broken tray table that ended up costing my computer
Dec 13, 2018, 1:29 am
#61
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: SF Bay Area
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This would be why AA, and many other carriers, now have announcements that if you drop your phone in the seat not to move/adjust the seat but to call and FA for assistance. I'm not convinced that dropping your phone and breaking it by moving the seat is something the airline should be on the hook for, as a CS gesture sure that's nice but as a matter of liability no IMO anyways. Things being stuck in seats happens, I've had a phone get lost in a seat on Ethiopian which took the crew 2 butter knifes, a fork, and a flashlight plus darn near 30 minutes to recover but I immediately notified them and didn't move the seat - phone was not damaged, had I moved the seat and crushed it I'd think of that as my bad.
I've noticed the same attitude over and over again with my customer service interactions. Even when I escalate AA issues all the way up to HQ, it seems like they have no power to do anything. In fact, I was once re booked into the wrong flight after paying a $500 change fee, and asked for a refund of the fee. After months of escalating the issue, I was finally told by someone pretty high up that they could give me 10k miles or $150, would give me a waiver for a future change, but that they could absolutely not refund me the $500 change fee I had already paid. The lady from HQ said she would get fired if she approved such a change.
What this made me realize is that the agents have it as bad as the customers. All in all, a terrible company culture.
Dec 13, 2018, 1:48 am
#62
Join Date: Jul 2004
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My point was that UA was nice about it even though they had no obligation (because it was clearly the passenger's fault). With AA, however, even if it's AA's fault (as in the above example of the flight attendant pouring water on a laptop), they deny responsibility and at most throw you a few thousand miles.
I've noticed the same attitude over and over again with my customer service interactions. Even when I escalate AA issues all the way up to HQ, it seems like they have no power to do anything. In fact, I was once re booked into the wrong flight after paying a $500 change fee, and asked for a refund of the fee. After months of escalating the issue, I was finally told by someone pretty high up that they could give me 10k miles or $150, would give me a waiver for a future change, but that they could absolutely not refund me the $500 change fee I had already paid. The lady from HQ said she would get fired if she approved such a change.
What this made me realize is that the agents have it as bad as the customers. All in all, a terrible company culture.
What this made me realize is that the agents have it as bad as the customers. All in all, a terrible company culture.
Dec 13, 2018, 2:00 am
#63
Join Date: Dec 2017
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That's fair and I agree with you, there's things a company is obligated to do and then there's times where they can go above and beyond even when they are not at fault as it seems UA did in that case. I'm also not surprised AA didn't do the same but at the same time I'm not convinced that UA (or any US airline) would always take that approach especially for a non-FF.
I'd be curious about the details on this, how were your re-booked on the wrong flight? That said I do agree that the culture of airlines in the US, and I think this is not limited to AA, is one that is not customer friendly and in fact they often times seem to take a hostile approach as if their customer are trying to take advantage of them. And its probably true that in some cases people are attempting to take advantage of the but compared to other companies, Amazon for example, where they seem to empower their front line employees to do just about anything to make things right and please customers I do find that US airlines, especially if you're not top tier and the at times even if you are, don't take a customer first approach to service recovery. This is probably why when it comes to customer satisfaction ratings most airlines in the US are just slightly more popular than herpes :/
I'd be curious about the details on this, how were your re-booked on the wrong flight? That said I do agree that the culture of airlines in the US, and I think this is not limited to AA, is one that is not customer friendly and in fact they often times seem to take a hostile approach as if their customer are trying to take advantage of them. And its probably true that in some cases people are attempting to take advantage of the but compared to other companies, Amazon for example, where they seem to empower their front line employees to do just about anything to make things right and please customers I do find that US airlines, especially if you're not top tier and the at times even if you are, don't take a customer first approach to service recovery. This is probably why when it comes to customer satisfaction ratings most airlines in the US are just slightly more popular than herpes :/
With regards to this flight, I was initially booked in J all the way through, but the agent never mentioned that half of my international flight back would be in economy (I think I was rebooked into BOM-LHR in Y, LHR-SFO in J). I noticed a day later (pretty much on the day of travel), but by then there were very few options on AA, so I ended up parking the ticket, asking for a change fee refund, and booking a one way back on UA (one ways from India are pretty cheap).
I finally got them to waive a future change on the ticket, but for months they were refusing to refund the initial change fee or to waive a future change. So I would have had to essentially pay 2x$500 if I were to un-park my ticket. They did give me 10,000 miles at that time, but wouldn't increase that.
When corporate finally reached out to me telling me that they would waive a future change, the lady who called me said that because they were doing me a favor, they would need to take the 10,000 miles they'd given me months ago back. I said that it was in really poor sport, and would basically stop flying AA. She finally relented.
