Date: 6/04
AA Status: PLT
Flight: EWR to LAX
Class: Y
What happened: 6 hour weather delay on the tarmac, followed by an aborted takeoff and another hour mechanical delay (which I have since concluded was 100% pilot error due to pilot missing pre-flight check step).
Comp: Nothing unsolicited. 4 upgrades posted to my account (and a real nice, original, thorough email) in response to my email which was polite and easy reading. I asked for more. Glad they responded. Wish they had given me what I asked for. My email using their website form took them 15 days to reply.
What happened: Traveling MKE–ORD-DEN late evening with wx at both MKE & ORD. MKE-ORD flight is delayed four different times due to wx, jeopardizing our connection in ORD. AA CSR in MKE did a good job of trying to rebook us on a direct MKE-DEN on either Frontier or Midwest Express, but struck out (kudos to the MKE CSR). All we were left to do was to go to ORD and try our luck. Arrive in ORD 15 minutes after our ORD-DEN flight departed (last ORD-DEN flight of the day). No CSR or gate agents available, so called the Gold line. Rebooked for the following morning.
Compensation: None to date.
Comments: I did not seek compensation because it was a wx delay that caused us to be stuck at ORD and the Gold line CSR offered none at the time of rebooking (Should I have asked for a hotel voucher?)
Programs: American Airlines Platinum 1 MM, US Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 356
no sound for the movie
Date: July 10 2004
AAdvantage Status: Gold
Fare class: Econony
What happened: The jack for the headset was not working on a flight from SFO to JFK. I could not plug in to listen to the movie od the other inflight entertainment. It was a full flight, so I could not move to another seat. I emailed CS from the website during my layover at JFK.
Compensation: None asked for, 5000 miles credited to my account on July 20 2004.
Interesting thread. In January I posted to this board (I think it may have been one of my earliest posts) asking FT folks what they thought was "reasonable compensation" for luggage arriving 3 and 7 days late in Bogota and Costa Rica (requiring us to replace clothes for a black tie wedding a day before the wedding and all our clothes for a camping trip). The answers I got were all over the place, from "nothing" to "10,000 miles." Yet it seems like many people have gotten thousands of miles for fairly small things.
Anyway, two examples of customer service:
1. Summer 2003, SJC to JFK via LAX. Delay in SJC so I run from secondary terminal to main terminal to catch connection. Sitting next to galley for business class in exit row, I ask nicely for some mixed nuts since I did not have time to get food given the connection (it was a legal connection but AA does not factor in the time it takes to get from their little terminal to the main terminal I guess). Am told that nuts are only for biz class. One hour into the flight we have a mechanical issue and are turned around to LAX. Those of us in the exit row are briefed on proper evacuation procedure in case of emergency landing. We get back to LAX where an ambulance and firetruck greet us on the runway. Luckily another 767 just happens to be handy, they move us to the new plane and take off. I've now been traveling for about 5 hours (bad me for not bringing food on the first flight). I ask the crew (same crew) for some nuts and they still won't give me any!
2. Spring 2004. JFK to SJC. Flight is extremely late due to various mechanical problems. No major damage but I miss dinner with good friends. Asked the gate agent if something nice could be done and she says no. Spoke with the supervisor and asked if I could be upgraded on return flight (2 days later) since it was 75% empty. He did and it was very nice.
I'm sure I'll think of more examples but these two always seem to stick in my mind.
Date November 2003 AAdvantage Status GLD (at the time) Fare class N, I think, but some deep discount. What happened Mechanical problem on late flight LAS-SJC; pressurization failure and return to LAS, no later Compensation 5K miles Comments Never complained... wife (no status) and I each received "we're sorry for the mishap" letters; mine also indicated that they were depositing 5K miles.
I've only once had major cause to complain about AA (baggage handling fiasco at JFK in late 2000) and by the time I meant to get in touch several weeks later, I figured "why bother?"
I HAVE had vastly better experiences with AA going to some effort to accomodate me when they've had delays of whatever sort, and that's why I moved to AA from Northworst -- who tended to lie and lie some more about whether delays were possible, and not to do anything except shrug when asked "OK, then how will you get me there today?"
Programs: AA ExecutivePlat; Delta Platinum; Aeroplan Prestige; SPG Platinum
Posts: 307
Date: January 8th 2004 Status: EXP Fare Class: Paid J, Upgrade to F (International to LHR) What happened: The F/A was bringing my entrée to my seat when all of a sudden { } she dropped the plate right on me. It broke (first class so the plates are fine china), and the entree splattered all over my suit, my face / hair, seat, and baggage. The F/A was mortified. You should have seen the look on her face. She was very apologetic and I told her not to worry. She had me moved to a new F seat, cleaned off everything for me, and was given 15k miles for my "inconvenience", and a new entrée Comment: It was no problem to me. I wasn’t worried about it, but the F/A insisted on relocating me, and cleaning everything off. It was customer service at it’s best I received a letter a week later from the Director of Customer Relations offering $200 for future AA travel.
