American Airlines repeatedly ignores their own written baggage policy

Date: 15 April 2013
Airline: American Airlines
Location: Denver, CO (DIA)
Flight: AA3613

I am seeking a reimbursement of $170, cash or airline credit, for an item that was pilfered from my checked bag.

On Apr. 15, I flew home to Chicago from Denver. When I retrieved my checked bag from the baggage claim, three of the pockets were splayed open and multiple items were coming out. One item was missing entirely: a pair of Black Diamond Sabretooth Pro Crampons (metal spikes you attach to boots for mountaineering and ice climbing, retail $170). They had been packed very securely.

I immediately filed a claim with the baggage department. My claim was initially denied. According to the documentation included with my checked bag stub, the airline has at least $3300 baggage liability per passenger, which does not cover 'photographic equipment, computers and any other electronic equipment, jewelry, cash, documents, works of art or other similar valuable items.' Crampons do not resemble anything in this list.

I was told that I could file a complaint online, which I did the following day. I received a reply, saying again that I was denied, with a similar list of non-covered items. Again, it does not seem that any of the non-covered items include crampons.

I wrote a complaint online once again, stating that my crampons are not included in their list of non-covered items. I received a reply stating that, ""It is our practice for personnel in our local offices to handle claims of this type. They have the full authority and responsibility in such matters. You will be contacted as soon as possible.

After three months, I still had not heard from the local office, so I called them directly. I was told that my file had been denied and closed out, that my item was not covered because, 'We only really cover clothes and stuff.' I was told there was nothing they could do.

I have been a regular American Airlines customer and would greatly appreciate the airline remedying this very unpleasant experience.

American Airlines plane ride turns into bus trip

Date: 28 June 2013
Airline: American Airlines
Location: LAX
Flight: 3626 (LAX to San Diego)

I purchased (suprise) ticket for my wife to fly from Maui, HI to Los Angeles, CA to San Diego, CA. I find out from her that the flight from Maui, HI to Los Angeles, CA was great. However, after arriving in Los Angeles, CA she sits on a plane for 30 minutes and is then told she has to ride a bus to get to San Diego !! What? I paid for her to ride on a plane, made arrangements to be picked up, and this experience cost me more money!

I have called Amercian Airlines and the only answer I got was "sorry". No compensation what so ever! So with this.... is the best option when flying into Los Angeles from Maui, HI is to get a Greyhound bus to San Diego? NOT happy with this issue.

Passenger harassed by airline employee

Date: 22 June 2013
Airline: American Airlines
Flight: 890
Location: DFW

An employee was helping me straighten out the flight confusion, another employee named BELLA (working gate C28 at approx 7 pm CST). I was both cursed at and yelled at regarding the way i was speaking (upset about my flight problem) in front of my children. she also told me i needed to learn how to "raise my children" ... after this interaction, i sat in gate, waiting my flight. i sent my 10 yr old daughter to read her name tag at which point, she enters the gate and in front of roughly 200 people, says to me ""if you want my name, don't send your kid, come get it yourself" i asked "what's your last name"" she responds "you don't need to know my last name" ..... i said nothing else. i intended to report her lack of professionalism with a frustrated customer, and so this is it.

American Airlines does little to help after canceling flight

Date: 7 June 2012
Airline: American Airlines, flight AA2401
Location: Dallas, TX (DFW)

I would like to file a complaint regarding AA lack of assistance for my parents and aunt (record locator [redacted]) to get them to their connecting flight LAX due to your canceled flight 2401 today, 7 June 2012. Final destination is Phnom Phen, Cambodia (international flight).

They were looking forward to this trip to visit their homeland after 10yrs of leaving it. But thanks to AA, their happiness have been drained from them.

