[stlouisff]

I used some Advantage Miles to send my soon to be 11 year old daughter off to hang out with her favorite aunt in NC in August. Because we had to do it w/in 3 weeks I ended up paying the extra fee as well as the $100 each way fee for her to fly unaccompanied. More than the other airlines but so be it.

Her return flight was to get in to St Louis at 915pm so I called American to ask how much time to give myself in order to pick up a boarding pass to meet her at the gate. I was told 45 minutes so I made it an hour instead to give myself leeway. When I arrived at Lambert I found every one of the American counters closed and vacated so I proceeded to security where, after no help from a lazy agent, a TSA supervisor directed me to the baggage claim office. A couple trying to locate lost luggage was kind enough to allow me to interrupt- this being my daughter after all- and speak to the AA employee. This gentleman was familiar with the problem and said that AA always screws up and fails to tell people they need to get to the airport before the counters close at 8pm. He told me that I would need to wait at the construction exit that was some distance from the gate.
I was not happy with this since she was expecting me to meet her at the gate so I headed back to security to see if TSA could either allow me through or confirm that they would get word to my daughter as to where I would be meeting her.
(Oh, and there was another man there to pick up a non English speaking foreign exchange student having the same problems)
The TSA supervisor told me she couldn't help and that they would eventually figure out where to meet me, perhaps even hang out in the waiting area for a bit. Needless to say, I was not satisfied and have filed a complaint with the TSA as well.
I emailed Customer Service who did issue me a $100 voucher but did not address the issue and told me that I needed to take up the refund that I had asked for with the Customer Refund department.
Of course, the Customer Refund Dept has no toll free number, no email address and when you call and are to finally be connected with a human you get disconnected.
So, I'm complaining here and on their Facebook page where the told me to start again with an email to Customer Service which is where I started the merry go round in the first place.

[jimworcs]

This is a child welfare issue and potentially dangerous.... you should focus your ire on the exposure of your child to risk, rather than the financial issues. You can sort out your compensation later. The child was in the care of AA and if they left the child to wander unaccompanied, they failed in their duty of care. I would strongly urge you to address this as a child protection issue

[stlouisff]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

This is a child welfare issue and potentially dangerous.... you should focus your ire on the exposure of your child to risk, rather than the financial issues. You can sort out your compensation later. The child was in the care of AA and if they left the child to wander unaccompanied, they failed in their duty of care. I would strongly urge you to address this as a child protection issue

I can't say that they left my child to wander and assume they did not. But they did put me in a situation where I could not meet my obligation to meet her at the gate and there was no one to confirm that they would inform her and the AA guardian/custodian where I would be located.
Also, my ire isn't focused on the financial issue. I received a voucher- that I don't believe was enough to compensate but whatever- but I received no assurance that the issue would be taken care of, that is that they would inform parents/guardians in the future of the proper necessary arrival time or keep someone on duty until there are no more flights incoming.

[jimworcs]

If the AA custodian accompanied the child until they were reunited with you, then I think they met their obligation and a refund of the fee charged would be appropriate compensation. (Vouchers against future travel are useless and often rendered unusable by ridiculous T&C's).

Whilst I agree that their system and procedures are flawed, the degree of inconvenience is relatively minor if your child was safe and was accompanied at all times until she was reunited with you.

The airlines seem to be uniformly terrible at communicating with customers. The internet could quickly and simply answer most questions, but they simply don't put this resource to the best use.

[Ombudsman]

I agree with jimworcs assesment and wanted to add that your best bet was to remain at the baggage office to await her arrival. The AA employee there had the means of contating the agent at the arrival gate so that you could have been assured of her arrival and that she was being escoted to the baggage office to meet you.

Furthermore your complaint with the TSA is unwarrented as tgeyy were only following procedure. Without a valid boarding or gate pass you will not be allowed beyond the security checkpoint under any circumstances.

It would be a nice gesture on AAs part to refund the fee for tge return flight however she was accompanied by an AA employee until reunited with you and just because that took place in the terminal rather than the gate area was simply a minor inconvenience. I feel the travel voucher is fair compensation for the misinformation you received over the phone. The agent should have double checked the hours for the counter before advising you.

[stlouisff]

Originally Posted by Ombudsman

I agree with jimworcs assesment and wanted to add that your best bet was to remain at the baggage office to await her arrival. The AA employee there had the means of contating the agent at the arrival gate so that you could have been assured of her arrival and that she was being escoted to the baggage office to meet you.

Furthermore your complaint with the TSA is unwarrented as tgeyy were only following procedure. Without a valid boarding or gate pass you will not be allowed beyond the security checkpoint under any circumstances.

It would be a nice gesture on AAs part to refund the fee for tge return flight however she was accompanied by an AA employee until reunited with you and just because that took place in the terminal rather than the gate area was simply a minor inconvenience. I feel the travel voucher is fair compensation for the misinformation you received over the phone. The agent should have double checked the hours for the counter before advising you.

I don't think you know what you are talking about. At all. First of all, the AA employee at the baggage office told me to meet her at the construction exit not the baggage claim office. He could have or should have been able to contact someone to assure me that my daughter and her custodian would know where to go promptly on arrival. I certainly would have waited there if he had done what you hypothesize, ie contact the gate and tell them where to meet me. Your point here is plain wrong.

The initial TSA Agent was in the right when he told me that there was nothing he could do? You are not kidding, are you? I'm well aware that the TSA is there to provide security not hand out free passes to the gate but he certainly could have said something like, "I can't let you through but let me see if me or one of the 12 other TSA agents standing around here doing nothing can find out how to help you. Or maybe I will get my Supervisor."
You point here is plain wrong. Absolutely. I work in public service and if someone asked me something that was out of the scope of my job, I'd be ashamed to shrug them off and say, I dunno.

Lastly, a nice gesture?? Again, you're not kidding, are you? I paid a fee to American Airlines that I believe should have assured that I get accurate information on where and how to pick up my daughter on time. American Airlines is or should be aware that they have an ongoing problem doing so. There were no extenuating circumstances. This was a normal everyday, no problems flight. The transfer of care should have been seamless. It was not. American did not live up to their end of the deal and I believe I should get my fees refunded.

But most importantly, someone at AA needs to contact me and tell that they are rectifying this situation.

[Gromit801]

You paid a fee to AA to have your daughter safely escorted until reunited with you. They fulfilled the obligation. Your daughter was never in any danger, and was escorted by an employee the whole time.

TSA is NEVER going to budge on procedures that are decided in Washington by Homeland Security. Get over that.

AA should not have to pay up to satisfy your anxiety, when everything went according to procedure. No one got hurt, no one was endangered, you just got ticked off because you got a piece of wrong information. Humans are involved, and it happens.

[stlouisff]

So the procedure is to tell customers to show up after the counters have closed?

The procedure is to have the baggage clerk tell customers- once they figure out he's the only American employee that they can find- that American screws this up all the time?

The procedure is to have my daughter get off the plane and wonder why her father didn't show up like he was supposed to?


Some procedure.

[Gromit801]

The employee that was escorting your daughter followed procedure, and delivered her safely into your custody. Everything else seems to be sour grapes for being inconvenienced. Welcome to the real world.