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 First Time and Last Time? (American Airlines)
Posted Wed June 27, 2007 11:43 pm, by Hoangkhoa L. written to American Airlines, Inc.
Write a Letter to this Company | Rate this Company
As a very frequent flyer, I am awfully disappointed and extremely angry from my first-time experience with American Airlines. This most distressing journey began on June 21, 2007 on flight 829 from DCA to MIA before connecting to flight 2185 to CUN. The check-in lines at 4:00 AM were short and we were pleased that a check-in representative ushered us to the front of the line early to that we could make our 6:05 AM flight. Everything was going smoothly until we boarded the plane.
When we encountered departure-time, our plane had not left the gate, and we were eventually told that there were some mechanical issues regarding a "box" that the technicians were attempting to fix. Half an hour went by until we were updated that the issue could not be resolved and that we would deplane and board another aircraft to Miami. At this point, the first class cabin was allowed to deplane and wait outside of the plane to stretch their legs and be more comfortable. Everyone else on board was tense and frustrated at our early morning delays, but I was happy to know that we would not be flying on an unsafe aircraft. However, a few minutes later, a flight attendant announced that the technicians would attempt one more fix to this box, causing another wave of dissatisfaction to ripple through the cabin as passengers returned to their seats.
Half an hour later, we were notified that a compatible replacement box was found and that we would be in the air very shortly after the technicians replaced the box. There was celebration on board of the plane at the prospect of arriving to Miami on-time for connecting flights. The first-class cabin reentered the plane, and our plane finally began its taxiing on the runway. As our plane was just about ready to take-off we learned that this moment of pleasure would be short-lived.
There had been some sort of security breach. When the first class cabin boarded the plane for the second time, none of the crew had checked to make sure that each passenger boarding the plane had appropriate passes. Our plane had to taxi back to its gate where a travel agent went person-by-person checking everyone off through the manifest. I overheard that someone had gotten into the first-class cabin that didn't belong there, but I can't confirm that truth. Alas, it looked like my $900/night hotel in Cancun would be lost to the mechanical issues and poor oversight of this flight.
The tense and panicky passengers aboard flight 829 finally arrived to Miami at about 10:00 AM, the same time my own flight to Cancun was scheduled to depart. Some connecting gate information had been announced to us as we taxied to our gate and anxious passengers were already unbuckled and retrieving their carry-on items. Luckily, my companion and I were told that the plane from Miami to Cancun was delayed and awaiting the numerous passengers from our flight before departing.
The trip from Miami to Cancun went smoothly and after 4 days at an amazing 5-star resort, the Royal in Cancun, all my stress was washed away. I travel often and I have experienced delays, cancellations, and disappointments. These sorts of things happen and it's not always chiefly the airline's fault. It's unfortunate that the domino effect of stress ultimately falls on the consumer, but I was ready to give American Airlines another chance on this return flight home from CUN to MIA and finally DCA. That was a mistake.
When we arrived to check in for our flight, a very nice man by the name of Edwin told us our plane was delayed and we would most likely miss our flight from MIA to DCA. He told us that we should check in with a travel agent once we got to MIA to work out hotel arrangements. Although that meant I would have to take unplanned absence at work, I was okay with it. My companion, however, had a much harder time dealing with the situation since she must look after children for a family. Our delay not only meant lost wages for her, but also lost wages and great stress for that family. The flight delay was also never reported to me via email as I've requested on my AAdvantage profile, and our time was spent visiting the duty-free shop to purchase some liquor and wasting money on food at the airport instead of lounging comfortably by the pool or ocean at our lovely hotel.
Our plane boarded two hours later than originally planned, but the boarding process went smoothly and we did not have to deal with any mechanical or security issues as we did previously. Our trip through customs was very fast and when we checked the monitor to see the current status of our originally planned from MIA to CUN, we found that it had been delayed until 9:35 PM. It was 9:00 PM! We could make it home and not worry about lost wages at work!!! We took our carry-on luggage and ran to the nearest AA employee who told us to go to the check-in counter.
When we arrived at the line, we explained our dilemma and easy solution to the Caucasian man in a red vest. He pointed us to an African-American lady near the self-check-in booths assisting other customers in a line who were waiting to see a check-in representative. I explained the same situation to this rude lady whom I saw assisting other customers, and she just told us that we were in the self-check-in line (which we obviously weren't), and she didn't have the time to help us because she was the only person in that area. Frustrated, I asked her if there was ANYONE who could actually do something to help us make our very feasibly flight. She turned her back to me and walked away. Not having the time to deal with her rudeness, I ran off to the next available agent I could find.
