Airline Trickery

[Eva_Luna]

At a former job, I had a boss who spent a LOT of time traveling around Latin America on AA. Even though he had a highly experienced and competent travel agent, the airline kept screwing up his flights. And he flew hundreds of thousands of miles a year with them. He was the kind of guy who traveled so much that at times, his wife would call the office to speak to him, forgetting that he was on another continent that day.

My boss would spend an average of 1 week a month in Brazil. Now AA only had a limited number of flights to Brazil, and they booked up quickly. So my boss would reserve a few months ahead, meaning that at any given time he’d have 3 or 4 round-trip Business Class tickets booked for the Chicago – Sao Paulo route. Without fail, at least once a month AA would try to cancel one of his PAID FOR, business class tickets, because they couldn’t fathom that an executive with a multinational accounting firm which had a huge Latin American practice might, say, want to travel frequently to Latin America and therefore have multiple tickets booked for future dates at the same time.

Let me tell you, one guy you don’t want to have pissed off at you is a hot-tempered attorney who can curse you out in three languages.

[Snickers]

I’ve been bitten by the “cancel return trip” practice also, through no fault of my own (I think mine was on TWA, however). Hubby and I were flying from Madison, WI, to St. Louis as he was inteviewing with Boeing. We get to the airport to find that our flight has been cancelled due to machinery problems. Hubby says to the nice ticket lady, “But I have to get to St. Louis tonight.” No worries - she nicely books us on another airline’s flight out.

She neglects to mention that doing this has cancelled our return flight home, even though we asked to be sure that all would be well on Sunday, when we were to return. Imagine our surprise when we get to the St. Louis airport Sunday to fly back and discover we have no seats. They not so nicely booked us through Chicago, then bussed us back to Madison. It was the weekend from hell.

The kicker is that hubby and I briefly entertained the thought of just renting a car in St. Louis and driving the 6 or 7 hours back to Madison. Turns out we would’ve been home sooner had we done so.

Airlines suck.
Snicks

[Killerjoke]

@kath94

I’m actually glad this thread was resurrected, otherwise I’d have never seen it. I work for a major airline. I’m the cheery voice on the other end of the phone.

Aha, you’re the person who assures the rest of us that everything will be hunky-dory.

@kath94

As Rick said, it’s very true that if you miss your flight from A to B (whether intentional or not) and we don’t hear from you within a couple hours of the scheduled departure, we assume you don’t need the return flight, from B to A, either.

OK, time for my tale of woe. 2 years ago, Dad has cancer and goes in for the first of about 14 radiation treatments. Radiation and chemo had worked about 6 months previously, but now the C was in his brain and they were not so optimistic. I get reservations for a round trip on US Airways. My sisters and I are planning on always having one of us there to talk to Mom and run errands and stuff.

Major turn for the worse the day before I am to go – he is admitted to the hospital. I call US Airways and speak to a very understanding “cheery voice on the other end of the phone”. They don’t have a flight that will get me there any earlier than the one I am on, so I confirm with her that if I get myself up there some other way I’ll be able to get back home on my original flight. “Sure, no problem.” Wrong-o. Cheery Voice needs to talk to the Bitch from Hell that answered the phone (really cool setup, too – a bank of cell phones) from Logan Airport when the Red Cap couldn’t find my reservation. As Bobort experienced, she obviously felt I was lying about speaking to Ms. Cheery Voice; or at least lying about what Cheery told me.

It all ended well, thanks to the people that actually had to deal with my sorry ass face to face. I got on the same flight (last flight Sunday night) I was reserved for, standby, the last one, too. So I can’t be too upset and the people who worked at the airport for US Airways could not have been more friendly, polite or understanding.

So I spent all night on the damn train to get to Boston 2 hours early for nothing. USAirways B. from H. scoffed at my suggestion to actually try to contact their customers prior to cancelling the reservations. I’d recommend that they try to get Cheery and the Bitch trained the same way, though. Seems kind of interesting that at least a few of us have been fed bad info by the Cheery Voices of the world only to be slammed back to reality by evil Bitches.

[maudlin]I still miss ya, pops![/maudlin]

[Zebra]

I recently had my worst flight expierence on American Airlines.