Whenever I have serious issues with AA, I just call up this woman from corporate now and she can usually get me a waiver that the EXP desk would not. It shouldn't be this way though.
Because of how strict AA is, I am scared to ever book something ahead of time (unless I'm 100% sure about the trip), and have been giving significantly more business to UA even though I really like AA's 77W for international J.
I've seen AA agents at the airport be nice (and in some cases nicer than UA or DL agents), but the EXP phone support (apart from the few times I connected with a CK agent) has been awful.
Dec 13, 2018, 7:00 am
#64
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 1,186
And on another occasion, my SJC-LHR (booked through AA) got cancelled because of the 787 engine issue and every agent I talked to refused to rebook me on SFO-LHR because it was a different airport. They kept lecturing me about fare classes as if I was an idiot, and insisting it had to be SJC-XXX-XXX-LHR.
Edit: answering my first question...
https://www.americanairlines.it/i18n...dom-coterm.jsp
Dec 13, 2018, 9:01 am
#65
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: HKG • Ex SFO, NYC
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP; Marriott Amb; Hyatt Globalist; Shangri-la Diamond; IHG SpireAmb; Hilton D; Accor G
Posts: 3,319
This would be why AA, and many other carriers, now have announcements that if you drop your phone in the seat not to move/adjust the seat but to call and FA for assistance. I'm not convinced that dropping your phone and breaking it by moving the seat is something the airline should be on the hook for, as a CS gesture sure that's nice but as a matter of liability no IMO anyways. Things being stuck in seats happens, I've had a phone get lost in a seat on Ethiopian which took the crew 2 butter knifes, a fork, and a flashlight plus darn near 30 minutes to recover but I immediately notified them and didn't move the seat - phone was not damaged, had I moved the seat and crushed it I'd think of that as my bad.
Didn't ask for compensation, it was obviously my fault.
Dec 13, 2018, 9:05 am
#66
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: HKG • Ex SFO, NYC
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP; Marriott Amb; Hyatt Globalist; Shangri-la Diamond; IHG SpireAmb; Hilton D; Accor G
Posts: 3,319
As someone who is EXP and 1K, I find that UA will try to make things right 90% of the time and AA will never budge or just be rude (I had a EXP agent tell me she couldn't put me on a next day's flight because it was my "fault that I got sick, not hers.") And on another occasion, my SJC-LHR (booked through AA) got cancelled because of the 787 engine issue and every agent I talked to refused to rebook me on SFO-LHR because it was a different airport. They kept lecturing me about fare classes as if I was an idiot, and insisting it had to be SJC-XXX-XXX-LHR.
With regards to this flight, I was initially booked in J all the way through, but the agent never mentioned that half of my international flight back would be in economy (I think I was rebooked into BOM-LHR in Y, LHR-SFO in J). I noticed a day later (pretty much on the day of travel), but by then there were very few options on AA, so I ended up parking the ticket, asking for a change fee refund, and booking a one way back on UA (one ways from India are pretty cheap).
I finally got them to waive a future change on the ticket, but for months they were refusing to refund the initial change fee or to waive a future change. So I would have had to essentially pay 2x$500 if I were to un-park my ticket. They did give me 10,000 miles at that time, but wouldn't increase that.
When corporate finally reached out to me telling me that they would waive a future change, the lady who called me said that because they were doing me a favor, they would need to take the 10,000 miles they'd given me months ago back. I said that it was in really poor sport, and would basically stop flying AA. She finally relented.
Whenever I have serious issues with AA, I just call up this woman from corporate now and she can usually get me a waiver that the EXP desk would not. It shouldn't be this way though.
Because of how strict AA is, I am scared to ever book something ahead of time (unless I'm 100% sure about the trip), and have been giving significantly more business to UA even though I really like AA's 77W for international J.
I've seen AA agents at the airport be nice (and in some cases nicer than UA or DL agents), but the EXP phone support (apart from the few times I connected with a CK agent) has been awful.
With regards to this flight, I was initially booked in J all the way through, but the agent never mentioned that half of my international flight back would be in economy (I think I was rebooked into BOM-LHR in Y, LHR-SFO in J). I noticed a day later (pretty much on the day of travel), but by then there were very few options on AA, so I ended up parking the ticket, asking for a change fee refund, and booking a one way back on UA (one ways from India are pretty cheap).
I finally got them to waive a future change on the ticket, but for months they were refusing to refund the initial change fee or to waive a future change. So I would have had to essentially pay 2x$500 if I were to un-park my ticket. They did give me 10,000 miles at that time, but wouldn't increase that.
When corporate finally reached out to me telling me that they would waive a future change, the lady who called me said that because they were doing me a favor, they would need to take the 10,000 miles they'd given me months ago back. I said that it was in really poor sport, and would basically stop flying AA. She finally relented.
