Resolution with American over my broken laptop

On the "ALWAYS close or move your laptop when you’re being served on an airplane." I actually ask FA's (very politely of course) "could you please go around my laptop with that drink?" I've flown just as much as anybody and have never had an issue. I get a few looks, but honestly I see more and more UA FA's going over the backs of the seat in front of me to pour or deliver drinks.

For what it's worth, I really don't think what you did was DYKWIA. You did what you needed to do, especially after you were clearly inconvenienced by the airline. If you don't stand up for yourself, who's going to?

You're like 22 right? What "sensitive" information could possibly on the drive? Just admit you didn't want to give up your porn collection.

So I assume you have a backup laptop or had to buy a replacement at the Apple store when you had them remove your hard drive? Great to get 'taken care of' but still hard to work these days without a working laptop!

CYA does not = DYKWIA

What you did (asking for somebody to meet you at the gate) is not DYKWIA. Rather, it's what an informed consumer would do. I agree with the steps you've taken and will use as template if something similar happens to me.

it was DYKWIA. Similar thing happened to me and I took as many pictures as I could plus video which helped me big time to score much more than what I asked.

You'd been just as screwed even if it wasn't a MacBook Air. Logic board(ie. the part that contains CPU, GPU, everything important) is the one that dies and essentially means a new computer. I've actually recovered all my data from an SSD after killing my MacBook Pro's logic board with a drink of coke...

Let's hope AA does it right in the end. 🙂

Colpuck, not sure if you're aware but he runs a business where he has to have usernames and passwords for FF accounts that may have hundreds of thousands of miles and itineraries that can be easily cancelled. I don't know about you, but I consider my UA MP account with 300K+ miles and a nearly impossible to beat MR (cpm wise) amongst other trips sensitive data.

- Or get a Lenovo Thinkpad, which feature keyboards that let fluids run through the computer without damaging it. But I know it's futile to tell a Mac-owner to buy a Thinkpad.

A flight attendant on a recent Delta flight insisted that everyone in my row close their laptop while drinks were being distributed. Minor nuisance for the assurance that this scenario wouldn't happen. But I don't think it's a company-wide policy.

Did they offer any miles for the inconvenience?

Colpuck,

What does his age (22) have to do with anything? Stupid comment. Joke or not.

I would say persistence might have had more to do with it than being a blogger.

I stayed at a St Regis last year and a maid shattered the glass screen on my iPad. Long story short their insurance denied my claim because it was their word against mine. I called multiple times saying I was platinum and appalled by the response. Tweeted them and received a review from hotel management team but still no dice. Finally called two more times and they agreed me to write a check for the replacement value after I explained how much I spent at SPG properties the previous year for work.

If I hadn't been so persistent they would have written me off but similarly it paid off (oddly they didn't ask for any receipt or proof of cost...). I think the manager was tired of speaking to me.

Wouldn't you do your readers a favour by not using your blogger status to evaluate them?

"The logical question many of you are probably asking is whether or not I got that resolution because I’m a blogger or not. I don’t know."

Come on, don't be naive... of COURSE it helped get the resolution you wanted. if you wanted to actually see how AA handles these things when you don't have any internet weight, you should have not published anything until the situation had resolved itself - and if you wanted to contact them on twitter, do it under an alias.

@ colpuck -- Do you know what I do for a living (other than blog)?

@ Nathan G -- Fortunately I purchased an iMac not too long ago, and had everything transferred to that computer at that point. Other than that, my data on my MacBook Air wasn't recoverable. I did buy a new MacBook Air shortly thereafter.

@ Joe -- I spoke to someone at customer relations that contacted me regarding both the laptop incident and the bad service on the flight between Miami and Madrid, and they offered me 10,000 miles between the two incidents. I thought that was fair.

OMG Colpuck, you're such a troll.

Lucky does consulting in addition to his award bookings, so all that information would be on his laptop. Not to mention files (incl. emails saved to the drive) involving personal matters.

Maybe if you were 22 that would be all you would have on your laptop, but if you can't understand why he'd need the SSD removed from his laptop, you're stupid.

@ Jack -- I'm not trying to evluate American, but rather only provide a follow up based on what lots of people have been asking me about.

@ Joe -- Like any other rational human being, my goal in this situation was to get a resolution as quickly as possible by whatever means possible. I travel a lot and being without a laptop is near impossible. Like I said, I'm just providing a follow up regarding something I've been asked about a lot.

If you could do it over, would you have purchased ADH (Accidental Damage from Handling) coverage for the laptop?

Lucky, why didn't you reach out to AA privately and keep the entire matter between you and AA while it was happening?

I think the DYKWIA syndrome came from how you handled the matter socially and professionally.

Hopefully after reviwing the comments you received during, afterwards and now you can probably look back at the situation and handle it a little differently than how you did. I think Jays comments above are on target here.

Yeah, i am super careful when they are serving drinks, especially during boarding. But where i have had bad luck lately are my seat mates. Obviously not intentional, and in one case only water, but folks just do not seem to pay attention these days.

And can frequent travelers please try to be a bit less trashy in the lounges, perhaps keep their feet on the floor, not on another chair, and maybe police their trash when they leave, and wipe down their table with a cocktail napkin when they leave.

@ Tom -- I'm not sure how expensive that is. Typically I take great care of my stuff, so I don't purchase "insurance." The companies offering the insurance policies usually come out ahead, and worst case scenario it's not like I can't afford to replace my laptop. So I probably wouldn't.

@ Jack -- Perhaps I should have. If I could do it over I might direct message American on Twitter instead, but frankly in my experience social media is damn powerful. If you need to get something done in a short period of time, social media is the way to do so.

I hadn't really thought about the issue much, but maybe I should to be on the careful side.

I've always had flight attendants pour my beverages away from my computer in the aisle so that they don't spill on it--smart move.

I wouldn't consider asking the FA to have somebody meet to your flight as a DKYWIA move. On a PWM-ORD UAX flight in F, about two years ago, one of the FAs dumped a whole tray of drinks on a passenger. Naturally, he apologized until landing, handed out some skykits, and must have had the Captain contact dispatch to ask for a supervisor when we landed. Once the door opened, the supervisor was standing by the aircraft door, ready to greet the guy (who was pretty pissed).

Similar thing happened to me with a much better outcome. Delta asked me to gatecheck my backpack and I left my old laptop in it. When I got to Sacramento I found out the screen was crushed. The redcoat appreciated my calm demeanor (it was an old dell laptop), asked me how much I paid for it (I didn't lie), then offered me $200 over that, pointed me to a best buy, I bought a baseline model MacBook air, and he cut me a check right then and there. I love delta.