American Airlines
Reviews and Complaints

Please help me understand how a simple weekend trip for a security conference in vegas could be ruined by the mediocrity of your standard service. Let me preface the following with the fact that the last time I took american your airlines had left me stranded in chicago for 3 days, and wouldn't let me take a flight to san fran instead, which I was scheduled to take the monday after I returned from chicago.

I had booked a flight to las vegas back in april that was scheduled to leave lga on 8/7/2008 (#785 @ 6:25pm with a dallas layover for flight #355). Well as usual, I arrived at the airport at 4:30 only to find out the flight was delayed until 7:30.

Upon finally boarding the plane, the pilot began to inform us of inclement weather (which there was none) and we would be taking off shortly... "shortly" however turned into 3 trips around the airport and the pilot reporting numerous times that we are in queue for takeoff then back again to circling the airport. The last count I believe was 3 times we were in queue. Taking off after 2 1/2 hours of ground time.

As we are in the air, I know there is no way I am making my connection, so i'm fully prepared for more american issues. As we are approaching dfw, the pilot announces the gates for the connections. I ask the flight attendant if the vegas flight will still be there. He responds by saying "oh yeh thats gate d26 you'll make it, the oklahoma city folks probably wont".

Once we land at your hub, now we are circling for 15 minutes, because "ground crew" was unavailable. Finally we're off the plane. I ask the desk agent about the vegas flight and she informs me that yes they are still here and you should be able to make it. So now onto my 20 minute walk to the other gate.

I get to the gate and they are just closing the doors... I immediately ask the agent why did they close the doors.. Only to be told they gave away my seat... Now i'm usually a calm individual but this was ridiculous... American kept me hostage for 2 1/2 hours on the tarmac, and then gives away my seat on the connection? I had a conference that started the next morning and now thanks to american I wasn't making it. She had also said we told them not to send you over here.

So I ask the agent about the next flight, and who would cover my room, since I had already spent 300 on a room in vegas. She said that I am because it was an air traffic control issue (all my buddies that flew delta got out...) then she tells me the earliest she can get me out is 2pm the next day.. However when she saw it was a first class seat, she said she would be able to confirm me on the 10:30 flight, and she printed a room voucher for me. She also showed me the room voucher pointing to it, so the irate customer next to me wouldn't say anything because he was requesting a room as well.

Fine... Already I am going to miss the start of my conference... I wake up the next morning to head to the airport. The flight was supposed to go out of a11 at dfw (flight# 1811) at 10:30. I had some breakfast, smoked a cigarette go through security and get to the gate at 10:05. No sign on the board... Hmm... Ask the agent and he said it was moved to gate d26. So now I have to go through the entire airport again. Have to recheck in because of change of equipment, only to find out the plane is delayed until 11:30. When I finally get into vegas it is almost 3pst, and I had lost an entire day of the conference, and 300 for the room...

My flight back was equally as bad... Arrived at airport at 6:00 for a 7:25 flight... Flight was delayed until 8:15. Once we boarded at 7:30, we just sat... No informational announcements... Just sat and sat and sat.. Again 2 1/2 hours on the tarmac at the gate. To top it off the staff on this flight was just as bad.. While I was passed out the flight attendant walked into my shoulder while she was passing out food. Then I woke up and she says. "oh do you want to eat too". Thats the worst first class service I have ever had...

Then it takes almost 90 minutes to get my luggage at jfk... So all in all I got on the plane at 7:25pst and didn't get out of the airport until 6:45est for what should of only been a 4 1/2 hour flight.

I'm not looking for an apology... Just want a simple explanation on why you feel you can provide such horrible service. You are not the only airlines. I have cancelled my citi advantage mastercard today, and will be transferring my miles as well.. Good riddance american.

Last year I bought a round trip ticket from austin to new york to see my parents.

I had a severe injury from the army and was honorably discharged. I was discharged on august 2007 and the return flight was on september of 2007. The injury prevented me from flying back home to my wife once I was in ny. The airline told me they would credit me, so I was relieved. I had therapy and still reside in ny while my wife is in texas.

Recently, I wanted to use my credit, but was told it had expired! I wasn't asking for extra miles or any perks. I was only asking to receive my $300 I had already been charged on my credit card. They said nothing could be done. No credit, miles, nada! This is a bunch of horse radish if you ask me.

Please help me because these people are totally robbing me. I'm not an american airline ceo that makes millions. The economy is tough and aa is doing everything they can to maximize their profits. However, denying me my hard earned money is unethical.

Thank you for listening

As an american airlines (aa) frequent flyer of 100k miles, I have to say aa just isn't what it used to be when it comes to customer relations, and they won't be getting another 100k miles out of my family.

While shopping on their website for flights, I tried to select "infant in lap" for our one year old son, but there was no option available, so I consulted the site on the subject and found a page "traveling with children and infants" page, which informed me the following:

"infants under 2 years of age who travel within the united states, canada, puerto rico and the u.S. Virgin islands may be held in an adult's lap at no charge. For transatlantic/transpacific travel or travel to/from latin america, children under two years of age are required to have a ticket in their name for 10% of the applicable adult fare for the international portion."

When I called reservations before booking the flight, they said their online system doesn't enable us to select "infant in lap", and I should just call in sometime after we make the reservation to notify aa of the infant in lap.

