[Alice]

This is a formal complaint of an ordeal I went through with American Airlines on May 23, 2005:

I had an American Airlines flight 133 from (JFK)-(LAX) Mon, May 23 at 4:00pm I made it at the self-service check-in at 3:20pm (40 minutes prior to departure) and the service was closed to me. I stood in line for 30 minutes and the airline personnel at check-in did not offer any resolution. I asked for a standby ticket right away for the 6pm flight to SFO and he finally gave me a stand-by ticket for that flight after 20 minutes of deliberation. I was last on standby and was the only one who did not receive a seat on that flight. The next airline personnel at the check-in counter heard my story and was neglectful and rude, telling me I was late and gave me a "too bad" attitude. She said the only thing I can do is come the next morning to standby for another flight, and did not give me a standby ticket for the morning flight, so that I would have to check in again if I were to come in the morning.

If I had stayed in NYC that night I would have had to spend $100 on cab fare from and to the airport again, plus at least $200 in meals and lodging costs, and I will have to take another vacation day for work which will cost me another $200 against my pay. Given the $500 I was going to lose, I had no choice but to purchase a new ticket from Delta airlines, costing me an additional $322.70, which after significant delay, took off after 12am of that day and arrived at my destination at 3am pacific time. I had spent 9 hours in JFK because AA closed my original flight to me 45 minutes prior to departure.

The American Airlines website suggests checking in 60 minutes prior for domestic flights w/o checking in baggage - I had no baggage to check, but there is nothing stated in terms of what is a REQUIRED check-in cutoff time. I would have never thought 40 minutes prior to departure is considered "too late" and the fact the flight was closed to me caught me completely off-guard. Again, nowhere on the AA.com website states a "required" check-in time. Stating I was "late" was completely uncalled for and 40 minutes is more than sufficient time for me to go through security and arrive at the gate to be boarded for my pre-determined seat.

American Airlines was neglectful and gave no consideration of the inconvenience it caused me for a policy that was not stated anywhere and holds no consistency among different airports or even different flights. I arrived at the check-in counter 30 minutes prior to departure for my AA flight going to LAX just 3 days before and had no problem checking in and boarding the flight. Except for the year following 9/11 when everything was a mess, I've never had a problem arriving at an airport 30 or even 20 minutes before departure time - although 20 is cutting it close. Most of the time, the airlines don't purposely try to keep you from your flight and board you if you're physically able to make it. This time, when I had plenty of time to board my flight with 40 minutes and a carry-on baggage, American Airlines was determined to use any excuse to not let me on my flight because they already gave away my seat to an oversold flight.

I am requesting from AA.com through BBB.com not only a full refund for my AA flight for refusal of ticketing when I had sufficient time, but also for the extra ticket I had to buy from Delta Airlines, totaling $511.60 ($322.70 for Delta plus $188.90 for AA) I can provide the purchase price of the Delta ticket upon request. I had complained via the online form on the AA website and the customer service response was a polite no, indicating that I had chosen to purchase the Delta ticket myself and that I was "late" for my flight. Again, there was no statement anywhere indicating the REQUIRED time cutoff to check in for American Airline flights, and if I had not purchased the Delta ticket, then I would have lost another $500 to hotels, cabs, and lost wages in order to wait for another standby ticket the following day, another gamble I was not going to take following my experience with AA customer service that day.

Alice