Rant - Boycotting American Airlines
So I'm telling everyone I know and even people I don't know, really anyone who's gives a rat's @$$. We are officially boycotting American Airlines for life! This post is to invite everyone to feel free to join our boycott if they want. All the fun details of why they suck are below. Short story - American Airlines cost us $1,000 and a full day of our honeymoon for being 55 minutes early then turned around and were 3 hours late, and they offered no sympathy or compensation for any of it.
The issues: We went to Tobago for our honeymoon last month via Miami, FL. We flew Delta to Miami the evening after the wedding and got a hotel room for the night. By the way Delta has several inches more leg room than American Airlines. Delta also gives away your choice of cookies, pretzels, or peanuts when American airlines charges $3 for each snack. The plan was to fly to Trinidad in the morning and catch a connecting flight to Tobago. The flight to Trinidad was on American Airlines and was to leave at 9:55 am. We caught the shuttle from our hotel (across the street from the airport) at 8:30. The stupid shuttle driver thought it was more important to drop people off at the car rental (where the cars will still be there waiting for you) on the other side of the airport than to drop people off at the airport (where a flight will leave without you if you don't get there on time). We get to the airport, get our bags off the shuttle and find the check in kiosks. We hear the first person calling for someone from AA to help check them in because the kiosk is not working properly. They are moved to another machine. We heard at least one or two others with the same problem. We finally get to a kiosk and start checking in. We have problems getting the passports to scan. We end up typing in all the info off our passports in manually which takes several minutes. We finally get everything checked in and the machine tells us to see a representative. We were checked in at 9:00 which is less than 60 minutes before the flight is scheduled to leave so they will not let us on the flight. We are directed to a manager who may be able to help. She states that it's not her area and to see a different manager "down there" as she points way down the counters somewhere. She gives us no other help. Go to find the other manager who tells us "1 second late is late and there is nothing he can do". We are told to get back in line to check onto a new flight. We go to the line and find someone to help. The next flight doesn't leave until the afternoon and will get to Trinidad too late to catch ANY connecting flights that day. She books us on another flight for the evening, then tells us it will be $180 each to transfer tickets and $240 each because these tickets are now more expensive. That's a total of $840, we paid less than $700 for the original tickets (roundtrip including the connecting flights to Tobago). On top of that we would now have to spend the night on Trinidad so we need a hotel, over $200 more plus $26 for the taxi ride to get there at 2am. The new flight was suppose to leave at 6:45 pm. We loaded on time then unloaded an hour later because the pilots were still circling around above the airport and couldn't land due to a little rain. We ended up sitting in the airport from before 9am until 10pm when we finally left. By the time we got in and got through customs it was almost 2 am, we had no phone, no transportation, no local money, the entire airport is shut down, and we need to find a way to our hotel in a foreign country that neither of us have ever been in before. Put on top of that, that the only time I have ever left the country is when I deployed to the middle east, which kinda makes me paranoid. Something to do with a lot of anti-terrorist training (which is designed to make you paranoid), and all my foreign experience is of a country filled with land mines where you never know when someone is going to try to kill you. Oh, and for those interested - I swear it's true, having people trying to kill you is actually less aggravating than dealing with large corporations.
Side note: While sitting at the Miami airport for 13 hours we ended up talking to a lady from Trinidad who, several years ago, also used American Airlines to fly on their honeymoon. I don't remember all the details, but it ended with them getting the run around, then the airline personnel working the gate ripping up the boarding pass and refusing to let the couple on.
Amusing anecdotes: While sitting at the Miami airport we actually saw a sign congratulating American Airlines on their great customer service. WORST JOKE EVER! Also did you know that airlines no longer accept cash to pay for anything on the plane? Credit cards only. It's not like their going to get robbed, the robber would have literally no where to go and no weapon to use.
Stupid people: Airlines all still give out free soda. I usually drink ginger ale on every flight I take. We were on the American Airlines flight from Trinidad back to Miami when the flight attendants came by with the drink cart. I asked for a ginger ale, like usual. The flight attendant said she didn't think they had any left and starts searching the shelves, but can't find one. I look straight at the top shelf and tell here that I see a Canada Dry right there. She tells me that Canada Dry is a name brand, like asking for a Chevrolet (not coke or Pepsi, but a Chevrolet). She asks the other flight attendant for a ginger ale and is handed, what else, but a Canada Dry. When they come by again later with the drink cart I spy another Canada Dry sitting right on the shelf so I ask for another ginger ale. Same flight attendant says she thinks they're out, then she notices the other 1/2 can on ginger ale sitting on the top of the cart right in front of her. She's definitely not the sharpest bulb in the fleet.
Aftermath: So I try looking up the customer service phone number for American Airlines on their webpage. No number listed. I google it and get a phone number. A person finally answers after pushing 0 in several menus. I'm told that they don't take customer service calls over the phone, I have to go online and e-mail them from their website. I e-mail them on May 28th requesting the $840 back since they were late and I was early. I got a canned response back saying they are processing my e-mail and will get back to me. ALL their e-mails are from a generic address that doesn't accept replies. This Tuesday I still have no response so I go back to their webpage and e-mail them again stating I want a response, same canned response. Finally today I get a response back stating sorry (this is the first person out of everyone we dealt with from this company to use the word sorry or any synonym of it), but they have rules which they can not deviate from and they have no control over the weather. Basically what I have gathered from this whole ordeal is that American Airlines is out for a quick buck, even if it costs them in the long run, and care nothing for any of their customers.
