Reader Drew is currently stranded at Dallas Fort Worth airport and would like to speak with someone from American Airlines on the telephone. Unfortunately, we’re the only ones he can reach.
Drew says:
Bad weather = dangerous = a somewhat understandable need to cancel flights. That’s fine.However, after my (non AA) connecting flight finally got me into DFW six hours late, it would be nice to be able to call somebody at AA and discuss my now canceled connection. No dice. If you dial their number (8004337300), you get a recorded announcement: “Due to the weather, we’re experiencing high call volumes. Please call back at another time if you want to speak to a person. Let me give you some prerecorded info.”
Awesome. The one time I need to talk to somebody, I get a robot. I keep calling back, occasionally I get the normal message. Everytime this has happened, however, I’ve gotten hung up on before I can get to a real person.
Meanwhile, I don’t see any notice about any other airlines canceling all their flights.
I’m done with American Airlines.
Yuck.
(Photo:balmes)
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I flew DFW-BOS on the 6:25am flight on the 18th. We luckily left on time with maybe an 80% load factor since the storms hadn’t hit yet. Since there was severe weather predicted, I was quite surprised that more people did not show up earlier and fill the flight. At the very least, I believe AA elites shouldn’t have a problem getting put on an earlier flight in those circumstances (even if they hadn’t had their flight affected by weather yet.) And the DFW-BOS route is certainly quite full of passengers with high-tier elite status, especially on an early morning flight like that. So where were they? Certainly they had access to weather reports. I have never had any problems as a DL elite getting reaccommodated if it looks fairly certain that there will be bad weather en route, nor in general on other airlines. And that is just being speculative as to delays; if the flights are already delayed and it looks like I will misconnect, I have never had an airline not at least make a good attempt to reroute me (and they generally have.)
Reader Drew should have been proactive in looking for other connections as soon as it was apparent that he would misconnect with his original connecting flight in DFW, which probably wouldn’t have been more than a couple hours after his initial planned departure. It does not appear to me that he did that, instead opting to fly to DFW 6 hours late and then pass the buck on to AA. Why would anyone leave their originating city 6 hours late without having done anything to try to improve their chances of getting to their destination without serious delays?
Now, I think AA should have had a contingency plan to have more representatives available in a situation like this, but due to the magnitude of this event I can understand why they wouldn’t. They had hundreds of cancellations, and all flights are booked up for the next couple days now. All over the place, too, since MANY planes are out of position due to not being able to fly in/out of DFW. Again, you need to be PROACTIVE when you are traveling to try to avoid a situation like this. Even if Reader Drew got through to AA after arriving at DFW, he most certainly wouldn’t have been given any options past taking a flight a day or two later since many other people would have been rebooked by then and filled up most available seats.
I would have more sympathy if Reader Drew had been denied at least an attempt at reaccomodation at his originating airport, rather than trying to call AA after getting in on a flight that had been delayed for six hours.
As for AA employees leaving the airport early, well, that part is inexcusable in my book. They should be paid extra overtime to stay late in a situation like this so that there are more humans to deal with all the stranded passengers. There are many inexperienced flyers who need to deal with a real person in a situation like this, especially if the phone lines are over capacity. But anyone savvy enough to be writing in to The Consumerist should also be savvy enough to not have arrived at DFW in such bad weather on such a delayed flight without having previously tried for an alternate routing.
Reader Drew fails to mention where he was coming in from, what airline he was arriving on, how long of a connection he had, whether it was an international arrival, whether he had a single ticket or had booked the flight out of DFW separately (generally a bad idea), whether he attempted to have his original flight rerouted after the flight to DFW was delayed, etc. He is simply complaining that AA did not answer the phones. But, again, did he seriously expect to easily get through to a human when it appears his first attempt to contact them was after getting to DFW many hours late in the middle of a severe weather event? (And I have to mention that AA had a fair amount of delays at ORD, their second largest hub, due to weather as well. Not a good day for them.)
As to the separate ticket issue, it’s Reader Drew’s own problem if he DID have a separate ticket from DFW and arrived late, for whatever reason. (Again, generally a bad idea to have separate tickets in a situation like this.) If he was on the same ticket as I assume he was, it’s up to the ticketing or handling airline to reroute him. But he needs to ask them to do that, not sit around and wait to get to Dallas where he is certain to miss his flight.
