I know some people will ask if it’s a slow news day or why I’m writing about this, but I’m oddly curious…
In this post:
American called me twice early this morning
When I woke up this morning, I saw that I had two missed calls from American Airlines, both at 3:22AM. This didn’t appear to be a scam, as it’s not just that the caller ID said the airline’s name, but the number matched as well (and when I call American, it shows “Americanairline” written in the same way on my caller ID).
Okay, I am flying American Airlines today, so I immediately assumed there was an issue with my itinerary, like a delay or cancelation. I figured it was one of those automated phone calls informing me of a change to my travel plans. However, no voicemail was left, I didn’t receive an email, and my flights both showed as on-time, with no operational issues.
I called back American Airlines, and the representative couldn’t tell me why I would have been called (which isn’t surprising, since I wasn’t expecting that they’d know).
Why this phone call confuses me
I’ve been an American Airlines flyer for over a decade, so I’m used to how the airline reaches out to customers. This isn’t among those ways, though, at least based on my experience:
- Automated phone calls are usually accompanied by voicemails and automated emails, especially regarding flight disruptions, and I didn’t get any of those
- If it’s an actual human reaching out (like someone from customer relations, a marketing offer, or whatever), they’ll always call during regular business hours in the United States; for that matter, most non-reservations departments at American only work during standard business hours anyway
- I was wondering if someone tried to hack into my AAdvantage account, or something, but I’m having no issues logging in
So yeah, this is no doubt incredibly minor and insignificant, though I can’t help but be curious, as it’s the first time in a decade I’ve received a call from American overnight that didn’t include a voicemail or email.
Bottom line
Ordinarily I wouldn’t think twice about a company calling me in the middle of the night, since I of course keep my phone on silent. However, I’ve never been called by American at an hour like this, unless it was an automated call about a flight disruption, in which case there’s always a voicemail and/or email.
So I’m curious more than anything else, if anyone has had a similar experience, or has insights about why American would call at such an hour without otherwise leaving a message.
Anyone have any theories?
FWIW, my flights were changed to ridiculous connections so I tried to change and couldn't. So I called their number and waited 2 hours for a callback. I did get a call from "Jeffererson County" which I refused. Uh-oh, it was AA - another two hours wasted!
They just wanted to make sure you will be well rested for your flight.
This sort of thing happens to me all the time. I live in Hawaii, but my mobile phone number has a New York City area code (I never changed it from when I moved here. 9 years ago). I've learned over the years that if an early morning call is legit, even a robocall, they will leave a voicemail. Without that or some other form of communication like a text or email, I ignore the call, or if I'm sure it is a scam, I block the number.
Thats a the complaint and that's the article. You must have nothing to write about. Lately these articles are like gossip. Must be running a tabloid
It was crew scheduling.
I share your concern. Two call attempts, if made by a human, indicate an urgency to reach you. Given you're flying today that makes it not just urgent but timely requiring a connection.
I use tripit (pro) so any published changes in flight plans, equipment, gate, get sent via SMS long before airport video boards or phone calls get through. Best $25/yr ever for the last somewhat ten years.
I also have a CAPTCHA on...
I share your concern. Two call attempts, if made by a human, indicate an urgency to reach you. Given you're flying today that makes it not just urgent but timely requiring a connection.
I use tripit (pro) so any published changes in flight plans, equipment, gate, get sent via SMS long before airport video boards or phone calls get through. Best $25/yr ever for the last somewhat ten years.
I also have a CAPTCHA on my phone. Inbound callers must prove they are not a machine to get through. Otherwise they CAN NOT get through to either ring me, cellphones, extensions, or leave voicemail. This often results in missed calls with no voicemail. In three years of having done this I've learned to just disregard this and eventually get an email or a snail-mail "We were unable to reach you, and..." HOWEVER, as I said up front, you're flying AA today so this is timely and urgent, so you should call your "I'm an important guy" AA Helpdesk and see what they know.
As for the question you posit to the time, I'm going with "AA doesn't provide a mechanism that says 'Do not call me between the hours of 0500-1400UTC (or z)' and hence figures it's up to you to set DND on YOUR phone, so they can call anytime.
