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American Airlines Horror Story

Let me tell you what happened to my sister about a week ago when she tried to fly American Airlines from Baltimore, Maryland to Little Rock, Arkansas (via Dallas, Texas.) The flight from Baltimore was delayed because of bad weather in Dallas, but somehow the flight was eventually allowed to leave and go to Dallas. When the plane got to Dallas, the weather was so bad that her plane and MANY others had to circle to airport for well over an hour because it was unsafe to land. THEN, because of all the delays, she missed her connecting flight to Little Rock. So there's my sister, along with all the other people who had been on the flight, standing in line trying to get another flight out. No luck - it's midnight (they were supposed to arrive in Little Rock by 9 p.m.), and there are no more flights to Little Rock that night. So, then she gets in the line to receive a hotel voucher. The guy in front of her gets the last voucher. My sister asks, "What are we supposed to do now?" The "customer service" desk person shrugs his shoulders and says "Sorry, out of vouchers. Can't help you." He takes everyone's boarding passes for the flight that they all missed, and tears them up. My sister decides to complain to an American Airlines manager. When she gets to where the manager is she sees the manager HANDING OUT HOTEL VOUCHERS!!! So, she quickly jumps in line. The guy in front of her gets the last voucher! By this time, she is furious and gives the manager an earful, asking why the other guy said the vouchers were all gone when they clearly were not. The manager shrugs her shoulders and says "Dunno, sorry." My sister checks on flights to Little Rock for the next morning. The guy at the American Airlines desk asks to see her boarding pass for the flight she missed, and she tells him the customer service guy tore them all up. The desk clerk says "Well, I don't have any proof you were supposed to go on that flight unless you can show me the boarding pass. I can't book you on any of these flights unless you want to pay for the ticket." My sister has just about decided to commit murder, when the manager arrives and tells the clerk to book my sister on a flight, because she can vouch for the fact that my sister WAS booked on the original flight that everyone was forced to miss. So the guy checks if there are any openings on the flight, and then tells my sister she is now booked on the 9 a.m. flight, which he says is the earliest flight to Little Rock. My sister decides to rent a car and find her own hotel. She calls all the car rental places - all are closed except one. They say they'll stay open while she takes the shuttle to their offices. When she gets there, the offices have been locked up, and everyone has gone home for the night. So, my sister gives up on the idea of ever getting any sleep that night. When she gets back to the terminal she just happens to see a TV monitor that lists the flights for the next morning, and there's a 6 AM American Airlines flight to Little Rock!!!!! So, she GOES BACK to the desk and demands to be placed on the 6 am flight. The guy has by now copped an even worse attitude after dealing with all the irate passengers, and so he sullenly fiddles with the keyboard and tells my sister she is now booked on the 6 am flight to Little Rock. A few hours later, as the 6 am flight gets ready to board passengers, my sister finds out that the desk clerk from a few hours before had lied and NOT placed her name on the passenger list, and she has to fight with them to get herself placed on the flight. She arrives in Little Rock at 9 am, twelve hours after she was originally supposed to arrive. Throughout this whole ordeal, none of the passengers were offered any food or drink, even when they asked American Airlines "customer service" and management for something to snack on. All the shops and restaurants had closed soon after the flight had arrived in Dallas, so the passengers went hungry all night long. So, if you are flying American Airlines, all I can say is "Good Luck to you." You're gonna need it.

Your sister arrived in Little Rock safe in spite of terrible weather conditions. The airlines have NO obligation to provide hotel vouchers or meal vouchers when the delays are caused by weather. All weather related problems should be taken up directly with God. Tell your sister to stop whining and be grateful she arrived at all.

Jeb, is what you are saying correct? I've always been unclear about the airlines' obligations in these situations. If the airline owed JM's sister nothing, why were they giving out vouchers? Please straighten me out.

I believe JEB is correct (whether we like it or not). An airline is under no obligation to provide hotel stays for flights that have been cancelled due to forces of God. Its common sense if you really think about it. Sure they hand out vouchers, but thats really a COURTESY to the people that have been inconveniance by third party forces. I personally HATE flying but Jeb is correct... she should be GLAD that she even got there safely. People love to complain and really take their safety for granted. Look at what happened to those poor people that crashed in Arkansas due to bad weather. Whenever I get notified that my flight has been cancelled or delayed due to bad weather or mechanical problems - REJOICE! It at least shows you that the airlines is not willing to risk your life by taking any chances... and best of all - they have FOUND a potential problem. The whole moral of the story is this - dont take airline safety for granted, more and more planes drop out of the sky every day. Any flight that LANDS safely is a GOOD flight, regardless if it was late, delayed, etc. -Grog

Over the last few years I have learned to be prepared for just about anything when it comes to plane travel. What happened to your sister could have happened to anyone and on any airlines. The lesson that I have learned is to always carry some food with me when traveling, don't wait for airline personel to help you and be prepared to use my credit card for hotel rooms and such. Finally, your sister should not hesitate to write to every customer service department that she can find at American Airlines. Your will probably end up with one or more flight vouchers that she can use with her next American Airlines flight. And she probably will fly them again and her experience will probably be fine. That's just the way it is.

