My letter to AA - How do you think they will respond?
Aug 14, 2013, 4:31 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 523
My letter to AA - How do you think they will respond?
I might have to jump ship. How do you think AA will respond? I think they will give me: "Sorry to hear your story. We hope that in the future flights match and you can fly us again".
If you were AA, how would you respond to a situation like this?
If you were AA, how would you respond to a situation like this?
Dear AA,
I'm writing this letter from a Delta flight from LEX to ATL and then heading to MLB. I wish I could be flying AA right now. I'm very unhappy to report that might be forced to no longer fly with you guys. Not because of customer service or bad product, but the following: Even having to back track to get to LEX, doing MCO-ORD-LEX and driving one hour to get to MCO from Melbourne, FL, I would rather fly AA than any other airline. I will have to take my wife and son with me to Delta as well, my wife is a Platinum AAdvantage (XXXXXX) elite. I'm over the 50k EQM hump this year already, but I don't think I can make EXP (XXXXXX) since you guys have changed various schedules. No longer can I fly out at 6am on a monday to ORD to connect to LEX. The flight now leaves at 7:10am. So there goes my flight that I usually took. I also attempted to fly out at the latest flight from MCO and take the first flight out from ORD to LEX in the morning, but MCO-ORD(overnight)-LEX is not a valid connection. My last LEX-ORD had only 11 pax, so I would assume you want my business. Going from LEX to MCO is also pretty complicated. The entire first half of the year, instead of flying out Thursday nights to go home, I took the option to take the 6am flight on Friday's. I really tried to go out of my way to fly AA, but it's getting worse. Earlier in the year you guys head a targeted promotion to AA EXPs and I wasn't included. Today, browsing Facebook, one of my friends shared the new promotion to non elite members, allowing them to reach PLT and EXP very very easy. So my take is, why struggle to fly AA when I'm not treated like others. Hopefully you guys can respond to me with a positive solution. I hope I don't get some stupid answer. So please take the time to look at my flying history/pattern this year and see what I'm talking about. I'm at 76 segments on Delta this year alone and would rather have my EXP status for next year. I don't think I'm asking much since others are getting to where I have been the last several years the easy way.
I'm writing this letter from a Delta flight from LEX to ATL and then heading to MLB. I wish I could be flying AA right now. I'm very unhappy to report that might be forced to no longer fly with you guys. Not because of customer service or bad product, but the following: Even having to back track to get to LEX, doing MCO-ORD-LEX and driving one hour to get to MCO from Melbourne, FL, I would rather fly AA than any other airline. I will have to take my wife and son with me to Delta as well, my wife is a Platinum AAdvantage (XXXXXX) elite. I'm over the 50k EQM hump this year already, but I don't think I can make EXP (XXXXXX) since you guys have changed various schedules. No longer can I fly out at 6am on a monday to ORD to connect to LEX. The flight now leaves at 7:10am. So there goes my flight that I usually took. I also attempted to fly out at the latest flight from MCO and take the first flight out from ORD to LEX in the morning, but MCO-ORD(overnight)-LEX is not a valid connection. My last LEX-ORD had only 11 pax, so I would assume you want my business. Going from LEX to MCO is also pretty complicated. The entire first half of the year, instead of flying out Thursday nights to go home, I took the option to take the 6am flight on Friday's. I really tried to go out of my way to fly AA, but it's getting worse. Earlier in the year you guys head a targeted promotion to AA EXPs and I wasn't included. Today, browsing Facebook, one of my friends shared the new promotion to non elite members, allowing them to reach PLT and EXP very very easy. So my take is, why struggle to fly AA when I'm not treated like others. Hopefully you guys can respond to me with a positive solution. I hope I don't get some stupid answer. So please take the time to look at my flying history/pattern this year and see what I'm talking about. I'm at 76 segments on Delta this year alone and would rather have my EXP status for next year. I don't think I'm asking much since others are getting to where I have been the last several years the easy way.
Aug 14, 2013, 4:36 pm
#2
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: ROC/NYC/MSP/LAX/HKG/SIN
Posts: 3,212
A great CS response will explain to you why they made such a change of the schedule. "Thank you for your feedback, and hope to see you in another AA flight in the ne to sar future."
Last edited by PaulInTheSky; Aug 14, 2013 at 4:42 pm
Aug 14, 2013, 4:39 pm
#3
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 262
I think they're going to reply with a canned response that at best will be superficially remorseful for the loss of your business.
Aug 14, 2013, 4:41 pm
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 523
This sounds, unfortunately, like a hyperbole to combine all the issues that you might have. AA may treat that as customer feedback, but I highly doubt they will change their flight schedule to accommodate a lone passenger, no matter how many full fares you purchased in the past.
Aug 14, 2013, 4:42 pm
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SJC
Programs: AA EXP, BA Silver, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton diamond, Marriott Platinum
Posts: 33,535
I assume that the OP doesn't expect that AA will actually change anything based on that letter, because that would be particularly unrealistic. I'm further assuming that the OP just wanted to share his feedback to AA with us since there's not really much more to this than that.
Cheers.
