[unhappy camper]

My family wanted to make reservations to Roswell, NM. They were told that because my grandmother is wheelchair bound, the plane into Roswell could not accommodate her needs and help her off the plane. They had to accept reservations to Alberque, NM instead and were going to rent a car to drive to Roswell. My cousin in Roswell says that due to federal regulations, they cannot do that and that they have to accommodate her needs and help her off the plane. My mother called AA BACK and was told that they would take care of it, not charge her a fee and could fix the problem immediately.

We got on the Internet today to print the itinerary and the reciept and low and behold, not only did they charge, they charged an extra $288 PER PERSON!!!!!! We called and tried, (in vain), to explain this to a customer service representative who sounds like she needs an anger management course. Since the person who originally made the reservations was not aware of, or was just completely ignoring the fact that federal regulations require that they help the disabled disembark from a plane, did not tell us of this fact and just simply said it could not be done and made the reservations to a completely different city and told them to rent a car, we felt they should honor the ticket price quoted for the day we made the reservations. She says this is impossible and would not even give us any contact info for the complaint department. All we have is a physical mailing address. Can anyone give me anyone's e-mail address or phone number who we can take this to? Or a complaint department for the FAA?

TIA!

[airhead]

Their is no "complaint department" unfortunately. Their is a consumer affairs department that will go through your information and investigate the incident if you write them or fax them accordingly. It seems when you accepted the reservation to Albuquerque, you agreed to the contract and a change to another city would include change fees.

Another option would be to contact the Department of Transportation. http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/problems.htm
The FAA handles safety issues concerning aircraft and air carriers. Good luck to you.