She booked the flight in September. I think it was still under USAirways schedule. American Airlines changed the original schedule and allowed each passenger one change free of charge if the change doesn’t work. The new schedule had her arriving too late coming home. Her return trip was ok. She changed it to come home a day early. According to the ticket agent at the counter, the agent who made the change deleted her return trip. Frustrating thing is the deletion didn’t show up in the following confirmation email. The email showed the new schedule for the incoming and the original return trip. The ticket agent said there was no way we could have known.
And sometimes, they surprise you…
We were delayed for 5 hours—most of which was sitting in the airplane. The reason? Weather. Was it their fault? Of course, not, it was weather. But we had to sit in the airplane lined up on the runway waiting for a chance to take off. They allowed us to move about the plane and gave us drinks, they took care of us as best they could. Once we took off they even gave us free movies during the flight.
Anyway, we finally arrived to our destination 5 hours later. And to my surprise, they gave each of us a $50 voucher for a future flight. I did not expect that since the delay wasn’t their fault at all.
The airline? Jet Blue. =D>
As for the OP’s situation…Yes, I’d be rather upset, but things happen and it sounded like they took care of the situation. However, what to me is not acceptable is having to pay an additional $100. That I would fight.
So here is what happened to me on Friday. I was supposed to fly out from IAD to CLT, then to MEM on American. I got to the terminal, my flight to CLT had been cancelled. They had already rescheduled my flight (without me asking), from DCA to Memphis, 5 hours later. Taxi ride cost about $80, no notification whatsoever. Very long ten hour day, I was incredibly tired. Should I be angry?
I was actually pretty impressed. I had screwed up by not giving them my contact info for this flight. I hadn’t checked my reservation before I headed off to the airport, even though I should have known that flight was going to be cancelled due to weather. I normally provide the contact info and check ahead of time, but this was not on my time, it was a company scheduled flight, I was getting paid no matter what. By American putting me on that flight, they prevented me from getting stuck in the blizzard, though.
Sometimes I get reminder check in emails for flights I cancelled weeks ago, they mean very little. When your daughter was unable to check in online, that should have been a major clue to contact them. Don’t wait until you get to the airport. If they don’t have your contact info ( and no, they don’t pull it from the ticket purchase, I don’t think), they can’t contact. Delta is obnoxious about calling my home phone for flight changes. I suspect American changed the flight for your daughter for a reason, and didn’t have the contact info. Gone are the days that they hunt you down. This lesson could have been far more painful if she had been delayed significantly. You live and learn, and those of us who fly often know we have to be proactive, unfortunately, to avoid more misery.
Feel free to be enraged, however, I suspect there is more going on here than AA just trying to screw things up. Go on Facebook and complain if you like, or email customer service. I would email them with a polite, professional letter, detailing the event and ask for something reasonable. However, I suspect they didn’t have the contact info, so if true, it’s really your daughters responsibility to check. And getting to her destination just a little late? Most of us only hope for that!
As someone who used to get REALLY UPSET every time we had a travel snafu, I will advise you to chill out. I would definitely attempt to get reimbursement for your out of pocket expenses, but being upset does you NO good except to make you upset. It doesn’t change anything.
Pretty much every time we travel, something goes wrong. Big, little, somewhere in the middle, but we rarely travel without some kind of problem. I realized I was getting worked up every single time we traveled. My DH always let it roll off his shoulder, and he was quite a bit happier than I was. I finally decided to stop getting so frenzied about all these incidents. That doesn’t mean you roll over and accept unfair treatment, but you don’t let yourself lose control or let your anger take over and ruin your experience.
I am a MUCH happier traveler these days. I appreciate it very much when most goes smoothly, and I roll with the punches when things go wrong. I am so much happier as a result.
No it’s not. Usually it’s a minor problem. And if you call, they often just tell you to solve it at the sirport. We often get that message. It is usually a small glitch they fix within minutes at the counter. Instead blaming her, why not call out the airline, the email message should have been, “we have problems with your reservation, please contact us immediately” Calling American Airlines is time sink, it takes an hour each time. That makes you think twice before picking up the phone unless you are sure there’s a problem.
A few years ago we were flying from the bvi’s through San Juan and onto DC.
At San Juan a representative met us all at customs and took us to the ticket agent to rebook flights back to dc. 30+ hours later. They claimed it was weather, but no other airline or flight was delayed. They didn’t even offer a voucher for a hotel or food or anything . I happen to know San Juan and knew my favorite hotel was across the street. It also happened that on the way back my daughter was thrown from her horse at camp and was taken to the hospital. The airline couldn’t have cared less.
