FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Deterioration of treatment of elites during irregular operations?
Old Jun 22, 2019, 7:19 pm
  #35  
uxb
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: JFK, DCA, BUR, YVR
Programs: AC, AS, BA, DL, HH (D), MR (T/LTP), UA (*S), UScAAre (PLT/1,87MM), WN
Posts: 5,207
I guess I will share my recent IRROPS experience here. I was flying BUR > PHX > JFK on 17 June. BUR > PHX went off without a hitch, but the WiFi was down. Of course, when I landed at PHX, my phone lit up like a Christmas tree with news that my flight was cancelled due to Mx. There was Wx at JFK and there may have also been a crew time out, but I was aced out as soon as I landed, and was re-accommodated the following morning when they wanted me to fly PHX > LAX > JFK. I balked at that idea for obvious reasons. The Customer Service desk was swamped in the PHX A concourse, so I went to B concourse figuring it would be less crowded. It was, but there was only one agent manning the desk. There were calls to the Elite Services desk, and they were just as useless as the Customer Services desk. I waited nearly two hours before they added three more agents; however, I learned half-way through that AA now proactively contacts affected pax by E-mail with hotel and food vouchers. I could've saved two hours of waiting if they had made mention of this in the app. Anyway, by the time I figured that out, all of the "free hotels" at decent PHX properties were taken, so I was left with scrum. The restaurants had shuttered and my vouchers were effectively worthless. Thankfully, I had travellers insurance. I booked myself a night at the Aloft PHX for $83+tax, got myself a Pizza Hut "pizza" for $19 a/i (which I gave away the majority of to the front desk) and I went to sleep at midnight. The following morning, I was still unsatisfied with my routing and a funeral I was to attend was pushed back by a day to accommodate my lateness. I called into the Elite Services desk again and offered the routing PHX > YVR > JFK with the latter leg being operated by Cathay Pacific. AA really didn't want to pay for that ticket and suddenly found availability on the noon PHX > JFK aboard AA. Not only that, they gave me an OPUP to F. I got double EQM as a result, but that no longer makes a difference thanks to the many programme changes (as well as the fact that I was at the very beginning of a PLT challenge). I got back home at 20h instead of midnight thanks to this change and attended my very delayed funeral the following afternoon. Today, I saw they deposited 10k miles as well. AA has systems that should make IRROPS easier, but they need to work on advertising these systems within their app, so affected pax can leave the airport faster.
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