Pets Not Allowed on International Move
 

On February 28, 2010 my boyfriend and I were moving to Costa Rica and through due diligence, chose American Airlines as pet friendly, as we were moving with our two dogs. Our due diligence included extensive research and conversation with agents regarding rules and regulations regarding dogs. The most important part, the dogs needed to be less than or equal to 100lbs each, which was established with paperwork from our veterinarian, confirming both dogs were 83.4 and 87.8 pounds respectively. While trying to check in with an agent and Supervisor and after weighing our dogs and including the weight of the crates, we were denied check in and told we had to leave our dogs. I sat crying on the floor while my boyfriend at one point insisted on being weighed as he is a Personal Trainer and knows this at all times. He was 13lbs over his weight on two different scales.
This journey began at 2:30am February 28, 2010 we arrived in Costa Rica at our hotel on March 1, 2010 at 6:00am with our dogs. We flew another airline who did not include the weight of the crates, just the weight of the dog, all documented in my paperwork from the veterinarian. This was the start of our international move.
We wrote the Chairman and CEO and detailed our journey on four pages. They did reply in a timely manner and gave us a voucher. We appreciated the voucher and response; however, the amount did not cover the cost of our original tickets with AA, they did not reimburse our tickets with the other airline and additional cost placed upon us by AA while in dispute with the agent and Supervisor on the day of our check-in (i.e. taxi to freight terminal on the opposite side of the airport).
We are returning to the states and were reviewing flights with AA and discovered our voucher was expired. It expired in May 2011 and we were looking on-line in June 2011. We sent another letter to the Chairman and CEO requesting their consideration of our misunderstanding of the expiration as we thought it had no end date. We were denied this as it was their policy not to redeem. We once again submitted a complaint via AA and again were denied a new voucher; however, they do want us to remain AA customers.
Customer Service is about making exceptions to satisfy your customers. We would be happy to remain AA customers as long as we receive what we feel would be the appropriate redemption of a voucher to cover our flight, yes, with our dogs.

Two years down the road, I doubt you will get anything out of this. Not even small claims court.

I wish you good luck though.

Having been in customer service for over 25 years myself I remain steadfast in the hopes they will see their response is less than acceptable. They said in their reply, The voucher was intended to convey goodwill and to make amends in some way for the inadequate service you reported. This has not changed and their goodwill would be to resubmit the voucher if they wish to have us continue as American Airlines customers.