Strange Post
 

What surprises me most about the OP's post is that if he really flies in excess of 100k miles per year (on any combination of airlines), he should be used to the fact that sometimes planes are delayed, cancelled, etc. SOmetimes agents are nice and helpful, other times they are not. These things happen in travel and everything that he has indicated is certainly not unique to AA.

Most recently I flew CO to Clevleand. The flight was delayed by hours, the agents were rude. However, I took it all in stride, as did the other truly frequent flyers. I would certainly never make a statement that I will never fly CO again based solely on this experience.

Finally, the OP states that he had serious problems with AA in the past, yet despite these problems, he still was considering switching to AA, Hummm.

I am nots sure what type of explanation the OP is lookig for from AA. However, I hope they respond accordinly. In this case, they should apologize for the services lapses. They should not IMHO, offer any additional compesnation to this individual.

In terms of revenue, I am not sure $15,000 -$20,000 on 100k miles is consdered considerable in AA's view.

I am glad the OP finally got to his destination.

First, thanks to all for the warm welcome to Flyer Talk. If I posted to the wrong board I apologize, I read through this board and saw some similar posts so I figured this would be the right location.

Again, a delay of hours isn't a big deal...and a delay of one night isn't a big deal either to me. It happens. But when you cross that 2 day threshhold and act like that is normal that does bother me.

I know my money is insignificant in the scheme of things, but with the way things are going for all of the airlines, except for a select few, they should treasure every dollar :)

Finally, as I mentioned in several posts, the only reason that I still would consider using AA is because I often have no other choice. I live in St. Croix and travel to DC 2-3 times a month. Often the SJU leg of the USAir flights are booked, and United dropped their IAD-SJU flights as of June 6, so AA becomes my only option. I am going to be checking into Spirit Air though as my backup when USA flights are booked, but many times these flights are full as well. SJU seems to be a hot airport, most flights are full going there these days it seems.

Anyway, thanks again for the responses and the opinions. I have crafted a letter to AA explaining my concerns and have CC'd the DOT on it (as I was told to do from some colleagues of mine who travel far more than even I do and have had to deal with this stuff). I also just remembered that our company actually has a special AA rep since we are based out of STX and our employees do so much traveling. I may try to contact her as well.

Best of travels to all, and thanks for the great discussion.

Sean

Update
 

I had sent something to them via the web page and I got a reply back (ironically right after I sent a letter to Greg Clark on this matter as I didn't think I was really going to get a response back to the web form). They explained and apologized for everything and gave me 12,000 bonus miles to my AA account. This doesn't seem too bad, although I am still a bit hesitant to fly them if I have to be somewhere at a specific time.

I'm flying to Orlando in the morning and thank god I've been offered a trip on my bosses private jet! I need to be in Orlando at around noon and his jet takes off whenever he says it takes off :)

In that case, I'd be hesitant to fly *anyone* if you absolutely have to be anywhere, ever, at a specific time. ;) Whether it's AA or CO or UA or your boss's private jet - delays can and will affect any one of them at any time. Weather happens, maintenance issues happen, computers fail, and unfortunately none of us are immune..

I know it's tough when you're on a tight schedule...but travel, whether by air, land, or sea, often challenges us to flexible and forgiving.

American Airlines..Never Again...Reply
 

I too had an "experience" with AA last spring, PDX-ORD, with an ORD outbound to Dublin on Aer Lingus. It all started at PDX early a.m., our group was attempting to check in curb side, but one arrogant agent said "oh no, your international and you must check in at the ticket counter." This delayed the check in process - no etickets at all on this trip. Probably due to the connecting flight out of the country. So, we finally get into the terminal and to the AA counter, long lines, two agents not aware of how long the lines were! By the time part of our group finally got to the ticket counter, it was nearing time for our departure. And only one agent now! She was NOT one bit worried we were running very late for our flight, and no one seemed to come assist with the lines! When I finally reached the ticket counter I was told all of these things we should of done -- I said we were told we could check in curbside, then told go inside. Now you're telling me I need to do something else? I don't recall what it was now, but it was insane that she would even think I'd know what to do at that point! I said you need to bring more counter agents on to help, we're about to miss our ORD flight. We never figured out what the problem was, but the gate agent held the flight for our group. I got the look like it was my fault!!

Then, to add insult to injury :mad: when I arrived home and check my mileage on AA, which I don't really have any miles, other than two segments PDX-ORD, can't even move it to AS! Anyway, I wrote AA and sent copies of my Aer Lingus boarding passes in hopes of AA crediting me with miles ORD-DUB-ORD. Nope, no way, can't do, forget it! We were all ticketed on a fare that AA didn't recognize for miles!!!

I don't plan flying AA if I can help it. They are the only non-stops now PDX-DFW since DL pulled their DFW non-stops. I'll connect in SLC to avoid AA if possible! Their flight attendants on the ORD-PDX flight came across as a bit uppity and arrogant, not customer service minded.

Granted, this is one experience with AA -- I've flown them before when DL transferred my ticket over to AA due to weather or mechanical problems. I had a great experience then. It's just these one-time, isolated times that gets you mad :mad: !

Could depend on individual experiences. Someone at some poing has had bad experiences with all airlines.
In there a web site that shows customer satisfaction ratings for the different airlines?

Why do you call that agent arrogant? Curb side is strictly for people traveling on domestic itineraries (aa.com is very clear about this), and you were traveling internationally.



First of all, you could've provided your AS number to begin with and get your AA flights credited to your AS account. No need to move anything.

Second, your anger on not getting AA credit for your Aer Lingus flights is misdirected. In order for AA to post miles for travel on partners, those partners must purchase those miles from AA. You should express your displeasure with Aer Lingus instead, that decided not to buy those miles from AA for their passengers on cheap fares.

Look In the Mirror
 

From your description, you're the one to blame for any missteps. First, as was stated previously, curbside check-in is for domestic travel only.
Second, AAdvantage rules stipulate that miles cannot be transferred to a different account after the flights were taken. So if you wanted miles credit to your AS program, you should have stated as such.
Finally, AAdvantage rules also stipulate that not all fares on Aer Lingus earn miles.

BTW, it was a good move on the part of the AA agent to hold the ORD departure to get your party on board. That's good customer service.

Sorry to hear about your experience.

Yikes - what a bad flight experience. I guess a smooth, relaxing flight really sets the tone for your vacation. I like something free of hassles, where my stress level is down, which pretty much indicates to me a relaxing trip. So something like that would've left me stressed for a while.