Holiday Travel Hell Part 1: American Airlines really doesn’t care

by Catherine Bodry on

Like many other travelers in 2007, I’ve experienced several flight delays. Since I mostly traveled from Anchorage to Seattle, none of the delays were that big of a deal — I usually ended up exhausted (I always have to fly on red-eyes, and it’s a two-hour trip to the airport on either end), which I can deal with. I’m generally a patient traveler, and don’t get angry about situations out of my control. But as I wrote yesterday, my travels in December 2007 made me realize just why travelers get upset. I believe that it’s not necessarily the delays or cancellations; rather, it’s the behavior of customer service reps that get travelers fired up.

The first segment of my holiday trip from hell was a flight from Seattle to Dallas, en route to Tampa. Naturally, our flight out of Seattle was delayed, so naturally, my sister Ali and I missed our connection in Dallas. The gate agent at Dallas/Ft. Worth, who was disinterested and silent, silently handed us vouchers for a hotel stay and told us we were booked on a flight the next day at 12:25 p.m. There were close to a dozen passengers who missed the 9 p.m. flight to Tampa, and I overheard a few of them working with other agents reserve flights early the next morning. When I asked if other passengers were getting early flights out of Dallas, he replied “stand-by. They are all on stand-by.” As Ali and I walked away with our vouchers, a couple from our flight asked us the situation. We told them that we were confirmed on the 12:25 to Tampa, and had requested to be on the stand-by list for the 9 a.m. When the couple approached the same gate agent, he told them, “Don’t listen to them [my sister and me]. Listen to me.” And he booked them on a 6:30 a.m. flight! What gives?

Several of us ended up on the shuttle to the hotel together, where we were able to compare notes. One passenger had to pay for his hotel room. Another received food vouchers on top of the free room. Every single passenger was booked on either the 6:30 or the 9 a.m. flight, including people who approached the counter after and Ali me. We couldn’t discern any reason for the differences — no one was MVP, for example.

When we got to the hotel room, Ali called Expedia to make sure our rental car in Tampa would be held at least another 12 hours, while I got online to write a complaint to American Airlines. My complaint was not that our flight was delayed; instead it was the flippant attitude of the gate agent and the seemingly whimsical manner in which each passenger was treated. Why, for example, would our gate agent tell the couple behind us in line to listen to him, and then book them on an early flight? Ali and I were in no way rude — I always make sure I’m friendly and polite. Why didn’t we receive food vouchers? Why couldn’t we catch an earlier flight, since our vacation was already delayed a night?

The next morning we arrived early to try and ride stand-by on the the 9 a.m. flight. We didn’t get on, but we did find out about a 10:30 a.m. flight that was available. We were both able to fly stand-by on that one, thank goodness. No one had mentioned that flight to us before then.

I received a reply to my complaint yesterday from American Airlines. The response was a cheap attempt at disguising a form letter — it focused on our delayed flight, and repeatedly mentioned being unable to compensate monetarily for flight delays, even though I never asked for money and made clear that my problem was not with the delay but with customer service. At one point in the email the rep wrote that the customer service complaint “concerned” her and that she had reported it to her manager. Nothing specific, nothing about the fact that her gate agent had complete control over passengers’ flights and was able to pick and choose who he wanted to fly when.

So what did I want from American Airlines? I think just the reassurance that despite appearances, the airline was looking out for me. That those in charge actually care about my travel plans, and are doing their best to get me where I need to be as soon as possible. Instead I received an insincere apology aimed at removing blame for flight delays, when the actual delay was never the problem.

Now I understand why travelers get angry

by Catherine Bodry on

I’ve always been a patient traveler — or so I like to think. Missed trains and delayed planes don’t normally phase me beyond a general annoyance. I’ve always regarded the stressed-out angry traveler as someone who needs to take a chill pill and enjoy the journey. I plan to get sick, get robbed, and/or see big insects in my guesthouse; so I don’t take valuable items with me, and usually sleep with the lights on (just because I expect to see big bugs doesn’t mean I’m not scared of them).

But this holiday season, I had the experience that made me understand just why travelers get so pissed off. I’ll be discussing it in a three-part series coming up, but for now I want to apologize to travelers out there on whom I have formerly passed judgment. It sucks being stranded in the U.S.A.

Here are the lessons I learned this dismal holiday travel season:

1. Landing in Tampa does not have the charm of landing in Bangkok or Delhi. There’s no $1.50 tuk-tuk or rickshaw to take somewhere if your car rental reservation gets effed-up. When you’re stuck in a hotel room in Dallas outside the airport (a hotel with no bar, nonetheless), it’s not as cool to have to order a $12 pizza from Dominoes as it is to eat street food for a few cents. Thus, being stranded while traveling domestically loses any glamor it might’ve had in a foreign country.

