cityvisitor

Is there anyone out there who can send me a PM about who I can contact above Barry Robertson in customer relations? I emailed and left him a voicemail asking for a call back regarding a canceled then delayed flight which caused me to miss my connection by 5 min. All I wanted originally was a call and an explanation, but his email back was a bit rude and didn't address my concern, but addressed what he thought was the concern.

jeffreyt

Talking to Barry is not going to get your flight un-cancelled and help you make that connection. It already happened and I have at least 1 flght a month cancelled. It's really something you learn to live with no matter what carrier you fy. I hope you weren't trying to make a cruise. I'd let it go. You'll feel a lot better if you just forget about it and move on.

RogerD408

It's getting to be a joke with a friend and I about the non-related responses received by AA. It's to the point we don't think the first message is even read by a human, but a computer response keyed off an obscure word in the initial email. i.e. eMail about boarding procedures results in a response about markets served in Europe. Usually a reply to the "off-topic" email does get personal attention.

Suggest you call in and ask for a supervisor.

As to your specific situation, AA has stopped being concerned about missing connections to making their on-time departures look better. Even their scheduling has reflected this with fewer flights that allow for easy connections to onward flights. Long layovers are becoming the norm for connecting flights.

I am sure there are exceptions out there and it's not possible to meet everyone's requirements, but what use to be a breeze to make is no longer available.

janetdoe

No, but talking to someone above Barry about Barry's rudeness and non-responsiveness might make Barry try to provide some real customer service the next time someone sends in an e-mail.

Further, if everyone just accepts it and doesn't complain, or they move their business to another carrier but fail to let AA know that the excessive cancellations and delays is the cause, then AA will never attempt to fix the problem.

TWA884

Take a look at Elliott's American Airlines Customer Contacts page. He lists names, phone numbers and email addresses for the manager of customer relations, the managing director of Customer Experience and the senior vice president of Customer Experience.

dfwflyguy

Call the customer service directly or email customer relations again .
I am not sure what you are tying to get out of it.. You may get some bonus miles.

Often1

What was the reason for the delay and then cancellation? Sure, some are available, but it's really over the top to expect any carrier to respond in anything but a cavalier fashion to generalized complaints about missed connections due to cancellations. After all, rarely in carrier's interest to cancel (exceptions of course).

demkr

Interesting-because if this were the intention of AA, it's not working out so well. On-time departures on AA according to flightstats.com are on average hovering between 40-60%. (Arrivals they are average and actually improving, but with flight padding, really, does that even matter? Other airlines between 80 and 90 percent.

Their largest issue, in my mind, are very short turnarounds, single-engine taxiing (takes longer from pushback to takeoff), and planes where there's no more room for checked luggage. AA would do itself an honor to bite the cost-cutting mentality bullet and get a better ground crew and 21st century safety checks (the iPad for pilots is a good start).

JDiver

A call to a manager for that is not a good idea. An e-mail to customer service using the online form is a better start, then escalating as necessary and as reasonable and proper, IMO.

It's hard to commend much farther, given we know nothing about the circumstances.

FAA1996

Hows can a flight that has been canceled then be delayed?
As others have asked, were there unusual circumstances? Otherwise, I don't think you should expect a personalized answer from anyone regarding this. As mentioned previoulsy, flights get canceled and delayed all the time and it's just something we have to deal with if we travel with any airline.

alhcfp

I believe OP wants what we have all been asking for. Something that says that someone in AA has ACTUALLY read the complaint. I think OPs actual circumsatnce is irrelevant.

COuntless threads attest that AA CS does not respond to the complaint. Therefore, we are not asking to escalate the complaint, but rather that lack of customer acknowledgement.

I know some FTers on this Board think that AA's obligation starts and ends with CoC. Getting a complaint properly acknowledged is outside CoC, but within the realm of SMART BUSINESS.

(I am not attacking any individual response, just putting out an overall redundant issue)

JDiver

I pretty much agree with the gist of your post, yet I still say a telephone call (left on voicemail yet) to a titled ailrine manager will not accomplish anything useful, IMO. Well, unless the person is perhaps Warren Buffet or the like.

A well-written letter, perhaps, if we are discussing the overall lack of training and response AA is infamous for, and it comes from enough AA frequent flyers.

CS sometimes does reply appropriately, but sometimes it feels like they outsource to a primate colony whose second job is replying to AA customers. Probably after they have been tested with mind-altering pharmaceuticals.

The C of C is merely the invisible shield airlines sue to distance themselves from passenger complaints as well as abuses. Being aware of them is crucial, because sometimes passengers can use the C of C to gain a little bit of leverage when they are dealt with arbitrarily or incorrectly.

(U S) "airlines" and "smart business" are oxymoronic (as are IMO "customer" and "relations") in most cases related to this topic. Warren Buffet, and even C R Smith and Bob Crandall said that.

(In fact, the few, what I consider well-penned, letters I have sent to titled airline managers have not even been acknowledged, except for one - by C. R. Smith, who dictated and personally signed a reply - a long time ago, to be sure.)

audio-nut

How does single engine taxi increase the out to off time?

pauleeepaul

CR was in the LBJ administration, >40 years ago. So you must have been writing angry letters to the CEOs of major corporations (a habit generally associated with old geezers) at a fairly young age.

cityvisitor

That is what I was trying to do. I understand that you cannot uncancel a flight, but I felt like he just didn't care. The new flight started as a crew hold, then became a weather hold, and I guess I was just a little ticked off because I bought the ticket at the airport, yet was getting told that information that didn't make sense. This was the 1st time I had an issue where there wasn't at least a, hey sorry, we know you could have been directed through to dfw but the response completely ignored the issue.