After all, they don't KNOW WHERE you are or WHAT TIME IT IS nor whether you are likely to be asleep, in a meeting, or having mushroom-related high prior to pulling fuel shutoff valve handles. To them you're a customer that they want to communicate with -- just to cover some ass about something -- and so they called. Call 2 came because you didn't "Press 1 if you're Gary" or whatever.
Tripit is worth its weight in small chunks of CC cash. CAPTCHA on your phone will help you avoid any stress about missed calls. Please follow up on this story and update it with what they tell you "the important news" is when you do call them.
Safe flying today,
E
It was possibly an agent asking you to move to an earlier flight due to an oversold situation. They would not leave a message because you can’t call us back at the airport.
My vote is Voip call from an overseas call center not thinking about the time difference
How do you know that it is minor and insignificant if you do not even known the purpose for the call....What's the point of this article? So American called you early this morning and did not know why they called. ...
A(2) lovely and warm morning call(s)
Next time answer the phone and find out please.
I got a call from them saying they were returning my call. This was two weeks ago. I had booked a couple of flights the week before.
So many comments with completely wrong information.
It's amusing people calling out scams but still believe in propagandas and cover ups when what you believe is exactly the opposite reality.
It's super easy to spoof caller ID for these folks. I'm sure that's all it was because I've probably received 100 calls with the caller ID spoofed and the name matches
Possibly an IT upgrade on their auto dialer software went very wrong? That’s the time of night when big enterprise systems get updated, when usage is low.
I received a call from an American Airlines gate agent(!) the other day when flying out of MIA about 20 minutes before the flight departed. They were asking if I was on my way to the gate -- they said they were checking on passengers given that the airtrain thing is down.
That’s actually very proactive and impressive.
As others have said, likely oversold situation. I've received a very late night call from United asking about an oversold situation, which I was similarly confused by because I'm 1K on United (was Global Services at the time) and in my opinion they should never ask a 1K/GS (or in your case EXP) about oversold situations apart from it being offered in the app.
>likely oversold situation
No chance. It's scam.
Is there some mechanism that drives you people to actively want to be scammed?
I have never been on a plane, never traveled further than my mailbox, and I got called at 4:30 am…
Scam? Probably. Misdial? Doubtful. A$$holes waking me up without a cup of Folgers in their hands? Good thing they don’t give an address!
Were you upgraded on the flight departing on the same/next day? Sounds like an oversold situation, but don't think they'd call EPs on a paid F/J ticket normally.
Could have been a scam. You would think notes would be attached to the PNR if they were calling you about an oversold situation. I've gotten calls (albeit never at 3AM) where AA downgraded to a smaller a/c and was asking volunteers to move back to coach for a travel credit.
What's even funnier is that American's AI advertising system picked up on this article and got all the digital banners and pop-ups. Not a good look!
It's actually Google not AA that is behind all the banners and pop ups.
Now if it was showing you ads for kinky NSFW stuff, you know what sites you're visiting.
@Eskimo
No, it's actually AA ultimately behind it. Do you think Google runs AA ads simply for fun?! AA pays Google. It's called advertising. Google runs these paid ads in the form of banners and pop-ups for AA.
Hey. U up?
HAHA...yeah maybe the AA CX agent was scrolling through OMAAT at 3am and called you to hook up. Or at minimum some phone sex.
I'm TrIpPiN' BaLLs. YoLO
Wait, that's Alaska
"This didn’t appear to be a scam, as it’s not just that the caller ID said the airline’s name, but the number matched as well."
The caller ID:
"Americanairline"
Ok Ben lol
@ Marco -- For what it's worth, that's exactly what the caller ID shows when I call American's correct number (outbound call, rather than inbound)...
Ben probably has this number stored in his Contacts with the name “Americanairline” hence the reason it comes across this way. Especially since he indicates that’s how the number shows up when he calls them (caller ID isn’t outbound).
Technology allows scammers to mimic third party numbers so the customer believes they are receiving a call from a valid business. Even more worrying is that AI can mimic voices so people think they are speaking to a family member.