The wife and I went to Paris at the very end of March. We were supposed to depart on Tuesday night at 6:15. Around 6, a little after, they announced that there was a mechanical problem with the plane and that is why we havn’t started boarding. They have a repair crew coming and will make a decision on the plane at 6:15. At 6:30 they announce that a decision on the plane will be made at 7:00. Some gate personal says, not over the PA, that they need to splice somehting together and they need a special tool.

Now there was a 9:45 flight and we thought about asking to switch to that flight. But at about 7:45 they finally made the decision on the plane and that decision was to not use it. We all had to go to another gate and get on a new plane that would leave by 8:30.

Trouble was this gate was in a different wing of the terminal. That meant that all of us had to have a TSA employee check our IDs against the name on our ticket and then we all had to go through x-ray again. Ok then it took a while for them to move the food service to tne new plane and we finally take off at about 9:30 pm. I jokeing asked one of the hostess’s if we will beat the 9:45 flight to Paris. She said “We’d better! We’re the early flight.” So we have dinner and we watch Runaway Jury and after the movie the wife goes to the bathroom. I slide over and look out the window. I see land. I see the lights of land and some costline. Where are we? I ask a hostess. I don’t know replies. She then goes to the station in the back and about 30 seconds later the captain annouces that he has turned the plane around and we are headed back to JFK. He reports that we have a leak in a redundant hydralic system and that although the plane is flying safe, he does not want to take us over the ocean. Now I never felt the plane turn. He must have done it really slowly. So we watch Under the Tuscan Sun and have breakfast and we arrive back in JFK a little before 5 am. We are supposed to have a plane waiting for us at the next gate, so we don’t have to do security again. This will leave at 6:30 am. Ok fine. A twelve hour delay with a lovely practice run. When we got back to JFK our landing was a little on the rough side. Now hearing about a hydraulic leak and then seeing the runway lined with fire trucks is a little freaky. Then when we landed. We hit so hard that some of the overhead bins opened up. When a guy stood up to close a stewardess yelled at him to sit down and there was a distinct touch of terror in her voice.

Now they did have the plane as promised. But they didn’t have a crew. So they unload the luggage at some customers request and shuttle bus us to the Raddison. This is accomplished by about 9 am. We get a room and get about three hours sleep because the new flight leaves at 3 and of course we have to completly go through security again so that means be at the airport by 1. When we checked in this time we changed our return flight so that our stay in Paris would be as long as we planned it. We had to pay for another night at hotel but hey, this is our major vacation for the next two years. The plane finally leaves at 4:30 and this time we make it to Paris.

When we leave Paris AA has no record of us changing our flight but the people at the airport in Paris were very nice about the whole thing and changed our tickets without too much hassel.

[Cisco]

[Mr. Garrison]
GODDAMN AIRLINE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!

[Voyager]

@Rick

cough
Your ownself, what kind of idiot does not know the difference between the OP and second reply in this thread? :wally
Bottom line is ATTGuy showed up on the wrong day for his flight, either because he could not read a calendar or did not bother to read his e-mailed confirmation. My comment stands.

I can’t imagine a confirmation without a date on it. I can’t imagine not checking. And I can’t imagine being surprised that flights going to the same place at the same time every day get the same flight number. Duh. I wonder if the long departed OP ever flew before.

As for American - I’ve had generally good experiences with them, usually better than United, the airline I usually flew before my company switched. I’d take a lot of crap for the extra leg room, but I don’t even get the crap.

[Tenar]

@Lynn Bodoni

Yeah, I got a report on an old thread resurrection, but since this seems to be just as relevant TODAY as it was 4 years ago, I let it stay.

It sure is relevant. There was an article in today’s NY Times business section about AA’s consistently crabby flight attendants and the cutbacks and indignities that may be contributing to their crankiness. (Actually, it’s now yesterday’s Times. I assume the page has expired if it was online at all.) At any rate, they do seem to be somewhat notorious in this regard.

[Kaitlyn]

My own tale of woe. Not American Airlines related.

