american airlines stinks

[kmorriso@maine.rr.com]

Hi CIndy,

Your flight experience on AA sounds very similar to mine actually. We too departed Boston on June 2nd ON TIME and landed in Miami. When we arrived in Miami, we were told that the cockpit window needed to be repaired. Maintenance brought a replacement window but it was the wrong window so they had to cancel the flight. Long story short....we didn't leave Miami until 7:00pm and finally landed in Aruba around 9:30pm

THINK THAT'S BAD.....

Our return flight on Jun 12 left Aruba at 7:50am and landed in Miami. We were to have a 1 hour layover in Miami. The Miami to Boston flight was cancelled....even the flight attendants didn't know why....NO REASON GIVEN. We walked and walked that foolish and POORLY DESIGNED MIAMI AIRPORT for hours and hours.....we were fortunate to get on the 4:00pm flight as STANDBY.

American Airlines needs a MAJOR and COMPLETE OVERHAUL. I too suspect the reason why the flight was cancelled is because it was not full. This has happened to many other of my friends that have booked this flight.

Time to start searching for another airline that is RELIABLE. AA gets a -F in my book.

Ken

[rob o]

AA doesn't care about customers....problem is, no competition. For some of us, AA is clearly the best option financially. As long as competition is weak, AA can treat us like garbage and get away with it.

Every airline has horror stories....remember Jet Blue the winter before last, holding passengers captive for seven hours on the tarmac? Their numerous flight cancellations?

Ah, for the old days when airlines appreciated their customers. Remember "steak or chicken"?

[hstvns49]

The following is part of my letter to AA regarding our recent trip to Jamaica. The sent me a voucher for $175...big deal. As noted, we had the exact scenario during of November 08 trip to Aruba. Unfortunately. we live in SW Florida and must use AA unless we want to travel "north to go south." AA used to be great years ago. No more.

On Monday, May 11, my husband and I arrived at Tampa International Airport at 5:15am. We were to depart on flight 1040 to Miami at 6:45am.

The flight left the gate and taxied to the runway. The Captain announced that there was a mechanical issue and we would be returning to the gate. We returned to the gate and were told that the part that was needed was on site and would be replaced in a timely manner. The part was replaced but problems still persisted. We were told to take our carry on luggage and deplane. I went to the desk and was assured that I would make my 11am connection to Montego Bay.

Approximately one hour later, an American representative announced that the flight was cancelled. Go down stairs, retrieve your luggage and go AA to rebook you flight. We did so. My husband got on line and I attempted to reach Travelocity by phone. There was only one AA agent rebooking the entire flight. However, the AA agents were plentiful attending to new check in passengers.

After about two hours, we finally reached the front of the line. We were told that all TPA-MIA flights were full for the day. However, we were able to get seats on Continental 9254 which was to depart TPA at 5:30pm, arriving MIA at 6:30pm. We were to connect to AA838 at 7:50 pm to Montego Bay. It is now about 1pm.

About 3pm, I looked at the departure board and noticed that the Continental flight was late and would not be departing until 6:15pm. I went to the Continental desk and was assured by the agent that we would certainly not make the connection. She suggested that we return to the AA desk and rebook for the next day. We opted not to do that hoping for the best. The Continental flight left at 6:30pm and arrived MIA at 7:20pm. The American flight to Montego Bay was late so we were able to make our connection.

Then to complete a harrowing day, the luggage did not arrive. After filling out the necessary paperwork, we finally arrived at our hotel at about 11:30PM. Twelve hours after our scheduled arrival. The restaurants were closed so all we managed was a chicken sandwich from the snack bar. We were absolutely exhausted and went directly to bed.

We had almost the exact scenario in November when we went to Aruba to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary. American cancelled out flight from Fort Myers to Miami, booked us on a late flight to Aruba getting in at 12 midnight thus losing another entire day. I did not request any compensation for that trip.

[Randi]

Sounds like Air Canada!

[Chadd]

Originally Posted by Randi

chadd,
When they cancel flights before you leave (either months or weeks, sometimes days) are they not trying to combine flights due to low occupancy? A few years ago we were to fly out of Washington to Aruba in December, they cancelled the flight in the summer and had to reroute us ! Not easy to do as we were travelling during Christmas and on points. It was a lot of aggrevation as all the flights were full!!!

Last year, two weeks before we were to leave Aruba they cancelled our return flights home. Had to scramble again!

Again, canceling solely due to low load factors is not legal.

Canceling months in advance is quite common as the airline is adjusting their schedule due to current market conditions. Anything more than three months in advance is an estimate, though some flights are more solid than others.