When I went to check in online within 24 hours for a United flight a few months ago, I found that my seat assignments had all been changed, and the initial leg of travel had no seat assignment. So I called. I reached some nice lady somewhere in Asia who told me that she couldn’t help me since it was within 24 hours of the flight! I would have to go to the gate early and straighten it out there. Just an example of how it’s BS that calling can always help you resolve your situation.
I went to the airport a day early to straighten it out. Luckily, the airport is only 1/2 hour away for me.
@iglooo, I’m with you and I fly pretty frequently. Stay with it and you’ll get your costs back and you’ll probably get an apology too. It takes time but ultimately they do come through. I have gotten reimbursements and vouchers and extra points deposited into travel banks simply by stating my case and not giving up. It should be easy; unfortunately it’s not.
I’ve also learned that finding the right employee at the airport is a special gift. I’ve had people work magic for me just because they were compassionate and resourceful. I make it a point to contact customer service when I’m lucky enough to encounter agents like this. I wish I could give your daughter pointers on how to find them but it’s hit or miss I’m afraid.
“No it’s not. Usually it’s a minor problem. And if you call, they often just tell you to solve it at the airport. We often get that message. It is usually a small glitch they fix within minutes at the counter. Instead blaming her, why not call out the airline, the email message should have been, “we have problems with your reservation, please contact us immediately” Calling American Airlines is time sink, it takes an hour each time. That makes you think twice before picking up the phone unless you are sure there’s a problem.”
So, since they apparently didn’t recognize there was a problem, why would they send her out an email, saying there is a problem with her reservation and to contact them? It sounds like they sent her a reminder email to check in for her flight. I thought it was just about a flight change, but now that I read further along down, with your explanations, if it actually happened as you state–it wasn’t a flight change, the ticket agent accidentally cancelled the flight instead of rescheduling it, then I would be annoyed. However, it does sound like they fixed the problem pretty quickly.
It really takes American an hour to answer the phone? That stinks. I fly on Delta and Alaska almost exclusively, and if I have any problem checking in (or checking my husband in) online, I call them, never wait for more than a few minutes, and ask, “Is there something wrong with this ticket?”
I do find that when I get the exact details about things (and track them down myself), that the reality of what has actually happened tends to change. However, I would still start by emailing American, and detailing the problem clearly, respectfully, and without rage. I never saw why you were out $100, why were you? If this is related to their screwup, then you should detail it and see if they will reimburse you. If you are still unsatisfied, you might feel better taking to social media, however, give the specifics in the first post.
It probably takes an hour to answer today. 
^Not answer the phone. They do answer but then it takes forever to tend to a minor problem. The ticket agent was on hold for an hour at the airport when she was trying to resolve my D’s issue. Need I say more?
"When I went to check in online within 24 hours for a United flight a few months ago, I found that my seat assignments had all been changed, and the initial leg of travel had no seat assignment. So I called. I reached some nice lady somewhere in Asia who told me that she couldn’t help me since it was within 24 hours of the flight! I would have to go to the gate early and straighten it out there. Just an example of how it’s BS that calling can always help you resolve your situation.
I went to the airport a day early to straighten it out. Luckily, the airport is only 1/2 hour away for me."
You actually went to the airport a day early for a seat assignment? Must have been for a very long flight.
I’m wondering who said that, “calling can always help you resolve your situation”. I must have missed that post. It often can help you resolve your situation, particularly if your flight has been cancelled or rescheduled. You really need to know about that ahead of time. Seat assignments within 24 hours are often within airport control, so you may not get a resolution over the phone.
“Indeed! busdriver as pilot has no idea what ordinary passengers go through. If we thought there was anything amiss, we would have done something. Everything was normal including that she couldn’t check in online”
Actually, if you only knew how funny that is. I am a proud (or is it pathetic) road warrior, with over 1.3 million miles on Delta, alone. I probably have more hours in the air as a passenger, than I do a pilot.
It sounds like you didn’t actually read my post. To repeat, I said that after reading more details, if it happened as you said, that I would be annoyed, also.
On my AA mobile app, I still have a notice for an “upcoming trip” to MAN that I took several months ago! I would not assume the systems for flight notification are seamless with actual ticketing.
Well, I’m not God but there are 6! Or at least there were 6 that we could use as government employees when traveling to/from the LA metro area: LAX, Orange County, San Diego, Ontario, Burbank, Long Beach. Some people loved to fly out of LAX, but most of us preferred Orange County or even San Diego. There were non-stop flights out of San Diego to DC that weren’t available out of Orange County. Jet Blue flies out of Long Beach.
