"I'll never fly --- again"
Mar 24, 2007 | 11:16 am
#31
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: MCI
Programs: AA LT Gold; BA Silver; Hilton Diamond
Posts: 3,103
I know that if I say "never" I'll end up having to use a particular airline again sometime, but I've managed to avoid the following:
1. Lufthansa, where on our one trip with them (honeymoon, yet) my husband and I were involuntarily bumped from a flight to St. Petersburg and then the flight we actually took arrived an hour late. Yes, I've had worse happen, but this was after paying premium prices on an airline that used to advertise its reliability. That was 2003. Haven't taken them since, despite the fact that I've been to our offices in Munich twice since then, and could have taken them on my 2004 trip to India.
2. Continental, after they decided to award only 50% EQM for people on bargain airfares. I know they eventually backed down and started awarding 100% if you booked through the Web site but they lost almost 3 years of my business- during which I made Platinum on AA and my husband and I went to Europe twice a year. We flew CO once in that period- to Cleveland.
3. Heathrow. My boss is in London so it's hard to avoid completely, but since a nightmarish connection at LHR early last year, I booked our next 2 European vacations to avoid LHR, even going to the point of taking CO to get to Edinburgh to avoid a London connection. (Never say never, right? And I made Platinum on AA anyway.) And I plan to continue to avoid LHR whenever I can until they stop making life hell for the average Coach class traveler. I'm not holding my breath.
1. Lufthansa, where on our one trip with them (honeymoon, yet) my husband and I were involuntarily bumped from a flight to St. Petersburg and then the flight we actually took arrived an hour late. Yes, I've had worse happen, but this was after paying premium prices on an airline that used to advertise its reliability. That was 2003. Haven't taken them since, despite the fact that I've been to our offices in Munich twice since then, and could have taken them on my 2004 trip to India.
2. Continental, after they decided to award only 50% EQM for people on bargain airfares. I know they eventually backed down and started awarding 100% if you booked through the Web site but they lost almost 3 years of my business- during which I made Platinum on AA and my husband and I went to Europe twice a year. We flew CO once in that period- to Cleveland.
3. Heathrow. My boss is in London so it's hard to avoid completely, but since a nightmarish connection at LHR early last year, I booked our next 2 European vacations to avoid LHR, even going to the point of taking CO to get to Edinburgh to avoid a London connection. (Never say never, right? And I made Platinum on AA anyway.) And I plan to continue to avoid LHR whenever I can until they stop making life hell for the average Coach class traveler. I'm not holding my breath.
Mar 24, 2007 | 12:45 pm
#32
Join Date: Oct 2003
Programs: MP, 1K 1MM
Posts: 1,255
BleAAgh!
As I reported earlier, I missed an interview with an international employer because AA, though aware the flight was not going to arrive on time, said NADA about that fact, thereby preventing me from informing the interview team of my enforced delay.
Yes, this occurred before the days of cellphones and ubiquitous internet access, back in the seventeenth century, as it now seems.
And so, especially angered by their repeated, canned, "oh fly with us amd give us another chance" reply letters (what, another chance to mess up my schedule again?) as a UA1K I've never given AA my bux for lo! these several centuries.
From what I learn here on FT, though, writing the "I'll never fly" letter just lets the offending off the hook; if they think I'd never spend money with them again, they're hardly motivated to work to earn my business or compensate me.
Ironically, a UA RCC concierge put me on the last/only available flight out of MCO during weather problems some time ago, a dreadful AA 767. BleAAgh!
Yes, this occurred before the days of cellphones and ubiquitous internet access, back in the seventeenth century, as it now seems.
And so, especially angered by their repeated, canned, "oh fly with us amd give us another chance" reply letters (what, another chance to mess up my schedule again?) as a UA1K I've never given AA my bux for lo! these several centuries.
From what I learn here on FT, though, writing the "I'll never fly" letter just lets the offending off the hook; if they think I'd never spend money with them again, they're hardly motivated to work to earn my business or compensate me.
Ironically, a UA RCC concierge put me on the last/only available flight out of MCO during weather problems some time ago, a dreadful AA 767. BleAAgh!