Has Service At American Airlines Hit Rock Bottom?

Wow what privilège. One day I hope this writer will get over themselves (and their imperialistic ways) to realize what damage they are impacting on regions with their curious travels. Not one mention of the damage that tourism does.

Sitting in the airport in Sarasota FL as I write this...saved up AA frequent flyer miles to fly to a friend’s wedding. We’ve flown with points from other airline’s mileage clubs and it never seemed any different than flying as a paid passenger. Shocked about all the AA restrictions ...we don’t even get a CARRY ON!?!? “One personal item that fits under the seat is allowed. No overhead bin storage is allowed”. “Basic economy customers who bring more than an under seat item to the gate incur the regular checked baggage charge plus a $25 gate service charge…“ It’s kind of tough to pack for a wedding with a bag that fits under the seat!?!. “Boarding passes will reflect last boarding group” and “seat assignments automatically assigned at check-in” did not seat my husband and I together. Asked gate attendant and was told there was nothing that could be done to seat us together because it was “basic economy.“ Wow. Just makes me SAD to be treated so badly. Rename this program TFFLC - treat frequent flyers like crap.

You all need to understand that American Airlines no longer exists. It's US Air with the American name on it. Doug Parker has never run a No.1 Airline and never will. US Air was never rated in the top five airlines. Now that they've taken over AA they don't understand why they're No.7 or No.8. They thought the name would put them in the top five. They couldn't wait to be American Airlines but they run the company like they always did at US Air. Instead of looking to see how American did it they've done away with most AA procedures and are doing it the US Air way. Don't blame the unions this time. It's purely poor and incompetent management. Most AA management is gone. Even in lower management AA employees feel they have a target on their back. While American was never perfect it was always better than US Air in Customer Service and had a better Aircraft Maintenance Program. That is all gone now. After the merger they should have continued as US Air and let AA die with its dignity

