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Talk About Tulsa => Other Tulsa Discussion => Topic started by: cannon_fodder on June 28, 2007, 05:44:21 am



Title: Do not fly American
Post by: cannon_fodder on June 28, 2007, 05:44:21 am
Long story... my flight was canceled this AM.  When I asked why it was "due to weather in Chicago."  However, as they said that 2 other flights to Chicago were leaving.  They said it was because O'Hare was limiting flights.

I checked the FAA website:
http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/flyfaaindex.jsp
No general delays in O'Hare.  Arriving and Departure delayed 15 minutes.  I then called the FAA and verified.

I also called O'Hare's customer service line.  I asked if they were canceling lots of flights due to the weather.  She asked "what weather?"  No flights had been canceled as far as she knew due to weather.

For good measure I looked at the Chicago radar.  "Cloudy with a slight breeze, chance of afternoon showers."  Since this was 5:30 AM, I dont think the afternoon showers would be in the way.  In short, not weather in Chicago.

They told me they could get my wife to her destination on SUNDAY!  The tickets had been booked for 3 months, she offered to fly out of OKC, Tulsa or Fayetteville and go to Moline, IL, Dubuque Iowa, or Cedar Rapids, IA.  Apparently they could not get from nor to any of those destinations until Sunday.  Going online to AA website, there were 3 flights TODAY that could get her from Tulsa to Dubuque or Moline and they were still selling tickets for those online (ie seats available).  No rebooking offer was made before Sunday.


So, basically:
Canceled the flight, lied about the reason, refused to rebook.

In the long history of crappy service by the airlines, this wins.  It was the worst display of "the flight wasnt profitable so screw you" I have ever seen.  We had a  contract - I pay $600 you fly my wife and child to Dubuque.  

In any event, I will no longer be flying American Airlines.  Not only did they cancel the flight, they then systematically lied about the cause and REFUSED to seriously try to remedy the problem.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: TheArtist on June 28, 2007, 06:21:44 am
Well that sucked.  Any chance you got the cancellation reason in writing. Surely there could be some recourse.  I am not at all a fan of people suing for everything but that sounds wrong.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: sgrizzle on June 28, 2007, 07:12:30 am
Was the flight through dallas? They seem to be delaying/cancelling those flights.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: tulsa1603 on June 28, 2007, 07:27:33 am
I fly almost 100k miles a year, mostly on American, and have never had a problem like that.  [:D]

I hope you email their customer service department with as much information as you can.  Something doesn't sound right about this..."limiting flights" doesn't sound like anything I've ever heard before.  Stay on them, they should make it right, probably with a credit for your next flight or something.  How much later was your flight than the flights that were leaving as they told you that?  Sometimes they'll cancel flights in anticipation of bad weather.  And it's not always bad weather IN the destination city, it's sometimes cutting through the route.  Last Friday I had several flights delayed due to weather that wasn't AT DFW but near it.

As an aside, I'm not saying this is you, but in my experience, people will often say "I'll never fly ______ airline again" after a bad experience.  But when they look up tickets on expedia, cheaptickets, or orbitz, and that airline comes up cheapest, guess who they pick?  When consumers quit flying on cost only, then the service will improve.  It's not the other way around.  There is a VERY slim profit margin on all flights - many make the airline less than $1,000!


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: iplaw on June 28, 2007, 07:29:01 am
AA sucks.  There, I said it.

They are the WORST airline servicing the US.  I just returned from the UK last week and flew Continental.  They had, hands-down, the best customer service I've ever seen on a trans-atlantic flight.  

AA's planes have very few amenities and you practically have to pay for a cushion for your seat, as it's not included in the price of the fare..."to keep prices down."  My a$$.

People make fun of Southwest for being budget air travel...AA is the cheapest of the cheap, and I will never fly them again if I don't have to.

I'm dreading flying Iberia, which is an AA partner airline next week to Spain.  They have a strict "no electronics" policy on an 8 HOUR FLIGHT across the atlantic.  Of course, I didn't realize this until after I bought our tickets...


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: pmcalk on June 28, 2007, 07:45:29 am
I usually fly AA, as does my husband for business.  Generally, we have had good luck.  However, once my husband had a similar problem.  He wrote to AA's customer service, and got an immediate response.  They were very apologetic, and sent him a $200 voucher.  I think its important not to judge an entire company by one bad incident.  What's important is if Customer Service rectifies the situation.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: RecycleMichael on June 28, 2007, 07:54:13 am
I flew American last week to Pittsburgh through Chicago then home through Dallas. Every flight was totally full and every flight took off and landed exactly on time. That has never happened to me before.

