[AirlineComplaints.org]

Originally Posted by Graham NZ

I believe that the reason for their response was not because of my direct complaints to them but because they have read my complaints about them on this and other sites. Maybe they take more notice of these sites. Keep up the good work guys.

That's the idea!

We're glad AA are finally beginning to take notice and that you were at least rewarded for your troubles.

Eventually, we expect the Airlines to respond to our member's Complaints directly here on AirlineComplaints.org, and not via a one-way e-mail.

Remember folks, when Complaining to an airline, let them know you have already posted your Complaint on AirlineComplaints.org and send them the direct link to your public complaint, if possible, so that they can see it for themselves and realize their response to your complaint will be publicly scrutinized.

We're trying to change the face and nature of Airline Complaints to make them more effective for travelers and to hold the Airlines publicly accountable for their mistakes, and it seems we're finally starting to make a difference.

Thank you Graham NZ.

[abutterfinger25]

Not to be a bummer on the party, but I don't think that American Airlines responded to Graham due to his posting on this site. In my dealings with the customer service agents at many of the major airlines, they do not troll these sites looking for complaints from their passengers and then attempt to resolve them. The airlines will also never respond to an individual complaint in any public forum such as this. Even if it will enhance their image.

I have noticed that are many helpful "airline employees" that roam these pages and offer insight, suggestions and tips. However, I would suspect that they do this on their own initiative and without any directive from their supervisors.

In Graham's case, I would suspect that he recieved a response because 1) his complaint reached a customer care agent who actually cares about his/her job (yes, there are some that exist) or 2) he also complaint to the DOT. Carriers will respond back to consumers quicker if they file a complaint with my office.

[AirlineComplaints.org]

Originally Posted by abutterfinger25

Not to be a bummer on the party, but I don't think that American Airlines responded to Graham due to his posting on this site. In my dealings with the customer service agents at many of the major airlines, they do not troll these sites looking for complaints from their passengers and then attempt to resolve them. The airlines will also never respond to an individual complaint in any public forum such as this. Even if it will enhance their image.

I have noticed that are many helpful "airline employees" that roam these pages and offer insight, suggestions and tips. However, I would suspect that they do this on their own initiative and without any directive from their supervisors.

In Graham's case, I would suspect that he recieved a response because 1) his complaint reached a customer care agent who actually cares about his/her job (yes, there are some that exist) or 2) he also complaint to the DOT. Carriers will respond back to consumers quicker if they file a complaint with my office.

Thank you for your opinion, but we respectfully disagree.

Any customer-oriented, for-profit business is going to be concerned with their public image. Good image = more profits. Poor image = more losses.

The concept here is very basic. No airline (or company for that matter) wants a growing public list of unresolved Complaints that will damage their image.

The complaints here aren't made up. They're coming directly from consumers - the airlines actual customers - with real experiences. The airlines can choose to do something about it or ignore their customers. At least this way, all consumers can see each others complaints and learn from each others experiences.

We strongly believe that the airlines take advantage of the private nature of Complaints to - in many cases - do very little about the Complaint, as we've seen several times on this site. We're trying to shed light on that very issue here at AirlineComplaints.org.

Once the cat is out of the bag, so to speak, the Airlines will have to change their ways or face a public backlash. The choice, of course, will be up to them.

This is particularly true of US Airlines. Europe has considerably more pro-consumer laws in the Aviation industry than the US, so they can't get away with many of the things US Airlines get away with.

Have no doubt about it, AirlineComplaints.org is a Pro-Consumer website, but we certainly allow Airline Employees to voice their constructive opinions in order to have a balanced approach.

The Airline might be able to ignore a site with 85,000 visitors and 700 Complaints, but can they afford to ignore a site with over 1,000,000 visitors and 10,000 Complaints? We believe not, and it's just a matter of time.

In the end, we believe that this open line of communication will benefit all Stakeholders - airlines, consumers, and government agencies alike.

Transparency benefits everyone.

[abutterfinger25]

I agree 100% to the concept and ideas behind this, and other similar sites. But the cynic in me does not see the carriers voluntarily co-operating and addressing complaints in a forum driven public enviroment.

Lets just take Graham's complaint as an example: He indicates that American is sending him vouchers for the problem. Lets just say that the vouchers = $200 Now say another traveler, Pete, had the exact same problem and the carrier sends Pete $300 in vouchers. Now American has another complaint because Graham sees that Pete got an extra $100 and wants the same compensation. For this reason alone, carriers will always contract the passenger privately in an attempt to resolve an issue.

As for carriers taking proactive rsponse and responding to complaints posted in this and similar forums, that is just not going to happen. Again, take Graham's complaint. While I have no reason to doubt its content, or any other complaint on this site, there is no way for American to verify it. There is no flight date, flight number, or even the passenger's real name.

Now the carrier could proactivly contact Graham with a personal message through the site, but why would they? Graham already stated that they did not contact him when he contacted them directly so why would they extra steps to contact him through a third party site? Sure you can say "public image" but if you watch the industry closely, you will see that they really don't see how these complaints hurt their overall public image. Especially when "Paul" has the exact same complaint against United and "Stacy" has the same complaint against Delta, ect.

As long as they see their image as better than the competitions, they would rather focus on other things.

As for the response Graham recieved from American, we recieved one complaint this month from a "Graham" against American Airlines. On 7/18, an anlayst encouraged American to respond to the the consumer. Draw your own conclussions.

In my opinion, if you want a response from the carrier and attempted to contact the carrier are falling by the wayside: file a complaint with the DOT here: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/escomplaint/es.cfm

I hope that I am wrong and you are right because then I would not have to spend as much time on general complaint issue and would have more time to spend on regulatory matters.