I hurriedly explained my situation to this man who then pointed me back again to the Caucasian man in the red vest who then pointed me again to the rude African-American lady with the bad attitude. By this point I was ready to snap. NO ONE was willing to take responsibility to help two passengers make it to their flights! The feasibility of making it to our original flight was very high if only someone would thing quickly and take charge! Perhaps sensing the gravity of the issue, the man in the red vest left his post, even though he said his boss would be very angry at him, to escort us to a pleasant young Hispanic woman behind a ticket counter. She understood my story very well and agreed that we would have no problem making our flight. She took us straight to her boss, a heavier-set man with glasses of possibly Hispanic origin who seemed to be the head guy in charge. He brought us to the front of a line where a ticketing agent issued us our boarding passes and notified us that our bottle of Grey Goose vodka and bottle of Tequila would not clear the TSA checkpoint.
At this point my companion began to cry. With everything already going wrong, we were about to lose purchases we JUST made. However, the ticketing agent told me to stuff the bottles in a bag and he would check them in. I did as directed, but as he tried to check them in, he said that the system was locked out and not allowing any more bags to be checked in at that point. I accepted that fact. However, he said he would keep trying other ways to check that one bag in; but frustrated and wanting to make it on time to our flight, I offered the bottles of liquor up to the boss. When he accepted it seemed that the search for alternative methods to get that bag checked in was halted.
After this, we made our way quickly through TSA who once again did a very good job in getting us through quickly. However, we still had to travel to gate C9, and quickly. As we were approaching Terminal C, I asked my companion to leave me with her bag and run ahead to the gate to alert them of our arrival. She took off running, and I followed after her walking swiftly, with very heavy bags on my shoulder. I later caught up to her at the gate where she was experiencing an asthma attack. I tried to cool her down and relax her a bit by using a hand fan we had brought back from the hotel. Tears rolled down the cheeks of her bright red face as we discovered the plane had not even arrived to the gate yet!! It did not arrive until about 9:55 PM! All that running around had been unnecessary! We could have even checked our bags with liquor instead of forfeiting them!! I felt deceived. I was angry. Two days later I am still angry. The mechanical issue was one thing I could let slide. The delay in Cancun airport because of the weather delay in Dallas was another thing I could tolerate. But the poor oversight in security from employees should have been avoided, and most importantly the disgustingly poor treatment of passengers I cannot accept.
I travel both domestically and internationally frequently and I understand that issues beyond human control will arise. I've heard the line many times: "I'll never fly (Airline) again!" and have never really given it any weight until now. The manner in which we were treated was completely unacceptable and the stress we had to endure was almost enough to wipe out all the positive experiences from our time in Cancun. I would like to see the cost of our bottle of tequila ($29.00 USD) and bottle of Grey Goose ($35.00 USD) refunded to us since it was clearly possible for these items to be checked in. I would also like at least half the cost of our Round Trip Airfare refunded ($224.00 per person) for having to cope with this stress. Notice that I've asked for a refund and not a voucher. I understand that flights cost time and fuel and I truly do not wish to fly American Airlines again. I wish we had traveled with our 14 other friends on Jet Blue who experienced greater comfort and no negative issues whatsoever. The only way I would consider giving your company another chance is by being offered two free round-trip tickets back to Cancun so that my companion and I could relive our experience the way we intended. Until then, I will make it a point to discourage all my colleagues, associates, friends, and family members from ever flying American Airlines.
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by Gino Posted Sun July 1, 2007 @ 11:30 PM
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I read your letter! It was waaaaaay too long and full of too much
drama. After the first few paragraphs everything becomes a blurr and
anyone reading this would probably just give up.
One thing that struck me is American Airlines and Alcoholics Anonymous
are both abbreviated AA...I wonder if there's some kind of law about
that? But I Digress...
While I understand you are very upset, these delays and other things
DO happen and sometimes we just have to shrug our shoulders and be
grateful we made it where we wanted to go and got back in one piece.
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by Jeanie Posted Sat June 30, 2007 @ 12:23 PM
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To quote my brother... "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. Effin' waaaaaaaaaah."
