AZ Travels the World

I have no evidence to suggest that you are wrong in this assessment, but as long as you hold onto this expectation, you will only be pleasantly surprised. Frankly, that's my personal motto in this deal.

(And your prediction did make me laugh. )

FlightNurse

As someone who flew UA and was 1K then jumped ship to US, I never had a problem calling in and getting my issue resolved quickly. Now granted, we are only hearing one side of the story and don't know how you spoke to the people on the phone. I have been CP with US now for 4 years and never had a problem getting issues resolved, sometimes it doesn't happen as quickly as I want them, but they do get resolved.

rowingman

I have been remarkably happy with developments so far. Surprised. US lounge in Charlotte was a warm welcome. 4 segments on US were in J, but that is fine for short legs until they merge programs (hopefully for EXP upgrade purposes). No, I did not like the high mileage redemption changes for international premium cabins (sudden flurry of US to Asia and vice versa going on in my life right now). Anyway, despite a 180k mile redemption for First HKG to DFW, I called last night in the middle of the DFW thunderstorm, and swapped it it for a 62.5k Cathay First award, and had my miles promptly re-credited.

So far, so good. If you are reading this AA, thank you. I know however much us FFlyers may complain and carry on, the uncertainty on you, the company staff, is much greater, and our mortgages, children, and livelihood are not dependent on what happens. I know it is stressful. But so far, so good.

rrgg

I don't understand. What are you thankful for, a nice lounge? Or are just glad everything hasn't gone haywire yet?

rowingman

Hmmm. Let me count the ways.

That status recognition has carried over to USAir flights for AA status members as far as seat selection and checked bags. I assume upgrades will follow with complete integration.

Glad they are using the AA reservations system. Glad they are preserving the AA brand, rather than USAir. Happy they are bringing AA in flight service standards to what I thought were abysmal USAir service standards, rather than downgrading AA to US. Delighted we don't have advertising stuck to the tray tables. Pleased the EXP call center is not in SW Asia and the EXP Aangels seem helpful as ever.

It all could have gone the other way. We might be using US Air's reservations system, counting down the days until AA becomes US Air, watching meals disappear from flights, drinking from plastic cups in First. But it didn't. AA has a better product than their competitors (one man's opinion), employees who seem to care a bit more, and consequently has received my loyalty. They have not disappointed it so far.

Did I like the mileage downgrade? Not really. Do I wish there were more Plan Aahead awards? Absolutely, and I do get frustrated with no Plan Aahead availability on empty flights months in advance. That said, a frequent flyer ticket is a frequent flyer ticket, and they do have, and I believe AA invented the Aanytime. Even my favorite restaurant does things I don't like, but all in all, it remains my favorite. So far, so good w/ AA. Businesses change. Fingers crossed what we like survives (EXP upgrades, OneWorld, quality of service in domestic and international premium cabins, new places, redeemable miles, great employees, decent lounges).

ubernostrum

I did a quick trip to MSP and back booked on AA, since I figured it was worth giving them a real try (only time I'd been on previously was a rebooked flight following a US cancellation), and it was a shorter itinerary.

And for the past four days I have been wishing for a time machine to go back and slap myself silly and say "never book AA, stupid".

The timeline so far:

On Friday, had itinerary for MCI-ORD-MSP. First segment scheduled to leave around 11AM. Got a phone call saying one-hour delay, headed to MCI and talked to an AA agent who assured me that although ORD was having weather issues, everything there was being held, so ORD-MSP would be just as delayed and I wouldn't miss the connection.

That was AA fail number one. I then committed personal fail number one by checking a bag.

As the delays mounted up, I noted that the screens in the terminal weren't showing the same status as flightware or even AA's website. Also discovered, just barely in time, that ORD-MSP was not delayed and I now had a 7-minute connection time. Since AA had no agent inside the secure area, scooted out to rebook. Which turned out to be fortuitous since my original MCI-ORD leg cancelled about five minutes after I got my new ticket.

AA fail count is now at 3.