The lines at the United counters were very long after their computer glitch canceled thousands of flights mid-week.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: tulsa1603 on June 28, 2007, 07:56:20 am
quote:
Originally posted by iplaw

AA sucks.  There, I said it.

They are the WORST airline servicing the US.  I just returned from the UK last week and flew Continental.  They had, hands-down, the best customer service I've ever seen on a trans-atlantic flight.  

AA's planes have very few amenities and you practically have to pay for a cushion for your seat, as it's not included in the price of the fare..."to keep prices down."  My a$$.

People make fun of Southwest for being budget air travel...AA is the cheapest of the cheap, and I will never fly them again if I don't have to.

I'm dreading flying Iberia, which is an AA partner airline next week to Spain.  They have a strict "no electronics" policy on an 8 HOUR FLIGHT across the atlantic.  Of course, I didn't realize this until after I bought our tickets...



They're also the only legacy carrier that HASN'T gone through bankruptcy.

Southwest has it's place, but I don't like the cattle call, lack of a decent frequent flier program, etc.

And American has no control over whether or not Iberia allows electronics.  They're only partnered.

If American is so bad, why do you continue to fly them? [}:)]


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: iplaw on June 28, 2007, 08:17:46 am
quote:
Originally posted by tulsa1603

quote:
Originally posted by iplaw

AA sucks.  There, I said it.

They are the WORST airline servicing the US.  I just returned from the UK last week and flew Continental.  They had, hands-down, the best customer service I've ever seen on a trans-atlantic flight.  

AA's planes have very few amenities and you practically have to pay for a cushion for your seat, as it's not included in the price of the fare..."to keep prices down."  My a$$.

People make fun of Southwest for being budget air travel...AA is the cheapest of the cheap, and I will never fly them again if I don't have to.

I'm dreading flying Iberia, which is an AA partner airline next week to Spain.  They have a strict "no electronics" policy on an 8 HOUR FLIGHT across the atlantic.  Of course, I didn't realize this until after I bought our tickets...



They're also the only legacy carrier that HASN'T gone through bankruptcy.

Southwest has it's place, but I don't like the cattle call, lack of a decent frequent flier program, etc.

And American has no control over whether or not Iberia allows electronics.  They're only partnered.

If American is so bad, why do you continue to fly them? [}:)]

I only fly them when they are a last resort due to time or logistics.  Unfortunately, my business requires last minute travel from time to time.  As I said before, I don't fly them anymore for a reason.  Our flight to Spain next week was the only flight into Pamplona on the day we needed to get there. AA is responsible for the airlines they partner with insofar as they should not partner with airlines which have poor records for customer service like Iberia.

To give you an idea of what Iberia is like, here is a quote from a satisfied customer, "A day without Iberia is like a day without a stone in your shoe."


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: sgrizzle on June 28, 2007, 08:30:57 am
I have flown american many times and have had about 25% of my flights been on time. On one round trip to denver, all 4 legs were 30 minutes or more behind. Plus they direct almost all flights through DFW, one of the worst places to connect on the planet.

Northwest has cancelled 50% of the flights I booked with them while I was in the waiting area. On one of the few that I did make the trip, my luggage didn't.

Southwest may have it's flaws but I earned a free ticket in one month flying southwest before, plus I have arrived within 5 minutes of my scheduled time everytime and they are friendlier and have never lost my luggage.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: Wekiwa on June 28, 2007, 08:34:24 am
I somehow don't see how a travel voucher can make up for the fact that the travelers didn't get to their destination when they contracted with the airline to get them there.  Don't know the circumstances, but if it were something like a wedding or funeral, those are unique and personal events in one's life.  And not being able to attend them due to some dipstick airline decision is something that cannot be compensated for by a lousy travel voucher.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: Conan71 on June 28, 2007, 09:23:36 am
I don't fly near as often as I used to.  I'm averaging about two round trips a year now.  The last two trips I flew on Continental and have been very happy with their in-flight service.  I'm getting ready to book another flight with them for the end of July.

I used to fly once or twice a week and had experience with NW, Delta, AA, UA, and SW.  I finally asked the travel dept. where I used to work to quit booking me on AA and Delta.  I thought their in-flight service was snooty.  

Worst experience I ever had flying was on AA coming back to Tulsa from Montreal.  

