Its been a rough two days for AMR, but even more so for myself as a customer of AMR. I was supposed to fly out Sunday morning at 7:30am from DCA to MIA to SJU to STX (what an itinerary). I never made it out of DCA because of the EDS system failure. I went back to my friends place in DC and got up very early on Monday to make the 8:30am flight. It was cancelled. They then put me on a 2pm flight out of Dulles (about 30 min away from DCA) that was actually a 9am flight that had been delayed for maintenance. I should've known better. I got to IAD and the ticket counter (which was only staffed by one person) said everything looked good. They were waiting for a part for the airplane that morning which was the reason for the delay but the part came and everything looked good. I proceed through security to the gate and there are 100 angry people standing at the counter. I know right away this isn't good...and I was right. The flight was cancelled. The gate agent was not helpful at all and wouldn't even look at alternate itineraries on other airlines to get me to SJU at least by tonight so I could make it to STX for my morning meeting that I couldn't miss. I ended up plugging into the internet from the terminal and doing my own research on flights, then calling the 800 number to try to get booked on them. By then the alternate flights were full. I didn't need a hotel voucher since I could stay with my friend in the city, but I did ask for car fare which the grudgingly provided. But they looked at me like I was CRAZY when I asked if I could placed on an upgrade list for the next mornings flight since I wasn't on the same flight as everyone else who had just got bumped.

I fly about 100,000 miles a year spending about $20,000. Unfortunately (or maybe I should say Fortunately) I've only flown about 15,000 this year with American and I'm not "Gold." The employess of AA were awful...they didn't even stop to think about what this experience might do to their future business with an above average (in terms of revenue) customer. I was actually using this flight to see if I should switch from using USAir since AA has better routes to the Carribbean where I live. No way...I'd rather spend an extra 2 hours on a crazy route for USAir then 3 days waiting. I've flown over 30 USAir segments and have maybe had 2 delays in that time. This is probably my 10th AA segment and I've had a problem with almost every one (this one is quite extraordinary I hope). USAir may have just reemerged from bankruptcy, but they are a much better airline from a frequent traveler's perspective than AA. Its rare that I meet any AA frequent fliers and now I know why...if you fly this airline once you'll never want to fly them again.

I finally made it to STX this morning. Ironically most of yesterdays San Juan passengers who has spent from 7:30am to 4pm at Dulles to be sent to a hotel were booked on flight 9255 today that was supposed to leave at 7:30am. Fortunately for me I was on the 7am flight as I had the connection in San Juan. I just checked flight 9255 and it FINALLY took off about 5 minutes ago at 2:56pm. Those poor people spent all day yesterday at IAD and then all day today (from 6am until now).

Anyone have any ideas for what I should write to American? They really don't seem to care, but have probably lost $10,000-20,000 of my business a year because of their attitude. They have the best routes to the Caribbean, but that doesn't mean anything if they are this unreliable.

Sean

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

You're gonna base your purchasing decisions on one lousy experience (that included a computer system failure and wicked thunderstorms)?

Oh, well.

Again, welcome to FlyerTalk.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but I don't think it's representative of AA's overall reliability. If they COULD have accomodated you better, they probably would have. My husband also had a delayed (connecting) flight yesterday and AA accomodated him on a flight which actually arrived earlier than his scheduled flight.

Actually I have flown about 10 times this year with AA and they've screwed something up about 5 times. One time I ended up doing 5 laps between the A and D gates in Miami (about 1/4 mile each way) with 6 bottles of Cruzan rum and a backpack with a laptop computer because of their incompetence. At least that time they worked with me, acknowledging their mistake and giving me an upgrade after I showed up on the 5th lap drenched in my own sweat . The lady on crutches who was also put through this runaround wasn't so lucky..her bad leg gave out and she never made it home that night. No I'm not kidding on that either!

This isn't one lousy experience either..this is 3 days of lousy experiences!

Anyway, thanks for the warm welcome and hopefully I can reach someone at AA and get a better explanation then "too bad" which is essentially all that I've got. I'm generally very patient and am in awe of what some of the airlines are able to accomplish. But this incident coupled with the prior incidents is just too much. I just don't know that I want to subject myself to this torture ever again!