A refund AND two free tickets to Cancun? From an airline that got you
there and back in one piece, and without delaying you too badly?
Honey-pie, wake up and smell the coffee. Nothing in this life is
guaranteed to go perfectly. And you seem the type to find fault with
everything anyway.
And another point of fact - there's a lot of people who would put up
with what you're kvetching about just for the opportunity to travel.
My mother would give just about anything to be able to go to Cancun,
or anywhere. She's got a chronic pain disorder, and now cancer.
She's not going anywhere for quite a while, if ever.
So try THAT on for size.
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by Peregrina Posted Fri June 29, 2007 @ 10:59 PM
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I think we need a special category for letters like this. Label it
'special snowflake' and into goes all the letters by people who were
treated just like everyone else and took deep offense to that. Surely
having a category of their own will be compensation enough for having
to wait in line, order food that is listed on the menu and obey the
return/warranty policies, right?
That will leave all of.....five letters that are from actual people -
as opposed to special snowflakes - with legitimate complaints,
compliments or other points of interest for the readers here on PFB.
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by Rhet Canter Posted Fri June 29, 2007 @ 5:24 PM
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You make all kinds of trouble and drama for yourself whereever you go
and for whatever reason. Me also thinks you're a bit of a racist, as
you pointed out the race of each American airline employee who
supposedly didn't help you, or are you taking a united nations quiz
sometime soon and wanted to practice that in your letter? That must
be it. I'm sure of it.
Your letter, requests, and well........just about everything is both
amusing and insulting to yourself. Your letter isn't even bad. It's
a terrible parady on what never to write in a letter. If I embelish
this a little, then a bit more here will make it even more
sensational! Is that what you thought? Because it got crazier, and
crazier the more it went on.
You have absolutley no legitimate beef with anyone other than the
doctor who didn't diagnose your mental illness and the pills that go
along with it to keep you in check. Wow......you are a trip. A trip
to Cancun man! But it was amusing and entertaining. Thanks for
lightening up my day!
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by Angelic Princess:) Posted Fri June 29, 2007 @ 5:09 PM
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four words for you... cry me a river
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by kjandj Posted Fri June 29, 2007 @ 12:14 AM
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"He brought us to the front of a line where a ticketing agent issued
us our boarding passes and notified us that our bottle of Grey Goose
vodka and bottle of Tequila would not clear the TSA checkpoint.
At this point my companion began to cry."
Your companion started to cry because you couldn't take your Grey
Goose and tequila on the plane with you? Are you serious? Surely you
can afford to buy her more, with your $900 a night hotel room and
all....
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by Beeracuda Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 7:36 PM
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Dear Hoangkhoa,
I would like to have the 10 minutes of my life back from reading all
of that. In order for me to even consider ever reading another letter
of yours, please consider buying me a $29 bottle of tequila, and a $35
bottle of Grey Goose.
And since you think you'll be getting 2 free RT tickets to Cancun,
please give me one of those tickets as compensation.
Until then, I will make it a point to discourage myself, my cat, that
annoying fly buzzing around the room, and any other critters that may
be in my house, from ever glancing at the monitor when one of your
letters is up on the screen.
Thank you, and have a nice day.
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by S. Brown Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 5:28 PM
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I'll bet the highlight of your trip was being escorted to the front of
the line by the head guy in charge - - passing by all the regular
people waiting for boarding passes.
It doesn't matter where you bought the booze - - as a person who
travels both domestically and internationally frequently, you should
know that you can't carry on more than 3 ounces of anything. Oh - -
wait a minute - - I forgot - - you're special - - sorry.
Something tells me that if you had flown on JetBlue with everyone else
you surely would have found something to complain about.
This is one of the most self-serving, pompous gimme grabs I've ever
read on PFB or anywhere else.
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by S. Brown Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 4:48 PM
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You and your companion are way too high maintenance for common
carriers. Next time you go on vacation I would suggest you charter a
private plane.
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by Jeffrey Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 3:08 PM
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My only comment: $900/night hotel.
I wish I had the money for a $900/night hotel. Gosh, if I had that
kind of money... I'm not sure I'd really care about $64 in alcohol or
even $224 in airfare.
What does one get for $900/night that you can't get from something
that's $150? Gold-plated toilet paper?
