Do not fly American

[tulsa1603]

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.

[cannon_fodder]

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.

[okiebybirth]

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.

[cannon_fodder]

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.

[cannon_fodder]

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.

[MikeB]

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.

[MikeB]

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.

[Conan71]

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. []

[mr.jaynes]

On account of the fact that my older brother (and my father before him) is a pilot, I must refrain from criticizing airline policies.

[iplaw]

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...

[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.

[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.

[cannon_fodder]

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.

[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...

[Conan71]

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.