Aug 14, 2013, 4:43 pm
#6
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: AA Platinum Pro, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Exploralist, Marriot Silver
Posts: 2,065
There are way too many different issues and some unnecessary details to make this an effective letter. In my experience, addressing a single problem concisely yields hugest probability of a "positive response."
Aug 14, 2013, 4:45 pm
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: KHOU/KIAH
Programs: AA EXP | Marriott Bonvoy Titanium| Hyatt Globalist
Posts: 11,252
This. The schedule is what it is and likely will not change. Expressing your displeasure with the bovine-fecal-matter EXP giveaway, different story.
Aug 14, 2013, 4:48 pm
#8
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: ROC/NYC/MSP/LAX/HKG/SIN
Posts: 3,212
Pretty much. Although I don't think it will be canned. I've gotten responses that were individualized, but still didn't actually do anything in cases like this....which is what I had expected.
I assume that the OP doesn't expect that AA will actually change anything based on that letter, because that would be particularly unrealistic. I'm further assuming that the OP just wanted to share his feedback to AA with us since there's not really much more to this than that.
Cheers.
I assume that the OP doesn't expect that AA will actually change anything based on that letter, because that would be particularly unrealistic. I'm further assuming that the OP just wanted to share his feedback to AA with us since there's not really much more to this than that.
Cheers.
Aug 14, 2013, 4:49 pm
#9
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 523
Pretty much. Although I don't think it will be canned. I've gotten responses that were individualized, but still didn't actually do anything in cases like this....which is what I had expected.
I assume that the OP doesn't expect that AA will actually change anything based on that letter, because that would be particularly unrealistic. I'm further assuming that the OP just wanted to share his feedback to AA with us since there's not really much more to this than that.
Cheers.
I assume that the OP doesn't expect that AA will actually change anything based on that letter, because that would be particularly unrealistic. I'm further assuming that the OP just wanted to share his feedback to AA with us since there's not really much more to this than that.
Cheers.
Thanks for the input!
Aug 14, 2013, 4:55 pm
#10
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: ROC/NYC/MSP/LAX/HKG/SIN
Posts: 3,212
MCO-ORD
ORD-LEX
LEX-MCO
Aug 14, 2013, 5:01 pm
#11
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 523
All you need to get the overnight stop is to go to any OTA to construct a multi-city. I just checked Jan 17, Jan 18, and back on Jan 22 for example. Small difference of the prices, but you can have a overnight hop at ORD and fly out to LEX next day morning. AA.com isn't the best for flight searches or codeshares.
MCO-ORD
ORD-LEX
LEX-MCO
MCO-ORD
ORD-LEX
LEX-MCO
Aug 14, 2013, 5:24 pm
#12
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Washington, DC
Posts: 1,309
ummmm....
Is $225 one way or roundtrip? If it's roundtrip, then I have absolutely ZERO doubt that AA cant find people to fill seats both ways with fares much higher than that and purposely chooses to turn business like that away because other people will fill their seats for more. Even if it was $225 one way, carrying you all the way to Chicago and then down to Lexington still costs way more than $225. And it's still in AA's best interests not to offer that fare. Sorry - I'd say AA is purposefully not participating in the market because they can get higher fares elsewhere. Stick with Delta or USAir. And -m aybe once you saw 11 people on a LEXORD flight, but that was probably the exception rather than the rule.
Last edited by jasondc; Aug 14, 2013 at 5:25 pm Reason: grammar
Aug 14, 2013, 6:45 pm
#13
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: BOS/UTH
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Posts: 12,755
I had to read your letter more than once to understand it. You may want to try to do something about the readability. That said, your complaint is essentially about routes; and, please pardon me, sounds a bit whiny. Perhaps instead of using the "you screwed my schedule so I'm not flying AA any more" approach, you might try the "I'm sorry to say that your schedule no longer works for me, but I hope to be able to return to AA sometime in the future" approach.
Aug 14, 2013, 6:53 pm
#14
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 542
CK is revenue based (the other statuses are not). Unless you are CK, AA is not concerned about losing your business.
Aug 14, 2013, 6:54 pm
#15
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 523
Is $225 one way or roundtrip? If it's roundtrip, then I have absolutely ZERO doubt that AA cant find people to fill seats both ways with fares much higher than that and purposely chooses to turn business like that away because other people will fill their seats for more. Even if it was $225 one way, carrying you all the way to Chicago and then down to Lexington still costs way more than $225. And it's still in AA's best interests not to offer that fare. Sorry - I'd say AA is purposefully not participating in the market because they can get higher fares elsewhere. Stick with Delta or USAir. And -m aybe once you saw 11 people on a LEXORD flight, but that was probably the exception rather than the rule.
I had to read your letter more than once to understand it. You may want to try to do something about the readability. That said, your complaint is essentially about routes; and, please pardon me, sounds a bit whiny. Perhaps instead of using the "you screwed my schedule so I'm not flying AA any more" approach, you might try the "I'm sorry to say that your schedule no longer works for me, but I hope to be able to return to AA sometime in the future" approach.
Last edited by JY1024; Aug 15, 2013 at 6:13 pm Reason: Merged consecutive post