Gold Medal in Atrocious Customer Service
 

How does this airlines manage to survive given its horrid customer service? My last booking this past weekend was the worst I have experienced, hands down, from any vendor in any industry (ever).

They not only screwed up the dates on an initial reservation (held until we could confirm a non-rundable timeshare in Kauai) we had from San Jose through LAX to Kauai, but when we tried to fix it, they wouldn't give us the four free tickets they initially told us we qualified for based on our AAdvatage points. We were told that the offer never existed and one of the managers we spoke with even intimated that we lied about the original reservation and the free tickets. If I spoke this way to a customer, I'd be rightfully fired!

The initial reservation agent said we qualified for four round trip tickets with a value of 45,000 AAdvantage points per ticket, which we had enough to cover. This later became 90,000 points per ticket RT. We were told we should be happy with the deal they were giving us, which was two free tickets costing us 90,000 award points each and two paid tickets at the purchase price of $750 each. I didn't take the offer initially because I had to think about whether I suddenly wanted to spend $1500 I hadn't budgeted.

When we called back 90 minutes later and spoke to a second manager, he said he couldn't make the deal the first manager gave us, which is absolute nonsense. He also let me know I should have "taken the deal." Hmmm... since when is having to unexpectedly fork out $1500 a deal? After I explained to him that we had booked a non-refundable timeshare based on incorrect information from American and pressed him for several minutes, he gave us the "deal." To his credit, he did save us another couple of hundred dollars that we would have had to spend to transfer miles from my Aadvantage account to my husband's. Even though I appreciated his creativity and friendliness at the start, he began speaking condescendingly to me partway through the conversation. The arrogance was astounding.

We spent between 3+ hours on the phone or on hold, spoke to two booking agents, one heartless supervisor and two managers, one of whom was a jerk and the other who was nice initially but became a jerk later on.

After this trip is done, I will never fly this airlines again. They don't deserve customers. The only thing I can imagine being worse than flying on American is having to work there. This attitude flows from the top.

I am shocked, shocked that American Airlines would expect you to pay for you tickets.

re: Gold Medal in Atrocious Customer Service
 

I'm not sure why the first reservation agent with whom we booked our tickets told us we qualified for round trip tickets at 45K each. The route we wanted is a popular one and in we were booking in the high season. Perhaps she was improperly trained, a point which I made to the managers I spoke with.

That said, most commercial organizations would honor an initial commitment or quote as a matter of customer service and loyalty. This does not seem to be the thinking in the airline industry. Perhaps they feel they have a captive market and there's a mindset that no one has to offer a better alternative, especially given the tighter profit margins that I understand exist among airlines. A colleague of mine had a similar experience with United and essentially had to pay twice for tickets. I think change will come only if people get fed up to the point where there's a mass exodus away from flying and toward alternatives.

Captain Renault...Casablanca, really??
 

Captain Renault,

I see you like Casablanca, as all your responses start with "I am shocked," per the movie dialogue below. WHo are you anyway and why do you waste people's time with phony troll responses?

Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: [sotto voce] Oh, thank you very much.
[aloud]
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!

I am shocked that some people always seem to miss the point here. The point being not that the poster had to pay for tickets, but was given incorrect information in the first place, which is all too common in the airline industry.

I am shocked, shocked that anyone would respond to my useless, unhelpful, and redundant comments.

I'm shocked anyone flies with AA at all. I won't. Worst airline service in the world.

There are a limited number of award seats available. You can't "hold" them - you can keep an itinerary saved. If someone else books those seats while you dilly dally, you'll have to pay the full AAnytime fare in miles, which is usually quite a bit higher.

Airfares change all the time. Why are you shocked that it changed while you waited days?