AA Outshone By BA in Customer Service
I am so absolutely outraged at AA right now that I am looking for some way to force them to lift up their customer service standards– and/or compensate me beyond their “take 10K miles and go away” customer service policy. So if anyone here has any advice let me know.
The short version of my story is:- My son and I were traveling from Austin to Zurich through JFK.
- The JFK to Zurich leg was delayed multiple times, then cancelled due to AA mechanical issues.
- They put me on a flight that would arrive in Zurich 14 hours later, routed through London.
- When I got to London, I called AA and ask to be routed to Geneva (a roughly equivalent flight, in both market pricing and in distance).
- The AA reservations agent and her manager absolutely refused but offered to cancel my existing flight plan and sell me two $600 (total $1200 for two) one-way tickets from London to Geneva.
- I explained my personal situation – basically that my original plan was to drive from Zurich to Annecy, France but that due to the flight delay I would not make it to my non-refundable hotel in time unless I could get to Geneva instead (Geneva is much closer to Annecy, France). I described all of the expenses (totaling about $1200) that I would incur if they were unable to route me to Geneva. I also explained that I had already put my wife and 11 year old daughter on a train from Zurich to Geneva (thinking AA would certainly re-route me) and they would be stranded there without me.
- They still refused.
- I threatened to be “done” with AA forever, after 22 years (5 of it with Gold status – I know, that’s not much), if they refused.
- They still refused.
- I decided to take a shot in the dark and ask BA for help in the Heathrow airport, since this was a BA flight leg.
- The agent at the BA counter re-routed me without hesitation – and before I told him of my predicament. I asked him “how was that so easy?”. And he replied “well you said your flight had been cancelled right? I was just trying to help out.”
How much more pointedly could I point out AA’s poor customer service relative to other global airlines?
Of course since BA eventually fixed this for me, it is a little hard to claim damages. But I still had other expenses as a result of the delay (around $1200) – of the incidental sort that AA does not normally compensate. But because they did not attempt to mitigate my damages when requested, I am still asking them to cover my expenses with $1200 in vouchers ($600 each). They have made a “final offer” of $600 in vouchers (or $300 each), and actually called me to try and bully me into taking the offer by telling me it was “take it or leave it” and I needed to decide right then. But it’s more about principle at this point for me. They were willing to greedily try and extract $1200 from me at a time when I was desperate and had little or no alternatives – so I want $1200 from them for my expenses. Or I want them to fix their policies. I have taken so much abuse from AA over the last 20+ years, and never complained, that I just can’t let them off cheap when they push me over the edge and I finally decide to actually pursue the matter.
I actually got so frustrated that I told them they could just compensate me the $250 cash for an outstanding non-refundable ticket, so we could part ways clean, and they even refused that. I guess cash is just completely out of the question.
I am just curious what some of the frequent travelers on this forum would do in my shoes, under the assumption that I am willing to invest some time for the common good. Among other things I would welcome opportunities to compel AA to adhere to EU standards for their US flights.
Last edited by FlyingHighest; Jul 16, 2016 at 11:23 am
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