[proteus]

Both my wife and I have elite status with American Airlines and we are very unhappy with the way we were treated by the AA representative (Ms. Germaine O'Donnell - American Airlines Advantage phone line). Not only she was patronizing but she was everything else but helpful. After reviewing the American Eagle flight on-time performance and our recent experience flying to and from Hawaii (also on American Airlines), we asked to be moved from 11:50AM to 9:50AM to have more time to catch our flight from Dallas to Frankfurt. Early flight adds two hours to our trip and we are willing to do that although we are traveling with our 19-months old daughter. Ms. O'Donnell told me that since I want to change the outbound flight (flight from Shreveport, LA to Dallas with other flights remaining the same), she would have to cancel my reservation and issue me a new ticket at $4000+. WOW! What a change! Our original ticket cost just over $800. She said that there is no way to change it - well, the other representative did offer us a $150 fee for changing the initial flight from SHV to DFW and also advised us that we can utilize a no cost stand-by option at the airport on the day of departure. This is what I call customer service... something Ms. O'Donnell really needs to learn about.

Okay, I think that there is more to this. I believe that since passengers who are just initiating their travel are not entitled to any compensation, airlines use such feeder flights to make room on their overbooked/oversold flight from major hubs. So, if the flight or flights from point A to B is oversold, they simply cancel or delay a couple of connecting lights with passengers to board flight from point A to B. I may have discovered something that is widely known but anyway. Moreover, I believe that they also cancel flights to combine passengers of two connecting flights on one flight (why send a flight from Dallas to Shreveport at 7:30AM and 10:00AM, if there is only one airplane worth of passengers waiting for the 11:00AM flight from Shreveport to Dallas). Economically, this makes sense. However, ethically, this is not right and I hope that this is not the case.

I takes a lot for me to write a complaint but this time I do it without any hesitation. This customer representative simply drives customers to AA's competitors.

Kind regards,

:-(

[PHXFlyer]

If you make changes your ticket prior to traveling the new itinerary is re-priced at the going rate. You probably purchased these tickets while there were cheap seats available and now that is no longer the case. The first representative you spoke with should have explained this to you AND given you the options that the second did. Most airlines will allow you to make same day changes to an earlier flight for a fee which is usually a lot less than changing the ticket in advance. You only run the risk that there are no seats available on the earlier flight.

[Silent Bob]

I don't believe cancelling or delaying a flight, on purpose, just to meet demand on an overbook flight at a hub helps the airline at all. I would think in the long run it would hurt because a) you still have to meet the obligation of getting passengers from point a to point b, which may mean putting them on another airline (And it is my understanding that when airlines do that, they are charged the full fare) b) having those with connection miss them entirely which again causes my problems than their worth and c) the airlines would have to overbook more flights to handle the demand of customers on a canceled flight. And if they don't get on, it means the Airlines have to pay up.

I'm just simply speaking; I don't believe the airlines would in fact intentionally cancel a flight to deal with such a mess in the long run. However you did the right thing by calling back and speaking with a second agent. As you can just because you get one bad apple doesn't mean they all are, as I've learned through my own travel experiences.

[proteus]

Thank you for your reply PHXFlyer and Silent Bob. I agree with both of you and I sincerely hope that consolidating of passengers to one airplane is not taking place... it feels like it, though. Being a computer scientist, I can see how this could work out with a simple simulation.

Overall, we used to fly Northwest Airlink from Shreveport to Memphis and we could not be happier with on-time performance. However, we found AA flight attendants, in general, more personal (some look at the passengers in the economy class like we are "cattle" fed by $10 sandwiches - do not get me going on that... flying from Dallas to Honolulu, there was no food included!); also, I hate flying business class because they go to another extreme and they could not suck up to you more than they do there).