JIMBOLIGUY

For those who have not seen the monitor the agents look at, when your flight information is entered into the system, the agent sees the following:

**Executive Platinum** (subsitute Plat/Gold)
<Your Name>

Flight Info

Your status is in reverse color and flashing.

--jIM

ron-val-ron

re the confusing pre-boarding announcements:

to anyone working for aa who's reading this, here's how they should go:

"good day, and welcome to flight xyz. we'll be boarding people who need extra time getting down the jetway first, first and business class cabins second, exec plat, plat, and gold third, and then the remainder of plane from the back to the front by row number. please get away from the boarding line if we haven't called your group yet." ok, so that last part is optional 8-)

why is this so complicated for gate agents to figure out?

anyway, nine times out of ten when they do the confusing thing they did to ukstages (and do to all of us regularly as well) instead of doing it the way i described above, i sidle up to the person behind the counter and ask sweetly "are you going to be doing a pre-board for the elite flyers?" most of the time, they recognize/realize that they need to do this (and people like me are expecting it and are going to be upset if they don't) and say yes and then do so.

when they say they're not going to, i don't argue. instead, i simply board anyway after the last of first/biz class has cleared. no one has ever stopped me or argued with me - i think most of the time they see the "platinum" on my boarding card and just let it be

RichLond

wow!!! This is in my opinion enough compensation for all your troubles!!! I have NEVER had this happen at Heathrow.

Onto you VERY valid points:

1) The non 24 hour reservation line in London annoys me to no end. 3 or 4 years ago they were staffed 24 hours and without warning it was changed. However, for future reference, using a pre-paid calling card with a 0800 number to call the AA 800 number in the US is probably cheaper than calling the London AA 0345 number from a hotel.

2) NO HEADSETS. There is no reason for this to ever happen and would anger me also.

3) Pre-Boarding I have noticed that announcements vary a great deal. However, I know when I am allowed on and I just make my move regardless of what is said. I have yet to be turned away, but do wonder how hard it can be to make the boarding announcement uniform.


Your not so valid points:

1) AA does have a drink ticket policy and you were NOT entitled to them. This has been discussed on FlyerTalk many times. However, many agents seem to be unaware of the policy or more likely view it as an opportunity to "break the rules" and personally give a reward to elite flyers. Best policy here is to say thank you when you get them and pay for the drinks when you do not.

2) AA does allow double booking of ExecPlats when there is the chance of weather problems. I do not think that privelege is given to Golds. I (as Exec Plat) have also been auto rebooked when my flight cancels.


In general I think all the little things that hit you have given you a bad impression of AA. It seems most of your problems came from your decision to try and stand by for the 4pm flight. However in the end you got the coveted triple 7 exit row 27 on 1 of the 2 of 7 flights that AA did not cancel that day. That does not sound too bad too me.

rich

ka9taw

One of the things I worry about from time to time with elite status is the sense of entitlement. Now, I am not picking on UK Stages here, because he has several legitimate issues (like the reservations hours, handling of the stand-by list, etc). But on occasion, I see the card-carrying AA elite demand more-than-reasonable service.

Clearly, the whole point of elite levels is so that the airline can reward its most frequent customers. But we start getting used to the rewards to the point where we expect them (why wasn't I given that operational upgrade?). On my first flight after qualifying for ExPlat, I was "rewarded" by being given seat 26E on a full MD80 BOS-ORD the day before Thanksgiving. I was travelling on a full "Y" class fare. I was a little grumpy about being put in a back, middle seat when the leisure travelers going to see Aunt Irma paying $100 round-trip on Priceline were in 8A and 8B, but sometimes, c'est la vie.

On my flight BOS-ORD on Friday, the guy in front of me in F was worried about making his connection to LAX due to delays at BOS. The flight attendant, one of the nicest, sweetest I have seen in a long time (and I gave her an SOS), told this pax that he could call AA reservations on the inflight phone at *044 for free and they could notify the ORD gate. Was that acceptable? No. He insisted that the flight attendant handle it, and since she was great, she did (something about sending a message via some system). Why couldn't the guy pick up the phone himself? (This is the same guy who ignored the "all electronic devices must be switched off at this time" announcement...three times).

So, my point is, sometimes we need to roll with the punches. In 180,000 miles of flying in 2000, I had some amazing and wonderful experiences, and some crap too. I value my hard-earned status on AA and other carriers, and use it to my benefit...but not to excess.

OK, soapbox off.

DrHowser

Well said ka9taw.

UK Stages....I am not condoning everything that happened to you on the flight....heck, I hardly condone any of it. But, ka9taw, you had very valid points.

I see, on almost every flight, some sort of fellow AAdvantage member trying to flaunt his status in some public way in order to get something. I feel like we are one big happy family, but sometimes it makes me want to hide my Exp tags at the things I have seen demanded.

Remember, we are receiving benefits from AA for our dedicated travels. These are not full time entitlements. Yes, it is great when we get the occational operation u/g or res agent that goes out of his/her way to make our trip a little less stressful. However, we need to take a step back sometimes and remember that AA is a business trying to make money.

Where would we be if AAdvantage didn't exist? Obviously, no where near where we are today.

Safe travels...
-Jeff

[This message has been edited by DrHowser (edited 01-07-2001).]

johna

I ran into a similar re-scheduling problem when Hurricane Floyd blew through NYC 16 months ago: my ticket had been booked through the meeting desk, which wouldn't re-open until the next morning. Hurricane or no, AA wouldn't bend the rules and let a plain vanilla reservations clerk re-book me. By the time the desk was available, seats the following day (after the hurricane) were all gone.

So much for applying common sense.