cb1111

My 92 year old mother and I recently had the flight from hell from Washington Dulles to Santa Fe on American. In a nutshell, the trip took three days and we were involuntary bumped from two flights. We ended up spending two nights at the DFW airport Hyatt and ultimately ended up in Albuquerque instead of Santa Fe.

AA customer service has been spectacularly unhelpful and didn’t even bother responding to my most recent email a week ago.

Below is the whole sad story. I’d appreciate any advice you guys might provide.

On December 22nd, I was booked to travel to Santa Fe from Washington DC with my 92 year old mother who has a pacemaker and needs wheelchair assistance. The first leg of our trip was from IAD to Dallas. The flight was OK (although my light was broken so I couldn’t read) and we next got on the plane to Santa Fe, which sat on the runway for quite some time before they decided to cancel due to poor weather (ice and snow) in Santa Fe. My sister, who lives there, reported clear skies and dry conditions in Santa Fe. We were offered a flight to Albuquerque that would have arrived at 2am with a layover in Phoenix – not a reasonable itinerary for my mother -- or one the next morning leaving at 7 AM. We got booked on the flight at 7 AM and with that, were left on our own. The airline would not provide a hotel and only reluctantly provided a listing of hotels which, inexplicably, did not include the two hotels right at the airport. We finally got the phone numbers for the hotel closest to the airport and made a reservation, because we had been told that we needed to be back at the airport at 5 AM. For unknown reasons the airline doesn’t have an agreement for discounted rates with any of the hotels or even the closest and thus most convenient hotels.

The next morning we got to the airport, got on the plane and took our seats. The captain announced a short delay and turned off the seat belt sign so people could use the restroom. A half hour later he explained that the FAA wanted him to move the plane. We sat for another half hour. He announced that the FAA again wanted him to move the plane. What he didn't say was that this time he was returning us to the terminal.

At the terminal he announced that we could get off and get something to eat because there would be about an hour delay due to fog in Albuquerque. We all got off. An hour later they asked us to get our gate-checked bags because they needed to refuel. A few minutes later I noticed a line of people forming at the counter amidst rumors of a flight cancellation beginning to swirl around the group in the gate area.

Sure enough, the flight was canceled allegedly once more due to weather. Meanwhile, Albuquerque news outlets were reporting that flights were arriving and departing normally as of 9 AM.

Airline staff now offered to rebook us on a flight departing in the evening via Phoenix arriving Albuquerque at 2 AM the next day, or on the first flight in the morning to Santa Fe (our destination, be it remembered). We again chose the latter and were issued two boarding passes. The flight was at 9 AM but we were told to be there at 6 AM at the latest because things would probably be extremely busy on the 24th.

Back to the hotel we went (all on our own dime because it was supposedly once more a “weather delay”) and returned to the airport the next morning, found the gate and waited. As we were boarding, the gate agent (I believe her name was Alyssa) looked at our boarding passes, shook her head and asked me accusingly where I got them because they “weren't in the system”. Then she ordered us quite rudely to stand aside while she boarded the plane. At this point I had about had enough, not to mention that my mother was clearly at the end of her rope, and I asked for a supervisor (Jane) who initially seemed annoyed but turned friendly once she looked at the system and saw that we were, in fact, properly ticketed for that flight but had been bumped due to some sort of mix-up on the airline end. She offered to put us on the next flight to Albuquerque and give us a taxi voucher to get to Santa Fe. That flight was scheduled to depart at 11. Therefore we proceeded to that gate.

We got to the gate and after waiting an hour learned that the flight was delayed due to mechanical issues. The supervisor called me to tell me that she was trying to get us on a Santa Fe flight leaving in an hour, that she had a seat for my mother and that I was on standby, but I was the top person on the list and there were two people who would definitely miss the plane because their incoming flights were late. Thus I should have no issues getting on that flight.