[Graham NZ]

I thank you both for your efforts on my and other disgruntaled customers behalf. I'm not sure that I have had a win here though as what is being offered may not be worth the paper it is written on. The win I have had at the moment is that at least you have forced them to respond to my complaint which is a start.
However it would be interesting to know what you think of the fact they are not offering to pay for customer's monetery losses but are offering travel vouchers which may or may not be worthless to the people involved. Quite frankly if I was Brenda with a loss of $1500 I would definately not be happy to receive travel vouchers as compensation. That definately does not purchase the goods she lost, and she may not have any need for travel vouchers. Surely this is not helping their customers, or are they that cash strapped that they can,t afford to pay out what is due.

[AirlineComplaints.org]

Originally Posted by abutterfinger25

I agree 100% to the concept and ideas behind this, and other similar sites.

We appreciate your support, honesty, and forthrightness.

But the cynic in me does not see the carriers voluntarily co-operating and addressing complaints in a forum driven public enviroment.

Lets just take Graham's complaint as an example: He indicates that American is sending him vouchers for the problem. Lets just say that the vouchers = $200 Now say another traveler, Pete, had the exact same problem and the carrier sends Pete $300 in vouchers. Now American has another complaint because Graham sees that Pete got an extra $100 and wants the same compensation. For this reason alone, carriers will always contract the passenger privately in an attempt to resolve an issue.

Great example. If all of these forms of compensation are held to public scrutiny, then it will force airlines to standardize their compensation rather than compensate people based on how well they write their letter, who they send it to, who they know at the airline, how frequent they fly with that airline, etc. This is what we mean when we say "transparency benefits everyone". Once an airline standardizes their compensation, their competitors will follow suit and the invisible hand of the free market will ensure that the compensations remain relevant, fair, and proportional across-the-board.

As for carriers taking proactive rsponse and responding to complaints posted in this and similar forums, that is just not going to happen. Again, take Graham's complaint. While I have no reason to doubt its content, or any other complaint on this site, there is no way for American to verify it. There is no flight date, flight number, or even the passenger's real name.

This is why we ask our members to post their flight number and details. Several of our members follow through with this. Regardless, our members know that the airlines aren't yet directly replying to complaints here, so many forgo personally identifying themselves. We are certain this will change once the Airlines join us in an official capacity.

Now the carrier could proactively contact Graham with a personal message through the site, but why would they? Graham already stated that they did not contact him when he contacted them directly so why would they extra steps to contact him through a third party site?

That's exactly it. Airlines can afford to ignore Customers privately - since no one other than the customer ever really finds out - but we don't believe they can afford to ignore a public Complaint since everyone - current and potential customers alike - will be made aware that the airline is ignoring one of its own customers.

Sure you can say "public image" but if you watch the industry closely, you will see that they really don't see how these complaints hurt their overall public image.

That might be true now when only 700 Complaints have been filed here with only 85,000 people seeing them, but we believe that will change considerably once we have over a million visitors and over 10,000 Complaints. At the end of the day, consumers have a choice when choosing who to travel with, and the airlines know this.

Especially when "Paul" has the exact same complaint against United and "Stacy" has the same complaint against Delta, ect.

We can assure you that each airline does not receive the same number of complaints - particularly in each area - and do not handle them the same ways. The lack of transparency so far makes it difficult to really compare with any amount of depth the differences in the complaints. Statistics, for example, might tell us that Southwest receives the least number of complaints per 100,000 passengers, but don't give us any more details about the actual complaints - or their severity and/or lack of compensation - so it's only scratching the surface.

As long as they see their image as better than the competitions, they would rather focus on other things.

Precisely. Once there is full transparency in this industry regarding the number of complaints made to each airline, how the complaints are handled, and how much compensation is offered for each scenario, Airlines will know exactly where they stand amongst their peers and those under-performing will be forced to improve if they wish to remain competitive and survive.

As for the response Graham recieved from American, we recieved one complaint this month from a "Graham" against American Airlines. On 7/18, an anlayst encouraged American to respond to the the consumer. Draw your own conclussions.

This is specifically why we encourage members to also file a complaint with the DOT. Also, complaining to the DOT doesn't always resolve complaints to a customers satisfaction, so if complaining directly to the airlines or even the government agencies responsible for regulating the industry is not enough to get the airlines to act in a fair manner, then the only option left is for the public to be made aware so that they can make more informed decision when selecting their travel in the future. Furthermore, the public pressure - if great enough - can often times force an airline to act responsibly, something we've seen throughout corporate history many times.

In my opinion, if you want a response from the carrier and attempted to contact the carrier are falling by the wayside: file a complaint with the DOT here: http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/escomplaint/es.cfm

Again, we agree - and encourage - our members to do so, but as many of our members have already experienced, that is often times not enough to reach a satisfactory conclusion with the airlines.

I hope that I am wrong and you are right because then I would not have to spend as much time on general complaint issue and would have more time to spend on regulatory matters.

That's yet another benefit of AirlineComplaints.org, it allows people like you to focus more time and energy on Regulatory matters rather than dealing with duplicate complaints.

...

Originally Posted by Graham NZ

I thank you both for your efforts on my and other disgruntaled customers behalf.

You're welcomed.

[Eagleguy]

Oh I just get on here to kill time. Oh and to potentially resolve some issues and explain my side of things because I am sure passengers have walked away angry and not know what actually happened.

[airhead]

I log on here on my own free time and dare not tell anyone at work. If my employer could get away with it, I would work 16 hour shifts 6 days a week and I don't like that. I am here to educate the public to improve the travel experience and hopefully the flying public will complain enough to improve the working conditions for many employees of the airlines. Keep the site running!