Got to ORD and then on to MSP. And, surprise, no bag. Personal fail number one comes back to haunt me as AA fail number 4. Which I now count as also AA fail number 5 since it turned out the bag was never even re-tagged at MCI when I changed flights.

I end up spending $120 on clothes to make up for the fact that bag isn't there and I don't know when it'll arrive. It finally shows up Saturday evening -- or at least that's when I found it in my hotel room, since AA never called (as they'd promised they'd do) to let me know they were delivering it. That's AA fail number 6.

Fast forward to today. I'm booked MSP-DFW-MCI, scheduled to leave MSP at about 2PM. I commit personal fails number 2 and 3 by A) not looking at DFW weather, since my flight's listed on time and B) once again checking a bag.

AA fail number 7 is boarding MSP-DFW. Period. At that point, though I didn't know it, DFW was already fully shut down, and there was simply no way that plane was going to take off any time soon. And if they'd told us anything about what was going on, or waited a bit to board, I'd have had a chance to grab a direct MSP-MCI on another airline.

Instead, enter AA fail number 8: we get boarded, pilot comes on and announces DFW is in a ground stop for at least an hour, so we're going to push back from the gate and park somewhere out of the way to wait. But it'll be OK -- since it's a full ground stop, all the connections are delayed too! Making that claim would be AA fail number 9, revealed later when FA announced gates for a bunch of connecting flights departing (or already departed) on-time.

Finally took off after 2.5 hours sitting on the tarmac, only to arrive into hell on earth at DFW. Found out on landing that not just my DFW-MCI, but every DFW-MCI, has cancelled. AA fail number 10 is the agent in the Admirals Club who tells me that being upset after this sequence of events (when I point out I could've easily made it home today with a quick rebook in MSP) isn't helpful.

AA fail number 11 is, of course, that I'm currently in a hotel room in Dallas at my own expense (including cab fare to get here from DFW), when there was absolutely no reason to. Stranding me overnight someplace when being proactive getting information to passengers could've prevented that is why I dropped Delta years ago.

AA fail number 12 is that two hours after landing in DFW, my checked bag still hadn't come out despite "messages" being sent to the baggage handlers. I gave up and just went to the hotel, as I badly needed food and sleep. I was assured that my bag has nowhere to go except MCI at this point, but I anticipate AA fail number 13 tomorrow to prove that wrong somehow.

And... at this point the tally is:

My personal failures: 3

AA's failures: 12 and probably soon to be 13

My plan at this point is a 6AM DAL-MCI on Southwest, again at my expense, because I am beyond the point of being psychologically able to deal with American Airlines right now. Weather/IRROPS cause bad situations, I know. But on both the outbound and return of this trip, just a tiny bit of proactive work by AA agents in getting information out when there was still time to act would have prevented basically all of what has happened to me over the past few days.

Going forward, I'm going to avoid AA-operated flights like the plague until I see evidence that the US culture -- which may have involved plastic cups but at least got me where I was going, or gave me enough information to switch myself to something that would -- is taking hold.

arollins

The one thing I'm noticing lately is that on all of my US flights, my seat selection keeps getting change. Is this common? I understand seating is not guarantee, but why offer the option and then change it. Traveling with my wife ORD-SJU via CLT on paid First, we choose 3DF on the CLTSJU portion to try the Envoy seats on the 332, ticket was bought over a month ago, now we are split on opposite sides of the plane, how come? Same thing happened on my flight last Sunday, had booked another paid First ORD-SJU via PHL, and the return portion seating was not the same as what I originally selected. There has not been any equipment changes, so no down-gauge of aircraft. A little inconvenience, but I've not seen this too often.

Global321

As US CP I have had this happen a few times. In one instance - about a year ago on international paid business I had my seat switched. When the GA rudely and steadfastly denied I ever had the seat, I showed her the printed original receipt with the seat assignments. Didn't help get that seat back, but magically another comparable seat opened up and she was able to assign it. (FYI - I was never rude and stayed calm and polite. I did wonder, after, if she just bumped someone else... but did not want to ask! )

In another case - about 5 years ago - my brother and his fiance were split up with the rational "there is a family that wants to sit together". He argued, but got nowhere. Neither had status. His family has never flown US again.