The worst part about all of this is that I use to like to fly, it made me feel free. Now with all the regulation on the airlines I hate even stepping foot in an airport.
The issues: We went to Tobago for our honeymoon last month via Miami, FL. We flew Delta to Miami the evening after the wedding and got a hotel room for the night. By the way Delta has several inches more leg room than American Airlines. Delta also gives away your choice of cookies, pretzels, or peanuts when American airlines charges $3 for each snack. The plan was to fly to Trinidad in the morning and catch a connecting flight to Tobago. The flight to Trinidad was on American Airlines and was to leave at 9:55 am. We caught the shuttle from our hotel (across the street from the airport) at 8:30. The stupid shuttle driver thought it was more important to drop people off at the car rental (where the cars will still be there waiting for you) on the other side of the airport than to drop people off at the airport (where a flight will leave without you if you don't get there on time). We get to the airport, get our bags off the shuttle and find the check in kiosks. We hear the first person calling for someone from AA to help check them in because the kiosk is not working properly. They are moved to another machine. We heard at least one or two others with the same problem. We finally get to a kiosk and start checking in. We have problems getting the passports to scan. We end up typing in all the info off our passports in manually which takes several minutes. We finally get everything checked in and the machine tells us to see a representative. We were checked in at 9:00 which is less than 60 minutes before the flight is scheduled to leave so they will not let us on the flight. We are directed to a manager who may be able to help. She states that it's not her area and to see a different manager "down there" as she points way down the counters somewhere. She gives us no other help. Go to find the other manager who tells us "1 second late is late and there is nothing he can do". We are told to get back in line to check onto a new flight. We go to the line and find someone to help. The next flight doesn't leave until the afternoon and will get to Trinidad too late to catch ANY connecting flights that day. She books us on another flight for the evening, then tells us it will be $180 each to transfer tickets and $240 each because these tickets are now more expensive. That's a total of $840, we paid less than $700 for the original tickets (roundtrip including the connecting flights to Tobago). On top of that we would now have to spend the night on Trinidad so we need a hotel, over $200 more plus $26 for the taxi ride to get there at 2am. The new flight was suppose to leave at 6:45 pm. We loaded on time then unloaded an hour later because the pilots were still circling around above the airport and couldn't land due to a little rain. We ended up sitting in the airport from before 9am until 10pm when we finally left. By the time we got in and got through customs it was almost 2 am, we had no phone, no transportation, no local money, the entire airport is shut down, and we need to find a way to our hotel in a foreign country that neither of us have ever been in before. Put on top of that, that the only time I have ever left the country is when I deployed to the middle east, which kinda makes me paranoid. Something to do with a lot of anti-terrorist training (which is designed to make you paranoid), and all my foreign experience is of a country filled with land mines where you never know when someone is going to try to kill you. Oh, and for those interested - I swear it's true, having people trying to kill you is actually less aggravating than dealing with large corporations.
Side note: While sitting at the Miami airport for 13 hours we ended up talking to a lady from Trinidad who, several years ago, also used American Airlines to fly on their honeymoon. I don't remember all the details, but it ended with them getting the run around, then the airline personnel working the gate ripping up the boarding pass and refusing to let the couple on.
Amusing anecdotes: While sitting at the Miami airport we actually saw a sign congratulating American Airlines on their great customer service. WORST JOKE EVER! Also did you know that airlines no longer accept cash to pay for anything on the plane? Credit cards only. It's not like their going to get robbed, the robber would have literally no where to go and no weapon to use.
Stupid people: Airlines all still give out free soda. I usually drink ginger ale on every flight I take. We were on the American Airlines flight from Trinidad back to Miami when the flight attendants came by with the drink cart. I asked for a ginger ale, like usual. The flight attendant said she didn't think they had any left and starts searching the shelves, but can't find one. I look straight at the top shelf and tell here that I see a Canada Dry right there. She tells me that Canada Dry is a name brand, like asking for a Chevrolet (not coke or Pepsi, but a Chevrolet). She asks the other flight attendant for a ginger ale and is handed, what else, but a Canada Dry. When they come by again later with the drink cart I spy another Canada Dry sitting right on the shelf so I ask for another ginger ale. Same flight attendant says she thinks they're out, then she notices the other 1/2 can on ginger ale sitting on the top of the cart right in front of her. She's definitely not the sharpest bulb in the fleet.
Aftermath: So I try looking up the customer service phone number for American Airlines on their webpage. No number listed. I google it and get a phone number. A person finally answers after pushing 0 in several menus. I'm told that they don't take customer service calls over the phone, I have to go online and e-mail them from their website. I e-mail them on May 28th requesting the $840 back since they were late and I was early. I got a canned response back saying they are processing my e-mail and will get back to me. ALL their e-mails are from a generic address that doesn't accept replies. This Tuesday I still have no response so I go back to their webpage and e-mail them again stating I want a response, same canned response. Finally today I get a response back stating sorry (this is the first person out of everyone we dealt with from this company to use the word sorry or any synonym of it), but they have rules which they can not deviate from and they have no control over the weather. Basically what I have gathered from this whole ordeal is that American Airlines is out for a quick buck, even if it costs them in the long run, and care nothing for any of their customers.
The worst part about all of this is that I use to like to fly, it made me feel free. Now with all the regulation on the airlines I hate even stepping foot in an airport.