Sean

My concern isn't as much that they couldn't accomodate me, but instead their attitudes. Not everyone, but most of the people I dealt with really showed no empathy with the plight of a traveler stranded for 2 days. I was an annoyance, not a customer which I really resent, especially because I am always overpolite to these poor gate agents who take the brunt of an often unknowing public. Any thoughts on how I could maybe get some sort of resolution from someone on AA. I'd love to feel like I could give them another shot, but not with the attitude that I received thus far from them.

I've flown 5 times with AA this year, and they have messed up 3 out of 5 - that's a pretty good average? Of those 3, two were delays of more than 4 hours and one was a cancellation.
What annoyed me was that the gate staff told me this sort of thing happens daily, and I shouldn't expect any better!!

I don't think you'll notice any particular trend in terms of one airline having more significant delays than the other. I've been tracking a certain US flight over the past few days. It has been cancelled twice, delayed 2 hours+ twice, and delayed about an hour on the other day; this is the main YYZ-PHL flight that passengers use to connect to European flights so these delays and cancellations are pretty significant.

I do, however, think you'll notice that front line staff (and therefore recovery from irregular operations) at US are often referred to as being the best in the business. There is a reason for that, as you've found out today.

I understand, but 10 flights for 8 months isn't really a lot, is it?

Interesting posts from some mostly non-regular AA flyers, especially the hilarious USair "is a better airline than AA" part.
FYI USair is in some serious trouble and is the most likely to go under.

Look I know AA had some serious computer problems last weekend but that had been compounded by very usual weather in Florida for over two weeks now ( believe or not - stalled cold front) which had disturbed the normal afternoon showers to occur at just about anytime but lots of rain have been falling in the early mornings and is got to have affected lots of flights its even affected shipping.

mike

I know that statistically my 10 or so AA flights this year are relatively meaningless. As are my 30 or so USAir flights this year. But at some point when is a string of "bad luck" on one airline more than just that?

Interestingly I read that the delay on Sunday morning (which hit USAir as well, for an additional hour) caused 204 cancellations on AA and only 20 cancellations on USA.

As I said, I don't have any allegiance to any airline. If the folks at USAir treated me the way AA did and acted the way AA did (like it was my fault or something) I would stop flying them as well. But thankfully they have not, and hopefully they will never treat me this way. Simply put...I won't tolerate it, and no one else should have to. While I am not the type to rant and rave at employees of any company, I do vote with my dollars very frequently.

Does anyone else out there think that I was crazy for asking to be put on the upgrade list for being stranded for 3 days? I asked to be put on the list...not for a guranteed upgrade. I gave them a VERY easy option to at least save a little face with me. I didn't get angry with anyone at the airline...I politely asked about this and they acted like I was asking for the world. Again..its not the getting stranded part that bothers me. Thats life in the world of travel sometimes. It was the way many of the employees treated me that got me irked. I've been stranded before, will be stranded again, but will never tolerate the poor service I received the other day.

Oh well...I have to deal with these guys one last time on Saturday for an STX to Orlando trip. Hopefully things will go smoothly.

Sean

I was a devoted US customer as I ran BOS-LGA on a regular basis. Service was great on the shuttle but FAs were not nearly as polite on non-shuttle flights. I gave up on US when I had tons of problems with delayed flights leading to missed connections at PHL . I've been happy with AA ^ . I've had cancelled flights and had to work through huge delays but they were always weather problems. AA has direct flights and int'l destinations ^ . I'm glad I made the switch. As for you, I would recommend you think about your Dividend Miles as it is looking like US is going to end up terminating operations.

I'm redeeming my miles as I earn them with USAir because of their financial situation. In fact I'm on hold now waiting to redeem miles

I'm glad you've had good AA experiences...I wish I could say the same because as you said the routes are much better, especially for travel to Latin America and the Caribbean.

This is much better in the American Airlines forum.

If you feel that way, feel free to Private Message the moderator or use the "Report Post" function on the bottom left of each message with a short summary of why you think it would be better there.

Thanks
Sean (B747-437B)
Moderator
Trip Reports

stiphy:
I don't think there is anything wrong to ask politely for an upgrade .... AA troubled you for 3 days. Not that they wanted to trouble you .. it just happened...
I understand your feelings. What troubles you, was the bad, poor service; AA treated you not well! But they should have! I would say: you had the wrong AA agents at the wrong time at the wrong place (to handle such events).
BTW, that could have happened with any airline. I had some unpleasant "moments" with Delta agents at Houston International Airport (arriving from South America on a CO flight very early on a Sunday morning)
I almost forgot: Welcome to FlyerTalk! :-: And please post again ...