[afesposit]

Just sent this to American Airlines.

I just had a terribly disappointing experience with American Airlines flying round trip from LAX to Punta Cana. Three of the four flights were delayed and two of the three problems were because of American's personnel issues.
Flight 2415 on 4/1 was delayed due to a lack of pilot for the aircraft. We sat on the plane for about an hour at the gate and were told "10 more minutes" at least three times.
Flight 1830 scheduled for 4/6 was much worse because we never even left the airport. After being told the flight was delayed for 3.5 hours we were loaded onto the plane and then the pilot came over the loudspeaker saying that for "legal reasons" that we couldn't leave. Turns out that the crew was over it's flight hours. Why wasn’t this known before the group was scheduled to fly this plane?
We then exited the plane and stood in a parking lot for an hour while four bus drivers were rounded up to take us to another resort for the night. Of course we stood in line for a long time to check in as 200+ people were in line at hotel check in. The next morning we were then told we needed to be up for a 5:30am shuttle to go back to the airport and start the trip again. Finally we left Punta Cana at 8:15am in the morning.
Flight 2298 on 4/6 from Miami to LAX was also delayed. This one was only for about 40 minutes or so. At this point I had lost all patience for this airline.
Finally I got home 32 hours later. This was a joke.
Not only were flights delayed and a loss of time, but I also had extra monetary expenses.
1) Dog boarding. Cost me an extra $20 for the day lost.
2) Work time. Had to take an extra day off of work.
3) Airport parking at LAX. This was another $30
4) A wheel on my luggage was broken. (I know this is not covered by airlines, but it just summed up the entire experience.)
I hope American Airlines will deal with this incident correctly and do what's right for the customer.

[jimworcs]

If they respond to this catelogue of management incompetence, please post it so we know what happened.

[countrynewsman]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

If they respond to this catelogue of management incompetence, please post it so we know what happened.

Oh, I'm sure they'll respond with something like, "Gee, we're sorry. You are very important to us. Enclosed is a ten dollar travel certificate."

Pretty much typical.

[afesposit]

April 9, 2009 Dear Mr. ###:
Thank you for contacting American Airlines Customer Relations. I am pleased to respond to your concerns.

Please accept my apology for the difficulties you encountered when you traveled with us. From your description of what happened it certainly sounds as if the entire experience was frustrating. I am truly sorry we didn't provide the level of service you expect and deserve.

We wish we had it in our power to guarantee that planes would always arrive on time and that delays and cancellations just wouldn't happen. Unhappily, we don't -- but what we can and should do is make every attempt to minimize the inconvenience for our customers whenever we do encounter operational problems. I am sorry that we didn't do a better job of making the situation a little less trying.

The fact remains that our schedules are not guaranteed and are subject to change without notice. We have the authority and the responsibility to make changes to our schedules to resolve problems caused by weather, flight conditions, mechanical difficulties or other operational challenges. Accordingly, we cannot assume financial responsibility for our customers' personal time lost or for out-of-pocket expenses when extenuating circumstances prevent us from operating as planned. I am sorry.

However, because we'd like to encourage you to fly with us again soon, I've credited 15,000 bonus miles to your AAdvantage® account. You can see this activity via aa.com/aadvantage (you must log in with your account number).
Mr. ###, I hope you are persuaded to think a little more favorably of us. We value you as a customer and are eager to restore your confidence. Please give us another opportunity to serve you -- we know your time is valuable and we'll do our very best to get you to your destination as planned.

Sincerely,
Jane A. Knight
Customer Relations
American Airlines

[countrynewsman]

Again...pretty much of a typical response.

[jimworcs]

We have the authority and the responsibility to make changes to our schedules to resolve problems caused by weather, flight conditions, mechanical difficulties or other operational challenges.

Dear Mr *****,
We are so sorry to hear of your travelling experience with AA. As an airline, we are obviously not in a position to guarantee to fly you to where you want to go, when you want to go there. Whilst we understand your frustration at arriving at the airport only to find that we don't have a pilot available to fly the aeroplane, it does state clearly that passengers are expected to arrange their own back up pilots in the event that AA are not able to provide one. As you failed to show up at the airport 24 hours before your flight (as recommended in Clause 600.900 Section A, para 4,000, clause 47 of our website) and failed to arrive with a fully qualified pilot, AA cannot be expected to compensate you for your failure to comply with our terms and conditions. The reason that you were told it would be another 10 minutes was because AA was waiting for another a passenger to comply with the "bring your own pilot" clause, but inexplicably on this day, NO passenger complied. This is most unusual and we are sorry if this impaired your flying experience with AA.

We are very sorry that you were left in a parking lot for an hour and then made to wait hours to check into another hotel. Clearly this was unsatisfactory to you, and AA would like to express our regret at your discomfort. However, most of our passengers have told us in survey's that they prefer to wait in parking lots rather than in other settings when delay's occur.

When things which are beyond our control, such as not having any staff to fly our airplanes, not having enough airplanes for the numbers of passengers we have sold tickets to and taking money from passengers for seats which don't exist, AA does it's best to help our passengers. In this case, we were able to arrange a hotel room for you. I am sorry that you had to wait in line for 7 hours and then leave 3 minutes after you got in the room to take the shuttle back to the airport. Sometimes events are beyond our control.. however I do hope the 3 minutes rest went some way to offer some comfort in what was a difficult journey for you.

Mr ***, your business is valuable to us. We would very much like the opportunity to keep you in an airport for hours on end, leave you stranded in a car park, make you stand in line in an annonymous hotel, lose your bags and hold you hostage on a plane with no pilot again. Please accept 50 miles aadvantage miles, which we have credited to you account with our sincere apologies. We hope you will give us another chance to not fly you to your destination.

Yours sincerely,


Yurra Fule
Director of Passengers Non-Flying Experiences

[The_Judge]

Jim, Jim, Jim.......you are so far off base here. If you're gonna quote articles and paragraphs, get it right.......it was para. 4001 not 4000. Shhhheeeeeeeez.

[countrynewsman]

Actually, Judge...Jim is correct. Para. 4001 specifically determines the applicable surcharge for having your bags arrive at your destination the same week as you.