brp

Well, since we've been doing a lot of bashing lately, I thought I'd report something good on the AA front.

I had sent an email about a week or so ago as the result of an unpleasant reschedule. Was leaving LHR at 4:35, and nad a legal connection through ORD. Then they changed the outbound from ORD to be 15 minutes earlier. Result: illegal connection, and had to leave LHR at 2:35 instead...loss of two hours. I know this happens, but I had to ask- why fifteen minutes? (Frustration, really).

Also asked why, if every canned initial response says "due to a higher than normal number of messages", do they not assume that this is now normal and not include that. Also asked that they please actually answer my questions and not provide irrelevancies, as they sometimes do.

Well, I got a voicemail today at home from CS. Wanted to call personally about this. Apologized for the response delays- they've been hit in the headcount, which certainly makes sense.

Apologetic about the change, and explained the legal connection thing very nicely. I knew about it...but he didn't know that.

In the end, gave us each 4000 miles (I hadn't asked for anything at all), and left a number in case I had more questions.

While the schedule change costs me two hours, this was a very nice gesture and way of handling things. This is why I fly (in case they really didn't know).

^^ Way to go AA

Cheers.

oklAAhoma

Thanks for the post. It's good to learn that at least some queries still receive personal attention.

My husband received a call from CS about 6 months ago as a follow-up to a complimentary letter he had written. Mr. ok appreciated knowing that his letter had actually been read.

justageek

So why does the auto-response email always says "higher than normal number of messages" if the reason is "reduced headcount"?!? And then they want us to believe a flight is delayed for whatever reason they tell us, or the thousands of other things they tell us? (This is not just AA, it's many airlines.)

I agree it's great someone called you, though.

ja_user

Maybe they are using an average of responce time since they started accepting CS email as the "normal"

flighthopper

I recently had a itinerary on hold and when I went to purchase on aa.com it would not price correctly - by about $5000. Plt desk confirmed original price was available.

Spent about an hour with aa.com to no avail, they we stumped.

They told me to purchase via the phone for the extra $10, which I did.

I emailed CS and aske for my $10 back plus a $50 voucher because I had found a lower fare than aa.com.

Got the idiotic auto-reply then six (6) days later got an email confiming that my $10 had been refunded BUT my $50 voucher request was denied. I guess AA phone reservations don't qualify.

Then I remembered my 1000 aa.com booking bonus - out went another email, in came the auto-reply. About 2 days after that I got a call from the CSR saying the bonus was being posted to my account.

A good CS experience.

brp

I called back and spoke with the agent, asking just this question. I told him that we, as customers, would be more receptive to waiting for the answer if we were given honest info upfront. Maybe not "headcount issues", but at least acknlwledgement that this is the "normal" volume. He agreed and said he would forward the suggestion to those who deal with this. Now we'll see.

Cheers.