample, but it’s a pretty good indication that this was an American Airlines problem.
To say that American’s response reminds me of the companies I used to study during my Economics of the Eastern Bloc class would be a mild understatement. Here’s yet another response that I received earlier today. This type of customer service might work when there’s no other choices, but thankfully, I live in a place where there’s plenty of other airlines available to meet my travel needs:
Dear Ms. Leder:
We received your most recent email, and it is clear from your additional comments
about your disrupted trip that you feel strongly about your request for compensation.
However, our position has not changed and we must firmly, but respectfully decline.
It is just not our policy to provide compensation or reimbursement when bad weather or
air traffic control problems impact our flight schedules. Additionally, I’m sorry if
my original response was confusing. Your original flight, flight 740 on March 18, was
canceled because of the weather. Your rescheduled flight, flight 742 on March 19, was
delayed due to a mixture of air traffic control, weather and crew issues. However,
when bad weather affects our flights, crew issues usually happen, as well.
While it seems we must agree to disagree over this particular situation, this does not
diminish your importance to us as our customer and does not lessen our regret for your
inconvenience. We hope you will fly with us soon. It will be a privilege to welcome
you aboard.
Sincerely,
Debbie Mahan
Customer Relations
American Airlines
March 24th, 2008 at 11:00 pm
The movie, “Trains, Planes, & Automobiles” HAS to be about American Airlines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My husband has terminal pancreatic cancer and we were given a family vacation to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida for March 18th-March 21st. A very short time frame to see as much of Disney as possible. We were booked on American Airlines round trip. Our departure was 6:20am and had to be at the airport 2hrs early because of security which meant getting up at 3am to arrive in Orlando at 11:30am (connecting flight in Dallas). Okay, that wasn’t fun but doable. We get to the airport with heavy rain and lightning. We did not leave until almost 8am. What should have been a 35minute flight to Dallas took an hour 1/2. And 2/3rds of the passengers where throwing up or nauseous! Okay, that’s weather related. This I understand is out of the airlines control for safety. But we get to Dallas and they would only put 3 of our 9 family on “standby” then pushed my daughter out of the way to put other people on standby instead ahead of the rest of our family. There was a young college student trying to get home for spring break also who had been on “standby” for 3days! We finally all get on the airplane and set on the tarmac for another 3 hours!!!!!! We were only offered water and orange juice. By this time it lunch time and none of us had eaten since 3am in the morning. Our flight was to be another 2 1/2 hours. The pilot came on the p.a. system and smarted off that he would be happy to turn back around and go back to the terminal if we so wished it. On take-off my husband (who has flown many, many times) said he didn’t know if we were going to make it or not. He just knew we were going to crash it was so horrible. We were offered refreshments……..water or canned soda. If you wanted something to eat, small bag of cookies or trailmix would be another $3.00 each. $350 a airline ticket one way couldn’t get you a friggin` slice of bread with a piece of meat slapped on it or at least a bag of pretzels or peanuts for free????? We landed at 5:30pm - 6hours late. AND they didn’t get my husbands luggage to Orlando either. By the time we got to our hotel we had lost one of the precious 3 days we were given as a “last vacation” with my husband and my kids father.
Return flight was even WORSE!!! Should have departed at 11:30am but didn’t until 1:15pm. Flight-wise was fine. Our connection back to OKC was in Chicago O’Hare. (Getting scared yet?? Worst airport EVER) We were put in a holding pattern for an hour and half. Again, only offered water or canned soda. Food needs to be purchased. Then the pilot says we are running low on fuel and will have to leave the holding pattern to go to Peoria, Illinois. 30 minutes later we land on a teeny-tiny air strip and another hour burned refueling. Back in the air (didn’t think there was going to be enough runway to do it either!) 30mins back to Chicago. We land and the pilot says those who are headed onto OKC that our plane has been held for us but please hurry to the connecting gate. There are 6 people in our family (3 went home via Dallas), 5 people in another family, 2 people in yet another one and a lone business man. That’s 14 people running half way across Chicago O’Hare airport with two carry-ons each (two babies being carried & 3 children approx 6yrs old being dragged). We get to the gate and the doors are closed and a red sign saying “Boarding Complete”. Talk about yelling going on!! Then all of a sudden all the passengers that DID make it on the airplane are being taken off and the sign starts flashing “Cancelled”. We heard both of the AA ticket people talking that all the American Airlines planes were being grounded because the batteries or something were out of date on inspection. So, if we HAD made it on the plane our lives would have been at risk. So many, many more AA passengers were without a way to their destinations. Then one of the two said. “Boy, am I glad I’m going on break”, and then he leaves. The AA person left standing would only say no seats were available on any airline until next Tuesday. This is Friday, that’s 4 days away! We were not given any help what-so-ever as to motel, directions to rental cars, food voucher, etc. NOTHING!!!!!! They wouldn’t even let us retrieve our luggage that was checked onto the plane.