Another wait for a wheelchair and off to gate b36, changed to b37, then to b31. When we got to the gate the supervisor was giving instructions over the phone to the gate agent (a lady named Happy). The gate agent handed me the phone and Jane assured me we're all good, my mom is confirmed and I'm the first standby, the two people will certainly miss their flight. I handed the phone back to the gate agent.

A few minutes later, the gate agent announced that the flight was oversold and could she get a volunteer to fly on a later flight. One woman agreed, received a voucher for $300 and then a few minutes later proceeded to board the flight anyway(!).

Happy now informed me that both my mother and I were on standby. I reiterated that my mother was confirmed and I was the first standby and tried to remind her that the supervisor had just told her exactly that. But, we were again denied boarding. At the end there were three people left at the gate, me, my mom and another woman who said she also had been confirmed on that flight.

The supervisor wasn’t answering calls so Happy told me to go to the customer service desk at b40. When we get to b40 it turned out that it was just a normal gate, no customer service and not even a gate agent there. Happy either does not know her airport or was just trying to get rid of us.
I found a gate agent at a nearby desk and he rebooked us on the flight to Albuquerque that previously had the mechanical issues but meanwhile had been swapped out for another plane.

We finally arrived in Albuquerque; the supervisor at the gate told us to go to the main counter to get our taxi voucher. The voucher however was a shuttle voucher. A shuttle is fine too, so we went to the shuttle desk but it was deserted. I called the posted phone number only to be told that the shuttle wasn’t running on that day because it was a weekend (and American Airlines didn't know that?). Back to the main counter where they finally gave me a taxi voucher.

- While the airline may not be responsible for weather delays, they are responsible to get you to your actual destination in a reasonable time and on a reasonable schedule. Three days to get from Washington to Santa Fe isn’t reasonable as I could have driven in that time.
- When you are booked and ticketed and confirmed for a flight, the airline should either board you or offer you compensation. They shouldn’t just bump you (twice). If the airline rebooks you a second time on a different flight then they should board you on that flight or offer compensation and not just send you to a (non-existent) customer service desk.
- The airline shouldn’t use a brief weather delay as an excuse to cancel a flight. At the time the American Airlines flight to Albuquerque was canceled, the Albuquerque airport was fully operational as reported by local news media.
- Airline personnel should be knowledgeable and courteous. They shouldn’t treat customers like criminals and accuse them of somehow improperly obtaining counterfeit boarding passes.
- If an airline offers a voucher for ground transportation then they should assure that the ground transportation is actually operating.
- Finally, they should take the passenger’s age, medical condition and mobility into consideration when rescheduling flights. A 92 year old woman attempting to reach her family for Christmas should not be shunted around like this for days. Even the suggestion (twice) that she should accept a flight that would take her to the wrong city arriving at 2 AM shows astounding callousness and heartlessness.

After writing customer service, we received the reply which I’ve translated from American Airlines doublespeak into English. See below:

We won’t address the multiple flights that we booked you on but didn’t get you to your destination. We will tell you that we were trying so hard to rebook you that we actually booked you on multiple flights to different cities, including an especially attractive flight that would have landed your 92 year old mother in a city different from the one she had purchased a ticket for, at 2 A.M.

Although we only gave you boarding passes for one flight (to the city on your ticket) you should have guessed that we also booked you on a flight to a different city, and when you didn’t check into the mystery flight that you didn’t know about, we quite naturally bumped you from the flight that you knew about and had been given boarding passes for.

Accordingly, it is really your fault, but to preclude you from complaining to DOT, we’ll generously offer you what we are required to do by law. We’ll make it sound like we are making a special concession.

We will conveniently not address the second flight to SAF that the supervisor assured you your mother was booked on and you were “first standby”, because that would prompt another “involuntary denied boarding” for your mother for which we’d also have to pay you for, nor will we address the fact that our incompetence (not weather issues) caused you and your 92 year old mother to have to spend two nights in DFW and incur hotel and other costs.
We’ll also blow off your request for compensation for the multiple wheelchair attendants and we won’t address the rude behavior of the DFW gate agent at all - the one that implied you had somehow fraudulently manufactured two American Airlines boarding passes.