First, we had a four to five hour ground delay while we waited for AA to fly in an avionics instrument for our plane which had failed during their pre-flight after we had boarded.  At least they let us back off the plane.  All understandable, safety first, right?  I still think they could have flown in a replacement plane and got us on our way quicker.

We finally got to O'Hare in Chicago.  We originally had a direct flight from ORD to TUL.  We missed that by a large margin, so they put us on a flight to DFW with the plan to connect us to TUL from there.  No problem, right?

We rushed across the terminal and boarded as huge thunderstorms came into the area.  Instead of remaining at the gate, knowing the airport was shutting down for weather, they taxied out and we sat on a taxiway with no air conditioning for another three hours while a tornado warning was issued for the area.  When the airport finally resumed flights, we were 30-something in line for take-off.

We got to DFW after the last flight to TUL had left for the night.  The airline has a policy of not paying for a hotel room due to weather.  We pointed out that we would not have been in the weather position if their equipment had not failed in Montreal in the first place.  I went so far as to write letters, and all I got back was a boiler-plate letter basically telling me to pound salt in my ear.

SWA was probably my favorite, I liked the in-flight service, and the cattle call never bothered me.  I wasn't aware that SWA had dropped their frequent flier program as one poster mentioned.  I used to rack up free tix pretty quick on there.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: sgrizzle on June 28, 2007, 09:43:35 am
Oh yeah, for those who love assign seating over the southwest way, I was on a plane with some people where American booked them seats that didn't even exist on the aircraft. 6 people had to get a different flight.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: bacjz00 on June 28, 2007, 10:27:23 am
Southwest hasn't dropped their frequent flyer program and in fact Rapid Rewards is growing as Southwest gains more loyal customers.  8 roundtrips gets you a free ticket to anywhere Southwest flies and their car rental and hotel partnerships include about every major chain in America now.  I've probably enjoyed 10-15 free tickets on SW over the past 5 years and while mostly I fly back in forth to Texas, the free tickets have allowed me and others in my family to fly to California, Florida, Vegas, etc...


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: DM on June 28, 2007, 10:28:54 am
I like American more then any other airline. About 5 years ago I only flew United. But after flying American a few times and dealing with them, I have like them a lot more.

Even when they lost my luggage during the ice storm, they were very helpful in trying to locate it. Which they did.

Sorry to hear about your experience though.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: tulsa1603 on June 28, 2007, 10:39:58 am
I'm sorry, i didn't mean that SW had dropped their frequent flier program...it just doesn't suit me.  With elite status on American, you get double miles, so I rack up 25,000 miles every 5-6 round trips, plus I get easy upgrades to first class, etc.  Also you can standby for earlier flights without an extra charge, whereas SW makes you pay the difference to full fare.

I will agree that AA's hubs are in weather prone areas, so it seems like we see a lot of delays.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: Conan71 on June 28, 2007, 10:43:02 am
quote:
Originally posted by tulsa1603

I'm sorry, i didn't mean that SW had dropped their frequent flier program...it just doesn't suit me.  With elite status on American, you get double miles, so I rack up 25,000 miles every 5-6 round trips, plus I get easy upgrades to first class, etc.  Also you can standby for earlier flights without an extra charge, whereas SW makes you pay the difference to full fare.

I will agree that AA's hubs are in weather prone areas, so it seems like we see a lot of delays.



There's another issue I take with the big carriers vs. SWA.  I always get the feeling I'm just a lowly peon when they start calling out all the elite members to board first.  Oh the shame [;)][}:)]


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: tulsa1603 on June 28, 2007, 10:50:22 am
quote:
Originally posted by Conan71

quote:
Originally posted by tulsa1603

I'm sorry, i didn't mean that SW had dropped their frequent flier program...it just doesn't suit me.  With elite status on American, you get double miles, so I rack up 25,000 miles every 5-6 round trips, plus I get easy upgrades to first class, etc.  Also you can standby for earlier flights without an extra charge, whereas SW makes you pay the difference to full fare.


I will agree that AA's hubs are in weather prone areas, so it seems like we see a lot of delays.



There's another issue I take with the big carriers vs. SWA.  I always get the feeling I'm just a lowly peon when they start calling out all the elite members to board first.  Oh the shame [;)][}:)]



Haha, that's why I stick with AA and SW.  I'm elite on AA and NO ONE is on SW, so I don't feel bad. :) [:D]


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: okiebybirth on June 28, 2007, 11:16:39 am
It's never good when a flight is cancelled, so I totally understand your frustration.