The fares for my wife and 4 yr old son were quoted at $996.90 each ($1, 993.80 total). When I called in later to notify of the infant in lap, I was told the extra charge is $553 ($154 fare + $399 in taxes). That is a far cry from the 10% of the applicable adult fare for the international portion.

I asked reservations agents to explain it, but they couldn't, so I wrote customer relations with their web-based form. Their email reply said to just call reservations again. Which I did again and again.

Finally, it was explained to me that the 10% of the fare ($154) was based on a higher rate due to lower inventory of seats available when I called back to inform them of the infant in lap. They couldn't explain why that matters if he is in his mom's lap and not taking up any seat, nor eating any of the airlines food. But that wasn't the part that bothered me. It was the $399 in fuel surcharge and miscellaneous other fees.

I understand air fares need to go up when fuel costs go up and I don't mind paying a "fuel tax" on my 14 lb. Infant. I'd even be happy to pay real taxes (especially if they were used to invest in alternative energy), or get charged some carbon offsets. The bigger issue is with the utter lack of information and support through the whole process of booking our flights:

1. No option to choose "infant in lap" when booking online.

2. No indication anywhere on their site about paying taxes and fees on top of the "10% of the applicable adult fare for the international portion".

3. No hints by agents that i'll be in for a big surprise after I book the flights for mom and big brother.

4. Nobody in reservations able to adequately explain how the fare is calculated, and why the "fuel surcharge" is nearly 3x the fare. They make it sound like the $399 is all going to uncle sam.

5. Response from customer relations was to simply call reservations again. No support from the people who supposedly care about their customers...

6. Several calls later, I got an explanation of the charges and how they calculated them, but no reasons why they can't warn their valued customers a little better before they book their non-refundable flights.

7. There is no way to reply to the customer relations email. The only way to contact them is through their online form or via snail mail.

Warning to parents with infants: if you plan to carry your infant in lap on an international flight with aa, make sure you find out how much they are going to charge you before you book your flight. If you can't do that, try another airlines that will cooperate with you better.

I am the fiance' of an employee of american airlines. She has had an illness for the past year that has left her anorexic and under 90 lbs. American expects their employees to never become ill, but where she has to work the building is totally consumed with mold which has caused several other employees to become very ill over the past several years. My fiance' underwent surgery last year and suffered a reaction to the antibiotics that were given to her to ward off possible infection. She lost her taste and appetite and ability to digest solid food. Being a nuclear engineer, I have temporary assignments that present themselves occassionally requiring me to locate to any state on a moments notice. Due to my fiance's condition I have had to turn down several assignments over the past year to care for my fiance'. During this time my fiance' has received several "occurance" notices from american for failure to abide by american's attendance policies. Obviously, they couldn't care less if their employees are near death... All that is important to them is lining gerard arpy and friends pockets. I would be very appreciative if someone could inform me of someone with whom I could contact to publicly expose american and bring their abuses to the attention of the american public. America needs to be made aware of just what kind of employer american airlines is and how they abuse their employees. The moral of this airlines is at present zero due to the abuses of gerard arpy and his friends in so far as their hoarding all of the profits of american airlines and in not sharing any of the wealth that the employees were responsible for generating. All of the complaints I have noticed on this blog can be attributed to that condition. Once again, any help in publicly exposing american airlines as being what they truly are would greatly be appreciated. My email is [protected]@sbcglobal.net
Thank you

On july 16th my family and I flew from austin to tampa for vacation using aa miles. Two days earlier, on the 14th, I received an email upgrade notification. The notification seemed odd to me since i've flown aa for 20 years and am very familiar with their rules but thought that maybe the rules had changed. After arriving at the ticket counter I was informed by the agent, her first name was judy but she would not give me her last name (hispanic women in her 40's, overweight, short dark hair with glasses), that we would not be receiving the upgrade and that we'd lost the seats I chose on the website and my family would be seated all over the two flights to tampa. When I protested she began blaming me, saying that I shouldn't have checked the upgrade box on the website. Knowing that it was impossible to request an upgrade online using miles I then became angry and demanded to see a supervisor. She came back out 10 minutes later and says it will be another 20 minutes. The supervisor finally came out and did nothing to help, even when judy threatened to have me arrested. The agent doesn't have a clue how the website works and now she taunts me into becoming angry and then threatens to have me arrested? I have 1.6m miles with aa and have never lost my cool, but i've never been treated this way either, by any airline.

I used to feel sorry for aa employees since many of their issues are out of their control but not anymore. They openly mock and ridicule aa management, especially over the bonus payouts to executives, and now it's reaching the customer level. One attendant on a flight I recently took openly announced her displeasure with the bonus issue over the intercom as we were landing. These people don't like their management or their jobs and it shows.

No more loyal customer here though. I've already made 4 trips since then, all on southwest, and will continue to do so. They sing to you instead of complaining.

I flew on 8/9/08 from orange county airport to dfw airport, flight 1774. It was myself, my husband, my nephew, and daughter. We had 4 bags.

When we arrived at dfw, we received 3 out of 4 bags at baggage claim c16. The bag that was missing was bagtag 00-68-57. I asked an agent, ms. Washington, if all the bags have been delivered, because I am missing one. She informs me according to the computer, our missing bag was placed on an earlier flight and is in a different terminal. I say ok who will bring it to me? She informs me no one, I will have to get it myself. I advise her that my family is being picked up and this problem was at no way my own fault and it needs to be delivered to me. She advises me I can take the tram. I ask for a supervisor.

