American Airlines. It wasn't the first bad experience I've had with
them in the past five years but it will be the last (assuming they get
me home from my honeymoon).
It started the morning of July 1, 2008. My new bride and I were
scheduled to depart from LaGuardia airport in NY (probably the worst
airport ever conceived as any New Yorker can attest) enroute to
Honolulu via Chicago. Our departure time was to be 6 am.
The trouble began when our car service failed to show at 4:30 am.
After a phone call we finally had someone at our door at 5 am. We
should have been arriving at the airport at that hour, but through
some impressive driving and a lack of traffic, we were at curbside
check-in by 5:30 am.
This is where the real trouble began.
We were told by the skycap that it was too late to put bags on the
plane. A full 30 minutes before scheduled departure is too late. I
simply can't believe this because often connecting flights have only
30 minutes between arrival and departure and they find a way to get
the bags on.
So we decide to go inside to the desk and see if they can get the bags
on the next flight. This is where I should mention that we paid for
first class seats because that would imply an expectation of better
service. Not so in this case. We were fifth in line with the clock
ticking and only one person staffing the first class desk and he was
in no rush to check people in. That was when I hear my name paged for
the first time along with a code, 9A. We had checked in for the flight
the evening before and printed our boarding passes already so it was
entirely possible for us to make this flight if we could just get our
luggage handled.
The gentleman behind the counter seemed annoyed that I politely
interrupted him to ask where the nearest courtesy phone was located.
He had no idea. I guess this was his first day on the job. So I went
down the line and asked three more AA representatives all of whom had
no idea where a phone was or how to answer a page. It must have been
their first day too.
Finally, I ask a TSA rep where a phone could be found and surprisingly
the woman knew. I guess our tax dollars are being put to good use
afterall! Much to my chagrin, dialing 9A (or 92 as it would convert)
on the phone did nothing. There's my name on the loudspeaker again. So
I try calling the airport service number listed on the phone, but no
one answered. At this point I slammed the phone so hard I think I may
have broken it. Sorry about that, take it out of the city tax I pay
every paycheck.
We're now ten minutes to departure and still no one has helped us.
Looks like the first day of our honeymoon will be lost as we're not
making what was a very makeable flight, albeit under less than ideal
conditions. That's okay its not like American Airlines is having
financial difficulties where even the slightest amount of compassion
on the part of their customer service reps would go a long way towards
this blog not existing.
Finally we get to see a nice woman who was added to the first class
desk and she informs us that there's no way we can get the bags on the
plane. No shit! How about on the next flight? "Well you'll have to
speak to Joe the supervisor", she tells us and points into a crowd of
the common folk who ride is stowage. You've got to be kidding me I'm
thinking. She's not even going to help us find this guy or page him?
Not that paging would help because as we've learned earlier, everyone
employed by AA is on their first day and has no idea where a phone is
located. And those little walkie talkie devices they carry are just
for show.
So we embark upon our quest of finding Joe. We ask a few porters along
the way but let's be honest, we're in NY and no one there speaks an
ounce of English. We eventually found Joe, but at this point it was 6
am and we'd already missed our flight. Joe informed us that he
couldn't allow us to check a bag on a flight that we weren't on
anyway, which was bullshit because a year earlier from the same
airport and airline our bags managed to get on a flight to Seattle
without us. Our flight was so delayed that we missed our connecrion
and had to get on standby with another airline. Magically our bags
made it on another AA flight though and made it to Seattle before us.
But I digress.
So back to the unhelpful woman. I'm not one to play the race card, or
reverse race card in this case, but its played often enough when its
beneficial to one side, so here goes. We're a nice white couple flying
first class to our honeymoon and the only representatives working the
first class desk were black and not at all willing to help us. Of we
were in coach I might understand especially since there was probably
100 people on that line, bit the first class line had maybe 8 couples
of which we were the fifth and we were paying substantially more for
our seats for no other reason than comfort on a 15 hour flight.
The story gets better from here. She put us on priority standby for
the next flight to Chicago which would land 50 minutes prior to our
departure to Honolulu. I mention this because we had only 20 minutes
to get off the plane and get to the next flight for boarding, which
occurs 30 minutes prior to departure. Magically though that 20 minutes
was enough to get our bags off the plane along with those of everyone
else making a connection and get it on to our flight to Hawaii. Yet in
NY we hit that magical 30 minute window and nothing could be done for
us.
The story goes that we had a great flight to Hawaii and our bags made
it too, but due to the fact that we were on standby to Chicago, we got
stuck in coach. That's right I paid for first class the whole way but
flew coach for the first leg. I can't blame AA fully for that because
we did get to the airport late (and the car service will compensate us
when we get home), but American Airlines could have done more to get
us on our original flight.
If anyone from corporate is reading this, your financial woes aren't
with soaring gas prices. Its your pathetic customer service that's the
problem. Fix that and people would be willing to pay more for a seat
on your shitty planes. Then you wouldn't have to charge for luggage
and food either. When I get on a 15 hour flight and I'm told
sandwiches can be purchased for $6, but there's not enough for
everyone on board, that's when I stop doing business with you. It
doesn't take an MBA to realize that I can add $6 to the ticket, feed
the guests, and look better than the next guy doing it. In this case
it didn't matter how much I paid or what I had on board, the ground
service was so bad that it almost ruined my vacation, caused my new
bride to weep, and guaranteed that I will never fly your airline again.
With any luck this blog will get some eyes on it and maybe you'll lose
more business. I truely believe what the American airline industry
needs is for all the big dumb players to go under. It'll sting the
economy in the short-term, but through adversity comes opportunity.
Investors will step to the plate to fill the void and provide a better
level of service just like the discount airlines did in the late 90s.
The same could be said of the auto industry that for years did nothing
to improve gas mileage and now that decision is biting them hard.
If you're reading this and you're a consumer, let's band together and
boycott these terrible companies and their fat executives. Let's
hasten their demise so that we can return to a period of better
service and competition that benefits all consumers. We know the
government will never help us, but a weak economy could provide a ripe
opportunity to change course.