I agree that getting mad doesn’t help, but often asking for help or pointing out that your daughter was very inconvenienced will get you the OOP expenses and maybe some extra travel credit or FF points (I too thought originally you were looking for a refund of the ticket price, not extra expenses). It was a mistake for the agent to cancel the return trip. A mistake, human error. Was she offered other choices? Fly to the original airport but later? Fly to nearby airport? Get a refund of the fare? Sounds like going to the alternative airport at around the same time was the best option, which you took and now need to be reimbursed for the shuttle.
My daughter was in route to LAX, changing planes in Denver, when I got a text that her connecting flight was going to be delayed 3+ hours. Not normally a big deal, but she was trying to get to her boyfriend’s graduation and this would have had his father picking her up at LAX at 5 pm on a Friday, then driving a mach speed to Orange County. Not possible. I got online, found a Denver to Orange Cty flight that was leaving 25 minutes after she got to Denver, got on the phone, asked if she could go to Orange County instead. The very, very nice person said she couldn’t make the transfer on the phone but put a block on a ticket. Daughter got off in Denver, I had her rush to a ticket agent who figured out the blocked ticket (they blocked it like we were going to pay for it, but that’s the only way to hold it) made the change, no cost to us. Daughter was the most confused of everyone in the process as both the agent on the phone and the one at the gate understood what I was trying to do. They even transferred her checked luggage (we never check luggage, but she did that day -live and learn) to SNA later that night, which was a much closer airport to where she was staying. Did they considered that she got to her ‘final destination’? Yes. Were we all happy? Yes, very.
Have you clarified how far apart the two airports were? Were they indeed same metro area? If there is a scheduled shuttle them, I would imagine so.
“Not answer the phone. They do answer but then it takes forever to tend to a minor problem. The ticket agent was on hold for an hour at the airport when she was trying to resolve my D’s issue. Need I say more?”
I guess it depends. If it was over the snowstorm, say Thursday-Sunday, one hour might have been surprisingly good. I talked to a passenger on Friday, flying on American, who had spent FIVE HOURS trying to resolve her minor issue on the phone. Sounded like the Obamacare signups. You would think they would make every single person come to work on days like those. Then again, if it was just on a normal day, one hour is pretty bad.
We travelled a LONG distance on a trip. At one point, there was some confusion over our seat assignments with a partner airline (all Star Alliance). Well…somehow when they assigned us seats, they didn’t link our accounts correctly, and we each “lost” 24,000 air miles of travel. We noticed this when we got home…and were told to write to the airline with evidence. Well…this was an outbound error. We didn’t have our boarding passes anymore…because of course the airline had them when we boarded. We were in the USAir lounges at Dulles, Johannesburg, Capetown…and my husband was a platinum FF at the time.
We never got those miles…which at the time would have gotten us a freebie ticket someplace.
Stuff happens.
I’m a fairly seasoned traveler and American Airlines is not top on my list today. We got back from a cruise Satueday. Our return flights had been scheduled to get us home by Saturday at 6pm. They were cancelled -no surprise there - and we got a message they were rescheduled for Sunday night. Ok, we can deal with getting home 30 hours late. Things happen and this snow was historic. We paid for a hotel room and prepared to grin and bear it.
This morning we got an email saying our flights were cancelled again. The earliest they could get us home was Tuesday or Wednesday but nothing was guaranteed.
Now we’re talking real money for hotels. So far I wasn’t blaming the airline at all. But I decided to call to see if I could change my flight to a different city so we could rent a car and get home by driving 5 or 6 hours.
When we got through on AA’s phones - a 2 hour wait - the person was rude and not listening at all. Hey, American, I know the snow is not your fault. But I can assure you it most certainly isn’t mine either! The call started out with the rep demanding to know why I wanted to cancel my February reservation. I said I don’t, and started to say what I wanted. She immediately interrupted me to say, loudly, that she didn’t know why I was bothering the airlines about a February trip. I said IT’S NOT THE FEBRUARY TRIP. She then said I was calling about a Feb trip because we don’t have a Jan flight scheduled. Then she told me not to call now about Feb. I finally just said, STOP, You need to stop talking and listen to me.
After I finally got her to listen I found out they had cancelled my latest set of flights then lost track of the fact that I needed to be rescheduled after sending me a note about rescheduling. The record locator had been cancelled in its entirety. Once she realized what I was calling about she was nicer, but in my book that’s not good enough.
If a police officer investigating a murder, or a doctor facing a patient’s family can start with “sorry for your loss” I have no idea why airline people can’t learn to deal. if we passengers have learned to put up with so much I cannot understand why American’s people and systems fall apart.
Hayden, that agent’s behavior was abhorrent. I like how you said, “STOP, You need to stop talking and listen to me”!
However, it sounds like you are still stuck out. I hope that you are stuck somewhere really awesome, to help soften the pain of the hotel room cost. Where are you, and where are you trying to go?