Ms. Patricia bradberry walks up and immediatly has an attitude with me just by her demeanor. She asks me what the problem is, I tell her I need someone to go get my bag for me. She repeats what ms. Washington said about its in a different terminal and I can take the tram to get it. I tell her I refuse to do so since this is no fault of my own. She then tells me "well I just won't speak anymore since you cut me off." I did not cut her off, she paused and even if I did cut her off it was rude of her to say that to me. She and ms. Washington exchanged several eye rolling glances and she continued to berate me in front of my family for "cutting her off". I advised her I had 11 years of customer service experience with a communications company plus 6 yrs of customer service training with a small airline. She and ms. Washington again rolled their eyes at me. I told ms. Bradberry, I haven't even received an apology from you. She informed me I did not give her the chance to. I then asked for a different supervisor.

She called someone on the phone, who I discovered to be named "ed" and blatently lied to him saying I was difficult, arguing, and told him I said she was a bad person. I spoke with ed who was very apologetic and friendly. He apologized 3 times and even wished me a happy birthday. He informed me my bag can be delivered to my home. When I hung up, neither lady said anything to me, just glared at me and I walked off. Ms. Washington thought something was funny because when I turned back around she was laughing.

When I got home, I called to find out what time my bag was arriving. After several different calls, I got different times.in a few hours, in 4 hrs, they don't know, etc. My husband spoke with a woman named sally wong, who was friendly but had little infomation. We informed her the bag was my husbands and he needed it to go back out of town the next day. She said there was a 4 hr window and we should receive our bag by 1am. At 12:59am my husband spoke to "jennifer". She was very rude and told my husband he would get the bag when it got there. He said to her, so i'm just supposed to wait up all night for it? She said, I don't have time to argue with you and hung up.

We ended up not getting our bag until 7am on 8/10/08 and it caused my husband having to delay a business trip because he did not have time to wash his clothes and get repacked before his trip.

I know mistakes happen but there is no excuse for unprofessional rude behavior. Ms. Bradberry had not one ounce of professionalism or compassion for travelers. I have never dealt with such a hateful person in my life and I will never give another cent to american airlines as long as I live.

In this day of technology, where at anytime a customer service desk can be eliminated with a touch screen kiosk, why are the ones who are fortunate enough to have a job so rude? Generally, I am not a person that will call in or write in to a company to complain. However, after a recent experience with american airlines, I felt compelled to do so. I sent off an email to their customer relations center. Within a day I received a response. They were apologetic and offered me a $100 credit.in most cases I would have been satisfied. I paid the extra money for first class tickets; I expected that level of service.in flight, it was perfect. The flight attendants were amazing. When I landed at chicago o'hare though, it was a completely different experience.

I asked the lady at the gate if I was at the right gate for my connection. Yes, she said, with a smile. Almost an hour passed and no plane had arrived, so I went to ask her how much longer. It was then that she informed me that my plane departed from a completely different gate. When I asked her why she told me to stay at that particular gate, her response was, "my mistake", and then she proceeded to tell me that if didn't like her service than I should have drove. What? I shelled out how many hundreds of dollars for this? It is ludicrous.

We consumers have got to stand up to these corporations. We must let them know that we will not accept this sub-par service any longer. The only way they will feel the effect of our dissatisfaction is in their wallets. I personally will not use american airlines again. Whether it is for business or personal travel, and I will encourage my family and business associates to steer clear of them as well.

July 31, 2008.

Last june 30th, we flew with american airlines to europe. I believe it is only fair you know what we went through.

We bought the tickets since february and in april, we called aa to confirm the flights and reserve our seats. When I did it, I asked to be in the first row, no problem. The fly left from miami, on time, the food was great and the flight attendants were nice.

Later, aa decided to cancel our flight back from london, so you do all necessary to contact us and notify us about it. We got a mail letting us know about the inconvenience and asking us to let you know where we would stay at london, to send us a cab to take us to the airport as a compensation for all the problems aa knew caused the fact that we had already paid the taxi to the airport.

The day we flew back from london, the cab arrived right on time and took us to heathrow airport, where the driver took our baggage to aa desk while we were informed that because all the trouble aa caused we would get upgrades.

By now, i’m sure you can’t believe things happened as I say, because you know how aa really is. And you are right, this is what it would have been like if aa were a real airline, but it is not even close to it.

These are the facts about aa. First of all, the name is wrong; the correct name you should have is american sorry airlines, asa.

As I say in my fantasy, it is true we got our tickets since february and confirmed the flight and our seats in april. But, when I asked for the first row, asa staff said that asa policy is to assign them only at the departure gate.

The day we flew from miami, we were at the gate the first in row, and when we asked for the seats in the first row, the woman said they were already assigned. No, they are not, we are first in line and they are assigned here, how can it be? And the magic began then; the answer was: sorry! I insisted, - how can it be? - it is against asa policies, and again the answer was sorry. At that same moment, I asked asa staff if the seats and flight for our trip back from london were ok. She checked, and the answer was: yes, everything is ok, you do not have to do anything else.