But here is what I found online:
"No delays or cancellations were reported this morning, but, the airlines are still rebooking passengers, clearing up the backlog from hundreds of flights canceled yesterday and the day before at both O'Hare and Midway.  

On Tuesday night, a thousand passengers spent the night on cots or on the floor of O'Hare.  Last night, there were 1,500.

She hoped that by mid-day or early afternoon, most of those passengers will finally be on their way."
http://www.wbbm780.com/pages/626696.php?contentType=4&contentId=647423

So my guess is that O'hare is trying to move those people that spent the night in the airport and get them on their way before they flew any other people to Chicago.  

While weather may have caused all the disruption, obviously whoever you spoke with didn't make it clear that is wasn't weather from today.

My significant other works for the airlines, and I know that he pulled a twelve hour shift yesterday trying to help people stranded at the airport, calling hotels and such.  He was totally drained when I talked to him and I could hear in his voice how hard it was on him to know that there was not enough hotel rooms for all the stranded people.  He also was looking for ways for people to continue their travels, and looking at flight loads that are at capacity.

All airports have only so much staff to handle all the planes coming and going, so it's near impossible for them to add extra flights because their isn't enough people to service them.

I'll have to ask why their website is still showing seats to be sold, that piques my interest as well...

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience, it's been frustrating to people all over the country to fly this week. [V]



Title: Do not fly American
Post by: mr.jaynes on June 28, 2007, 12:06:28 pm
I'm strictly a Continental man.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: pmcalk on June 28, 2007, 12:16:26 pm
quote:
Originally posted by Wekiwa

I somehow don't see how a travel voucher can make up for the fact that the travelers didn't get to their destination when they contracted with the airline to get them there.  Don't know the circumstances, but if it were something like a wedding or funeral, those are unique and personal events in one's life.  And not being able to attend them due to some dipstick airline decision is something that cannot be compensated for by a lousy travel voucher.




I am not saying that a voucher was the answer, but just that they recognized the problem, and made efforts to apologize.  On any given airline, I have heard at least one story of some stupid, bad decision/treatment that resulted in a person getting scre***.  Even a good company cannot control every employee all of the time.  

I think overall Southwest is best in customer service.  But I will only fly them to nearby cities.  I tried to fly to DC/Baltimore on Southwest once, and had to take off & land three times.  The flight took two hours longer than American.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: Conan71 on June 28, 2007, 12:18:40 pm
quote:
Originally posted by okiebybirth

My significant other works for the airlines, and I know that he pulled a twelve hour shift yesterday trying to help people stranded at the airport, calling hotels and such.  He was totally drained when I talked to him and I could hear in his voice how hard it was on him to know that there was not enough hotel rooms for all the stranded people.  He also was looking for ways for people to continue their travels, and looking at flight loads that are at capacity.




That is one of the all-time suck jobs when it comes to customer relations.  I always try to be polite to the ground crew (unless they snarl first, then all bets are off [:D]) because I know they get their donkey handed to them all day long by tired, irritable, and impatient passengers.

Whenever I've had to go to lost baggage, the first thing I ask the attendent is:  "What happened, did you draw the short straw this morning?".


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: okiebybirth on June 28, 2007, 01:39:04 pm
Okay, here is what I was told about selling tickets on the website...

The airline will sell you a ticket for a seat at the price they are offering on the website.  This doesn't mean that they have extra space on the plane though.  What the airline is doing is betting that they can offer someone that is already on the plane a sum of money to agree to fly at a later time.  There are people out there who actually look to sell their seat so they can get a free flight out of the deal plus some cash in their pocket.

Those seats you see offered on the website aren't shown as available when the airline staff is looking to fly passengers that are displaced from another flight since essentially there isn't an available seat.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: YoungTulsan on June 28, 2007, 01:46:58 pm
quote:
Originally posted by okiebybirth

Okay, here is what I was told about selling tickets on the website...

The airline will sell you a ticket for a seat at the price they are offering on the website.  This doesn't mean that they have extra space on the plane though.  What the airline is doing is betting that they can offer someone that is already on the plane a sum of money to agree to fly at a later time.  There are people out there who actually look to sell their seat so they can get a free flight out of the deal plus some cash in their pocket.

Those seats you see offered on the website aren't shown as available when the airline staff is looking to fly passengers that are displaced from another flight since essentially there isn't an available seat.