A friend of mine sat on the runway at Newark the other day for 4 hours. They were having terrible storms and all the gates were full. Continental actually called his house the next day and apologized! I recently flew United through Chicago and was delayed because of weather. I had a American flight cancelled in Dallas last winter because of weather. We did get our hotel at 1/2 price, no vouchers. I agree with the above poster write to their customer service dept. and also to the National Transportation Board Consumer Aviation Dept. They keep track of complaints although they don't really do anything. It seems that all the airlines are the same anymore.

I had a similar horror story on American 10 years ago and haven't flown them since, primarily since they failed to follow up with me. In short, I didn't feel like they cared. In the meantime, Continental and Southwest have shared over $1 million in business from me alone. (Yes, I travel weekly!) And both treat me very well.

All of the responses are correct, however, having flown SWA and UA almost exclusively for the last several years, I just had the flight from hell and back on American. This was not weather related, but in fact, just the ineptness and lack of consideration of American Airlines emloyees. I have never encountered such rudeness as I did at O'Hare--nasty little creatures all, when I was trying to book standby on an earlier flight. When I questioned whether my bag would arrive with me I was told that "If you request to go standby, you automatically concede that your bags won't be with you." In fact, they were since I had more than an hour between flights, but if they weren't, what's the point of getting on an earlier flight? And they wonder why passengers ignore the carry on rules! Dallas is notorious for being an impossible airport and American schedules 45 min. connections which never work if your inbound flight is at all delayed. They are "permitted" to schedule this way but never take into account which airports they have you running through. So, yes, weather is not the responsibility of the airlines but they do nothing to try to alleviate the situation either. Now that they've removed some of their rows in coach, they feel justified in ignoring any other needs even that for basic courtesy we might have. Bottom line, airline personnel just don't care. I won't fly American again soon and will never again connect through Dallas (I've made that promise before, but this time it's for real) I wonder whether we would excuse any other industry the way we do the airlines!

I'm going to take a leap and assume that j.m.'s issue is with perceived rudeness and not necessarily that the airline had an obligation to the sister. I agree with the other postings that, like it or not, the airlines are not obligated to do anything for you in the event of poor weather. I also agree that the most important thing is to reach your destination safely. That said, I think most flyers want to know that the airline they've chosen to spend money with is willing to somehow accomodate them and/or at least give a sympathetic ear to a problem. It's like the old adage "It's not what you say, but how you say it." I have had very, very good experiences on American. Maybe I've been lucky, maybe it's because I have "Gold" status. Either way, it helps to remember that most people have good intentions and are not intentionally rude or unhelpful. And a bad experience on an airline can happen to anyone on any carrier at any time. I was on a flight recently that was wonderfully uneventful and even landed 10 minutes early. On my way out I said to the pilot, "Thanks for a good flight. Heck, you even got us here early." He thanked me for the kind words and said, "Remember it fondly on the days we're running 10 minutes or more late..." Food for thought.

Hello, All. Original poster here. I'll be polite to all of you and just say that yes, Sabrina is correct. Both I and my sister are outraged by the absolute rudeness and total lack of concern that American Airlines showed toward their customers, even though the problem was originally weather related. However the problem began, the airline quickly exhibited a textbook example of how NOT to treat passengers when they are distressed! BTW, I forgot to add the following info: When my sister finally got to Little Rock, her luggage was nowhere to be found. So, she put in a claim, and was called the next day. When she went to get her luggage, everything was soaking wet. Turns out that when the plane missed the connecting flight from Dallas to Little Rock, all the luggage had been unloaded from the plane in Dallas and was left to sit outside on a cart in the pouring rain. Everyone who was on that flight had soaking wet luggage, and many things were completely ruined. And yes, all the passengers on that American Airlines trip from Hell have written or are going to write to American Airlines, and also to the FAA.

I too had a horror flight/connection foul-up/etc/etc. I wrote one letter of complaint to the head of the American customer service for the particular airport, CC: to the national customer service head & CC: to the CEO of the company. It got a fast response & they complied with everything I requested for them to do.

Sabrina, Normally I would agree with you that most people don't set out to be rude, but the 3 young women in Chicago at O'Hare were actually trying! Their tone of voice, the disgusted looks, the rolling of the eyes etc. (and not just at me--the entire waiting area full of passengers was remarking about it) have no place in a service industry. Incidentally, my husband is also a "gold" member of AA and that is why I took this flight from hell in the first place. There were elderly passengers for whom no wheelchairs were available who were made to change gates and then return to the original twice and each passenger's question was met with the same rude, snippy response. It would have been funny if we weren't really tempted to wring their necks. And, the little nasties disappeared with regularity at 10 minute intervals, caring not one bit what the situation of the passengers was, only eager to have their breaks. Sorry, but this was beyond was is remotely acceptable. A little courtesy goes a long way in preserving some bit of civilization. No thanks, American Airlines, I won't fall into your trap again! Also, to JM, perhaps AA is not responsible for the weather, but they do have a responsibility to take reasonable care with your sister's baggage and it appears they were negligent on that score, so I would think you would have some kind of claim for her ruined clothing at least. Good luck.