The flight did not leave on time as in my tale, but with a 90-minute delay, the food was terrible and, unfortunately, the attendants were far from nice. Finally, we arrived to paris and after a long wait, we got our luggage, and one of our pieces of luggage, the new great case we just bought for our trip to europe, was literally broken by half! We had to discard it at our paris hotel.

We contacted asa personnel on this matter and again magic: we are sorry! Who is going to pay for the damage, I asked, and the answer was: sorry, I do not know.

I was really upset at asa and only prayed that was the last problem, how silly of me. I have to mention at this point, that 3 out of the last four times we have flown with asa, we have got at least one broken piece of luggage. The two other times, we made our claims but got the same answer.

In the way back, from london to new york on july 27th, we had a scheduled departure from stansted at 10:15 am on flight aa12. We hired a cab in advance to take us to the airport for £65. Try to imagine my reaction when we arrived and could not find the asa desk. Finally, only swissair airline helped us. They suggested we go to the airport information desk, but the only helpful thing they have to say is that asa has not flown from stansted for the past two months! However, they fail to provide a phone number to call asa, at our expense, on a mobile phone from mexico, and there is obviously not a single asa employee in the airport to provide any sort of assistance.

Ironically, swissair actually helped us; they found an asa phone number and confirmed that asa was leaving from heathrow. Without another alternative, we took yet another cab to heathrow at a cost of £117!

On the way to heathrow, I called the two numbers we had.in the first one we got a message: “on sundays we start at 8:30am”. It is correct, who cares about passengers flying early in the morning, they deserve to have problems because they chose to fly early on sunday. The second number, mentioned the same and a 800 number. I dialed it, and it was in usa! I paid the long distance call, remained in line for almost 10 minutes waiting and there were no available operators, who can believe it, it was 2am in ny!

Finally we arrived at heathrow, and then, it happens, the driver shows us what a service attitude means. He parked, turned off the engine and go out of the cab running, to pickup two carts for our luggage, I was amazed, it was a clear example of service attitude. Asa clearly does not know about this a bit.

When we finally were at the asa customer service desk, the nightmare continues. The woman in charge, informed me our flight was simply canceled and changed to heathrow. Well I say, really upset, we are here, and still on time, so please give us our boarding passes. And then, the worst, she informed us that asa canceled also our reservation without informing us and without my consent. It was clear at this point, that asa is absolute incapable; you do not have an idea about what service means.

I was of course very angry. The woman informed me she would put us in standby and confirmed for another flight, 6 hours later! I had a very important meeting in ny at 5pm. Of course, asa did not put us in the flight even after you cancelled without my authorization our tickets, we spent £182 on cabs because of asa irresponsibility and when I asked to the asa personal who was going to pay for it, the answer was (guess): we are sorry.

We finally left from london at 4:30pm, got the same very bad food and scarcely better attendants. I missed a very important meeting in ny because of your poor service.

It took us 45 minutes to go trough customs and 90 minutes after landing we were still waiting for our luggage, because every time we asked asa staff why other passengers had gotten their luggage and we hadn’t, the answer was: yes sorry, it will come. Every asa employee at luggage service was very, very impolite and finally, after I was really angry, they checked and found one more asa incredible error: our baggage was left at london! (I now realize, at this point I shouldn’t have been surprised at all, considering what I had already been through). No excuses, asa is totally unable of managing an airline.

With a very bad attitude, asa staff accept to make a report. At this moment I realized what was going on. Asa is cutting expenses and is doing it with two main actions: hiring undertrained people and not training them, leaving the customers to supervise them. So I started. I checked twice the report; it had errors –both times - and was incomplete even when I was giving all the information. I had to request to be printed twice to make absolutely sure it was complete and correct. I was informed the luggage would arrive during the night and would be sent to our hotel. Then I asked, who is going to pay for the clothes and clean items we have now to buy, and of course, the answer was sorry, we do not know. We spend over $100us on clothes and toiletry items.

As i’m sure, you now know what happened next day, the luggage did not arrive, as offered, to our hotel. I called the 800 number and start my supervision activities once more. I inquired about my luggage and was informed it had just left london and was going to arrive at 14:44. Problem again, we had tickets to mexico with mexicana at 6pm. We went to jfk airport to supervise the staff more closely.

As we arrived, I went to the luggage services desk and asked for my luggage, it was 3:00pm. Answer: we do not have it yet, do not worry, leave to mexico, we will send it to mexicana. Answer: how could it be that I knew the time and flight my luggage was arriving in and they did not (or at least they said so)? I insist, and the answer is: get out of the office and come back later!

3:15pm, enough! I went in again to the luggage services office. As soon as the woman sees me, she took her bag, jumped over the desk and left saying: some one will come, wait! That is the attitude, I remembered immediately the taxi driver at london. As I was responsible for supervision and was aware of the office, I walked to the storage room to find some one. There I found one of the only two employees I would not fire. He understood quickly the problem and was the first person from asa that instead of being sorry, took action. He took my report and told me he would find them, go trough customs and put them in transfer to mexicana. It looked ok to me.

While waiting, a woman came to the desk. She was caroline matwansih. She was the second person that instead of being sorry, helped me to solve the problem. While I was explaining my problem, I remembered responsibility number one of supervision: see problems in advance, and I did it and found a big one. As I was responsible to avoid any more errors from asa, I took action immediately. A potential problem was that as our luggage was documented in london as a terminal flight in ny, putting the luggage in transfer to mexicana was not going to work because the tags did not have mexico as final destination.