So bottom line, it has happened at US, even without a plane change.

austin_res

Keep in mind US management is now running AA so the AA you flew is really USdbaAA.

ubernostrum

Actually I forgot one of the fails: agent at MCI asked me for $25 for checked bag, despite being in first-class/elite line and having gigantic EMERALD printed on BP. Then asked for my US CP card to punch in FF# despite it being printed on BP.

And honestly the thing that bugged me was how different the pmAA personnel were from what I was used to with pmUS. Yeah, US has issues in weather and when a hub gets hit it's not pretty. But I've been through that plenty of times and the pmUS folks have always handled it much more gracefully, getting me the information I need up-front to make decisions about rebooking, etc.

Hence my comment that I hope the US "culture" takes hold at AA, because the past four days were just a hot mess of fail.

FlightNurse

You long post made me laugh, I have had epic fails from US, I just take it with a grain of salt, there will always be excellent employee's and not so excellent employee's... But as it was pointed out to you, US management will/is running AA. So far no issues with any of my AA flights.

Global321

There are good and bad people at both airlines - I have experienced both as a CP and EP. It would be great if you could get rid of the dead weight at both and keep the exceptional people at both.

But, alas, as the UACO merger showed us, you tend to get the opposite... people who know seniority trumps politeness or competences or both.

fastflyer

Why not simply fly DL from mci to msp? Or drive? I transited O'Hare Friday (from mci on the on-time 1:15 departure) & knew instinctively that those earlier mci-ord flights were in trouble.

ubernostrum

Yes, US is in charge now. But Doug Parker isn't at the AA ticket counter at MCI -- and the pmAA personnel there, and at other airports, haven't all been magically replaced with people trained in the US way of doing business. Nor will they be anytime soon, which is why I say this seems to be a problem with pmAA vs. pmUS culture -- pmUS people all seem to do a better job of getting information into my hands when it's relevant and I can take action, and the failure of pmAA people to do that is why I had a couple of horrific days.

(speaking of which, I've not heard a peep out of AA about my bag -- need to call them tomorrow, I guess)

On Friday, once I saw that the ORD-MSP segment was still on time after MCI-ORD had delayed two hours, I figured it was safe to rely on.

On Monday, I would have switched to a DL or WN direct MSP-MCI... if I'd known there was reason to worry. But MSP-DFW boarded only a few minutes late, and AA employees never mentioned any potential problems until the flight had boarded and closed the door... at which point I don't get to hop off and switch flights unless the 3-hours-on-tarmac rule comes into play.

MSP-DFW took off half an hour shy of that, for what it's worth.

PHX392

So here's a fun one:

Booked a mixed itinerary on AA.com with 5/7 legs on US metal (yes, its a mileage run). I'm a Phoenix based US Platinum and only a lowly AA Gold so will be crediting the miles to US. Noticed when I logged into my AA account that it shows a US record locator #. Called the US preferred desk and asked for my FF# to be added to the US record locator given to me by AA, no problem. Swept for upgrades and got all 5.

First flight was on US metal, got the email from them to check in and did so with no problems. BUT, seeing as this was a run it checked me into my next day return flights as well. Soooo lo and behold when I then attempt to check into the two AA flights it's no dice. I huff and puff my way to the ticket counter like some ill prepared amateur and wait for a solid 20-25 minutes. It seemed the ticket agent had to call everyone but Doug (and possibly God) and still had to "override" the system to spit out my AA boarding passes, 500-mile upgrade denied due to flight crediting to US. By this time I wasn't willing to fight over a single upgrade.

Stay with me....it gets better.

Apparently what "override the system" meant was un-checking me in for my next day US metal flights and replacing my US FF# with my AA one. Itinerary disappears from US website, now unable to even check to verify my upgraded seat assignments are still in place. Instead of a record locator it simply now shows: *TKT ... which I assume means my printed boarding passes.

So here I sit, in the MIA lounge, with boarding passes for three connecting flights today I hopefully still have a confirmed seat on...god only knows how my mileage credit will post.