Oh yeah-and I have to add that I don’t even like AA very much. I was traveling on them this morning due to revenue tickets very being expensive and AA frequent flier miles being the best to burn for this trip. But I still don’t think they did anything wrong, other than perhaps send some DFW employees home earlier than they should have.
@I Ain’t Tryin’ a Hear Dat!:
Agreed about airlines not putting a passenger on a flight if they can’t make their connection (or be rebooked on a different connection.) But this, in my experience, often does not apply when you are interlining from one airline to another; if it’s your final leg with airline A and you are connecting to airline B, all airline A may care about is getting you to your final connection point with them. (But, of course, the ticketing airline still has the responsibility of reaccommodating you if you miss airline B’s connection, assuming it is on a single ticket as it almost always should be.) So one does need to be more proactive in an interlined (multiple airline) connection situation if it looks like there will be a misconnect or other problem.
It’s pretty simple. If you are delayed, figure out if you are going to miss your connecting flight. Check the weather at your connecting city/cities. Check the flight status on your connecting flight(s). If any of the above are problems, talk to an agent immediately (at the airport or on the phone.) Not after you get to somewhere in the middle of your trip that has funnel clouds and microbursts bearing down on it.
To paraphrase the great Louis CK..
‘you know, there was terrible weather in a city I had a flight out of once and they ALSO canceled the flight’
‘Holy shit really? Wow, you fucking old lady, that’s amazing!’
@psychos: Ya, that’s what I was saying.
I knew he was interlining (the OP states as much in his email), and generally if the entire routing is printed on the same ticket stock, airline A will be more attentive about making sure that you’re not stranded at your connection, even if it’s airline B operating the second leg…
Not as attentive as if it was airline A operating the entire routing, but attentive none-the-less– if he misconnects on airline B because of airline A, it’s airline A’s responsibility to get him rebooked, so they’re usually pretty good about it… So long as it’s all one ticket.
I imagine that the OP, to save a buck, booked two separate tickets– perhaps a WN ticket from his home airport to a connection on AA in DFW to his final destination.
If that was the case, airline A, the one that brought him to DFW, would have never even known that he had an outbound connection and would not have advised him to stay at his home airport until he could be reaccomodate.
Savvy, frequent travelers/consumers would never, ever book two separate tickets for one routing because of the inherent risk involved… Hopefully this unfortunate case can serve as a hard-lesson-learned for anyone who was thinking about booking seperate tickets to save a buck (or ten).
It’s just not worth it.
@Buran: Actually, I’ve never been bent over by AA, and I’ve flown many flights. In fact, AA has changed my flights around weather every time I’ve asked, and has saved me every single time I’ve needed them to. I also help things along by NOT FLYING INTO BAD WEATHER LIKE A DUMBASS.
I also happen to check the weather in the cities I’m flying to, especially in the winter and spring. Don’t you all (besides Drew) check the weather before you drive to work?
(I also can’t help but notice that most of the whiners wrote only a few lines, and most of the ones who are in the know had substantial posts. Interesting, but not surprising. While everyone is busy bitching, I’ve already gotten my boarding pass next flight).
@DogTown:
Yeah…real dumb to locate a hub at DFW… it’s not like they’re the world’s biggest airline or anything.
My dad is stranded in Atlanta going to TX from this…
@scoosdad: There are lots of travel agents like me who work from home who are available 24/7 to their clients, and then there are those that utilize a back-up service, so the answer to your question….while I can’t speak for every travel agent, yes, there are some that are available 24/7.
I can’t believe that everyone got so freaked out by a little storm. The flights got grounded because the scaredy-cats at the FAA freaked out about the funnel clouds and decided to evacuate the control towers. Of course, it could have been the 70 mph straight winds that caused them to wimp out. Those weenie pilots should show some backbone!
700 flights got canceled, I’m not great at math but I think if there were 20 people on each canceled flight that would be 14,000 people who needed to get in touch with AA at the same time. They should be taken out and shot for not having enough CSRs to handle the volume!
The really bad part? All the humidity made my hair frizzy, and it is all AA’s fault!
Signed:
Damp in Dallas
@IceTrojan: Yes, once your flight is delayed, you can just pick and choose from ANY reroute in the whole world! You have total control over that — at least on Bizarro World. In this one, you don’t. Seriously, have you EVER been on a flight? I don’t understand how you could say something like that with any, any information whatsoever.
