Programs: AC*P, Was Starwood Platinum until they tried selling me timeshares!
Posts: 140
I fly AA for the very first time...and I don't like it!
I'm a die hard Star Alliance guy...
I've recently started a new position with a company which requires me to regularly travel to DFW.. I've been making this trip on United YEG-DEN-DFW, but, due to a missed connection, United purchased me a trip on American..
I won't elaborate too much on my experience, but, just wanted to say that, the grass is very much greener on our side of the fence.. The staff were the rudest I've ever experienced on an airline, and the aircraft (MD-80) was in embarrassing condition.
I honestly don't think I'll ever talk poorly about AC ever again.
American... If you're reading this, this was my first ever flight on your airline. I highly suggest you talk to your CSA's about acknowledging that people are actually standing in your lines and a simple "Can I help you" instead of "What's your last name, oh wait, I have to go to another gate" goes a long way!
I could not believe how many PAX on my flight were discussing the condition of this aircraft. First off, there was garbage in every seat pocket I could see. The floor appeared to have never been vacuumed. The staff looked absolutely exhausted and boarder line criminal..
Sorry for this rant, just wanted everyone to know how great AC/United is compared to my experience on AA
Yet my experience was the total reverse to yours.....flying AA and taking a bump onto UA-and finding the staff both on the ground and in the air the most surly airline employees I'd ever had the misfortune to encounter. I rarely flew UA before-and now have no intention of doing so whatsoever.
It seems both carriers at times need to regard a bumped passenger as an opertunity to attract their business rather than alienate them !
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Programs: AC*A, former long running AC*SE and soon E;SPG Platinum;Marriott Silver;Hilton Silver;Hertz PC
Posts: 8,850
The grass has been always greener across the board.
Although I'm not flying as much anymore, my loyal years with AC were some of the best in both good and bad times. Am I biased because of my former status? Maybe.
Also, be careful with the title of this thread... I'm sure the mods are paying close attention
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Kuujjuarapik Esquimalt
Programs: AC*P, Was Starwood Platinum until they tried selling me timeshares!
Posts: 140
Quote:
Originally Posted by duchy
It seems both carriers at times need to regard a bumped passenger as an opertunity to attract their business rather than alienate them !
You know, I've never really thought about it this way.. To top it all off, I was given seat 31F which is literally right next to the engine on the MD-80..
I agree though, this is the perfect opportunity to convert people... It would never work for me as I'm out of YEG which has zero One World presence, but, I could see that as a perfect opportunity!
Doubt the AA folks will see this here, I suggest posting in the AA forum if you were hoping they'd see it. For me, my bad experiences on AA from when I was a kid still haunt me.
Seriously though, I have been avoiding AA most of my adult life because of it. Then, about a year and a half ago, I had to make a trip ORD-LGA, and since they were the cheapest, and it was personal travel, I had to do it. Even the check in at both stations was so disorganized. At ORD, used a kiosk, and then agents from all sides were yelling out people's names to give them bag tags -apparently the tags printed in random locations, since the agents close to the machines I used weren't the ones with my tag. At LGA it was worse (and in fact, last time my GF cheecked in with AA there, she called me panicked, since everything was such a disorganized mess, she couldn't even see that they had check in kiosks).
I'm continuing to avoid AA as much as I can. FF alliances notwithstanding, I'd take AC, UA and even US over AA anyday.
Yet my experience was the total reverse to yours.....flying AA and taking a bump onto UA-and finding the staff both on the ground and in the air the most surly airline employees I'd ever had the misfortune to encounter.
Was this on mainline or perhaps their less than stellar East coast carrier that does most of the flying to IAD? Surely Skywest or Shuttle America could not have been so horrid and even mainline is not generally too terrible. Gotta agree that AA is so ghetto. Their IFE is next to non-existant, their snack boxes have lethal amounts of all things bad including preservatives and their planes are falling apart on the inside. Most of my UA and yes, even AC experiences are pretty okay.