It is in their policy to provide them assistance because they are the one at fault, all of sudden they canceled the 6:50am flight. Their policy is stated here http://www.aa.com/i18n/customerService/customerCommitment/conditionsOfCarriage.jsp&locale=it_IT

Basically my parents and aunt ran around like puppets at the airport today because they are unwilling to help find another flight for them, lugging with them all the boxes and luggages. AA send them back to Asiana Air but Asiana Air sent them back to you (AA). It doesn't matter what the reason why AA canceled their flight but the way I see it is that since AA is the one who canceled their flight (not Asiana) then AA should be the one to provide further assistance to get them on the next available flight out, if not today then tomorrow or the next day. I never heard of such nonsense that they cannot do anything what-so-ever!

AA have lost my whole family as a customer and we will never ever fly with them again for as long as we live. This company needs to shut down because they are in the business of customer service but they provide lack there of.

- Teri

A broken foot is more painful when your airline lets you down

Flight Details
Date: 16 April 2012
Airline: American
Location: Chicago (ORD)

I was arriving from Belize in time. I left my luggage for the flight connection. I already had my boarding pass for April 16th AA1869 flight with a boarding time at 4:55PM. I arrived at the gate D03 around 4:30PM with the wheelchair services (I'm have a broken foot, so I cannot walk all the way in the airport). The wheelchair responsible informed me that my flight is delayed (departure at 7:10PM instead of 5:25PM), she cannot stay with me. The radio was saying that the gate is changed for D04. I walked to D04 Gate (with a broken foot), nobody was there to answer our concerns.

I've verified my connection in Chicago, and with the flight delay I will miss my connection to Ottawa. So, I ask to another wheelchair responsible to go to the rebooking center. There, he gave me a new passenger itinerary for a flight to Ottawa for April 17th on flight AA3907 with a departure at 10AM and informed me that I will need to obtain a voucher for hotel/breakfast in Chicago.

It's around 5PM and I returned to gate D04. Around 6PM, AA responsibles are present at the booth. They asked for volunteers who want to change their flight with a compensation of $400 because the flight is overbooked. I go see them; I' m already delayed so I could help someone else if I could keep my next flight to Ottawa at 10AM.

The AA agent looked in the computer and said that I did not have a ticket for that flight; my flight to Chicago is registered for April 17th. She printed me a passenger receipt and ignored me and she didn’t want to listen me, and the said that I have to go to the rebooking center if I want to change anything to my ticket, she cannot do anything for me. I didn’t have access to the wheelchair services, so I had to walk to the rebooking Center.

The line was very long, I waited about 30 min in a standing position, but I cannot be in a standing position for an extended period and as the line is moving very slowly; I estimated the waiting period for about 2 hours. I see AA agent in an electric cart. I asked him if I could have access to the wheelchair services. He cannot do anything for me but I have to go to on the side of the booth and ask for the services. All peoples in line were yelling, the AA agent totally ignored me. I had to walk to another booth (at the Gate D15) to ask for the services. Fortunately, the agent there helped me. She looked my ticket and tried to understand what was happened. She was not able to understand why my ticket has been changed for April 17th (AA1869 Miami-Chicago– departure time 5:25PM and AA4098 Chicago-Ottawa – departure time 8:50PM). But, considering I didn’t have any other option to reach Chicago, Ottawa or Montreal on April 16th. She printed my boarding passes for these flights and gave me voucher for dinner/hotel/breakfast.

I asked to have a voucher for the hotel in the airport considering that I have a broken foot and I have difficulty to walk. She gave me a voucher for the Regency Hotel which is not inside the airport limit and required to take a shuttle. After trying to have access to the wheelchair services (I had waited for 30 min.), another AA agent in an electric cart, drove me to the closest door to the shuttle area. It was around 9:00PM when I could go out of the airport.

So, I want to know what compensation American Airlines will offer to me. Why if my flight is delayed of 24 hours I do not have access to 3 meals (I didn’t have access to a lunch voucher)? I want to know what I’m supposed to eat with an allocation of $12 for the dinner and $7 for the breakfast (the minimum breakfast cost at the Regency is $1250)?