Long, but worth the read: We arrived at LAX on Saturday, June 15th for American Airlines flight 2044 (LAX > Charlotte > Tallahasse). The flight was scheduled to depart at 08:36, so we arrived at the airport at 06:00. Our intent was to check in, then eat breakfast at the airport. Upon arrival at the check-in counter, we were informed out flight had been canceled. This was the first notice of cancellation we received. We were directed to another counter for rebooking. There were approximately 100 people already in line, seven service windows, but only one agent handling customers. When we got in line, the single agent was working with a group of 15 people. It took 1.5 hours for the agent to process this one group. By the time we got to an agent (the previous agent left after serving the one group), we had been in line over two hours. During our 2-hour+ wait, I went to the American Airlines wheelchair station and requested a wheelchair for my wife. She had injured her leg prior to boarding our flight from Australia to LAX, so she was requiring a wheelchair on subsequent flights. I was denied a wheelchair – according to the American Airline wheelchair personnel, you have to have a boarding pass to use a wheelchair. I explained that our flight had been canceled, we were in line to get rebooked, and would then have boarding passes. The American Airline wheelchair personnel didn’t care. She said my wife could “sit in the window and wait.” Bear in mind, this is not a chair in front of the window – this is the hard, cold marble ledge of the window she was directing my wife to sit in. Once at the ticketing window, we were not given a reason for the cancellation. We were, however, told we had been rescheduled on the flight that left at 01:00 – eight hours earlier. I’m not sure how we were supposed to make that flight, since we had received no notice of cancellation or rebooking. After much creativity, the agent booked us on a flight that would take us LAX > New Orleans > Dallas/Fort Worth > Tallahassee. We had just enough time to get a wheelchair (we had boarding passes) and make it to the gate to board. No breakfast… While still on the ground, I posted our wheelchair experience on Twitter with the hashtag #americanairsucks. I had a response within minutes. I gave them our flight record locator, my cell number, and email address. They told me our original flight had been cancelled for “maintenance”. My response: “Wow. You mean to tell me AA sold tickets for an advertised flight, then took it out of service for maintenance? Great planning!” They had no response to that, but did assure me they would speak with the LAX wheelchair team. They also said they would look into all the circumstance of the trip, once it was complete, and someone would be in touch. Once the flight was in the air, the flight attendant announced her apology that the flight did not have its usual offering of food. This wasn’t ideal, since we lost our window for breakfast due to the cancellation and rebooking ordeal. Plan B was to eat lunch in New Orleans. The flight encountered bad weather on approach to New Orleans, so we were put in a holding pattern. This lasted long enough for the plane to run low on fuel and divert to Baton Rouge for refueling. We sat on the Baton Rouge tarmac for two hours. Again, the flight had no food. While on the tarmac, and American Airlines Team Envoy entered to discuss passengers disembarking in Baton Rouge. We were told there was the possibility of getting my wife and me from Baton Rouge to Tallahassee, but she would need to speak with her manager. She was never able to contact her manager – she phoned and left messages, but they never called back. The other American Airline employees on the plane were not surprised. The jet door was shut, and American Airlines lost the opportunity to make a bad situation better. Once fueled and the weather passed, the pilot announced we would depart has soon as the paperwork was completed. This took another half-hour. In the meantime, a United Airline flight had been diverted for the same reason and sat on the tarmac beside us. They departed Baton Rouge one hour before us – United must be better at paperwork. Finally, on the New Orleans. The delay into New Orleans caused us to miss the connection to DFW. By now, we have realized we’re not making it to home to Tallahassee this day. I asked if AA would provide a voucher for a hotel. The ticketing agent said no – company policy is to not give vouchers when the delay is weather related. I tried to explain the only reason we were on that plane is because AA had cancelled our original flight. I realize the weather clause is a legal loophole, but the right thing to do, taking everything into consideration, would be to issue a voucher. Not only the agent dig in and not listen to reason, she became rude and dismissive to my wife. I asked to speak with a manager. While waiting for the manager, I was to able acquire two sandwiches and bags of chips – first food since the previous evening. Another agent arrived – a supervisor. All managers had gone home for the day. I explained the situation and inquired about a room voucher. At first, he attempted to toe the company line, but once he listened and realized all the pieces that led to our ordeal, he had a change of heart. The plan was for us to go on to DFW. He entered the details of our experience (thus far) into our flight record and instructed me to find the AA CSM (Customer Service Manager) in DFW. He assured one would still be there, since DFW is a hub. After he had documented our details, I asked if AA had a training program for associates that instructed them in customer service. He said AA does and all employees go through the training. I shared our experience with the previous ticketing agent and suggested they be sent for more training. I reminded him each associate represents AA, and the previous agent had not represented AA well. He assured me he would let a manager know the following morning. We finally got out of New Orleans. Upon arrival at DFW, we found the AA CSM desk. CSM Timothy pulled up our flight record, read the comments from the supervisor in New Orleans, and promptly issued a room voucher and $24 for meals. We asked about our luggage. We were told our luggage was in Dallas, but we couldn’t have it. We were assured it would be in Tallahassee when we arrived. We checked into the hotel at 11:00 PM – 15 hours since we walked into LAX and only half way home to Tallahassee. Our Sunday morning flight out DFW was at 10:37 AM. We awake at 07:00 AM – plenty time to have breakfast and get to the airport. I check online and see the flight has been cancelled. Again, no notice. I call AA customer service, and they tell me the flight was cancelled due to weather. I take a picture out the hotel window (within eyesight of the airport) – clear skies. I check the weather forecast – partly cloudy all day. Again, they had rebooked us on another flight, but it was scheduled to depart 45 minutes after we found out about the (second) cancellation. This is when we realized AA was not going to get us home that day. (We were supposed to be home at 7:35 PM Saturday June 15, and it’s now 08:00 AM Sunday June 16.) We made other arrangements (all of which could have been accomplished by AA) and walked through our home’s front door at 9:00 PM Sunday night (39 hours after we first walked into LAX). From what I could tell online, none of the Sunday DFW flights AA tried to put us ever left that day. Had we stayed with AA, we would have been stuck in Dallas, again. And, being since it be classified as “weather related”, we would have been left to fend for ourselves. Once we got home, I used AA’s baggage tracking tool on their website. I found our luggage – it was in Panama City, FL. It was tagged for Tallahassee, not Panama City. It was scanned out of DFW at 2:66 PM on Sat., June 15th and scanned into Panama City at 6:17 PM Sat. June 15th. This information was on the AA website. Two things very wrong; 1) At no time were we ticketed for Panama City, and 2) we were told Saturday night our luggage was in DFW (but weren’t allowed to have it). Truth is, at the time I asked about it, our luggage was already in Panama City. I got up Monday morning, after two very long days of inefficient travel, and drove to Panama City to retrieve our luggage. The person in Panama City that gave me my luggage shared a “funny story” – when he saw our bag was tagged for Tallahassee, he got ready to send it on. But, his manager told him to hang on to it to see if we would come get it. The suitcase got there on Saturday, and they kept it all day Sunday to see if I would come get it. Our phone number is on the tag, but no one called. I drove four hours Monday to get our luggage. I do want to point out the AA people that were actually helpful during this ordeal: Alberto (ticket agent in LAX), the supervisor in New Orleans (I did not get his name, but I believe it is the document he created in our flight record), and Timothy (CSM in DFW). Other than those three, AA could not have handled this any poorer – poor maintenance planning, total lack of effective communication, lack of concern for customer welfare by denying my wife a wheelchair and directing her to go sit in a window, total lack of empathy (it was as if all this was common to them), more concerned about following policy than doing what’s right (just because it’s legal doesn’t make it ethical or right), not being truthful about the status of our luggage, and waiting for us to come get our luggage (rather than send it to its final, paid destination). One should “never say never”, but there will have to be insurmountable extenuating circumstances before we will ever set foot on another AA flight. What can AA do to make amends? • A formal, written apology to my wife • Financial reimbursement for the DFW > TLH leg of the flight we did not use • Financial reimbursement for the alternate arrangements we made that allowed us to be home Sunday • Financial reimbursement for having to drive to Panama City to retrieve our luggage

I've been flying AA for a long time and their service the last year or so has been in noticeable decline, while their prices (once the best around) seem to be headed in the other direction. This year they have been horrendous. My sister had a day delay in February. In April my return flight got me home 15 hours late and cost me an extra day of vacation. And last month I basically had to cancel my Memorial Day weekend plans because of their flight delays. I logged a complaint online and am still waiting for the 5-day response 3 weeks later. This year well over 50% of my flights on AA have been delayed. I've got one more ticket booked in a couple of weeks, and after that I plan to cash in my miles and find another carrier.