I explained this to caroline, she understood it immediately and took the appropriate measures. She literally ran to the customs and caught our luggage in time before it was transferred. Finally we got it, and to my big surprise, in one single piece, not broken.

It is clear that asa is far, very far from most airlines, specially the mexican, which always leave on time, deliver the baggage very quickly and in good shape, the attendants are very nice and you can even have a drink.in asa it cost $6us. Aside of this, asa staff have no training, are very impolite and have no service attitude at all (do you remember swissair and the taxi driver?).

And last, why does no one take responsibility for all the asa errors? Why did asa not give us an upgrade, pay the £182 for the cabs and the $100us on clothes and toiletry accessories and the $150us for our broken case? We incurred in all this expenses because of asa irresponsibility and carelessness about customers.

I understand an airline is not an easy business, especially with the rising energy prices, but once someone decides to involved in it, the first policy should be to accept errors and do whatever is necessary to correct them instead of turning them around on the customers and saying: sorry. I worked for a company that serves 20, 000, 000 customers. I was responsible for the y2k project. We could have said, let’s wait and say sorry to our customers if something fails. We did not have that attitude. We faced the problem in advance, trained our staff, made all the necessary arrangements, anticipated potential drawbacks and so we were very successful in the y2k. We accepted our problems and errors and corrected them instead of just sitting around and saying sorry to customers.

Attitude and responsibility is the key.

Alfredo guadarrama mancilla
Tel. [protected]
Cel. [protected]
[protected]@prodigy.net. Mx

Reservation: caxfp0

I have flown about 3 round trip flights recently on american airlines and each flight each way I have been pulled to the side and searched, going and coming. I ask why, and they say that it is not them its the airline that wants me searched. So I called the airline and I was told that the airline had nothing to do with it by an american airline representative. I would really like to understand why I am being searched every time that I fly and who is responsible for it. I am an advantage member and this treatment is beginning to discourage me from flying american.

This is my letter to gerald arpey, pres. & ceo of aa. To which I received an e-mail from their customer service dept. Saying so what, who cares - basically.

My family and i: susan r. Reid (me); brian k. Reid (my spouse); courtney rogers (our daughter); amanda reid (our daughter); jessica reid (our daughter); jesse reid (my brother-in-law); barbara reid (my mother-in-law); were supposed to fly out of ohare sunday 05/11/08 at 3:40 p.M. When we arrived at the airport at 2:00 p.M. And up until 3:30 p.M. The flight was �on time according to american airlines flight board. At 3:30 p.M. The board changed to cancelled. After a long week of an exhausting family visit for a huge family wedding, and because this was mothers day, we were all looking forward to being home that night.

But no, the flight was cancelled. After waiting in line for 20 minutes at g-3 we were finally told via intercom that the flight was cancelled and we were to move to another desk, I think it was g-4 to have our flight re-booked. I instructed my daughters to take my elderly mother-in-law to sit while my husband and I tried to find out what we needed to do. I merely asked the lady at the counter why I was holding guaranteed tickets in my hand and we were not allowed to use them. She said in a very snotty return that she �was not in charge of the weather. This totally shocked me because I used to teach customer service classes for a bank and that type of response was not in my lesson plan.in fact, I would fire anyone using that type of response. I wish I had her name but to go further, she told my husband, a pastor, that he was being too loud and argumentative. First of all, rev. Reid has a louder voice than most people because he speaks in church all the time and second of all, he is never rude to anyone. He has nothing but love for people. So, we were taken aback by the american airlines woman you hired to represent your company. She offered us a flight out on american at 3:40 the next day. Then she offered us a discounted hotel rate of $89.95. We were very low on funds and that was not an option for the 7 of us. She was able to get us on a delta flight at 7:10 the next morning. She never offered us any information on our luggage or where we could stay in the terminal, etc. I was furious at this point and did not say another word to her.

My husband and brother-in-law went down to the american airlines desk downstairs and asked if we could get our luggage back to get my blood pressure meds and my mother-in-laws medications out of our checked luggage. The young man he spoke with said he did not think that was possible and the luggage was on its was to birmingham. If the luggage was on its way, why could we not have been with it? He also said we should check back in 3 hours to see if he was correct; another wrong answer in my book.

Then we all seven proceeded down to the delta desk and were able to confirm our flight the next morning and the young man gave us security passes to get us to the delta terminal to sit all night long. We all 7 went through security again and tsa was nice to four of us and harassed me, my husband and our two minor daughters about the security pass they gave us. I started to cry at this point which made everything worse because apparently a woman who quietly cries because she has been treated wrongly on mothers day knowing that she will spend the night at the airport, having to go through security twice, being yelled at by mean people at american airlines and having to spend her last $25.00 on hot chocolate, coffee and cokes for her family, and now being harassed by tsa, is no doubt in tsas mind that she is a security threat.

Anyway we got to the delta terminal and sat for hours. My husband then went back to the american airlines baggage desk and was told that they could not find all of our luggage. Hours later, he finally was able to get all the luggage and take out our meds. He gave the bags to delta who stored them for us with no problem.