If in doubt end the call. Wait and call back “ redialling “ the number.
@Icarus
Your strategy definitely works until you get a call from a department that doesn't take outside calls and cannot be transferred to.
Think, Joe Biden calling you. How do you call him back.
Stop, boomers. It's a scam. Period.
"B.." no. Stop. Scam.
Phones numbers can be spoofed. If you don't know this, you're not paying attention. The missing -s is a dead giveaway. Case closed.
"B..." nope. Still a scam.
It's a good cautionary tale, however. Which most of you won't heed.
This ^.
Not only the missing “s”, But the missing space and the lower case on “airline”.
Spoofed number.
They just wanted to remind you that you can earn 60k bonus miles on an Aviator Red Mastercard, which is good enough for 2 RT tickets to anywhere in the US, Caribbean, or Mexico!
Hahaha…I was going to say the same thing.
Good one.
FTW
Could most definitely be a scam or vishing attempt. The timing of the call, the caller ID leaving off the S in Airlines (unless it was truncated), and the fact that being a well-known travel blogger increases the chances of someone targeting you. AA doesn't have a record of the call, but if the call was legit, I wouldn't expect them to know what's going on - given they're AA and all :)
What is vishing???
I’ve been called like that. It has always been an oversold situation where they were offering me an alternative route for compensation. 3am though is a little much though. Must have been a CK that needed a seat on that flight!
One day prior to departure from SSA, I received a call from GOL Airlines almost demanding I had my flight brought forward in one day but not giving me a reason for that, be it cancellation or what.
As odd as the call was, with the agent never confirming information, I insisted to fly as booked and so did happen as planned. At the check-in counter they confirmed the contact but I did feel...
One day prior to departure from SSA, I received a call from GOL Airlines almost demanding I had my flight brought forward in one day but not giving me a reason for that, be it cancellation or what.
As odd as the call was, with the agent never confirming information, I insisted to fly as booked and so did happen as planned. At the check-in counter they confirmed the contact but I did feel for a while it was a hacking scam of some sort.
The other airline which called me twice was TAP, to inform me of a cancellation MONTHS before the flight and offer me an alternative, which I had to negotiate into one that suited ME and not them.
The article is not irrelevant at all and raises a number of issues.
It is likely an oversold flight issue (or downgrade of equipment) and they are trying to proactively move you to another flight for compensation ahead of time.
Maybe they were just calling to make sure you wouldn't sleep in and miss your flight.
I had an early call from AA. I was just leaving my hotel room to catch the 5:30 AM shuttle in Las Vegas. It was a man asking me if I would consider changing my LAS-LAX-NRT flight to LAS-DFW-NRT flight for a $600 voucher. I think it was an oversold situation in the First Class flight to LAX. I declined because I wanted to fly the 787 that was used on the LAX-NRT flight.
...I had an early call from AA. I was just leaving my hotel room to catch the 5:30 AM shuttle in Las Vegas. It was a man asking me if I would consider changing my LAS-LAX-NRT flight to LAS-DFW-NRT flight for a $600 voucher. I think it was an oversold situation in the First Class flight to LAX. I declined because I wanted to fly the 787 that was used on the LAX-NRT flight.
Good thing I did as when we were boarding the LAS-LAX flight, they announced that DFW was having a ground stop due to weather so the LAS-DFW flight would be 'delayed'.
Anyway, I was surprised it was a real human calling.
This doesn’t sound like a scam… but the fact that the phone number was “legit” doesn’t mean you can rule out a scam call. Phone numbers can be spoofed and spoofing has become a common tool for scammers.
I had this happen to me too last Thursday. It was at 5am and they were war dialing me, once every 5-10 minutes (okay, maybe not war dialing) 5 calls in a row. I checked and everything was on time but I didn’t have a seat assignment. Turns out my 321 went to a 738 and I was on a miles ticket so they moved me to a different set of flights.
Good luck!
I've received calls from AA twice in the past year (on the morning of departure) when flights were oversold - the agents asked if I'd be willing to switch flights (for a small amount of compensation).
But never that early in the morning!