Originally Posted by
flyquiet
No, that's really
not it.
An employee of AA's contract baggage handler at IAH / Houston Bush International wrote ("“Please text, deaf and dumb”) a note on the couple's baggage, presumably in an attempt to be helpful and assure a text was sent instead of a telephone call made. Unfortunately, the company seems not to provide much in the way of customer service training or customer awareness as relates to disabilities.
(There's a smaller file, but it shows one of the people involved and I'd rather respect their privacy - even though they brought the issue to the media's attention.)
AA wrote back that they would investigate the situation and that they would alert their team at IAH.
“We apologize to Mr. Moehle and Ms. Huckaby. It was clearly a very poor choice of words. We’re confident there was no ill will, but we’ll be looking into this further and will be following up with our team members at IAH and the contractor that provides our baggage delivery services,” American Airlines said in a statement to the couple.
Neither Mr. James Moehler nor his mother were satisfied, and said they want more, “To me, it’s not enough. They have not satisfied me, nor have they, to my knowledge, satisfied my son either,” Mrs. Moehle said. “So far their messages have been dismissive. I want to hear something like ‘we take this seriously, we are investigating, and we will get back to you.”
I'm not an airline apologist, and believe they have written their own ticket. But in my longtime experience, AA has (at least in recent decades, once they stopped fighting the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and other more recent Federal laws), been genuinely concerned about people with disabilities and of different groups who have been excluded.
Doesn't mean it has trickled down to every single employee, and we're all subject to stereotypes, but unfortunately some of the contracted baggage handling services have become notorious for surly service, and worse. (Like the recent exposure of Menzies' baggage employees at LAX, where a subset of those baggage handlers were pilfering and stealing whilst processing passengers' baggage behind the scenes).
For my deaf and hearing impaired friends with smartphones, I find some smartphone apps helpful:
FlightBoard (free) displays the flight display board with all flights, gates, displays etc. at nearly any airport you can name, and you can "shake and bake", er, sort, on any order from time to airline, flight number, gate number, etc. How convenient I never have to go search for the display - or if the nearest one has "gone south" and is no longer with us.
TripIt (free) - but I personally pay for and use the TripIt
Pro version. It basically aggregates your travel details so you have one file you can look at with your times, flights, hotels, car rentals, everything, with numbers, details, etc.
How do you get all that in there? When your e-ticket, car rental, hotel, restaurant or event booking, etc. arrives in your e-mail, forward it to your TripIt account by e-mail and it seamlessly "assimilates" your information into the trip file for that specific trip. I can manually add stuff like appointments or edit any file. Awesome!
TripIt Pro adds details - including suggestions for which are the best seats, and if your flight cancels, alternate flights on your or all airlines, including detail about how many seats in each class are available. I can't tell you how helpful it is when I can point out to an agent "Flight xyz has three seats available; can you put me on that?"
But wait, there's more. Gate changes, cancellations, etc. get e-mailed to me. My phone is usually set on "vibrate" so I have a non-audible alert to look at and check what's going on - the usual is a cancellation, delay or gate change. I often know before my fellow passengers, and even the gate agent. Awesomer!
FlightStats: this has a free and "upgrade" version as well, and it can interface with your TripIt! I can see the flight stats for my flights, as well as weather and cancellation information for different airports, etc. I can actually see the TripIt flights (or any other I choose to enter) and get some information I can use - including airport weather and delay information.
FlightTracker: It's not necessary, but for the geekier among us, I can also use it to track the incoming flight that will be my departure. Sometimes I've had information far in advance of the gate agent.
WhatsApp is a good one for sharing texts, photos, even audio files, with others who have WhatsApp, without using your phones data plan. You can aggregate contacts - so I have friend and family groupings I can text simultaneously. It costs - $1.00 per year, unlimited text etc. No idea how they can do this, but I love it.
World Clock is indispensable if you travel or have people elsewhere.
xe currency calculator is great if you travel to different countries as well. On the fly currency calculations and the current market rate, you can vary amounts and currencies, even dig down for obscure currencies if you are heading to some little travelled destination. Free.
OK, I like
miles, too! So...
Rewards Network operates several dining rewards programs. As an AA flyer, I use AAdvantage Dining. I can register credit cards, look up which restaurants in my vicinity (or where I am going), eat and earn miles seamlessly. If I register, 3 miles per dollar spent (including tip and taxes) and never have to tell anyone anything - ten days later, I've got miles (or hotel points, or whatever).
OpenTable: OK, the bad news is - no miles or points, just money! You can book a restaurant on OpenTable - and earn 100 to 1,000 points for dining. The big flaw here is they want two or more people.
But, I'm usually with someone, so... when you earn 2,000 points, 5,000 points or 10,000 points, you claim your benefit: a cheque that works exactly as a Traveler's Cheque, worth $20, $50 or $100 shows up ~ten days later, and you spend it at any Open Table restaurant. (I notice the food always tastes a little better when I can use one of those cheques...
)
If you don't travel frequently, the free apps are probably more than sufficient. If you do - TripIt Pro is my go to app, and FlightBoard, being free, is great for someone who may fly once a year even. If you are a road worrier, er, warrior, you know all about all of these - and may use something better.
No, I'm not traditionally hearing impaired - I have the opposite problem, hyperacusis. Even at seventy I can hear stuff others can't and sometimes normal sounds are sufficient to physically hurt; when I was younger I could hear "supersonic" dog whistles (always though people were lying when I was a kid) and "supersonic" intrusion alarms, etc. Well, that kind of brings us together, because you may spot me wearing ear plugs or "spuds" of beeswax in my ears whilst I am traveling - meaning I may not hear the garbled announcements, etc. so I use my apps more than most "normal" hearing people might. Some days are better than others, some sounds most people shrug off are literally intolerable. All part of the spectrum, I guess, we are all on.
Safe travels!