Date: June 2004
Status: AA Gold then (now AA Plat)
Situation: My confirmed exit row seat was changed as I boarded the plane for some reason -- agent just tore up my boarding pass and gave me a new one (non exit row, but still aisle MRTC, and ended up lucky with no one next to me), without explanation.
What I did: Emailed AAmerican. Got a very apologetic response ('We don't know how it happened') and 5000 miles, was pleased.
Wow. 5000 miles for changing a seat? I am clearly doing something wrong. When our baggage was lost, it look us a full day of a 1-week vacation in Colombia to replace our stuff. We did not get any miles even though we spoke with Taca about it numerous times. (flight was combination of AA from SFO-JFK and Taca from JFK to Bogota through Costa Rica, biz class.) We did get $150, which basically covered the shoes and bowtie, but we were still out a few hundred dollars. We are both Gold members (I know it's not much compared to people on this board, but it's very nice for us!)
Moderator: United Mileage Plus & Other Credit Cards
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Posts: 12,027
Date: June 10, 2004
AA Status: Platinum
Fare Class: Discount Y (Upgraded to F)
What happened: Broken part in cockpit. Thought they had it fixed once, but then they had to do it over again. A minor delay became over a three-hour one. Cabin was very hot. Wouldn't let anyone off plane, even though the jetbridge was still attached. Was not very good in communication to the passengers.
Compensation: 15,000 AA Miles
Comments: I was waiting to see if AA would be proactive in this and contact me. After a month and not having done that, I decided to send an e-mail to them about this particular flight. They responded in about a week that they researched the situation and decided to compensate me with the above-mentioned miles.
Situation: I saved up about 9 different incidents and wrote a lengthy nastygram to AA detailing each of them.
The biggest one was: when flying OGG-LAX in F, I felt a liquid dripping on my head. Couldn't tell what liquid. Hit the call button a few times. FA didn't come until we hit cruising altitude. It turned out a tray from a beverage cart was in the overhead bin (I didn't put any luggage up there, or else I would have seen it), liquid had jostled around during takeoff and dripped on me. FA was very blase about the whole thing.
Rest of the problems, about 8, concerned screwups in processing upgrades, changing flight times at short notice, and processing refund vouchers.
Compensation: 40,000 AA miles. Later in the year, I received a Platinum Challenge without requesting it, which may also have been a consequence of the letter
Comments: In the letter I wrote, I asked why I should keep my low-five-digits of travel with AA. I got a nice letter from AA in reponse to this letter, mentioning the miles and apologizing. I wrote a thank-you to the specific person who wrote me back, indicating that I would stick with AA, and got a reponse to it too. No idea if they ever took actions in rsponse to the various situations I mentioned, but they handled it pretty well.
Date: Mar 2004 - Jul 2004
Status: Platinum
Flight: LGW-CDG-LGW (BA)
Fare class: V
Compensation: None.
What happened?: Bought ticket on aa.com. Checked back a week later and it said 'On Hold' -- called AA and the agent said the payment hadn't gone through properly. She offered to set up a PTA at LGW for me. Called back two days later to confirm it all, was told no problem. Get to BA at LGW, and she refused to issue the ticket, claiming AA had set it up incorrectly. She wouldn't speak to AA on the phone (actually refused: "I don't deal with agents." ). Had to pay for new tickets.
Wrote to AA asking for my original tickets to be refunded. One month later, no response. Called AA in US, and the woman had a copy of my letter on the screen instantly (wonders never cease...) and promised to follow up. Nothing happened, called Dublin a week later, again promises but no action.
Then, I sent an email to AA CS online outlining the situation and generally being annoyed. Had a response apologising profusely and telling me the refunds department was processing it.
Went away on holiday for a few months (long one ). When I got back, STILL no refund! I emailed a fairly angry letter to the same CSR asking why something so simple hadn't been done, and requesting interest/compensation for the delay. Refund arrived two days later, along with a short to the point letter apologising again. No mention of compensation- slightly disappointing.
Date: Aug-Sep 2004
AAdvantage Status: Two General Members
Fare class: Coach upgraded to Business with miles
What happened: cancellations and downgrades
Compensation: 15,000 miles back out of 25,000 paid, for each of us
Comments: see http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...85#post3210985 for details
Location: Dallas AA PLT/4MM; CO GOLD; DL GOLD; US PLT; HHonors GOLD; HY DIAM; SPG Platinum
Posts: 3,469
Date: Apr 1994 Status: Gold Flight: POP-SJU-TPA Fare class: Coach Compensation: overnight stay at El San Juan Hotel, taxi & meal vouchers, $100 voucher after first letter; another $250 after second complaint letter
What happened?: Shortly before boarding American Eagle flight from the old terminal building at Puerta Plata, the pilots identified a mechanical problem that required the replacement of a part kept in inventory at the Miami hub. Passengers were held in the extremely hot and stuffy sterile boarding area for several hours while:
1) the necessary part and mechanics were rounded up in Miami;
2) part and mechanics were flown from Miami to Puerta Plata on regular AA flight;
3) the part was installed by mechanics upon arrival.
