Originally Posted by
AArlington
Crazy thing is, the Caption and GA probably weren't lieing on purpose (so does that make it lieing)?
The probably just shared the best information they had at that time, which was of course, bad information.
Seriously, even the most cynical people don't believe the Captain and GA conspired to say "let's screw these people and keep them here as long as possible by lieing to them, telling them we're working on a plane and hope o have it done in 30 minute increments, then at 1am we'll give up and send them to hotels."
As you say, I don't believe the gate agents were lying. However, I truly don't believe that we got the best information available.
Originally Posted by
davidthomson
I have been in similar situations and have had the captain come out very apologetic and explain the situation and its calmed the whole room down and everyone has been very understanding.
This is what I was expecting him to do, and I was surprised by his comments. As a further update, we learned later that the plane on its way from the hangar had been there for repairs. The repairs that had been performed needed to be tested. We waited approximately 4 hours to get the plane to the gate, then they realized they had forgotten a test, and couldn't board us until that had been completed as well. I'm not saying the gate agents were lying, but someone who worked for AA knew those tests needed to be done, and that information never reached us, as customers.
The gate agents didn't make matters better. We were traveling with our two-year old daughter. We were running out of diapers, as were two other families with children on the flight. I asked the gate agent about getting our checked luggage, which had more diapers. I received a firm no due to security reasons, which I can accept. I asked if they would call another gate at the other end of the concourse to make an announcement asking for anyone who had extra diapers. Another firm no. I asked if they would call the pharmacy outside security to see if they were still open. Again, no help. After asking why they wouldn't help on these items, I got, "It's not our fault you ran out of diapers. It's your responsibility to pack enough for your child."
When I pointed out the fact that we were two hours late for our destination and still had no planes, they said the mechanical failure wasn't their fault. They told another passenger they were doing us a favor going above and beyond on this flight, since it wasn't even their flight.
There was something of a silver lining. We walked down to the other gate, and the agent was more than happy to help. First, he called his mother who worked at the airport pharmacy. He found the pharmacy had closed ten minutes ago (contrary to other gate agents who told us it closed an hour earlier). He made an announcement asking parents for diapers, but to no avail. We thanked him for his time and kept walking around, trying to get our daughter to go to sleep. I walked by an AA employee, walking through the concourse with his wife and two kids. One of their boys was roughly our daughter's size, so I asked if they had extra diapers. After a brief conversation, they volunteered their last spare diaper for our daughter. I was incredibly thankful.
So, there were both good and bad experiences by the end of the night. Frankly, I shake my head at the first batch of gate agents, and understand why people like this give the airlines a bad name. I'm very thankful for the employees who did help. And I scratch my head when thinking that good information to the passengers probably would have made this situation a lot smoother.
Final arrival time ~3:30AM. My plan is to write a physical letter and snail mail to corporate. I can't really even imagine I'm going to ask for compensation, since I'm not sure what to ask for. I'm more disappointed than anything else, and while miles and vouchers are always nice, people performing there jobs correctly is worth so much more.