Whenever I have serious issues with AA, I just call up this woman from corporate now and she can usually get me a waiver that the EXP desk would not. It shouldn't be this way though.
Because of how strict AA is, I am scared to ever book something ahead of time (unless I'm 100% sure about the trip), and have been giving significantly more business to UA even though I really like AA's 77W for international J.
I've seen AA agents at the airport be nice (and in some cases nicer than UA or DL agents), but the EXP phone support (apart from the few times I connected with a CK agent) has been awful.
Dec 13, 2018, 11:06 am
#67
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: CT/NY
Programs: UA 1K/1MM, AA EXP, Marriott LT Titanium, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Plat Amb
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Do AA's systems not identify SJC/SFO as co-terminals? Or do agents not know how to figure that out?
Edit: answering my first question...
https://www.americanairlines.it/i18n...dom-coterm.jsp
Edit: answering my first question...
https://www.americanairlines.it/i18n...dom-coterm.jsp
Dec 13, 2018, 11:53 am
#68
Join Date: Dec 2017
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: UA GS, AA EXP, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Platinum, Mlife NOIR
Posts: 320
Took me hours of calling until I got to a sympathetic agent (who I believe was a CK agent).
On UA, if I have so much as have one segment delayed on an international itinerary (which could jeopardize my connection), a phone agent will usually switch me to a nonstop even if it’s on a different carrier. (At worst it takes HUCA once or twice, which cannot be done on AA because they notate the records so agressively.)
I was in J on UA (EWR-LAX-SFO) last week on an upgraded economy ticket. EWR-LAX was 30 minutes delayed so the agent offered to put me on the last seat on EWR-SFO in full J.
In short, AA needs to fix their customer service because they are screwing their onboard product. Business travelers at my company are scared of flying AA because of all the horror stories. (I tried calling AA EXP last weekend to rebook while on the way to JFK and there was a 3 hour hold time, so I just ended up cancelling the ticket and redirecting my Uber to EWR.)
Dec 13, 2018, 2:30 pm
#69
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: HKG • Ex SFO, NYC
Programs: UA 1K, AA EXP; Marriott Amb; Hyatt Globalist; Shangri-la Diamond; IHG SpireAmb; Hilton D; Accor G
Posts: 3,319
They wouldn’t budge because it was on BA metal, though booked on AA ticket stock. Every agent would insist on repricing it for $5k+ (which work would never agree to pay).
Took me hours of calling until I got to a sympathetic agent (who I believe was a CK agent).
On UA, if I have so much as have one segment delayed on an international itinerary (which could jeopardize my connection), a phone agent will usually switch me to a nonstop even if it’s on a different carrier. (At worst it takes HUCA once or twice, which cannot be done on AA because they notate the records so agressively.)
I was in J on UA (EWR-LAX-SFO) last week on an upgraded economy ticket. EWR-LAX was 30 minutes delayed so the agent offered to put me on the last seat on EWR-SFO in full J.
In short, AA needs to fix their customer service because they are screwing their onboard product. Business travelers at my company are scared of flying AA because of all the horror stories. (I tried calling AA EXP last weekend to rebook while on the way to JFK and there was a 3 hour hold time, so I just ended up cancelling the ticket and redirecting my Uber to EWR.)
Dec 13, 2018, 3:47 pm
#70
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If you speak another language, even not fluently, call the phone for that language if it exists. Shame in AA, but at least it can cut some of the down time for you (those agents generally speak English if things get tricky).
Dec 13, 2018, 4:16 pm
#71
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: Chicago Illinois
Programs: 1MM UA
Posts: 1,753
If I were Judge Friendly, I would make AA reimburse your friend's wife for the computer. I would not reimburse the OP because it is my expectation that a tray table is flimsy and water could spill on a computer if you move one.
Dec 13, 2018, 4:53 pm
#72
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,580
So you would have an expectation that the tray table is faulty?
Dec 13, 2018, 10:39 pm
#74
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,580
indeed - if a person put a drink and laptop on table and the damage occurred for other reasons ( such as knocking the drink over or it being far too heavy for the table ) then indeed the airline should not be expected to be held accountable
This specific complaint does refer to a defective table leading to the issue - for an international trip, the Montreal Convention indicates that the airline can be held liable for up to XDR1133
Dave
This specific complaint does refer to a defective table leading to the issue - for an international trip, the Montreal Convention indicates that the airline can be held liable for up to XDR1133
Dave
Dec 14, 2018, 7:34 am
#75
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(emphasis added)
Ahhhh.... there's the issue. For IRROP on the day of travel, the operating carrier is responsible for rebooking, who has more ability to override ticket reissuance issues than the ticketing operator. Unless, of course, it was booked as a AA codeshare, then there might be some flexibility from AA to do the rebooking.