[antonego]

AA customer service does have an email address. It is Customer.Relations@AA.com.

Why is this important? Because submitting a complaint to AA is trying.

I called AA and tried to get through to customer service. The responses were...

• The easiest way to reach Customer Relations is via email or fax (anyone using fax these days?!).

• We do not have an email address for the Customer Service department.

• We do not have a Customer Service department (!!!).

• The only way to contact customer service is via email and the only way to email is via the AA website. etc. etc.

So I went to the website to contact customer service. There is a form to fill. When I filled the form and hit Submit I kept getting an error message. But the error was not pointed out for me to fix. Two days and 4 different machines later I had still not submitted by complaint. So I called their Online Department and got a truly Kafkaesque response: "If you use special characters a bug is triggered." When I asked for the list of characters I should avoid I was told "Special characters such as a hyphen". When I would not give up, the call quickly deteriorated to: "Sir, you need to be in front of a machine for me to help you. (Click)."

So I went online and Googled the customer service email address. It was easy enough to find. Why does AA not display the email address anywhere on their site? Or in the lengthy voice message you get if you call AA headquarters in Texas? Why do their agents deliberately misrepresent the truth and say that there is no email address for customer service? Why is a form that is supposed to gather customer feedback designed to fail?

Question: Is it a legal requirement for airlines to have an email address at which customers can send their complaints?

It is my intention to call as many AA phone agents as possible and tell them that the email customers are looking for is Customer.Relations@AA.com

[antonego]

I've called 6 agents so far and none of them has given me the email address. Further, all of them know about the email and have shown varying degrees of anger on being asked specifically about it. Any AA employees out there? How is being employed by AA working out for you?

[airhead]

I am sorry to hear about your experience and I will do my best to answer your questions based of my experiences.

For starters, many agents (I don't know the percent) are not trained. And the number seems to grow as time goes. Some go by the word of someone else with more experience. The computer system is very much out dated and requires years of experience, and that is just with training, to know the command entries to find the answers to many questions that passengers may ask.
For years I was told to "use focus", a huge table of information, but the user has to have the command entries memorized to know how to use it. Being told to "use" it was not enough and my fellow coworkers were often too busy to show me how to look up the entries.

And then their is the passwords and silly rules of alpha characters the order they must go in. The rules made it very difficult to create passwords. I can only imagine what the online site is like for public use.

On the site for employees, once one is able to find the right password, their is a place for employees to voice their ideas and concerns for saving money. For years I submitted very good and valid ideas to the company and never once did I get a "thank you for your time." I sometimes wonder if the site was really real or just there acting as a placenta.

Technically speaking, it is not a legal requirement that an airline have an email address to receive complaints. But I do believe a valid snail mail address or P.O. Box is.

Depending on the nature of your complaint, you can file a complaint to the federal government. That usually prompts more responses. The Department of Transportation tends to cover most legitimate complaints. If it is an issue regarding the safety of an aircraft, then the Federal Aviation Administration needs to know about it. If it is about the screening process, then file it with the Transportation Security Administration.

As far as the phone number...well that is a sticky place to be in. Many people tend to loose their cool and want to complain if they don't get their way. And their is nothing wrong with that in itself, except nothing will probably be done about while the customer is hot and acting in an unreasonable manner. But then again, it seems many complaints are not answered by the website, according to many on this site. Their are 2 sides to every story. I believe their are competent people out there with the talent to take on such a job but the airline obviously has no interest in training or hiring such people.

I wish you luck on your future travels and strongly encourage you to not fly with the airlines until changes have been made. I also encourage you to write your congressman and demand changes in this industry.

[azstar]

I sometimes wonder if the site was really real or just there acting as a placenta.

I think you mean "placibo".

[antonego]

this is only getting worse. as the number of interactions with AA increase it becomes increasingly clear that this is organization is seriously messed up. not a single employee so far has demonstrated any interest in helping. the customer is an irritant at best and an enemy at worst. to keep the experiment clear i have requested three other people with varying backgrounds and accents to call. the interaction has been depressingly invariant.
of course there is no reply to my email. so i have resent the email and will continue to do so. i will keep up the calls as well. where are you michael moore you are so needed.

[antonego]

I have an offer of an eVoucher; it hasn't come through yet and it would be foolish to count one's chickens now. I am sure though that, like me, for many it is not only about the money. It is about the principle that governs the issue. In my case it started off with something to do with airline regulations and the rich ironies that they encapsulate. That degenerated into having an avenue by which I could register my disagreement.

I must concede that AA knows it is onto a good thing. Make things difficult enough and most customers will drop their complaints. When the next journey opportunity comes along, hopefully price will be the usual enticement. The few who are persistent enough will either get blown off or get some small consolation prize for their effort. On a net basis this will make money.

I am sure many of us fit this pattern of thought and behavior. Ultimately, decent society relies on the honor system. Until one or some of us gets sufficiently ****** off to sue. Or write about it. Or make a movie. Michael Moore where are you now? When everything's gone wrong somehow? Ha.

[airhead]

oops.. used the wrong word. sorry about that. Thanks for the correction.

[airhead]

The problem with Micheal Moore movies (documentaries) is their is no or little truth to what he is entertaining the audience with. If he were to exploit the airline industry, I am all for it but I hope he uses factual information with real reference material.