Notwithstanding the fact that it quickly became apparent that we would be delayed for several hours while waiting for the part, AA ground staff provided no information and for the most part avoided entering the sterile boarding area. The extended delay meant that most pax would miss their onward SJU connections, yet POP ground staff refused to provide any accommodation to pax in POP, saying that only the staff in SJU could help us.
For the first several hours, no food or drink was provided, even though no food was available for purchase in the boarding area. Also, pax had no ability to make phone calls, to notify others of the problem (this resulted in my co-worker waiting in vain for me at the TPA airport). After several hours, baloney and cheese sandwiches were provided, but these ran out before all pax were served (they were just put on a table, where ravenous pax descended like a pack of wolves, some taking more than 1 sandwich).
Finally after something like 8 hours, the plane was fixed and pax boarded. Once the engines were fired up, I observed that another plane also appeared ready for taxi. Evidently, that plane was cleared first, so ours shut down its engines to wait (at the time, POP had no taxiway, so gate departures had to be spaced out for several minutes, allowing each aircraft time to back taxi down the runway, turnaround at the end, and then take off).
When the pilot shut down the engines, several pax started freaking out, thinking the plane was still broken and demanded to be let off. The pilots radioed the gate due to the pandemonium, and a gate agent came out, accompanied by Dominican Air Force soldiers (who provided airport security). The agent refused to let anyone off, but a couple of pax made a break for it, with soldiers in hot pursuit across the tarmac. At this point, AA ground staff relented to accommodating a few people, the plane was sealed up and we finally took off for SJU.
Once in the air, the plane's meager rations of nuts, soda and water were quickly exhausted. Some parents then took the initiative of serving beer to their thirsty children, since they had no other option. A few minutes later, one of the pax finally passed out from the cumulative effects of heat, deydration, lack of food, etc. and an emergency was declared, with our flight being cleared direct into SJU (actually, pretty easy given the late hour of our arrival, around midnight).
Upon arrival at SJU, pax were forced to wait in their seats while emergency medical personnel boarded the plane and worked on the pax (this lasted about 15 minutes). Finally, we were allowed to deplane and proceed through customs and immigration, shortly after midnight. Only 1 AA staff member was available to assist the stranded, misconnecting pax. It was roughly 45 minutes before I made it to the front, and several pax were still in line behind me.
Although the extremely rude and tired AA agent readily provided taxi, meal and hotel voucher, she initially insisted on routing me on AA via MIA, putting me in TPA roughly 24 hours behind schedule, even though another airline had a non-stop available. She denied any non-stops on other carriers existed, so I pulled out my pocket OAG and directed her attention to the flight in question, which she then mysteriously "found."
I finally made it to the hotel, but my meal voucher was unusable because all of the hotel's food service outlets had already closed (it was nearly 2 a.m.). Another pax and I were able to use them for liquor at the bar, so we just got tanked up to numb the hunger pangs.
I finally made it to TPA the next day; my colleague had already left covered for me at the meeting and left town by the time I arrived. I was nearly fired for failing to make the meeting and more importantly, not notifying anyone of the problem.
Date: Aug 2004
Status: Gold/about to become Plat
Flight: LHR-LAX
Fare Class: L
Compensation: 10 000 miles
I've upgraded the outbound LAX-LHR to J using miles. Someone in reservations screwed up and cancelled my upgrade req. for LHR-LAX.
Got to LHR in the morning, agents in Park Ave. were saying that there's no record of me ever being on the list, agents at regular checkin counters were seeing me on the list . Seats were available to upgrade but, the flight was under-catered , or so I was told (what else is new...) and they wouldn't upgrade me.
At one point while waiting to board, I heard my name being paged. Thinking happily that i would get a new BP w/ the upgrade, i sprinted to the desk, only to have the GA say "Sorry, we're not able to upgrade you today" ..huh.
Got home, emailed CS, got an apologetic email AND an actual snail mail letter along with 10K miles.
} she dropped the plate right on me. It broke (first class so the plates are fine china), and the entree splattered all over my suit, my face / hair, seat, and baggage. The F/A was mortified. You should have seen the look on her face. She was very apologetic and I told her not to worry. She had me moved to a new F seat, cleaned off everything for me, and was given 15k miles for my "inconvenience", and a new entrée 
). Had to pay for new tickets.
. Seats were available to upgrade but, the flight was under-catered , or so I was told (what else is new...) and they wouldn't upgrade me.