Questions for you as president of american airlines:

1. Later, we learned through american that we could have been shuttled to midway for take off that night to birmingham. Why were we not told that before? Why was midway able to fly to birmingham?

2. I want a print-out from your office showing me the immediate danger of taking off at 3:40 on the 11th at ohare for a non-stop flight to bhm. Other flights were leaving for the south especially atl. Prove to me that there was a weather problem and not the fact that only 15-20 people showed up for the flight and you did not want to fly the plan because there were so few passengers and/or you did not have a flight staff available.

3. Tell me why you could not have delayed the flight like you did on the way up there wednesday, may 7th (my birthday) I spent a total of 6 hours at the bhm airport waiting on weather and paper-work.

4. Will you tell me why no one from american could explain that there were cots available to stay in a warm area with blankets and pillows? No one at american offered any helpful information.

5. Will you tell me why I cant get a refund of all of our tickets, plus reimbursement for $10.00 parking fee at bhm for the extra day, the additional charges of my dogs at the kennel $60.00, and the reimbursement of all the expensive drinks and food at the airport a total of $175.00? This is what I demand.

. I never want to fly american again unless you prove to me why I should. I will go to my grave telling people that they should never fly american airlines, ever.

I will never forget the way we were treated. I will never forget the sight of my kids and my mother-in-law freezing in a terminal for a whole night.

I look forward to you answers, proof and refund within two weeks of the date on this letter or this matter will be handed over to my attorney. I refuse to be treated this way in the united states of america.

To whom it may concern,
My wife, my two sons and I checked 5 bags in atlanta on tuesday, july 15 to providenciales (pls). We then boarded american airlines flight 2035 for miami and in miami boarded aa flight 673 to providenciales. We arrived on time, however our luggage did not. From the baggage claim area we walked to the american airlines desk in the main terminal and filed a missing baggage report for aa 40 18 96,
Aa 40 18 98, aa 40 18 17, aa 4o 19 00 & aa40 18 99.
The file locator number we were given were tkunab, tltzcc, tdanag, tdanac, & tdanfx. We were told that our luggage had been booked onto the next american airlines flight, that it would be arriving that evening and that it would be delivered to the sibonne' hotel where we were spending the next 4 nights.
The next morning, when our luggage had not arrived we called the airport number [protected]) we had been given and after several attempts (busy signals and no answers) were able to speak to a women who said our luggage was there but that it had not been released by customs. Later in the day we called again and, after several more attempts, we were able to reach a man who said our luggage would be delivered to out hotel later that day. Late that afternoon four of the five pieces of luggage were delivered to the hotel. Three of them (aa40 18 97, aa40 19 00, and aa 40 18 99) had luggage tags on them. The tag was missing from the fourth bag. We then called the american airlines desk in an attempt to locate our missing bag and after numerous calls. Many of which were unanswered, we received differing responses including "your luggage is here but customs has not yet released it", "we'll check to see if your missing bag is here and if it is have it delivered to your hotel", "let me check to see if your luggage is here, please hold" (after several minutes of holding it became clear that the person who had answered the phone had no intention of ever coming back on the line). We finely called the u.S. American airlines desk [protected] not a toll free number from providenciales) and was told that according to their records all five pieces of our luggage had been delivered to the pls airport and that they had "been accounted for". I then told the women on the line that "yes" we had received four of the five pieces but that one of them, either aa 401896 or aa 401898, was still missing and that it had not been delivered. I asked her to please send an e-mail to the aa desk at the pls airport and ask them to deliver that piece of luggage to our hotel. She said she would.
Thursday morning, july 17, and we still had not received our missing piece of luggage and the several attempts we made to contact the aa desk at pls met with the same repeated responses we had received on the previous two days. Once we were told by a man, who gave his name as marty johnson, that he had no one to bring the luggage to us.
Friday, july 18 - we made several more attempts to reach someone at the pls airport that could give us some information regarding our missing piece of luggage. Mostly we got busy signals, no answers, or if we did manage to get someone on the phone, the same responses we had been receiving. On at least two occasions the person at the pls aa desk simply hung up once we had asked for information regarding our missing luggage. Apparently these employees had no interest or inclination to make any effort to help us find it.
We departed pls on saturday, july 19. Flew out on aa746. But before we left we visited the american airlines desk, the customs office and another room where one of the aa employees said that luggage was sometime stored. My luggage was not in any of these locations and we departed without it.
The missing piece of luggage is/was a smaller size, green, rectangular, 15"x 20" x 10" rolling bag with a retractable handle. It was secured by a 3-dial combo lock and contained clothing, toilet articles, a pair of sandals, a swiss army knife, a leatherman, a 1st aid kit, swim wear, sunglasses, hat, and a few other items. I'd like to have had these things during our vacation but now that that is past would still like to have this luggage and it contents delivered to our residence.
Although I have no proof of this, my guess is that all of our five pieces of luggage did arrive and were accounted for by the pls aa desk. I suspect that all five were than sent to our hotel but that only four were actually delivered, one without its tracking tag, which makes it more difficult to determine which one was actually missing.
Your attention to this situation and response to this note will be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Richard mills
2030 acton place
Birmingham, al 35243
[protected] (h)
[protected] (o)

American airlines was awful to me. They lost my luggage on a flight from shanghai to chicago (or delayed as they like to call it). They offered absolutely no accommodations to me. Although they found the bags the next day they sent them to the wrong address, my parents address rather than mine! My parents live 9 hours away... A huge inconvenience. I filed a complaint and never even got an apology...

