@Igloo - first, I definitely would NOT have been happy. I would have been quite upset, just as you and D were. And, I always pay for early boarding due to a musical instrument, so I’m totally on board with you. I was just trying to understand the particulars of her situation. Sounds like your D covered things well.
As for the AirBerlin change - no, I didn’t get a change notification by email, even though the change was made about a month before my scheduled flight. It showed up only on the reservation. I was more than surprised. The notification thing may be airline specific, or maybe my notification just got lost in e-mail heaven, but it taught me to be diligent. I remember in the good old days getting personal phone calls if a flight time was changed even by a few minutes - ancient history now, I guess.
As far as the apology goes, in a perfect or even considerate world, airlines would treat their customers better. Frankly, I don’t think that’s the corporate culture at all anymore. Individual employees can sometimes be wonderful, but for each of those, I seem to encounter just as many that are rude, snippy, demeaning, bossy, etc when I encounter them. I fly American or United most often domestically and I find little difference between the employees.
Do try a matter of fact Facebook post. Social media seems to be the feedback most attended to.
I guess I will get my money back eventually. What I would really like from American Airlines is for them to make getting my money back painless. I expected that will be possible if American Airlines is apologetic. I guess that is not happening. It will be another 2-3 hours on the phone or facebook/twitter to get my money back that I shouldn’t have to get back to begin with. We should all be enraged instead of putting up with it in fear of being called “kettle”.
Most flyers have been enraged for years. It hasn’t gotten us anywhere, and just makes flying more dreadful to be constantly pissed off. I have settled on the airline that enrages me least frequently (Southwest), and fly them most of the time.
It’s not that we are willing to “forgive” unnecessary mistakes. It’s that when all the info you provided was that she got to her destination at the same time as planned, we were pragmatic in telling you that your chances for reimbursement are quite slim. And the idea that someone from AA was going to call you and apologize – honestly, it just doesn’t happen like that. We are realistic. We can be sympathetic, but also realistic.
Can you clarify what the additional expense of $100 was? Was that the shuttle for one airport to the other? That seems a lot for the shuttle. Was it extra fees associated with the instrument?
Do you have protection from your credit card company?
Until you told us later in the thread that the reimbursement you were expecting was for additional fees, we thought you were expecting reimbursement for the original flight because your D didn’t make it on her original flight. I agree with others that, if she got to her destination around the same time (even within a few hours), they owe you no ‘reimbursement’ for the flight. If you incurred additional expenses, then you should get some money back - but you have to decide if the headache it will take to get that will be worth it.
FWIW… American Airlines did us good many years ago when a connecting flight to Hawaii got cancelled due to mechanical problems. We eventually got to Honolulu, nine hours later, which made us miss the last flight to the big island for the day, and we missed a day of vacation. There were five of us traveling, and I followed up with it, in writing - no phone call, no email. We eventually got five total vouchers for $250, issued to each traveler. These days I don’t know if I’d even count on that. That’s how bad the airline business is. It’s going to take a lot more than just little old me and you, and others like us complaining to make them change their game - it hasn’t happened in the last ten years, and I don’t know if I expect it to happen soon.
I can’t remember the exact details, but last year we were flying from BWI to Maui, first class (A first for us). On plane, mechanical difficulty, got off plane, no help at counter, called American ASAP, made it to Maui same day, but very late. After a couple of e-mails I wound up with $200 in vouchers. I had used points for the trip, but it was still a huge inconvenience involving lots of stress. They also screwed up our return flight, bit that’s another story. Got nothing for that one.
She got close to her destination, not to her actual destination. Yes, the airline owes you the money to get her to her original destination. Unfortunately, we’ve all gotten too accustomed to bad service and extra fees from airlines.
“I am certain that I will get that. I’ll make them pay. They need to pay for their mistakes.”
And we’re saying … good luck with that.
Here’s my suggestion. Sign up on Flyertalk (they make CC look like a bunch of cuddly bunnies). Post your query on there and see what the experts there say about your chances of getting reimbursement.
I agree someone clearly screwed up at the airline, esp if you have proof that you paid for the round trip. I’m sure it was inconvenient and upsetting. But people who don’t fly a lot really don’t have a sense as to what is an “outrageous” screw-up that will result in compensation / vouchers, and what are just unfortunate bumps in the road.
How far apart were the destinations? Remember that the airlines consider things in the same metro area to be somewhat interchangeable. For example, if you were trying to fly into ORD and you got diverted to MDW, they may or may not consider that a “separate location” since you’re in the Chicago metropolitan area. Ditto for JFK / LGA / EWR; ditto for PBI / FLL / MIA. While I don’t know their specific rules, it’s possible that a “same metro area” (by their definition) counts as close enough. I’m not apologizing or excusing this, I’m just saying that you have to deal in reality.
@Pizzagirl’s suggestion of asking the FlyerTalk folks about reimbursement/apology is a good one. They calmed me down over my Air Berlin change!
By the way, my solution was to stay an extra day to catch a non-stop to ORD. That cost me nearly $300 for the additional hotel night. Had I known earlier that the flight change was coming, the hotel would have been significantly cheaper. My alternative would have been a flight to Kennedy, then LaGuardia to O’Hare - not a viable alternative for me. Or, fly somewhere in Europe, then eventually get back to ORD requiring 10 - 15 hours of commotion. FlyerTalk posters encouraged me to bite the bullet, take the change and move on. I did.
I would post your story, Iglooo, except then you might see my screen name on there (which is different from what I use here) and is more personally identifying. But it’s easy to set up an account and post it in the American forum. Provide ALL the details (specific airports, the fact that she did try to check in using the email, etc.). They are EXTREMELY helpful there, but they pull no punches!
I don’t know why anyone would think that? If I get reimbursed for the original flight, I would have to pay for the flight she took. I am sure the airline would be delighted to reimburse me. The new flight will be more expensive since it was bought on the day of travel and it is a one way ticket. Isn’t that why we poor souls stand in line to rebook instead of taking the refund and run?
As a seasoned traveler, I really don’t understand what you are so “enraged” about. A mistake was made and you should be reimbursed if you had to pay out of pocket for the shuttle if she was rebooked to a city outside of the original metro area. It sounds like the ticket counter agent apologized and succeeded in booking your DD on another flight arriving near the original scheduled time. You’ve emailed the airline proof of your expense and requested a refund. Your reaction to a situation that happened a week ago seems out of proportion to the incident. Is there something you are hoping to gain by posting or do you just want to vent?
Because you said this, on the second page of the thread
This was the first time you mentioned there was an expense due to the change, then later admitted there was a shuttle and seat preference charge. How were we to know these were the expenses you were talking about?
Airlines get away with crap… all of them do, even my beloved Southwest Airlines. If you start eliminating certain airlines from your list of options because of experiences like this, you will find that you eventually have no options. A huge number of passengers these days are business travelers. Airlines know that and know that businesses are less likely to go after the airlines for inconveniencing their employees, so they get away with making mistakes, and really have little motivation for remedying the situation. There’s not an airline out there that doesn’t have millions of complaints about it. At least I’m in a large enough metropolitan area that I have some relatively decent options (if Southwest doesn’t work); I really feel for the people who live in smaller markets where mostly one or two airlines serve the majority of flights. Those people are truly stuck.
If the airline acknowledged that it screwed up, then I would’ve expected it to cover the cost of the land transport between airports. Airlines typically will book an entire bus to ferry a plane load of rerouted pax. But since, your D was only one inconvenienced pax, seems like something fell thru the cracks-- but then again, I don’t know all the particulars of the case…