Wow, so when tickets are being offered for already sold out flights online, are you paying like 300 or 400% more?  Thats the only way I could see the airline being able to give the other guy a free flight and some money for his trouble, and still make MORE out of selling the desperate person someone elses ticket.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: okiebybirth on June 28, 2007, 01:53:58 pm
quote:
Originally posted by YoungTulsan

quote:
Originally posted by okiebybirth

Okay, here is what I was told about selling tickets on the website...

The airline will sell you a ticket for a seat at the price they are offering on the website.  This doesn't mean that they have extra space on the plane though.  What the airline is doing is betting that they can offer someone that is already on the plane a sum of money to agree to fly at a later time.  There are people out there who actually look to sell their seat so they can get a free flight out of the deal plus some cash in their pocket.

Those seats you see offered on the website aren't shown as available when the airline staff is looking to fly passengers that are displaced from another flight since essentially there isn't an available seat.



Wow, so when tickets are being offered for already sold out flights online, are you paying like 300 or 400% more?  Thats the only way I could see the airline being able to give the other guy a free flight and some money for his trouble, and still make MORE out of selling the desperate person someone elses ticket.



I didn't look at prices, but that's essentially what they are doing; accepting a large sum of cash for a person desperate for a seat, and using that cash to make a deal with someone who'll agree to a free flight and a little money.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: tulsa1603 on June 28, 2007, 01:59:41 pm
quote:
Originally posted by okiebybirth

quote:
Originally posted by YoungTulsan

quote:
Originally posted by okiebybirth

Okay, here is what I was told about selling tickets on the website...

The airline will sell you a ticket for a seat at the price they are offering on the website.  This doesn't mean that they have extra space on the plane though.  What the airline is doing is betting that they can offer someone that is already on the plane a sum of money to agree to fly at a later time.  There are people out there who actually look to sell their seat so they can get a free flight out of the deal plus some cash in their pocket.

Those seats you see offered on the website aren't shown as available when the airline staff is looking to fly passengers that are displaced from another flight since essentially there isn't an available seat.



Wow, so when tickets are being offered for already sold out flights online, are you paying like 300 or 400% more?  Thats the only way I could see the airline being able to give the other guy a free flight and some money for his trouble, and still make MORE out of selling the desperate person someone elses ticket.



I didn't look at prices, but that's essentially what they are doing; accepting a large sum of cash for a person desperate for a seat, and using that cash to make a deal with someone who'll agree to a free flight and a little money.



And especially at hubs, they are banking on a certain number of mis-connects.  They can give those seats away, too.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: YoungTulsan on June 28, 2007, 02:16:45 pm
Actually selling seats for sold out flights at desperation markups just begs them to work the system and screw people over.  They could have people on the inside buying out these flights that are on a good pace to selling out.  That of course increases their odds of selling the insanely marked up tickets.  They could "buy" 20 tickets at $100, forcing 8 desperate people to pay $500 for tickets.  Then the other 12 could just conveniently not show up or cancel (who audits these things anyways) - So they could make an extra $3200 off desperate people and throw away $1200 in "normal priced" tickets.

Im just bored and imagining things Im sure, but having a system like that would allow the airline to manipulate prices in my mind.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: citizen72 on June 28, 2007, 02:37:40 pm
A few years ago on an AA flight we had an emergency landing on a little of nothing of an island in Grand Turk. As soon as we landed we were virtually on our own by AA.  Oh, that was after the airport had to throw together a rusty device to get us off the plane. We were taken to a small primitive terminal while the airline personnel stayed on board the airplane in comfort.

In two hours we had completely bought out the concession stand and was reduced to drinking their foul smelling city water. Where was AA???  We were told by one of their representatives that when we got off the plane they ceased being responsible for us. SAY WHAT?

We were on that island for 6 plus hours and we saw very little of AA. My wife and I now avoid flying AA as much as possible. They are all talk  and no delivery on customer service.




Title: Do not fly American
Post by: okiebybirth on June 28, 2007, 02:50:51 pm
quote:
Originally posted by YoungTulsan

Actually selling seats for sold out flights at desperation markups just begs them to work the system and screw people over.  They could have people on the inside buying out these flights that are on a good pace to selling out.  That of course increases their odds of selling the insanely marked up tickets.  They could "buy" 20 tickets at $100, forcing 8 desperate people to pay $500 for tickets.  Then the other 12 could just conveniently not show up or cancel (who audits these things anyways) - So they could make an extra $3200 off desperate people and throw away $1200 in "normal priced" tickets.

Im just bored and imagining things Im sure, but having a system like that would allow the airline to manipulate prices in my mind.



You also have to take into consideration there is more than one airline that flies to each city, so there would have to be some collusion involved for that scheme to work.  

