American Airlines Takes Passenger For Rides In All The Wrong Ways
Kim is less than enamored of her recent American Airlines flights. Late arrivals made her miss connecting flights, her baggage decided to branch out and travel on its own for a while, all because she missed a different flight a couple days earlier:
On 7/29, I was visiting friends in Portland, OR, and was to fly to Houston later that day. I had a number of connecting flights, one of which was on American. I was late to my initial flight from Portland, and went to Alaska Airlines (my initial carrier,) to explain the situation. They then rescheduled me to a direct Continental flight that day, and everything was ducky. Sounds fine, right? I thought so.
On 7/31, when I was supposed to fly home to Albany, NY, I had my friend drop me off at Houston Hobby airport early in the morning as scheduled. Come to find out, because I'd missed the flight TWO DAYS PRIOR, American had canceled my entire reservation and re-sold my seat to someone else. No e-mail, no phone call, no nothing. They then told me that I'd have to go to GW Bush International Airport ON THE OTHER SIDE OF TOWN, somehow get a ride, and pick up a later flight. I called my (very understanding) friend back, who got up again, and ferried me across town from Houston Hobby to GW Bush Int'l. During the drive between airports, I got on the phone to AA's customer service, which was beyond terrible. They were completely unapologetic about canceling a flight that I'd already paid for, refused any compensation for the inconvenience, and dared to make it sound like this whole fiasco was my fault for not catching a totally unrelated flight earlier in the day. I spoke to a supervisor, who gave me the weaselly "I'm sorry you feel that way" line, in addition to having the gall to tell me that "American isn't like other carriers; we do business the RIGHT way!" and totally refused any help, assistance, or compensation for the shoddy treatment.
I eventually caught the rescheduled flight from GW Bush International, but the morons at AA neither a.) had my baggage follow me on my subsequent flights home, nor b.) gave me any boarding passes to the subsequent connecting flights, since they were with a different carrier. I wound up *missing* my connecting flights since a.) the flight I eventually caught was an hour later than planned, b.) I had to go to baggage claim to pick up my suitcase, since it didn't follow me, and c.) get from one side of an unfamiliar airport (Dallas,) to another. By the time I hit the Continental check-in desk, it was too late to catch a flight, and there were no available seats on any flights to Albany. Continental said they'd give me a definite seat on a late afternoon flight to Newark, but I'd have to fly standby to Albany after that. However, poor weather in Albany was leading to a number of flight cancellations, so even if I managed to get a standby flight, there was a good possibility that my flight would be canceled anyway. I opted to take the train from Newark to Albany instead. When I called American Airlines back to explain exactly how much time, money, etc. they'd cost me, and gave them one more shot to somehow make it right for arbitrarily canceling an already paid-for flight with no notice, they stonewalled me with the same crappy excuses again, and no apologies for their horrible treatment. Result? Stuck in Dallas until tonight, and getting home is going to be a long, arduous nightmare. On my second call, I wanted the telephone number to AA's corporate offices. Unapologetically, I was told that I couldn't have it, but I could have the address where they'd promptly round-file my complaint.
So yeah, avoid flying American. And if somehow you have to take their crappy flights, make sure you call ahead and get confirmation numbers if you dare to miss their flights. Not that they'll compensate you if they screw up, but it'll make any lawsuits easier later.
Yikes. At least Kim can look at the bright side. Even though American didn't honor her reservations or make her borked travel scenario any easier, at least it gave her a wonderful party story that John Hughes may just option for a Planes, Trains and Automobiles sequel.
(Photo: zonaphoto)
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Comments:
This may be labeled a "blame the OP" comment... but it is common practice among (many, but not all) airlines that if you miss ANY flight on your itinerary without letting them know in advance, your entire itinerary will be canceled.
Whether or not this is a fair practice aside, any traveler with a multi-airline itinerary needs to keep this in mind. Alert ALL airlines involved anytime something changes.
I generally try to avoid multi-airline travel just because we've all seen how airlines can screw up when they only have to deal with their own people... it seems it only gets worse when they try to interface with their competitors on our behalf!
I suspect that the AA flight was not booked directly with AA. Did the OP book the American flight directly with American Airlines or thorough Alaska Airlines or through a travel website? AA doesn't know about her earlier non AA flights. Someone at Alaska Airlines or the travel website accidentally canceled the flight when re-booking the first. If Alaska Airlines canceled the original itinerary and rebooked a new one then that would explain it.
A "number of connecting flights" on "different airlines" sounds like Hotwire booking.
@Eric Jay: That was my first hunch, as well, although I can't find the relevant information on the AA website. A warning email or phone call would have been nice, though, to allow her to rebook.
OT. I love the jetway smudge in the photo.