By the time we found the rental car area (O’Hare is under contruction btw) all the cars were taken or they wouldn’t give you a rental for one way. We called a family member in OKC to give us all the 1-800#’s to the rental car agencies. I found one that charged us $75/day PLUS $347 drop charge to leave at our home airport. But we had to pay a taxi another $68 to get us to Chicago Mid-Way Airport to get it. We left Chicago at 8:30pm and drove home another 12 1/2hours getting home at 9:00am the next morning. Thank God we had 3 adults to split the drive time. I called the OKC airport and was told they didn’t have our luggage and didn’t “know” where it was, whether it even made it to Chicago from Orlando. What the hell good does the bar codes do on the luggage if they aren’t being used to scan from one point to another for status like UPS or FedExpress? On the 3rd day of calling and checking the status online of my “delayed baggage” numbers I was told to please don’t call anymore because they have a record of all my calls and my luggage numbers. WHAT? They can track my calls but not my stupid luggage??? The Customer Service person would not give me a direct telephone number to the baggage claim counter in OKC saying they couldn’t receive incoming calls. Which is a bunch of bull-dung! So I called one of their competitor airlines and got the stupid number myself. Three times I dialed and could tell they picked it up and hung up on me. The 4th time I got a recording that the baggage claim was overwelmed and to please check status online or better yet to go to the airport in person. My husband & I drove to the airport “Loaded for Bear!!” There had to be 50 people in line & only one lone man trying to help everyone when we got there. While I stood in line, my husband started looking at all the tags of the luggages just standing out in the open or going round & round with no security on the carousels. My husband called my cell phone and said he found one of my bags and one of our daughters. I got out of line and helped him look. We found our 8 bags, 6 of the second familys, 3 of the third family. No one approached us about why we were taking so many bags. We could have walked off with any luggage we wanted!! We called the other two families and they came and got their bags. As I am writing this blog it is now 10:55pm on the Monday night and the website for baggage status still shows our bags as not found. I’ll be damned if I tell them I got them already. Let them look for days or weeks. They certainly didn’t care about helping us or giving us any information.
WE WILL NEVER - EVER - NOT IN THIS LIFE TIME fly on American Airlines again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
March 25th, 2008 at 11:04 am
So my saga continues…
As I mentioned earlier, I was told when I got off the plane at our diverted destination (Milan) that our stroller will be on the bus that was to shuttle us to Zurich. Of course it was not there, and I reported this at the Zurich airport, after our 4-5hr bus ride and the American Airline agent told me there, that because there is no connection between AA and Milan, he can not do anything from there, and I should call and report it when I return to NY. Which I just did. I get an agent on the phone, who was unable to look up our reservation by our last name and wanted our record locator. Now my thinking is, if we boarded that plane, then they should have our name in the system. It was an e-ticket and I didn’t keep a copy of it after the trip. The agent had the audacity to get annoyed at me. (Makes me wonder about AA policies on treating customers). I give the agent the tag number I have, they say it is not coming up. So then he asks me when did I lose the stroller, and I explained that it was lost in transit on our flight from JFK to Zurich, however the flight was diverted to land in Milan, and this was last Thursday, going into Friday. Then he goes, why didn’t I report this then to AA, and I said I did, but AA staff at Zurich told me to call when I get to NY. He then tells me well he can not find my information, and at this point I get annoyed. and he tells me to calm down, and all of a sudden he finds my information…and he repeats the tag number which I gave him in the first place. He tells me the strolled is in Zurich, and that it will be flown back to JFK, but it needs to be picked up from there. I asked him why the stroller will not be delivered to my house (I live close to 2hrs away from JFK), and he says because it was not reported to Lost and Found. Ok to clarify, I asked the crew member, when I got off the plane about the stroller, I was told it will be on the bus, it wasn’t. So when I got to Zurich airport (meanwhile I have been on this journey close to 20hrs with a 15month old), they tell me to just call when I get to NY. I tell the agent all this, and all he can say is I was misinformed by the agent in Zurich, and that he apologizes for the inconvenice and that that is what the AA policy is, if it is not reported to Lost and Found it will not be delivered, but needs to be picked up. At this point, I just give up and ask how will I know if it arrives, this is the icing on the cake- “Mame you will just have to keep calling us to check” I am just speechless at the customer service by American Airlines. This is absoutely the worst service I have ever experienced and I fly internationally a lot, but this was the first time I chose to travel American Airlines, and hopefully this would have been the last time.