It’s 2001, and I’m flying to the Philippines to visit my fiance, who lived on Mindanao, a large island in the southern part of the country. Being the thorough person that I am, I plan my trip six months in advance. I bought a round-trip ticket on Philippine Airlines to get to Manila, and a second round trip ticket from a domestic airline to get to the small airport near my fiancee’s village, where PAL didn’t fly. My PAL flight is direct from LA to Manila, with a four-hour gap between arrival and departure of the domestic flight, plenty of time to deplane, get my luggage, get a cab to the domestic airport, and still be several hours early for my domestic flight.

My tickets are paid for six months in advance, both the international and domestic legs of the flight, and I recieve the paper tickets with an itenerary. As per the instructions, I call 72 hours in advance to confirm my flight, at which time I am informed that the flight plan has been altered. Instead of flying direct, the plane will land in Hawaii for a two-hour layover for refeuling and to change pilots. This change also results in the actual flight time being two hours longer than previously. I now am unable to use my domestic round trip ticket, which is non-refundable, and as it was the last flight for that day, I cannot change to a later flight. When I tell the operator that this will cause me to miss my connecting flight, she tells me the airline will provide me with a voucher for a hotel if I can confirm this by showing them an ticket or itenerary. Not a bad deal, I think, at least they’re trying to make up for the inconvenience. I call one of the hotels on their list that accepts the vouchers, explain my situation, confirm that they accept the PAL vouchers, and make my reservation. They even tell me that they’ll take the 3000 ($75) peso voucher as payment in full for a room that normally goes for 5000 ($125) a night when reserved in advance.

I call the domestic airline, and am told that I can reschedule for the same flight on the next day at their ticket counter in Manila. All set, I think, I’ll miss one day with my sweetie, but I get a night in a very nice hotel for free. I get on the flight with no problems. As we’re about to land, the attendants pass out forms, telling us, “If you’re continuing with us, you’ll need to reconfirm your reservation before deplaning.” As I was not continuing with them, but was transferring to another airline, and having not a reservation, but an actual paper ticket, I decline the form.

When I arrive in Manila, I go to the PAL counter to show my domestic tickets and pick up my voucher, where I am told I’m not entitled to one. I was supposed to apply for the voucher at least 48 hours in advance, something I am just learning for the first time. At the hotel, I’m told that since I don’t have the voucher I told them I would have, I’m not entitled to the discount they offered me, and I’d have to pay rack rate for my room, which isn’t $125, but $160 per night. Figuring that I can just buy a ticket for that price, I say screw it, and head for the domestic airport. I ask the airline for which I bought my original ticket if I can use just the return part. They tell me no problem, they’ll confirm me for the return flight rith then. I buy a one-way ticket from another airline at their counter for about $70. I arrive at the tiny local airport and spend two wonderful weeks with the future Mrs. Six.

When it’s time to return, I try to check in, only to be told that my seat has been sold and there are no more available seats. I show them my ticket, and they tell me both portions of my flight were cancelled when I didn’t take the first part. I tell them I confirmed the return flight in Manila to prevent this, and they tell me that I would have had to reconfirm there, as the computer automatically cancelled the itinerary when I didn’t arrive two weeks earlier.

So I end up buying another one-way ticket on the same airline I took there, because I had to leave then or miss my flight back to LA. I arrive back in Manila, take a cab to the international airport, and check in for my flight a good two hours early. I’m told my seat was sold, because I didn’t reconfirm my reservation using the form the attendants passed out on my flight to Manila. I explain that the attendant never said that we had to do that for the return flight, only if we were continuing on PAL, which I wasn’t, and that I didn’t have a reservation, I had an actual paper ticket, which I bought six months before. They refuse to listen to reason, and place me on standby. When it looks like I won’t get on that flight, they offer me a flight to San Francisco instead, which does me no good, because my car is in LA. So they send me to JAL, to see if they might have a flight.

JAL tells me no problem, takes my PAL ticket and puts me on a direct flight leaving in 30 minutes and puts me in business class. Business class has about 5 people in it, so I practically had a flight attendant to myself for the duration of the flight.

The next summer I flew JAL, as did my fiancee when she came to the US. When we visit her family this summer, we will be flying JAL.