mvoight

Yes, I see that now....and have change by post. I also see they waited 10 WHOLE minutes for service, so I don't see the problem.
10 minutes in line is no big deal, even if you do know who I am. The OP seemed more ticket off the agent didn't tell him why she was leaving. Does it matter? The agent had to leave, and didn't feel that discussing the issue with passengers was imporant. For all I know she went to the chapel to pray facing Mecca, because some bigoted people would get alarmed if she did it in a more public area. Hell. I was sitting in front of Sikhs and heard some people make "muslim terrorist" comments, in a voice low enough (so they thought) so only their companions could hear.

The title is a bit interesting. It sounds like AA left someone stranded and unable to get to their destination.

videomaker

It could easily be read that way, when that truly wasn't the case. But where would FT be without the hyperbolic headlines?

DillMan

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9700/5.0.0.330 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

It might not enhance my travel experience but it certainly would make it memorable.

gemac

Perhaps the agent felt that there was nobody in the premium line who was cute enough to add to the ambiance in F.

smlsml

I confess to being surprised by some of these replies. Yes, it ended up only being 10 minutes...but you know it ended up being only 10 minutes *after* the experience. If there was someone who left the line stranded... and no other agent immediately came over... and the Y agent didn't immediately begin weaving in F passengers... then my first reaction wouldn't be "thank goodness it will only be a 10 minute delay."

At that point one has no idea how long it will be. Is it 30 seconds? Will someone come over? Will the Y start weaving in the F? Should I move lines? Should I stay here? Will it be a 30 minute wait before anyone even realizes what happened? When you are in the middle of it, one has no clue what is going to happen.

Does one have to say "I've got to go take my sick grandma to dialysis, so I'm leaving"....well, no that is insane. But I agree with the OP that in the middle of checking in a line, if you are the only dedicated agent, if you are going to leave, "reasonable customer service" says you at least let folks know they will be woven in by the Y agent.... or you tell a manager so they can get someone else there....etc. etc.

I know we are all crazy-jaded flyers that don't expect such things from agents and they only have to do the minimum standard which I'm sure includes leaving people in a line confused....but call me the relic who sees enough customer service in other professions to recognize that the actions by the agent left folks confused and not knowing what was going to happen.

This is without regard to checking in 80 minutes or 120 minutes or 5 hours early...this is just with respect to the customer.

OP....I feel for you in the middle of that situation

videomaker

If I saw six other employees in the ticketing area after the F AAgent went on break (which is what the OP saw), then I'd assume at least one of them would come over within a reasonable amount of time and help with check-ins.

But that's just me.

smlsml

Note OP specifically said "There was only 1 general boarding guy...."

If I'd been in a situation where if I saw a group of employees congregating when only 1 Y agent 1 F agent were working... and then 1 F agent left, I'd be pretty confused....afterall, by your logic, one would have expected any of those other 6 agents to actually help even before the 1F agent left.

Moreover, according to the OP story, none of the 6 "standing around employees" actualy ended up servicing him....it was the 1 lone Y agent.

So if you want to assume what they'd do, I'm cool with that....but I stick with the OP that there seemed to be a complete lack of customer care going on there.

fastair

OP mentions "boarding" numerous times. This has nothing to do with boarding, correct?

Daze

The answer to this inquiry always explains everything.

gemac

OP mentions boarding six times in post #1, and once in post #4. He also mentions that he tried to use the kiosk, but his wife's itinerary wouldn't work through the kiosk, and says "After a few annoyingly long checkins we were 4th or 5th in line". In my experience, it is pretty unusual for an EXP not to know the difference between check-in and boarding.

F23Coupe

A bit of professionalism from the agent could've gone a long way here.

But notwithstanding, some of you guys are extremely defensive and are treating check-in like a grocery line (move to self check-in and etc.). Ok, fine, but when the airlines require a timely check-in and an agent leaves a line of passengers without service, don't you think you should cut the OP and those in that line some slack?

videomaker

This isn't aeronautical engineering we're talking about. It's standing in line to check in for a flight.

It was obviously aggravating to the OP and some others waiting in line. But from the details presented, I just don't see it was that difficult.

gemac

I think we can all agree that it is annoying to wait in line for 40 minutes to check in, then have the agent processing that line disappear, leaving one agent to work both lines with a significant number of passengers in each line and a bunch of agents standing around talking to each other. That is not good customer service.

I prefer to check in at kiosks most of the time. It is much faster than using an agent, even with checked bags. If we must use an agent, we look at the F line and the Y line pretty carefully. My rule of thumb is that it takes 3 times as long to process the average F passenger as the average Y passenger - I can only assume that the F pax are requesting a lot of changes. If the passengers in line per agent for Y is less than 3 times the passengers in line per agent for F, we get in the Y line.

Microwave

Had a similar situation at the JFK premium check-in area. 2 TAs working the queue, one disappeared without comment, 4 pax in queue; a moment or two before I was up in the queue, one of the TAs disappears. When my time came up, I went up to the remaining TA and she said something to the effect of "I have no idea why *employee name* disappeared, I need to use the bathroom!" My immediate response was to tell her that I've got plenty of time, and am happy to wait back in the queue if she needs to go. She was very polite, smiled back and told me she'd get me going first. I've never had the OP's exact experience, but I'd guess it was a nature call, sick child, or something along those lines.

JDiver

IMO, yes, I do sound like a broken record on occasion, another lack of training from AA; it's not rocket science to train an employee to provide proper customer service.

E.g. "I am sorry, but I have to leave my station for five minutes. Please feel free to wait, or my colleague(s) in the Economy line will help you." followed by letting the Economy folks know, so they can provide priority checkin to the F / Elite passengers with no agent to check in with.

Of course, that requires the Economy TA mollify an Economy passenger or two by perhaps saying "I am sorry, but I have to serve the F passengers first. When my colleague returns, we'll be up to complement again."

Of course, there's always calling / paging a supervisor so s/he can fill in, but that requires some training in teamwork as well as customer service.

@G. Arpey: The airline that supports its passengers with thoughtful, excellent customer service tends to stay healthy - and able to remain viable and competitive. Yeah, it is a tad strategic for how AA appears to operate these days, but there you have it.