I travel alot, and I've found that if you are looking for last minute deals, then it's best to look at Southwest.  There ticket prices are substantially cheaper from what other airlines offer for last minute fares.  Then you can ask for credit for your flight from American, etc... and use that credit for a flight in the future.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: inteller on June 28, 2007, 06:37:40 pm
although their destinations suck, if you are going somewhere they serve, use expressjet.  They have in flight XM radio and they serve you food on the flight.  and the stewardesses tend to be young and HAWT.  Not like KJRH hawt, but pretty hawt.[}:)]


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: tulsa1603 on June 28, 2007, 10:00:40 pm
quote:
Originally posted by inteller

although their destinations suck, if you are going somewhere they serve, use expressjet.  They have in flight XM radio and they serve you food on the flight.  and the stewardesses tend to be young and HAWT.  Not like KJRH hawt, but pretty hawt.[}:)]



Starting next weekend, they will be my carrier of choice for trips to Austin.  Austin doesn't suck. [}:)] Can't beat the non-stop service, and they're cheaper than AA or SW.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: cannon_fodder on June 29, 2007, 08:41:44 am
Airlines intentionally over sell seats because on the X to Y route Z number of people usually will not show up.  So they sell A% of Z more tickets than they have seats.  It usually works out and they pocket cash.  Sometimes it screws them and they bump people.  When they do so with briber - free nights stay, flight in the Am and a flight voucher - fine.  Otherwise I call BS.

1. Yes I email AA.

2. The flight was via Chicago

3. One flight left 30 minutes after my wife's

4. Okiebybirth:  Thanks for the information on the weather situation in Chicago the DAY BEFORE.  It would have done a lot to temper the situation if she explained that to me.  But even then, you would think they could reroute their connections through KC, Denver, St Louis, Atlanta... saying they couldnt get her there until Sunday was the last straw because that HAS to be a lie.  4 days?  I drive to Seattle, buy a 737 and fly there in 4 days.


Did I mention it was 5:30am and I had a fever of 104F to start with?  Not a happy camper and then they pulled this schtuff... grrrrr.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: okiebybirth on June 29, 2007, 10:45:58 am
quote:
Originally posted by cannon_fodder

4. Okiebybirth:  Thanks for the information on the weather situation in Chicago the DAY BEFORE.  It would have done a lot to temper the situation if she explained that to me.  But even then, you would think they could reroute their connections through KC, Denver, St Louis, Atlanta... saying they couldnt get her there until Sunday was the last straw because that HAS to be a lie.  4 days?  I drive to Seattle, buy a 737 and fly there in 4 days.


Did I mention it was 5:30am and I had a fever of 104F to start with?  Not a happy camper and then they pulled this schtuff... grrrrr.



I'm glad it helped, even if just a little.  If people communicated better, especially to their customers, then it would alleviate some of the frustration level.

As far as rerouting someone, you are often at the mercy of whoever is in front of you trying to help you and their experience level at finding solutions outside the box.  I know the load factors are at capacity until Sunday, so that's why they are stating it would have to be no sooner than Sunday.

One little trick I've used in the past is to fly out of XNA (Northwest Arkansas).  Sometimes the load factors are smaller from planes leaving XNA and you can get to Dallas or Chicago.  Also from there you can fly to Miami, which is a hub of American that you can't get to directly from Tulsa. Also American Eagle flies directly to New York, Los Angeles, and soon to Washington, DC from XNA.  It's not going to help get you to Iowa, but sometimes if you are looking to get to the coast then taking the trip to XNA is the way to go.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: cannon_fodder on June 29, 2007, 02:53:40 pm
yeah, well we told them she woudl leave from Tulsa, OKC, Fayetteville or Bentonville and fly into Dubuque, Moline, or Cedar Rapids.  My brain tells me SOMETHING has to work.  Oh well.

She drove.  We took our money back.  I have yet to hear from AA.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: cannon_fodder on July 02, 2007, 11:36:50 am
quote:

Dear Mr. (cannon_fodder):

I appreciate how hard it is to understand why a flight is canceled because of bad
weather when conditions at both the origin and the destination are perfectly fine.
Although you do no provide your specific flight number, perhaps an explanation of the
operational reasons will be helpful.

