Programs: *G, AA PLAT, Hilton Gold, Hyatt PLAT, IC PLAT
Posts: 844
I don't ever remember AA being in such shambles AA 574 DFW - BOS last night
Did a quick MR BOS-DFW-BOS
Got in at 1 pm, was supposed to head out at 3:30 pm.
Everyone boards the flight, I pass out. 20 minutes in, we the pilot says we have to deplane and look for another aircraft due to maintenance issues, nothing else is said.
We all wait about 5 minutes outside the gate before we get sent to C28. I was traveling with my wife and we had seats next to each other.
We got to fly on one of the new 737's on our way there, which I thought looked nice, but the window seat in the emergency exit sucks because of the short arm (shoved into my back) and the low hanging extruded exit sign (someone needs to learn usability!)
Anyways, I don't know what the aircraft was we were originally on, but they told us we were on the 737 and they needed 6 volunteers @ $300 a pop to take an 8 pm flight. I went to sign up, but the lady in front of me had a party of 4 and that put them over what they needed.
I am PLAT so I board with the wife, get pulled to the side. One of us had a seat, the other didn't. ...?!
Apparently, there where some people who had been bumped into later flights (5:45 and 8:00 DFW-BOS) without a chance of getting on this one. They were really pissed, especially since there were more than enough volunteers to take them on. Oh well. I guess AA likes pissing people off nowadays?!
My wife starts texting me that seat 8D is occupied and they have no idea where she is supposed to sit. Apparently, an older gentleman with a broken foot was given a window seat in that same row and refused to give up the seat assigned to the wife. Whatever, she didn't like window, but it was bulkhead, let's just get home.
At this point, the same GA that rejected me as a volunteer for having too many people on the list said they just needed one for me and that they would re-accommodate people so I could sit with my wife.
I told her "just bump me and make your life easier" ... they didn't though, and then they assigned me 23C. I said "so, I don't get to sit with my wife?" and she didn't even look up when she said "nope" .. no apology, nothing. Awesome customer care!
The guy in 23D was an EXP who also had the same issue. While I was boarding, last & with no overhead space as PLAT, I noticed 2 rows had the middle seats blocked off. I originally thought they were the Emergency Exit rows, but it ended up being the 2 behind them (row 16 & 17).
I started chatting with the FA, asking how I could know if I was booking on a new vs old plane. She told me she didn't know and asked why, and I told her because row 16 & 17 have become liquid gold!
I asked why they did that, and she said that they removed one row and blocked off those 4 seats to decrease the capacity from 250 to 240 because by law you need one FA per 50 PACs or something like that, and removing those 10 allows them to remove one crew member, so the other 3 do slightly more work.
The pilot then came on and said that the IRROPS was due to some part in the engine that had a serial number known to fail and had been marked to be replaced, but maintenance never told anyone and they didn't find out until we boarded.
I don't know if this was just the pilot pulling one on AA or what, but the FAs were noticeably mad jabbing at corporate while I talked to them, but not during service.
Apparently, there where some people who had been bumped into later flights (5:45 and 8:00 DFW-BOS) without a chance of getting on this one. They were really pissed, especially since there were more than enough volunteers to take them on. Oh well. I guess AA likes pissing people off nowadays?!
Why would AA pay a 2nd somebody VDB compensation to board somebody they've already paid? You get your money, you take your chances...
Quote:
Originally Posted by stupidzbu
I asked why they did that, and she said that they removed one row and blocked off those 4 seats to decrease the capacity from 250 to 240 because by law you need one FA per 50 PACs or something like that, and removing those 10 allows them to remove one crew member, so the other 3 do slightly more work.
1 per 50, so they reduced capacity to below 150 (not 250). FAA regulations.
I don't know if this was just the pilot pulling one on AA or what, but the FAs were noticeably mad jabbing at corporate while I talked to them, but not during service.
Or someone going hyperbolic over a one-off situation that, upon reading, was nowhere near as bad as reported, and certainly not worthy of such a rant. Yeah, that one.
Or someone going hyperbolic over a one-off situation that, upon reading, was nowhere near as bad as reported, and certainly not worthy of such a rant. Yeah, that one.
I told her "just bump me and make your life easier" ... they didn't though, and then they assigned me 23C. I said "so, I don't get to sit with my wife?" and she didn't even look up when she said "nope" .. no apology, nothing. Awesome customer care!
Are you in the military and you only see your wife once a year? Are you an astronaut about to leave on a 5 year mission to go where no man has gone before? Are you surgically joined at the hip with your wife?
Otherwise, you probably hurt your case by making a big deal out of not being able to spend 3 hours with your wife.
Programs: *G, AA PLAT, Hilton Gold, Hyatt PLAT, IC PLAT
Posts: 844
Quote:
Originally Posted by BStrauss3
Why would AA pay a 2nd somebody VDB compensation to board somebody they've already paid? You get your money, you take your chances...
Maybe I worded it wrong. They had plenty of volunteers on the VDB list, but refused 5 of them as the AA system had rebooked these other people on later flights.
So, FWIW, if things had gone 'as planned' the volunteers would have been VDBed and the other PAX boarded the 5 pm flight. But, for some reason, they where instantly rebooked.
I know they were at least PLAT, not sure if this is a setting they have somewhere on your profile or what. I just found it odd that they asked for VDB, got it, then did that.
hah ... yeah. She doesn't understand most of what I do, but she enjoys the vacations and status, so she usually plays along with what I guide her to.
Sounds much like mrs. brp. While we don't do pure MRs, she has mentioned doing such in case we need it. She likes the upgrades, and is happy to fly enough with me to get EXP as well. She doesn't want to deal with the minutiae, so that's my department. When we do pick places to go, she does a lot of the activity research. Yup. It works out well
This past year we ended up with an inadvertent SFO-DFW-SFO MR. Planning to go to BOS for the weekend, but too much weather would have resulted in a 7 hour wait at DFW, so we opted to just go back to SFO. She was fine with it...
Programs: *G, AA PLAT, Hilton Gold, Hyatt PLAT, IC PLAT
Posts: 844
Quote:
Originally Posted by brp
Or someone going hyperbolic over a one-off situation that, upon reading, was nowhere near as bad as reported, and certainly not worthy of such a rant. Yeah, that one.
Cheers.
Nah ... I know this wasn't the 'end all' of situations, but the guys over at UA love to slam them for everything since the merger, and it has been a mess over at UA ....
However, I find that AA is having problems with very simple things like this IRROPS.
It should not have been such a difficult process. They are not new in the game and they have the personnel with the experience. Last I checked they didn't switch systems ...
I'm just saying, we were even at DFW and it was a slow and difficult process.
Nah ... I know this wasn't the 'end all' of situations, but the guys over at UA love to slam them for everything since the merger, and it has been a mess over at UA ....
However, I find that AA is having problems with very simple things like this IRROPS.
It should not have been such a difficult process. They are not new in the game and they have the personnel with the experience. Last I checked they didn't switch systems ...
I'm just saying, we were even at DFW and it was a slow and difficult process.
Things happen. Not everything is handled as well as it could be. Experienced travellers know this. Thanks for the rant, though. Monday morning without an entertaining rant on the FT AA forum just doesn't seem right.
__________________
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then they beat you with experience.
A concise, polite letter to AA stating the situation and your displeasure could atleast get your point across. On the other hand, this rant...
I don't think it's even worth a letter to AA. Sometimes things can get more chaotic than we would like durring IRROPS. Perhaps the GAs could have handled things better, but their goal was to get as many passengers to their destination as quickly as possible. Sounds to me like they were trying to do just that under difficult circumstances.
