In April I flew back to TX to see my family for the first time since I moved to NYC a year ago. I booked a flight that left at 3:15 pm the day before my father’s birthday and was scheduled to fly back at 10:55 am 3 days later.
I got to LGA at 1:10 pm, checked in and picked up my ticket, went through the security checkpoint, and meandered over to my gate. I was seated at the gate by 1:30 and content to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes until my plane was ready to board. About an hour later they announce that the plane I am supposed to board has some electrical problems so they are trying to get them repaired, but that we should expect to be delayed by about 20 minutes. Not a problem, I have several books and my iPod to keep me entertained. At about 3:00 they announce that they couldn’t actually repair the plane that day so we were going to have to wait while the found us another plane for the trip. Well, that sucks but what can you do, right? I sit and read for a bit and then get out my iPod and listen to all of Michael Jackson’s #1 hits followed by the Mamma Mia! soundtrack. Around 5:00 they tell us that they found a plane and that they are just going to have to haul it over to our gate so we can board, but that they are doing some last minute work on this plane so that will take a few moments longer. At 6:30 a bunch of us are standing at the gate waiting to board when they announce another short delay. It is at this point that they announce that they will be testing the fire alarms in the airport. So we are all standing there, at this point more than 3 hours delayed and now we have to listen to the fire alarms for the next 15 minutes. We finally board the plane at 7:00, but then the check engine light for the plane goes on and we have to sit for another 20 minutes while they come check what is wrong with the plane. We FINALLY take off at 7:20, 4 hours and 5 minutes late. At this point I am upset but not to the point of complaining. Because the flight was delayed for so long the plane is mostly empty so I have a whole row to myself and about halfway through the flight we end up flying next to a lightning storm, which was an incredible sight and is now on my list of the top 5 most beautiful things I have ever seen, so that made me feel a bit better about the delays.
My trip back to TX was wonderful. I got to see all of my family and friends that I hadn’t seen in a year and I got to eat decent Mexican food and chicken fried steak. On the morning I am supposed to leave my family and I are sitting at IHOP eating breakfast when I get a call on my cell phone. It is an automated call from AA telling me that my flight has been cancelled and that my new flight leaves 5 minutes later. Not a big deal at all, so we finish eating and head to the airport. I get dropped off and check in at the desk. Then I look at my ticket to find out that not only was my flight cancelled but the flight they booked me on is not a nonstop flight like I had originally paid for but stopped in Atlanta, adding an extra hour to my flight time. And they hadn’t assigned me a seat, I was just supposed to wait until everyone had boarded and take whatever was left.
At this point I am starting to get mad. I am remembering all the crap from my flight into TX and now it is starting up again on my way back to NYC. I go and sit at the gate and get out my book but I am having trouble focusing on reading. Then they announce that my new, longer flight for which I haven’t even been assigned a seat will be delayed at least an hour. I go and buy a snickers bar and call my mom. She and I chat for a bit and I have some chocolate in hopes that I will calm down but it didn’t help. Then another announcement comes over the speakers that the flight will actually not be leaving until around 2:00. Now I have pushed to my breaking point and I walk over to the desk and ask where I can register a complaint. The guy at the desk tells me that isn’t possible. Excuse me, not possible? I assure you there is someone at AA who gets paid to apologize to people for this kind of crap and I want to know who that is so I can get my apology! He prints off something from a 1980’s style dot-matrix printer and hands it to me. It is an address where I can write a letter. No phone number, no email address, nothing. Well, I’ll show him! I have the AA frequent flyer phone number programmed into my cell phone so I call them and get transferred around about 4 times until I reach a customer service rep. I tell her I would like to file a complaint and she stops me, telling me that I can only register a complaint with her manager. Okay then, get me your manager. So the manager comes to the phone and I start to explain to her my saga of crap that I have experienced on my flights to and from TX. She stops me after a few seconds and says, “Ma’am, I don’t need to hear the whole story. What is your complaint?”
“My flights were severely delayed, adding about 8 hours to my total travel time.”
“I can’t do anything about that, ma’am”
“Seriously, you can’t do anything at all?”
“No, I don’t control the planes.”
“Well, I realize that you don’t control the planes. I would like to speak to someone who can do something to compensate me for my excessive delays.”
“Ma’am, I don’t understand your complaint.”
“I am spending 8 unnecessary hours in airports when I was supposed to have been with my family or doing laundry after my trip. I want to talk to someone who can help me with that.”
“What is your complaint, ma’am?”
“That I have been, and continue to be delayed at the airport.”
“I can’t do anything about that. I don’t control the planes.”
“Yeah, I figured that out. You don’t control the planes. At this point I am guessing the planes are controlled by monkeys.”
“No ma’am, they are controlled by the FAA! Do not insult the FAA!”
" … "
“I don’t understand your complaint. How can I help you?”
“Obviously you can’t!”
At this point I hung up the phone and went and paid $4 to use the internet at the airport and accessed the American Airlines website. I found a place to file a complaint there and typed out what you see above, pretty much word for word (except the conversation with the agent, I just told him she was rude and seemed unable to grasp basic concepts like flight delays.) I received an automatic reply email telling me they would get back to me soon, and yesterday I received the voucher for a free flight.
And that is my story, for those who wanted to hear it. 