I was traveling miami - mexico last saturday may 31th in the fly 2115, by 5pm my family and I were getting the boarding pass at the front desk of american airlines, an a lady named liety supervisor operation portuguese or something like that (it was difficult to see the name because she did´n t let me). Anyway we were with 5 bags, 1 year old girl and 3 year old boy, my little kids start to run all over and laity start to yell, I control your children this is not a play ground area, this is restricted area and maybe you don´t have to be here, show me right now your passports and your boarding pass! Well about the children I don´t disagree, it was a little difficult to have control by that time with 5 bags, passports and all the staff you carry in a trip I just wanted somebody helpful, my complain is that she was so rude, after that I asked her to gave me her last name and she refuse it and also she threated me with calling security, she treat me so bad. I don´t know why american airlines don´t teach their employees how to treat people specially foreign tourist. I will make more letters like this one because I think is the only way that they improve their employees, anyway I will never fly with this airline again.

I am writing to seek assistance in replacing a voucher for a cancelled plane ticket from american airlines; the voucher was destroyed in a fire.

I purchased two tickets from american airlines in the amount of $1228 per ticket for a trip to france.in july 2007, I canceled the trip due to a family member's illness and was told I would get paper vouchers for each ticket, minus $200 per ticket in a penalty/cancellation fee. I received the paper vouchers in the mail — one in my name and one in the name of my fiance, ali behbahani, for whom I had purchased one of the tickets.

Ali's voucher was destroyed when the apartment building in which we lived caught fire on october 1, 2007. The apartment did not burn, but over five feet of water flooded the apartment, so everything made of paper was destroyed and the building itself was condemned. My voucher was in my office at work, so it was not destroyed.

Ali wrote to american airlines to seek a replacement voucher and was denied the voucher; he emailed a follow up but was denied again. The airline states that vouchers will not be replaced if lost or stolen. However, our voucher was not lost or stolen; rather, it was destroyed through a terrible accident, which, needless to say, caused additional financial suffering in addition to the loss of the $1028 plane ticket voucher. I would greatly appreciate assistance in seeking a replacement voucher. American airline's policy seems unfair.

I received an e-mail from american telling me that they had changes four of my six flight times. I had arranged this flight about 5 months before departure date. 45 days out, they tell me that everything was changed. I called and complained and regina said I could get a full refund. I called another airline and found satisfactory flights and called american back to get my refund. Nichole stokley, agent, told me again that I would receive a full refund. After enduring with her for approx. 40 minutes, a supervisor (christine covington) interrupted our conversation to tell me that there would not be a refund since there was no more than a 90 change in plans. After a shouting match with her, she finally looked up my itenery, she saw that she had made a mistake. No I am sorry, just a snappy retort... Your refund will be processed in 5 days more or less. She refused to give me the full refund even then, so I called back and asked for another supervisor (elizabeth gonzales). She was kind enough to get the full refund for me. What I dealt with for 20 minutes was an arrogant, loud, lying christine covington. The other 55 minutes was with an employee with about 5 hours training.

I had a horrible experience flying aa. They're completely rude, late, and unapologetic about either. That's the last time I fly with them.

I'm actually just sharing this nightmare which my sister just suffered on her extremely recently flight from dallas to lahore this week. My sister asma haque with her husband and 2 children had been planning to visit lahore for the wedding of her husband's younger brother since october last year. As things would have, when you have weddings and guests traveling in from abroad you tend to bring in lots of wedding presents etc. And the groom had asked her to get him his clothes, shoes etc. Needless to say the luggage was full of wedding presents for the bride (and her family), the family's own clothes and special dresses and other practical amenities which you pack when you travel.

Coming all the way down from dallas to lahore is not an easy task and she was originally booked on an american airline flight (aa050) until london (gatwick) then all the way through to lahore via dubai on emirates. Unfortunately on the evening of the 06th of march, after checking in and getting her boarding passes etc. American airlines informed her that the flight was canceled due to storms etc. She then requested for her luggage to be returned but they confirmed to her that she should not worry and the luggage will be in lahore before she even arrives. She was re-routed on another flight 2 days later, only to arrive yesterday 10th of march at 3 am at lahore airport with no luggage and no signs of it. After 24 hours of me calling emirates gatwick airport, emirates lahore and emirates dubai (as my sister is stuck in a family wedding and an extremely difficult situation where there is no wedding clothes, no groom clothes etc. And the wedding is on friday 14th of march) - I am flabbergasted with the non-chalant attitude of everyone in the organization.

I cannot get to speak to anyone but someone on the callcentre. There is a process and somehow i'm told we have to follow it. What I am even shocked is that i'm wracking up phone bills calling emirates london when emirates dubai should be doing it. I've been committed 3 times by the callcentre guys in uae that they will call me back and they never do. To make the story even more interesting, I spoke to a very helpful lady yesterday marisa in the callcentre who was looking into the "file". She then recommended that to get more action taken quickly I call ek gatwick airport ground handling directly. Which I did. I called them at 5:00pm uae / 1:00pm uk time and spoke to a gentlemen (kevin) who was extremely helpful.in fact he called me back in 20 minutes to confirm that he had located the baggage (all 7 pieces) and would arrange to have them boarded on the next flight (ek10) to dubai for onward dispatch to lahore. I was relieved and immediately called my sister in lahore with the good news. But alas the nightmare continued, when I called up emirates dubai to confirm receipt of all baggage they tell me that they only received 1 and not the other 6. And its all in a "process". What is my sister supposed to do! She spent thousands of dollars shopping and getting ready for the wedding, then she spent thousands of dollars on ticket purchases and then she goes through this complete agony... I'm just flabergasted...