Bad weather the day before you traveled, or at one of our other hubs elsewhere, may
have prevented our planes and crew members from being where they needed to be in order
to operate your flight as scheduled.  Or, in the same circumstances, there may be too
many aircraft on the ground at your destination, and so we cancel selected inbound
flights until we can thin out that traffic.  Another possibility is that our crew
members may have reached the maximum number of hours they can remain on duty as a
result of a weather delay they encountered earlier that day.  Finally, we may
voluntarily cancel selected flights in order to reduce the length of Air Traffic
Control delays imposed because of bad weather en route.

We have found it is necessary to take these varied steps in an effort to get our
entire system back on schedule when weather conditions have affected our operation.
Our goal is to minimize the inconvenience for the largest number of our customers.
Still, I am sorry that our actions caused such disruption for you.

Mr. (cannon_fodder), I am truly sorry that you have been inconvenienced.  We hope to have
the opportunity to welcome you aboard soon.

This is an "outgoing only" email address.  If you 'reply' to this message by simply
selecting the reply button, we will not receive your additional comments.  Please
assist us in providing you with a timely response to any feedback you have for us by
always sending us your email messages via AA.com at
http://www.aa.com/customerrelations.


Sincerely,

Constance R. Grady
Customer Relations
American Airlines


The information in this email is confidential and is intended solely for the
addressee(s); access to anyone else is unauthorized.  If this message has been
sent to you in error, do not review, disseminate, distribute or copy it.  If you
are not the intended recipient, please delete this email from your email system.


Gee, thanks for the form letter.  I understand that some flights get canceled.  You do not lie to people about the reasons and you do your best to make it right.  You did none of the above and send a form letter answering none of my questions and make no attempt to make it up to me.   I'll enjoy flying the friendly skies with Southwest whenever possible I guess... if Im going to get if-y service I may as well save money.

and by the way, when you send an email to a person, barring a special relationship it now belongs to them.  They can do with it as they damn well please.   Airline/non-customer is not a protected relationship.  

 I think I'm more hostile towards them not than I was before.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: MikeB on July 02, 2007, 12:12:49 pm
AA does have a bad habit of blaming weather for delays/cancellations.  The weather could be anywhere in the system that your plane may have been in the last 24 hours: all subsequent "late through" delays are blamed on the original incident, even if there are other reasons later on.  The reason they do it is that "weather" delays are not counted in on-time performance statistics.

I was on an AA flight through O'Hare and missed my connection to Tulsa, last flight of the day, because my inbound flight was an hour and 15 minutes late.  They blamed the weather in San Francisco that morning, from where the plane had made its first departure of the day, 12 hours before.  Thing is the plane was only 20 minutes late arriving in Baltimore where I got on.  The additional 55 minutes delay was because of a mechanical problem at Baltimore (this was never announced; I found out about it because I happened to talk to the pilot the next day -- read on).  The connection was missed by 30 minutes, so the mechanical problem was the true cause.  We would have made it in time for connections if it was only the effects of the weather delay.

Well, AA refused to pay for overnight accomodations because it "wasn't their fault".  Next morning there was an AA captain on the shuttle from the hotel.  Several of us who had been on the flight the night before complained bitterly about how we were treated.  It turned out that he was the pilot of the same flight, and he admitted that the missed connections were due to the Baltimore delay, not the earlier weather, and apologized.  The problem in Baltimore was that they noticed that the co-pilot's seatbelt was fraying, and had to send to the hangar for a replacement.

I wrote a complaint letter to AA and they sent me a  boilerplate "wearenotresponsibleforweatherdelays" reply.  I wrote again saying please read what I wrote and again explained in detail how it happened and how it was not the weather, you can check your maintenance logs.  They just sent me another "sorry, but wearenotresponsibleforweatherdelays" response.
 
I will not fly on AA if I can possibly help it.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: MikeB on July 02, 2007, 12:37:59 pm
To the poster who mentioned cancelling underbooked flights: the airlines are often accused of this, but 'tain't so.  Think about it: the plane and crew are on a schedule, and if they cancel a leg because of low sales then their plane and crew aren't where they're supposed to be.  It would cause way more disruption than the small amount they save by not operating the flight.  They ferry empty planes back into service after maintenance.  That's a dead loss, zero seats sold, but they do it because they need that plane where it's supposed to be.  So even if the route is undersold they will operate the plane.  They might in the long term cancel an underperforming route, but it is not cost effective to cancel a scheduled flight.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: Conan71 on July 02, 2007, 02:00:32 pm
CF,

I think you screwed up posting this before you got a reply from them.  I think they trolled this post and came up with the prior day weather excuse from our posts. [;)]


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: mr.jaynes on July 02, 2007, 02:16:03 pm
On account of the fact that my older brother (and my father before him) is a pilot, I must refrain from criticizing airline policies.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: iplaw on August 06, 2007, 01:45:49 pm
Wow.  I have another great AA story.  It all begins with a phone call Friday afternoon...I have to be in Michigan Sunday morning, going to fly out the same day late that evening...$1,375 later...