__________________ Hyatt excels in customer service
Programs: AC*P, Was Starwood Platinum until they tried selling me timeshares!
Posts: 140
Quote:
Originally Posted by videomaker
I'm not sure how someone looks when they are "boarder line criminal" (sic) but glad United is working out for you.
I've never had the bad experiences you're talking about on AA, but maybe I'm just lucky.
Sorry, that was a bit of a poorly written sentence.... Not criminal as in the staff looked like a criminal, criminal in the fact that it looked like AA had them working 20hrs straight ...
Programs: AA Gold, *wood Gold, Hilton Honors Silver
Posts: 690
Sorry for your experience. I do get hit and miss service on my MD-80 flights.
You mentioned you missed a connection and it was recently. Was your missed connection due to weather? Was your AA flight from DEN-DFW or ORD-DFW or what? There have been some really, really bad weather experiences in recent weeks, particularly in the Northwest area. Is it possible that weather delays and ir ops could have caused the problems? And isn't it possible that's why they looked exhausted? Based on the news reports, any staff at Portland, Seattle or Vancouver for the past month should be looking exhausted working for any airline.
And does boarder line criminal have something to do with crossing the "boarder" illegally?
Sorry for this rant, just wanted everyone to know how great AC/United is compared to my experience on AA
Just to be clear- you're taking one, count 'em one, experience and using it to judge the service of the airline as a whole, and then comparing this to considerably more experiences on another alliance? I guess one could say that this was a "100% case", one who didn't know anything about statistics, that is
(Mind you, I'm not defending the actions or saying that they didn't happen, but creating a rant or comparison based on a single event is not particularly well-informed, but thanks for whin...er...sharing.)
Programs: AA Gold, *wood Gold, Hilton Honors Silver
Posts: 690
Since the OP says he is a die-hard Star Alliance guy, I'm thinking he should have demanded to have flown US Airways. If you want to read about bad flight experiences, check out that forum. I know I've flown my last flight with them. I credited a rental car to US recently just so my FF account didn't lapse. I'm hoping they merge with an airline I already have an account with
Programs: AA Plat, *wood Gold, Avis Chairman's, and that's it
Posts: 1,278
Given that UA has a DEN-DFW flight about 15 minutes before the last AA flight (not exactly possible to connect to in DIA, especially if you were too late to make the UA flight), and another UA flight to DFW about 2 hours after that, I'm surprised that UA would put the OP on AA. Sounds to me like both airlines were having a lot of troubles in DEN late at night. In the middle of winter. Go figure.
Sorry to hear of your troubles, OP. Could have been worse - they could have given you 32F.
Programs: AA EXP, Asiana Club Silver, KE Morning Calm, HH Blue, Hyatt Gold, SPG Gold, Amtrak Select
Posts: 1,412
It isn't just UA or AA when it comes to treatment of bumped passengers. I've had the same experience when I was bumped out of AA and had to fly NW. They basically treated me like this was all my fault and that they had no obligation to accomodate me because I'm not their regular business.
I agree with the previous poster: bumped passengers are a prime target to show how better your company is than the other airline. Instead of brushing us aside as a "big drag of time when I have to take care of my normal sh*t" type of attitude, these agents should be taught the other way around - prime opportunity to lure customers by showcasing their best attitude.
Of course, the airline companies should do their best to do this all the time, but passengers who are bumped are already in a quirky and irritated mood. All of these attitudes just pile onto the potential customer as "the hell with this, no wonder you guys are going bankrupt against WN!" moments.
A simple "hello" or respectful "I'm sorry, but with today's passenger load I can only assign you a seat in the back" makes a big difference than "Last name?" [sigh] [type type type] [another big sigh making me feel that it's my fault] [type type type] [slams boarding pass] (without giving any chance of asking questions) "NEXT!"
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I fly AA for the very first time...and I don't like it!
Hyatt excels in customer service
over the AA Maddies and your UA lawn 
Not sure they are competitive on fares however 
