Originally Posted by
fastair
Not a bash against AA, it happens, but the PR rep stating something that was immediatly false bothers me.
As an agent for a different airline, this surprises you?
One of the most frustrating things customers face daily are agents who either make it up as they go along or pass along information that is obviously not true. Flyertalkers sometimes decry this as "lying" but the more pragmatic among us realize that airlines are very poorly equipped to pass along accurate information, all up and down the chain.
An example? Sitting at gate at small spoke where only available plane is the delayed inbound flight from the hub. Plane hasn't yet departed the hub (not too far away) and a "revised departure time" is posted and announced by the hapless agent.
Problem is, that revised departure time will obviously come and go before the plane even arrives at the spoke, unless that RJ is capable of supersonic flight. Everyone with a computer or smartphone knows that, yet the antiquated IT systems and clueless higher-ups of the airline persist in feeding the agent the inaccurate (and obviously impossible) revised departure time.
No wonder the PR person fed the media inaccurate information - that's probably what they were told. Inaccuracy is a pervasive problem in your industry. Certainly not your fault, as you probably bear the brunt of passenger anger when they figure it out.