Left out of OKC at 5:50 since no flights from Tulsa could get me there early enough.  Stuck in a holding pattern for almost an hour outside of Chicago due to "weather."  Finally get to land but my connecting flight, scheduled to leave at 8:55 is delayed until 9:30 because there was no crew to fly the plane.  Fine and dandy, no big deal.  Well, 9:30 turned into 10:15, which turned into 11 which turned into 12:30 that eventually turned into 2...

My day was gone as my evening flight was to leave at 7:45 (Eastern).  Cancelled my tickets and asked to go home, but as luck would have it, all the flights back to OKC were full.  Went standby on every flight until 2:45, 4:50, finally on the 9:25 which ended up being the 11:15 to OKC.

What pissed me off yesterday, in addition to being totally unprepared for weather that was predicted a day in advance, was the "stories" told to customers by employees.  "The crew is on the ground, we're just waiting for them to get through the terminal" when no crew ever showed up.  How can can other airlines seem to recover and establish normal flight patterns when AA seems to be paralized for the whole day at the thought of a rain shower at 7:30 in the morning?

Thanks AA for my 15 hours in O'Hare...


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: cannon_fodder on August 06, 2007, 02:05:12 pm
I like providing business to 'local companies,'  but I'm flying family and parents this weekend on Northwest.  5 tickets missed out on from me, and counting.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: sgrizzle on August 06, 2007, 02:07:14 pm
quote:
Originally posted by cannon_fodder

I like providing business to 'local companies,'  but I'm flying family and parents this weekend on Northwest.  5 tickets missed out on from me, and counting.



That's the only airline I've had worse luck with than american.

I hope your family likes continental. That is who Northwest always booked me on when my flights got cancelled.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: cannon_fodder on August 06, 2007, 02:16:05 pm
Don't say that!  I need, NEED to get my return flight on Sunday.

We have not had any issues with NW in the past, so lets hope we keep the streak alive.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: iplaw on August 06, 2007, 02:29:58 pm
quote:
Originally posted by sgrizzle

quote:
Originally posted by cannon_fodder

I like providing business to 'local companies,'  but I'm flying family and parents this weekend on Northwest.  5 tickets missed out on from me, and counting.



That's the only airline I've had worse luck with than american.

I hope your family likes continental. That is who Northwest always booked me on when my flights got cancelled.

I really enjoy Continental for international flights, never been on them for domestic...


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: Conan71 on August 06, 2007, 02:41:51 pm
Delta did something incredibly honorable for me on Saturday.  I've not been overly pleased with their service in the past, but it was all good experience this time.

We had a 3:15pm flight booked out of Ft. Lauderdale.  We got to the A/P about 10:30 since we really didn't want to schlep luggage all around town for a few hours.  Finally I went to check in about 11:45.  After about five minutes of typing around on her computer, the agent said there was a problem with my flight from FLL to ATL.  It was late coming out of New York, and I would miss my connection to Tulsa.

She found us a Delta flight out of West Palm at 2:40, gave me a cab voucher and sent us on our way.  Got home right on time.  In the past I was usually hosed when that happened.  I didn't even have to ask about the alternate itinerary, she just volunteered it.


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: jne on August 07, 2007, 11:34:00 am
From todays FARK headlines:

"Only about 40 percent of space shuttles launch on time. NASA proud to have better record than American Airlines"


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: Conan71 on August 07, 2007, 11:45:12 am
OUCH!

Even one of AA's hometown papers has plenty to say about it:

Ft. Worth Star Telegram (http://"http://www.star-telegram.com/business/story/193693.html")


Title: Do not fly American
Post by: mr.jaynes on August 07, 2007, 02:51:24 pm
quote:
Originally posted by iplaw

quote:
Originally posted by sgrizzle

quote:
Originally posted by cannon_fodder

I like providing business to 'local companies,'  but I'm flying family and parents this weekend on Northwest.  5 tickets missed out on from me, and counting.



That's the only airline I've had worse luck with than american.

I hope your family likes continental. That is who Northwest always booked me on when my flights got cancelled.

I really enjoy Continental for international flights, never been on them for domestic...



Never did international, but domestic, they're good. Even if you're on Continental Connection, the service is good.