There must be something in the water at O'Hare, or they just can't get qualified help. I was treated rudely by United gate agents and I was not the only one. I wrote to the airline, but as of yet heard nothing back. I realize you can't control the weather, but it would be nice if the gate agents were up front about it and did not act like it was a big inconvenience for them.

As with everyone, I agree that AA was not responsible if it was weather related. But believe me, I've had my share of rude people on EVERY airline. Unacceptable, but it happens. However, here's a tip: rude people don't become helpful if you "give them an earful." You should note that when it's a weather delay, these customer service people get REALLY frazzled because it's widespread cancellations you're dealing with (especially when you're at a major hub like O'Hare and weather strikes there.) They're in a bad mood before you even get up to them because the 40 people in line in front of you have been yelling at them. A kind word and smile go a long away. Even if you're not in the best of moods, I would recommend trying it. I've approached a grumpy customer service rep, smiled and sympathized with the day he must be having. You could see the relief on his face. He became a lot nicer and began helping me out. There was also a screaming guy next to me with the same problem/same flight as me. Guess who got their problem solved?

While I agree with the people who point out that weather-related delays are not the airline's fault (good job on the part of the pilots for getting everyone there safely), I also have to sympathize with JM's sister. All the passengers on that flight were treated atrociously by the so-called customer service staff, and there was a distinct lack of interest on their part for the frazzled passengers' plight. I understand that the staff were frazzled too, but it seems from JM's (albeit biased) description, that the indifference of the staff sparked a chain reaction of misery. I too have had similar experiences with weather related delays and indifferent staff. It seems to be part of some people's makeup - "it ain't my fault, so why should I care what else happens to you? Just go siddown and be GRATEFUL that we do anything for you at all!" Too many people just get mad and swear that they'll never fly that airline again, without also telling the proper authorities what happened. Perhaps if more people took the time to send detailed complaints to higher management and avaition authorities, customer service would improve (along with other things like lack of space between seats, too-small restrooms, etc. - one can only hope! **smile**) Love Fodor's message boards - appreciate all the helpful information I get here!!

OK, let's get some facts straight. Not the Airline's Fault (we're all agreed on this) ------------------------- 1) bad weather 2) delayed takeoff in Baltimore 3) delayed landing in Dallas 4) missed connecting flight to Little Rock 5) limited # of hotel vouchers Examples of Airline's uncaring attitude --------------------------------------- 1) staff shrug their shoulders when passengers ask about more hotel vouchers 2) staff not honest (or didn't try to find out, or didn't care) that there were, indeed, more hotel vouchers 3) management shrugs when asked by passengers why staff had said there were no more vouchers when there obviously were 5) original boarding passes were torn up, only to be needed later 6) because of boarding passes being torn up, passengers given a hard time by another member of staff who says to either prove they were on that flight or they'll have to pay (like they're going to just drive to the airport from somewhere in Dallas at midnight and try to get on a flight for the next morning?) 7) staff either didn't know about the earlier 6 am flight (explain THAT to me?) or they just couldn't be bothered to tell the passengers about it 8) staff then apparently didn't really put the passengers on the 6 am flight as promised 9) luggage was left, sitting on a cart outside, in the driving rain Which list is longer?

I have usually had nothing but very bad experiences with American Airlines and will not fly with them anymore. One of their favorite tricks is to arbitrarily cancel flights because they are not full enough. Despite the seating arrangements, and peanuts for lunch, I far prefer flying on Southwest. Their customer service is second to none. Also their Rapid Rewards is far better than any other airlines frequent flyer program. One other thing, Southwest does not charge a fee for changing your flight plans.

One more thing to add. When you are treated badly, take names and include them in your letter to management. Believe it or not, it is very difficult to discipline or fire a bad employee. In this lawsuit-happy era, employers have to have a good paper trail before they can act, and a letter from a customer could be just the evidence the company needs. If you include names, your letter could result in some real action that might save the next passenger from suffering at the hands of the same person. I used this method on a cab driver who tried to rip me off, and he was forced to retake the city's lengthy training course. I once worked for a major retailer that forced managers identified in complaints to send flowers to the customer's home with a note of apology. Ahhh. It hurts so good!

I have worked in Customer Service and we were trained in ways to diffuse angry, hostile people screaming at you. Gate agents should be thoroughly trained in how to deal and diffuse angry people. Weather delays are a fact of life in airline travel! I have witnessed first hand, gate agents and flight attenndants to a lesser extent, being extremely rude, rolling eyes etc. Airlines should screen people before they hire them. There are psychological tests that can determine if a person can handle stress and working with the public. And, the airlines should train the people they hire! If a person can not handle working with the public, they need to get in another line of work.

Complaints about airlines? Check out www.airlinessuck.com.