to aggravate, irritate and disappoint customers one customer at a time.

One FlyingColors reader just let me know about yet another American Airlines blunder that occurred yesterday.  This same reader spurred this POST just weeks ago.  This time, the Dear Reader had scheduled a family trip to Connecticut and because he’s an AA Platinum member, he used his miles to get 3 First Class tickets for his wife and 2 daughters and decided to purchase a Coach ticket for himself on the assumption he could readily get an upgrade.

I know, you’re thinking this is about not getting an upgrade, aren’t you?  Wrong.  About a week and a half prior to departure, our Dear Reader tried to confirm their travel via AA online only to discover that, suddenly, his wife didn’t have an assigned seat.  Not only that, the online portal wouldn’t permit him to get another assignment for his wife.

Undaunted, Dear Reader phoned American Airlines at their AAdvantage phone number to get it taken care of.  Once he had a reservations agent on the line (after 15+ minutes of waiting), he was told by this agent that no seat would be assigned until the day of the return trip from Connecticut and would not discuss the reason why.  When probed for more information, the agent simply replied “I’m not at liberty to discuss this further with you.”  All done with a secretive and somewhat hostile tone.

That’s when Dear Reader called me and asked what I thought was going on.  After hearing his account of the cryptic dialog with  the agent, I responded it really could be anything but that it almost sounded like a security problem.  Dear Reader wanted to address that before the trip but I explained that likely no one would address the issue until they decided to address it with his wife.  Indeed, I also advised that it would likely turn out to be not a problem once they arrived and checked in for the flight.

Well, I was kind of right.  It wasn’t a security problem.  It was a First Class is oversold problem.  At check-in, they continued to decline to assign a seat to his wife and spent their time instead offering a rather generous $300 voucher and guaranteed space on the next available flight via Chicago (he was traveling from Connecticut to the DFW area.) 

However, since he was traveling with family and had committments to keep in the DFW area, they declined such a reward and waited.  Only after everyone else was boarded did they assign his wife a seat and they were able to return.   Dear Reader got to ride in Coach and get harrassed by amateur travelers but they got home.

Yes, his wife and kids were traveling on points.  So what?  That’s the reward for spending enough money and flying enough trips on AA to become an AA AAdvantage Platinum member.  Besides, those seats are so hard to come by that, if they do have them and they do guarantee them and issue a ticket, this is one problem that should *not* be presented to a Platinum member.   At the end of the day, American Airlines made up the game and set the rules, let’s not be sympathetic if it doesn’t work out to their AAdvantage.

What’s more, they created a hostile environment for the Dear Reader and his wife by implying it was so much more a problem than it was.  Ironically, if they had been told what the problem was, they would have readily re-booked the flight either for later in the day or the day later.  Yes, American, your customer could have been made happy by just *telling them* what the problem was.  Instead, you chose, once again, to act like information was a golden nugget to be hoarded and induced concern and worry over a flight. 

You did it to one of your best customers.  And people still ask me why I’ve chosen to take my business elsewhere.   Airlines won’t start improving their service and treatment of you, the customers, until you do start taking your business elsewhere.  Remember that.

So, I repeat once more:  Really American Airlines . . . is that the best you’ve got?

Filed under: Airline Service by ajax