For your information, I had to miss a complete working day which is representing for me about $550 of income loss. This is not considering all the other inconvenient.

When I tried to sent this to complain to the AA customer services, I cannot send the whole story because they limit the number of caracter to 1500. I've sent two parts of the story, but I cannot sent the latest section, because the web complaining access system has been blocked.

- Beaulieu

How can a simple request for food turn into a security situation?

The following article is from a copy of a customer service email that was sent to our partner site AirSafe.com. It is about an American Airlines Flight on August 4th where things got a bit out of hand between a flight attendant and two passeners. Some of the contact information was removed, but all of the emotion remains.

Date: 4 August 2010
Airline: American Airlines
Flight: 1212
Location: Orlando, FL to Chicago, IL

Dear American Airlines,

On Wednesday August 4th 2010 my fiancé and I flew from Orlando airport to Chicago O’Hare airport on AA Flight #1212. The customer service during this flight was horrendous and needs to be dealt with in an immediate manner. We were treated like criminals by a flight attendant just for asking for cheese and crackers. Due to this incident we will never fly American Airlines again unless the situation is handled properly.

The flight left the gate on time however a minute after leaving the gate they announced that the flight was going to be delayed for over an hour due to weather in Chicago. When we called our family in Chicago they said that the weather indeed had been horrible. Our question is why in the world would we leave the gate if the weather was that bad and wouldn’t they have checked this prior to leaving the gate? How could they have not known the weather was bad just two minutes before? This inconvenience was not comfortable to deal with but I would never write a letter like this just because of this problem. The major issue, which is why we are writing this letter, is the service that was provided by one of your flight attendants named Darlene and the resulting events.

With both of us being in customer service fields we see and deal with many patients and guests every day. One of us is a nurse practitioner and the other is a hotel manager. We both know the level of service that is expected and needed in customer service fields. On Wednesday August 4th that level of customer service was not met and was breached beyond belief. It is the worst customer service that I have ever seen or experienced in my life by an airline attendant.

When the plane took off it was a quiet ride until it was time for drink service. We were seated in an exit row about half way down the plane. We did not buy snacks at the airport because we thought we would be arriving before lunch in Chicago. However, since we were delayed I decided to purchase the cheese and crackers snack since I was very hungry at this point. I then proceeded to ask Darlene if I could purchase the cheese and crackers, Darlene then rather rudely responded we are out of cheese and crackers. When I asked what else she had she took a bag and threw it on the cart and said “these”. I then asked what “these” were and she answered I don’t know some kind of nut mix. I responded do you have anything else available because I am allergic to some nuts. Remember we are only halfway through the plane and nuts were the only thing you had left. I understand that the airlines are feeling the economic pressures and that items are no longer given away for free but you should have the proper amount of product to be bought if offering this to customers. She responded no and so I asked how can you run out of all snacks when you aren’t even half way through the plane. Darlene responded well I don’t stock the plane and if you don’t like it you can write a letter to corporate. This comment was given in a very sarcastic loud tone.

Seeing that this was going nowhere and Darlene was not being very nice and becoming very animated, I very politely asked her to be quiet and not talk to us anymore because she isn’t helping the situation and if she could please serve us our drinks and drop the snack issue. She continued to badger us and kept talking about how she did not pack the cart and we should write a letter. We then asked her to please stop talking to us and leave us alone again. At this time she replied did you just tell me to shut up. My fiancé replied that this was horrible customer service. She then said if you continue to talk I will have security meet you at the gate when we arrive.

We then asked her again to leave us alone which she replied you’re harassing me and I don’t need this and turned and stormed towards the front of the plane. We were unable to walk away from the situation like I normally would because we were trapped in our seats by the two flight attendants and the service cart. We both sat there in shock of what just happened. She then went to the front of the plane and came back and said security would be waiting for both of us. Darlene then said to the other flight attendant standing there that she would not serve us and asked him to do it. At that time we asked the other flight attendant if he heard what was taking place and want we did wrong which he replied that he wasn’t paying attention and he only heard us ask her to leave us alone.

