[msbtw]

This March my wife and I booked a round trip ticket from Seattle to Chattanooga to visit my mother who was gravely ill. She died a few days into the trip causing us to delay our departure so we could attend her funeral. Working through AARP we thought that our change of departure fees were somewhat fair. However, AA charged us over $570 a piece plus the price of our original ticket to change our departure date. This was almost double the rate of the original roundtrip fare. The tickets ended up costing $930 each. On the new intinerary, they refused to assign our seats until we got to Chicago to change planes, and even wanted to charge us $990 a piece to upgrade to first class. The final insult was a seat in row 31, right next to the engine. Every person we talked to in Chicago was stone faced and rude. It was nearly impossible to talk directly to someone on the phone, and the person I did talk to was nearly impossible to understand, and our e-mails, faxes, and phone calls have been ignored so far. I'll never fly AA again, and I encourage everyone to boycott them.

[Corbel]

i dont think they "refused" to assign you seats. i think what happend was that there were no seats left available (except for certain seats that they hold until the day of departure), when i flew AA for work, i couldn't get a seat until i arrived at check in. they weren't insulting you with row 31, it was probably the only seats left open, since most people want to sit up towards the front.

[txchampaign]

Never go through AARP. Been there done that...they are the worst about almost everything!

[msbtw]

They should have assigned seating when we told them that we had to change our flight. This was four days before departure. Also, the jerk in Chicago could have been at least civil to me in my time of distress. Doesn't American Airlines even believe in customer service? In contrast, the people at Hampton Inn where we stayed lowered our room rate and found us the quietest room in the hotel when we informed them that my mom had passed away. American Airlines treated both me and my wife like we were trying to pull something on them, like it was our fault that we were in the situation we were in. American should establish a compassion fare customer service line that deals especially with people in these situations and work with them to get the best fare possible, not charge the highest fare possible, plus a change fee. This, in the long run would create more business for the airline, and more satisfied customers. The man at the desk in Chicago should be fired or at least given a position where his stony-faced smirk is not revealed to the general public.

[jimworcs]

They have no humanity. People's distress is nothing more than an opportunity for them to make money... the airlines are soul-less and hostile and I would be ashamed to work for them..

[txchampaign]

I agree. I wonder if they read any of these posts?