Last minute cancellations are often due to maintenance or crew scheduling problems. They might cancel a flight that has fewer people and move that aircraft to a flight with more people, and revenue, on board. But the cancellation is still driven by a mechanical, or some other, problem elsewhere in the system.

December is a bad time for one particular airline as their pilot union loves to play games just about every year. Some of the guys time out and the ones that are legal to fly call in sick at absurdly increased rates. They have had to cancel large numbers of flights and strand thousands of passengers.

[Chadd]

Originally Posted by rob o

AA doesn't care about customers....problem is, no competition. For some of us, AA is clearly the best option financially. As long as competition is weak, AA can treat us like garbage and get away with it.

Every airline has horror stories....remember Jet Blue the winter before last, holding passengers captive for seven hours on the tarmac? Their numerous flight cancellations?

Ah, for the old days when airlines appreciated their customers. Remember "steak or chicken"?

As long as your decisions are driven by cost, there is no enticement to provide better service, only to provide the service at the lowest cost. A good example of that was in the USA Today article on Monday. There was a guy complaining about having to spend hours and hours reviewing all of the charges and fees that the airlines charge in order to get the absolute cheapest rate. My time has value to me, as does my comfort. Those that provide the best value and comfort, get my business when I am not traveling with my company.

As for the "steak or chicken" days, it often costs less in raw dollars to fly now than it did in 1979 when deregulation started. In virtually all cases, it is cheaper once you adjust for inflation over the last 30 years. Air travel is one of the best values available today. In many cases, you can fly coast to coast for less than it would cost to drive and you get there in only a few hours.

I've been saying for years, it should cost more to get to Disney World than it costs to get in.

[Randi]

Chadd, thanks for the update.
My experience with Aruba is that more flights get changed on United than US Air. As for pricing, Air Canada is about $500 more for me to fly than US Air. We need to fly to Toronto and then Aruba so to fly to Philly or Washington and then onto Aruba, no difference to us. However, the financial savings is tremendous. Hate not using our National carrier but since they have no competition to Aruba they can charge what they like and it isn't pretty!!!

[cindymcgowan@verizon.net]

ya it is sad and guess what i have enough frequent flyer points on aa for a flight next year. whatever!!!

[kmorriso@maine.rr.com]

Hi CIndy,

Your flight experience on AA sounds very similar to mine actually. We too departed Boston on June 2nd ON TIME and landed in Miami. When we arrived in Miami, we were told that the cockpit window needed to be repaired. Maintenance brought a replacement window but it was the wrong window so they had to cancel the flight. Long story short....we didn't leave Miami until 7:00pm and finally landed in Aruba around 9:30pm

THINK THAT'S BAD.....

Our return flight on Jun 12 left Aruba at 7:50am and landed in Miami. We were to have a 1 hour layover in Miami. The Miami to Boston flight was cancelled....even the flight attendants didn't know why....NO REASON GIVEN. We walked and walked that foolish and POORLY DESIGNED MIAMI AIRPORT for hours and hours.....we were fortunate to get on the 4:00pm flight as STANDBY.

American Airlines needs a MAJOR and COMPLETE OVERHAUL. I too suspect the reason why the flight was cancelled is because it was not full. This has happened to many other of my friends that have booked this flight.

Time to start searching for another airline that is RELIABLE. AA gets a -F in my book.

Ken

[rob o]

Originally Posted by Chadd

As long as your decisions are driven by cost, there is no enticement to provide better service, only to provide the service at the lowest cost. A good example of that was in the USA Today article on Monday. There was a guy complaining about having to spend hours and hours reviewing all of the charges and fees that the airlines charge in order to get the absolute cheapest rate. My time has value to me, as does my comfort. Those that provide the best value and comfort, get my business when I am not traveling with my company.

As for the "steak or chicken" days, it often costs less in raw dollars to fly now than it did in 1979 when deregulation started. In virtually all cases, it is cheaper once you adjust for inflation over the last 30 years. Air travel is one of the best values available today. In many cases, you can fly coast to coast for less than it would cost to drive and you get there in only a few hours.

I've been saying for years, it should cost more to get to Disney World than it costs to get in.

I agree with what you say regarding cost. That said....there is a human decency factor that makes some of the treatment that customers receive (flight cancellations) just plain immoral.

Originally Posted by Chadd

December is a bad time for one particular airline as their pilot union loves to play games just about every year. Some of the guys time out and the ones that are legal to fly call in sick at absurdly increased rates. They have had to cancel large numbers of flights and strand thousands of passengers.

Stranding passengers purposely for selfish gain is sickening....they should be fired.