2. Delays cost money. Delays cause stress. Vacations are short and expensive, so a day by the pool that has been replaced by sitting stand-by and eating unhealthy and expensive airport food is reason enough to get upset. But when airline, travel agent, and car rental companies have no empathy for the bedraggled traveler, it makes everything all the worse. All we want is a kind word and a little respect to help make up for lost time and spent money.

3. When things happen through no fault of your own, don’t expect anyone else to take the blame. You’re on your own. As such, take every single precaution you can think of to protect yourself. One thing I regret is not taking down names; it helps to know who you were dealing with when filing a complaint. And when you file a complaint, don’t expect reparations — but it’s still worth filing.

Those are the three major lessons I learned — what about you? Did you have any eye-opening experiences while you traveled over the holidays?

Airlines to Test Anti-Missile Systems

by Iva Skoch on

I’ve been hearing for years that commercial airlines had been considering adding some type of anti-missile defense system. The first tests are right around the corner.

American Airlines will arm as many as three planes with the systems, starting in the spring, on transcontinental flights, probably to/from NY and California. It’s called Jeteye (and designed by Obi-Won Kenobi?).

The general idea is that some type of counter-measure would deploy in the case of an in-coming terrorist’s-shoulder-fired missile.

I had two questions:

  1. How will they test the systems? Apparently, they won’t even be armed. Which begs another question: why bother?
  2. How do they work? I’ve read they are of two general types: either a laser that “jams” the missile’s guidance system, or some solid chunks of stuff, called “chaff,” that confuses the missile.

Which makes me think: why not just use a warning system and have the flight attendants chuck out frozen trays of “beef medallions in red wine sauce”? It serves two purposes: saving the plane and saving the passengers from eating the airline food.

[Via Engadget]

Food-for-sale menu on airlines: How much would you pay for a Clif bar?

by Jamie Rhein on

Over at Blogging Stocks, Zac’s posted a tidbit about the food-for-sale menu on American Airlines. The carrier is offering special menus through December 17. Each week there are new items. How does a $5 turkey sandwich sound? That’s the sandwich offering Nov. 5–Nov. 11.

Right now, it sounds good to me since I’m a bit hungry and I didn’t have lunch– particularly if it’s a sandwich made with multi-grain bread with a crunchy crust, crispy iceberg lettuce, a slice of juicy tomato, the right sized dollop of mayonnaise and a dash of black pepper–Oh, yes, and toast the bread please.

However, I don’t think I’d pay the $3 for a Clif Bar. First off, I don’t know what it is. I wasn’t willing to pay $5 for a cinnimon roll on Skybus either. Or $2 for that dinky cup of coffee. I was willing to pay for the breakfast sandwich though, although, the airline ran out so I didn’t get the chance. It was a good thing we sneaked food on since the $2 for a granola bar was way too much to ask, in my opinion. The $2 for a whole can of orange juice seemed reasonable enough, so I bought that. Besides, it helped wash down that bagel with cream cheese that I was carrying in my backpack.

As Zac points out, the overpriced food does help keep airfares down if people are willing to pay to quench their thirst and fill up their bellies. In general, I will fork over $5 for a bottle of wine. I don’t know why. Maybe because when I’m up in the air flying somewhere, it feels like a celebration. I get giddy. Plus, those bottles are kinda cute. What are you willing to pay for? If you can’t think of something how about. . .

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Frequent Flyer Fare Sale on American et al.

by Grant Martin on

Several of the major carriers are currently in a frequently flyer mile fare war among short hop tickets. As many of you know, a normal frequent flyer ticket costs 25k miles or more. But as many more of you know, most of us have far less than that in our accounts.

In this case, many tickets (depending on the carrier) are about 15k miles. I just booked a ticket from Detroit to New York for a grand total of five dollars in taxes.

If you know your plans well enough in advance, book early. American Airlines, for example, charges an extra $50 in fees if you book inside of a 21 day window prior to departure. You’ll also want to check the market price for your ticket; since the price of mileage tickets has gone down, so have the cash tickets. It may be better worth spending the $130 on the airfare and earning the miles against blowing your load on a cheap mileage ticket.

But for those of you who earn miles at a snail’s pace or have 15k stranded miles in a random frequent flyer account, take this opportunity to get away for the weekend and visit some friends in New York for dinner.

American’s fare sale is here while other carriers have similar pages. Travel between September 1 and February 29th.