Thank you AA!
 

I have only read the FT boards once every great while in the past, but it seems like a lot of people in addition to myself have been disappointed with AA's service in particular (personally I've found DL to consistently be much worse on all counts.) Of course in the past couple weeks priorities have changed and I would applaud efficacy and overlook most forms of bad service. But an AAdvantage agent the other day really restored my faith in AA:

On the 10th I was on BDL-ORD then ORD-LAX. Since it is transcon and I have plenty of miles I used a 30k upgrade award. I returned on the 15th (originally booked for the 13th which was canceled) and had to go out of Orange County and arrive in Boston. Of course I didn't mind being downgraded and was glad to be able to get back to the northeast, even if it was 3 hrs from my house.

Last night I called to make a reservation and the reservations agent started chatting with me. Somehow we started talking about fares, mileage use, etc., and I said something to the effect that I'm just going to use the 500 mile E-upgrade's from now on on domestic. I told her what happened but of course I wasn't blaming AA, which is why I never asked to be comp'd. She said "but that's not right! You had to use that whole award, what a waste. I'll take care of it." I told her it wasn't necessary but I really appreciated it anyways and that was it.

Today, I was checking my balance online and saw that she had credited me with 20,000! I was grateful that I had gotten anything, but I can't believe I was given back 2/3 of the miles for half of the trip! I only wish I had her name so I could send a note. Considering all the pressure on them, I think that was a very classy thing to do, particularly when I hadn't asked for any comp. whatsoever. If you've been disappointed with AA's service, maybe there is hope!

American logs everybody that creates or changes a reservation. If you have the six character "locator" of the new reservation, and a boarding pass from the award trip, you can write a letter to Mike Gunn, he's the VP of Customer Service for American. Include the ticket number (the big set of numbers in the middle starting with 001) from the award trip and the locator of the new reservation, and they'll be able to look up and see who first made the reservation.

If you do write, explain that you didn't get the res agent's name and if the agent can be tracked down and given a "Someone Special (SOS)" award, and if the letter can be added to their records.