About 15 minutes later she came down the aisle and gave us paper work that stated that we were interfering with airline business, being verbally abusive and intimidating an airline employee. First of all during the whole encounter the only thing that my fiancé said was this was horrible customer service and he was also given this paperwork. Secondly neither of us should have received this letter as the Darlene the flight attendant was the only one in the wrong in this situation. Neither of us at any time interfered with any airline business and at no point did we ever threaten her or verbally abused her. We never even stood up in our seats, cursed at her or made any demeaning or threatening comments. How is asking someone to leave you alone threatening? If anyone was becoming aggressive or threatening, it was Darlene not either one of us. After we received the paperwork we called over the other flight attendant again who was present during the whole situation and asked him why are we receiving this and what does it mean. He said well I wasn’t paying attention so I don’t know why you are getting the notice and he did not know what it meant or what would happen but he would send Darlene back to answer this. Are you telling me, that you as an airline employee seeing a confrontation occur with a passenger that you are not trained to watch the situation to see what occurs especially when you are three inches away from the situation? If the situation was so severe that it is going to involve security why would another flight attendant not get involved? Wouldn’t you step in and try to diffuse the situation or at least assist your colleague?

Also, are your flight attendants not aware of what these notices mean and how to properly use them since he could not explain this to us? We then had to sit there for over an hour wondering what was going to happen and if we were going to be arrested. Being so upset and bothered by the situation I cried for over 20 minutes and was tortured by the fact that we didn’t know what was going to happen.

When we got off the plane Darlene was standing with 10 American Airline Corporate security agents. Darlene pointed at us and said “that’s them”. Everyone on plane then looked at us as they were walking by like we were terrorists or criminals when we never did anything wrong. When the head security agent, Joe, saw us he told the other agents that he would take care of the situation and to go about their business elsewhere. Joe was extremely respectful and told us to continue on to the end of the jet way and wait for him. He then explained that he already spoke to the flight attendant but that he needed to hear our side of the story because they still needed to make a report. We proceeded to tell him the details of the incident while the whole terminal was staring at us. He then apologized that this happened and stated that we were not in trouble and there would be no further repercussions for us.

We then told him that we wanted to make a complaint against Darlene. I explained that this was such a silly thing to be calling security over and what a huge waste of our time and I wanted the airline to be aware of how their flight attendant is acting due to the fact that her instability could affect her ability to perform necessary flight actions. The security agent agreed with us and thought that Darlene was the one that was wrong. We proceeded to retrieve our luggage where I asked the customer service representatives if I could please speak to the flight attendant supervisor. They replied that they had no idea how to get a hold of them and to send an email.

I then proceeded to the ticket counter where I again asked to speak to a flight attendant supervisor. The first representative said that she had no idea how to get a hold of one and then called over her supervisor who then proceeded to call flight services. Flight services wanted to speak to me over the phone who it turned out to be the security agent, Joe. Joe explained to me that the flight attendant supervisor was not in today. I asked if I could call her tomorrow then and he replied that there is no number to reach her at. So then I asked if he could leave her a message so she could call me back as I wanted to make her aware of the situation, he said this was possible and that Jennifer would be calling me the next day. Over ten days later and I have still not received a phone call.

The customer service that was provided by Darlene we are sure is not what you expect from your employees. Working in the medical field and the hotel industry we know that we would want to know if this extremely poor level of customer service was being shown to our guests. We expect that something should be done with this letter as it was the worst travel experience that we have ever had, and further more the worst example that I have ever heard of. We also expect to be compensated in some way for the inconvenience and suffering this has caused. With many choices of airlines to fly on we will be very skeptical to ever fly on American again unless you truly show that this is not the level of service that should be provided by American Airlines. We will be happy to discuss this issue further at anytime.

Thank you for your time and consideration in this horrendous matter,

[names withheld on request]