Weather delays (when genuine, which they aren’t always) are unavoidable, and it helps to have patience and a sense of humor. It ALSO helps to have airline personnel on the ground doing their best to help people out, which seems to be severely lacking for AA in Dallas today.
OK, so the real deal is that the airlines have scheduled more flights than they have capacity for. One thing goes wrong and then there’s a domino effect and flights are delayed for days.
I fly about once a month and I haven’t had a flight in recent memory where at least one leg wasn’t delayed by an hour or more. This is not acceptable.
@IceTrojan: So, if you have an important business meeting in Omaha, and there turns out to be bad weather that day, you just tell your business associates to fuck off? Or if you’re headed home for your grandmother’s funeral in Chicago but Illinois is windy, you just send a couple carnations and a card? I seriously doubt it. If so, the phrase for you that’s coming to mind is not “smart traveler.”
What is the recorded info? I know that I have often been rescheduled and AA has called me before I was able to get through to them. If they are busy rescheduling all of their passengers and making notification calls instead of answering phones, it may not be so bad. Maybe the recorded info is something to that effect?
Re: No people answering phones – this is the problem with having a major hub, corporate headquarters, and large call centers all in the same area. Just when you need them the most, the employees that you depend on are stuck in traffic or in drainage ditches (or both).
Re: Dumb place to locate a major Airline hub – Any other city in the middle of the country (Chicago? St. Louis? Denver?) will have similar issues, depending on the time of year. Of course, most of the others will also be more susceptible to more disruptive snow and ice.
Re: Cancelled all flights for the rest of the day despite no snow – Wind gusts were regularly too high to safely takeoff/land, and like a previous commenter said, the area has a history of microburst wind shear in those kind of conditions. Look up Delta Air Lines Flight 191 for more info.
@billbillbillbill: Given that it is currently 70°F/21°C in Houston with a 0% chance of rain (according to weather.com), it sounds like it is the better place to be.
Unless you’re sitting in the airport with 50,000 other stranded passengers instead of the comfort of your own home (assuming it wasn’t in danger), of course.
My friend is currently sitting on the tarmac en route from DFW to LGA. Her flight was scheduled to depart at 1pm (CT) today. Though it has yet to take off (now the airline is citing adverse weather conditions in New York), it seems at least slightly more hopeful that she is actually on a plane.
Also, while she was unable to get through to anyone on the phone since her original flight was cancelled on Tuesday, she was able to get seats on subsequent flights by talking to the counter agents directly, and also by showing up for the earliest scheduled flights of the day to try and get a seat. I know no one WANTS to spend a full day at the airport hoping to maybe possibly get a flight, but it seems worth it if you really want/need to get to your destination.
A.A. gave a big F.U. to all of their Customers by not staffing the AIRPORT to assist customers with booking new flights. Nevermind the phone lines, they should have handled it all face-to-face.
@picardia: I think that you’ve shown yourself to be the not so “smart traveler”…
In fact, yes, I know the weather before I take off, and I will get myself rerouted. “Oh, there are t-storms in Dallas? Route me through Chicago!” Obviously, since you’re too retarded to actually do that, you’ve never experienced the joy of boarding a new flight why people such as yourself stand around moaning and groaning as your flight was delayed. And yes, ANY routing… I once flew from San Francisco to New York via Miami because of weather in both Chicago and Dallas, and the direct flight was full. So if that’s “Bizarro world,” then I’m living in it.
Oh, and what would I do if I had to be in Omaha if it’s clear weather is going to keep me from getting there?
–1st call to AA, “Hi, can you fly me to Sioux City instead?”
–2nd call to business meeting, “Hi, I’m going to be about an hour or two late because of the weather, so I hope you understand. But I’m so committed to making this deal happen that I’m driving from Sioux City to make it happen.”
Actually, for a business meeting, I would fly in the day before to make sure that problems like this don’t happen.
What about the funeral?
Call to AA, “ORD is closed? How about fly me to Indianapolis via Dallas or St. Louis? I’ll take it… it’s my supposed grandmother’s funeral and all…”
How do you like them apples? Retard. (That’s the phrase that comes to mind when I think of you).