LWT3

Date August 15th, 2016
AAdvantage Status None
Fare class Economy
What happened Cancelled flight due to mechanical problems. Flight was direct (2 hour duration, expected arrival 10PM). Best offer was to put my wife and me on a flight the next day with a layover (total travel time 6 hours, expected arrival 3:30 PM the next day). Claimed they couldn't put us on another airline to get us there sooner. Delta had direct flights (2 hour duration) leaving at 7AM, 8:30, 10:00, noon, etc. with availability on all of those flights.
Compensation Two paper vouchers for $50
Comments The point of my post is not to address the compensation, but rather the hassle of using the vouchers they gave us. My wife and I were planning a 4 night, 3 full day trip departing on a Sunday evening. Due to the cancellation of our flight, we were going to lose part of the three days, but I was determined not to lose the better part of a day, so I booked us on an early morning Delta flight rather than arrive in the late afternoon.

After our trip I called and wrote a polite letter to complain, and they sent us two $50 paper vouchers. But these vouchers can't be redeemed online or over the phone with an agent. The agent explained that I would have to mail them in to an address in Pensacola Florida, and they would be processed shortly before the day of travel. I tried last night to make reservations for an important trip in March, and I was told that if I hadn't been ticketed by the day before our trip I should call. That seemed completely nuts to me -- not ticketing until the voucher was processed and not processing it until right before the day of travel --but the agent said that is the process they have to follow for paper vouchers. She offered me the alternative of driving to the airport and going to a ticket counter instead of mailing the vouchers. Since I live near an airport, I actually did that, and everything went smoothly once I was there.

But I just can't believe how cumbersome and customer-unfriendly that process is. When I told my coworker about this, she said Delta does not work that way and that you can definitely redeem Delta vouchers online. Is American really such an extreme outlier on this issue?

In total, American provided poor service on the day of my original flight and compounded it by offered a form of compensation that was almost more trouble than it was worth. Poor service x 2, frustration x 2.