Travel itinerary:

December 28th, 2007
Washington dc (dca)- bogota (bog)

January 7th, 2008
Bogota (bog)- punta cana (puj)

January 13th, 2008
Punta cana (puj)- washington dc (dca)

Issue overview:

Just two weeks before our trip, on december 13th, american airlines contacted us to inform that there had been a change in our january 7th travel itinerary (bogota-miami-punta cana) without any reasonable explanation. Instead of arriving in miami at 11am and leaving to punta cana at 1pm, we would be arriving at 12noon and our connecting flight to punta cana would be departing at the same time (12noon), meaning we would miss that connection.

After spending hours on the phone to see our best options to solve that problem, american airlines offered us only one solution: staying the night of january 7th in miami and leaving the next day to punta cana without any hotel expenses recognized. As we didn’t have any other choice, we had to cancel that night hotel reservation in punta cana and make one in miami.

Once we came back from bogota, colombia on january 7th we spent the night in miami at one of the hotels near the airport, and the next day (january 8th) we finally flew to punta cana but when we arrived our luggage (4 pieces) had not come in our flight. We filled out a claim with the american airlines representatives who told us they would be sending a message to miami and the bags would be arriving the next day. When we asked them about nearby stores to buy clothes they were not much of a help and just indicated us to look on the resort stores.

Therefore, we started our so long ago planned vacations without any clothes, bathroom supplies, and without knowing where to go and buy some decent clothes. Not to mention that a medical mouth piece that I need to use every night was in one of the luggage and I had to sleep without it for the next two nights which caused me strong headaches.

The resort just had a few stores where we were able to purchase the necessary items as soon as we got there. Instead of enjoying our vacations the way we had planned it, all we did between that tuesday afternoon and thursday night (when finally all our luggage arrived in punta cana) was call the airline in punta cana and miami to find out where our luggage was, walk everywhere trying to find the necessary items, and explain restaurant managers what had happened so they would let us walk in to have dinner without the appropriate attire (pants and long sleeves for males was a requirement at dinner).

In both instances when we talked to the american airlines staff and they didn’t seem to care much and were not willing to help us. All around the world this is perceived as a lack of good customer service.

American airlines should be responsible for all the expenses we had product of such unacceptable customer service, which ruined part of our vacations, so we are expecting the airline to reimburse our money.

Thanks.

American airlines: never again

Well, we had bad experiences traveling through aa. This wasn’t your regular bad: in the last 4 travels between me, my wife and my father - in - law, all of them had been pretty bad. All of them had to do with the terrible check in service at huntsville international airport (hsv). None of those checkins lasted less than 1 and a half hours when they should have been 5 minutes.

But the last one was the worst by far.

My wife already knew and we were dreading having to go through that experience again. But having a bunch of miles accumulated and a tight budget we had to bite the bullet and deal with their nonsense again. First nonsense of the day was when the lady there claimed the maximum was 50 pounds for the luggage… ok here we go again.

My wife, suspecting this was coming again since the same thing happened last time, waves a document issued by aa stating that international flights such as this one (to and from an overseas city, including the legs inside us) were 70 pounds maximum.

The aa lady doesn’t read it and proceeds to repeat the same garbage over and over. Finally, after some 20 minutes of back and forth she decides to call someone. She calls a… flight attendant!?!?! Must have been her buddy or something. The women on the phone proceeds to tell her she is correct, 50 pounds max and that my wife will have to pay a $50 dollar fine.

My wife waves the document again and again stating: please read this. Is this not an aa policy? Do you question the validity of this? Why don’t you go access the same information… through one ear and out the other.

Sometime later the conversation turned into the aa lady stating to my wife, and I quote: “your daughter cannot travel for free…”. My wife takes out my daughter’s plane ticket, takes out the ticket receipt, and shows her: “oh this is not a receipt”. My wife explains: “here is the amount paid + tax + fee = total, it is printed in the same paper as a plane ticket but it is a receipt, aa said this is the receipt, we paid for it, please call the sale’s agent if your computer somehow doesn’t show. Aa lady: “this is not a receipt, your daughter is not booked in the flight and she cannot go”. My wife: “that is fraud from aa”. At this point I loose it, yell at the aa lady and go away to take care of my screaming daughter (she is 1 year old).

And so the conversation goes on and on for 1 hour and 40 minutes. When it was 10 minutes before the plane departure time somehow, mysteriously, everything gets resolved, my wife gets her boarding passes, luggage gets checked in, no explanations given, no apologies, no nothing…

Draw your own conclusions folks, I drew mine for sure. Never again we are going to give our money these thieves.

American airlines lost my luggage and after 3 days they didn't want to send it to my hotel. I have a full description of the how it all went down here http://www.travelingbad.com/