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by BellaSera Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 2:52 PM
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And once again, we have an OP that, because she had to endure a little
stress, feels she is owed the moon and more.
First of all, delays happen during air travel, and they are usually
not the airline's fault. (Except for for the security breach in the
first chapter of your story. That WAS the airline's fault). But from
the way you describe it, you made all your connecting flights. So the
problem is...what again?
Second, for someone who "travels both domestically and internationally
frequently", I'm surprised you didn't realize they would not let you
through security with two bottles of liquor. While I agree the liquor
could've been checked, you were both late check-ins, and airlines do
have bag limits.
Third, your demands are a joke, right? The liquor I could go with
(though I don't think you'd be owed it), but half the cost of your
airfare refunded AND two free round-trip tickets to Cancun?
Riiiiiigggghhhhttt.
And if you are able to get all this, let me know. I'm going to write a
letter to U.S. Airways for making me wait three extra hours in a
Brussels airport when I could've slept in and had lunch with my
sister. Maybe I'll ask for two free, round-trip tickets to Paris for
all my "trouble."
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by S. Brown Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 2:46 PM
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If you are truly a "very frequent traveler" then what happened to you
and your companion does not fall under the category of high drama.
Your whole complaint boils down to the fact that you expected the
airline employees to tend to your every need as if no other passengers
existed in the airport. Accept the fact that you were two people in a
sea of thousands and that AA safely got your to your destination and
home again. That is what you paid them for and that is what they
delivered.
You were OK with the Cancun delay due to mechanical issues and the
weather delay in Dallas - - but what you can't seem to accept is that
you no longer have your two bottles of liquor.
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I'm sorry, I couldn't get through that entire letter. I'd doubt it if
anyone else wanted to either. Your complaints are very typical of
traveling by plane. I would say to get over it and just don't fly
with that airline again. I don't think they are going to give you
what you are asking.
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by JuliePie Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 2:04 PM
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If you are a "very frequent flyer" and this is the worst experince
you've had, consider yourself lucky.
Try a 45-min turned 7 1/2 hour layover in O'Hare where you are told
every 1-2 hours that it's only going to be another hour or so (and you
don't bother looking for a hotel). And I DID miss work the next day,
not just worried that I would for a couple hours.
I think you need to have MORE experiences like this so you know the
kind of stuff that happens when you fly.
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by dawniedawn67 Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 1:44 PM
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"The only way I would consider giving your company another chance is
by being offered two free round-trip tickets back to Cancun so that my
companion and I could relive our experience the way we intended. "
I'm just curious - what guarantee will you have that, if AA did give
in to your ridiculous demand, the experience would be any better?
What if there happens to be a hurricane on the day you are to depart,
and it takes you 2 extra days to get home? What will AA have to do
for you then?
Two pieces of advice for you:
1) Stuff happens. Deal with it. There are always going to be bumps
in the path of life.
2) When you are writing a letter of complaint to a business, make sure
it is a LETTER, not a novella - many of your dramatic asides could
have been left out.
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by calm Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 9:54 AM
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If I understand this correctly, your main complaints are
1. there was about a 90-minute delay for first mechanical and then
security reasons on your initial flight.
2. when you were trying to make your final connection first nobody was
rushing when you wanted them to and then later you found out that they
were rushing when they didn't need to.
Meanwhile, you made all your connections (rendering your stories about
how your companion's employer's family would have lost money if you
didn't make the final connection and you might not have gotten to stay
at your $900/day hotel if you hadn't made the first connection
irrelevant to this complaint), your luggage arrived at your
destinations, and nobody dumped a bucket of crabs on you.
This isn't "disgustingly poor treatment," not by a long shot. You
don't deserve a refund for stress (air travel is stressful for
everyone), you don't deserve compensation for your alcohol (which you
gave away despite their attempts to check it for you), and you don't
deserve free round-trip tickets to Cancun (they delivered on all the
major points).
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by azgirl Posted Thu June 28, 2007 @ 4:01 AM
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Yes, you did encounter delays, but you made it to Cancun and back
safely. It is not the airline's fault that you decided to buy Tequila
and Vodka at the airpot that you were not allowed to carry on the
plane and were unable to check in at the last minute. I don't think
American Airlines owes you money for your alcohol, a refund of half
your ticket costs or a pair of free round trip tickets back to Cancun.
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