[Miné]

I just found this note in my passport folder, since I am leaving next week to oversea. I was going to file a complain, but was too busy and forgot.

Here it goes. . .

On Feb. 14 2011, we flew from Bueno Aires to Dallas on Flight # 996. We sat on a business class, during the breakfast service, I asked for a bottle of water, the stewardess told me "NO", she then gave me a glass of water instead. But when I looked around, I saw three passengers all have a bottle of water, so I asked my husband to ask for a bottle of water for me from a male flight attendant, he said "YES". But when this lady found out he was going to give me a bottle of water, she stopped him and told him "NO". Eventually, I did not get a small bottle of water.

I really don't understand why AA can give business passengers unlimited wine to drink, but not a small bottle of water? According to that stewardess, each passenger is only allowed one bottle of water, since she already gave me one when I just boarded the plane, that's why I was not allowed to have another small bottle of water.

I need an explanation for this???

[The_Judge]

Limited quantities?

[jimworcs]

Its irritating, but not sure getting two bottles of water, when you wanted more warrants a full blown expose

[Ombudsman]

What was wrong with having a glass of water? They pour it from a large bottle in the galley. Were you concerned that they would use the tap in the lav?

[AADFW]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

Its irritating, but not sure getting two bottles of water, when you wanted more warrants a full blown expose

A business class ticket from Buenos Aires to DFW can cost as much as $4,496 one way.

This post isn't really about the second bottle of water. It's about poor customer service. It's about a stingy system set up by a bunch of penny-pinching accountant managers that results in premium passengers getting less than they deserve, or would they might on other carriers. It's about AA's inability to control or compromise with their overly-power labor unions to the extent that that they can enact a system that rewards merit over seniority.

The recent international premium improvements on AA are warmly welcome, but it's really damage control and a matter of catch-up than anything meaningful in terms of metamorphosis. American Airlines is now the ONLY airline based in the United States that isn't able to achieve even modest profitability for a reason. Arpey spent years making a thousand petty cuts in all the wrong places while others were innovating and creating quality ancillary offerings, aggressively using M&A to their advantage, and dropping unprofitable routes. If AMR wants AA to become a market leader, it has to first seek out new leadership.

[jimworcs]

I don't disagree that this was no just about the bottle of water, but about a poor product and service. However, my point was simply that it was in the grand scheme of things a pretty low grade complaint. There are people on here who have been royally shafted, lied to, stranded, lost bags for months on end and treated like dirt. Two bottles of water and a glass wasn't such a big deal.

The Business Class product of US based airlines has lagged behind international standards for a decade and I don't think there is a single carrier in the US that honestly provides a better business class product than most of the top tier international carriers. Even European Carriers who have joined the US carriers in the race to the bottom havn't sunk nearly as low as their US based competitors. Of course, this is because US carriers are protected. The US government requires their employees to travel on US based carriers, the cabotage rules are anti competitive and the regional monopolies that have been allowed to develop significantly reduce choice. Add to that the market distortions created by frequent flyer incentive schemes and you get one of the least competitive, poor functioning markets in the world. US consumers have ended up with high fares, low quality services and airlines that are less profitable than most other markets in the world. It is astonishing that nothing has been done to reform this mess. Meanwhile, managers bleed vast sums of money from the cash flow rich companies in the form of bonuses and incentives and then file bankruptcy when it all goes **** up. The US government rewards this behaviour by allowing ever greater consolidation and so the circle continues.

[AADFW]

Well put Jim. I couldn't have written it better myself, other than to add that management lacking in sound judgement further compounds the lack of effective public policy in this sector.

[Gromit801]

Sounds like they were running low of bottled water, and refrained from handing out full bottles to anyone else.

Life is too short to worry about such nonsense.

[AADFW]

Originally Posted by Gromit801

Sounds like they were running low of bottled water, and refrained from handing out full bottles to anyone else.

Gromit, see my previous comments. AA has a policy of "one bottled water per passenger" in business class because some bean counter in Fort Worth figured out it would save them a few dollars on fuel costs despite the fact that many passengers pay thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket. It's but one small example of how not to treat the premium customers the airline seems so very eager to attract lately.

[screennamie]

Originally Posted by AADFW

Gromit, see my previous comments. AA has a policy of "one bottled water per passenger" in business class because some bean counter in Fort Worth figured out it would save them a few dollars on fuel costs despite the fact that many passengers pay thousands of dollars for a one-way ticket. It's but one small example of how not to treat the premium customers the airline seems so very eager to attract lately.

And unfortunately those premium customers expect an extra bottle of water more than any other passenger would get. Which is why 1 was not enough and they needed two. The sense of entitlement because they paid 4,000$ plus for a ticket or used miles to fly is rediculous. The policy is what it is. If you want an extra bottle buy it at conscessions before boarding. When will people let things go.

[AADFW]

@ screennamie - I have been one of the passengers who's paid thousands of dollars for a single airline ticket, and let me tell you, until very recently AA had a very sad history of taking care of it's premium customers relative to it's global competitors. It's not about getting one more than the other guy; it's about getting what we paid for. On one occasion several years ago flying AA LAX-NRT I was told by a flight attendant that I'd need to settle for a $1 bag of potato chips because the fully packed business class cabin was stocked with only a small handful of the cold soba noodle snacks promised on the menu. That's penny pinching at it's worst, and so many of similar past policies for the premium cabin have been embarrassingly flawed. Only in recent months has AA shown glimmers of hope in the area of premium services. They still have miles to go - especially in terms of overhauling the culture of adversarial customer service, perhaps most notably out of the carrier's MIA hub.

[cfc322]

Aside from the rude AA ticket agent at the Atlanta airport, I was astonished when AA wouldn't refund my $65 taxi fare to my car. My flight from DFW to ATL encountered cabin decompression and had to make an emergency landing in Little Rock. We landed about 9p and was told we had to wait until midnight for another aircraft to pick us up. After 3 hrs of waiting, we boarded and landed in ATL around 3am. The commuter train wasn't running, so I had to get a $65 taxi ride to my car. I wrote to AA's customer service and they refused to refund my money. I can understand if it the delay was weather, or ATC related. However, this was a mechanical problem. I've refused to fly AA since then.