"American Airlines is in a little bit of trouble with the FAA. Last week the airline starting checking out the aluminum skin on some of their Boeing 737 planes for scratches, dents, and other damage. Apparently the gate agents responsible for the jetways aren't always the best drivers and these bridges sometimes rub the planes the wrong way. The FAA is concerned because American didn't notify them of these issues in a timely manner."
Canceling all flights if you miss one flight is routine practice. It prevents people from booking one-way fares at round-trip prices, which, for unfathomable reasons, are sometimes cheaper.
Also, this is yet another instance of "NEVER book two separate tickets to connect yourself from point A to point B without at least an overnight layover."
@sirwired: "Canceling all flights if you miss one flight is routine practice."
Really? Oh OK, that makes it totally cool, then.
@takes_so_little: It makes it something other than unique evil by American. It's not the most intuitively obvious policy, I'll agree, but it's been standard airline policy for decades.
I don't know how multiline boarding passes work. Do we think she asked them for the passes and they couldn't do them, or they only gave her the one and she didn't ask for the others?
To be fair, EVERY airline (other than maybe Southwest, who actually cares about customers) will cancel all flights in an itinerary if you cancel or no-show for the first one. This has been going on for at least, oh, 20 years.
I'm generally not one to blame the OP, and definitely not one to ever say anything good about the dinosaur airlines (I wish they'd all die), but in this case, I believe that the majority of her problems stem from not following up after she missed her first flight and took a flight with a different carrier.
Yes, American could have been a little nicer about the whole thing, but honestly, they weren't out of line, and it is certainly not a remotely new policy; if she'd read her terms of carriage any time in the last 20 years she would have known that's the policy.
I think the airlines should be able to tell the difference between purposefully canceling or no-showing vs missing connecting flights.
Last time I flew it was a nightmare. I booked through Northwest, but ended up on a Continental flight connecting to a Northwest flight. My first flight was delayed leaving Newark by 2 hrs (never fly continental out of Newark) and they refused to contact Northwest and ask them to hold the connecting flight, even though there were 4 people on the connecting flight!!! They said they would be able to take care of it once the plane landed. Well, once the plane landed, the connecting flight had been gone for just 5 minutes! It was the last flight of the day! The other stranded passengers were ok with being put up in a hotel overnight, but I was going to a wedding the next day and really freaking out by this point. I noticed there was one more Northwest flight to a city 4 hours away from my intended airport and ran to catch it, one guy didn't show up so I was able to fly standby. My wonderful fiance drove the 4 extra hours to come get me and we got home at like 5 in the morning, got a few hours of sleep before the afternoon wedding. It was beautiful.
Two days later go to fly back to Newark and Northwest canceled my reservations! I had flown on a Northwest flight, just not the right one! Luckily they hadn't resold my seat and I got back okay.
I was severely pissed at both airlines, more so at Continental because they couldn't make one fucking phone call to help 4 people who missed their plane by 5 minutes. Northwest was at least able to fix all the ways they screwed up.
And that's four out of the five airlines flying out of my home airport (Nashville) that are worryingly dysfunctional. The fifth being Southwest, who don't fly where we go (Shanghai). I was seriously considering calling China Airlines and asking about air-hitching on their cargo flight to Taipei and going onward to Shanghai from there had they not canceled that route.
I don't blame AA for this at all. While they could have treated the customer better, it does appear to be her fault. She even states in the first sentence of her story "I was late to my initial flight from Portland". Unless she notified AA, which she doesn't state she did, they will cancel the remainder of her itinerary. Almost all airlines do this. Let this be a lesson, fly with the same airline and always go direct if possible. Instead of going to the Alaska counter she should have gone to an AA counter. Unless they code share there is no way there systems are communicating with each other.
@Eric Jay: It is indeed common practice. If you don't make your first flight they kind of assume you won't make the connector or any flight thereafter. I've heard most airlines giving a grace period of x number of hours you can be late for a flight with a valid reason like being stuck in traffic or an emergency. They still require that you notify all airlines involved with your travel however and you could still incur penalties depending on the difference in cost for the seat you will now reqire.
@frodoUnderhill: I'd disagree with you on the Continental part... It doesn't make financial sense to delay a flight (which I'm sure would lead to all sorts of domino-effect problems) for four passengers, especially if they are able to give those seats to standby customers. If the flight was already gone for 5 minutes after you arrived, that means that you were really at least 15 minutes late when you include boarding time. Not to mention that delaying another flight because yours was delayed could just end up making those passengers late for their connecting flights.
Quite frankly, I would never even consider asking an airline to hold a plane for me.
Most phone "Customer Service" don't have or won't give a Corporate Number. Just go to Yahoo Finance, MSN Finance, Google Finance and do some stock research. You'll get the Corporate Numbers or at the least Investor Contact numbers. Then you can call and ask for the President...