Monday, March 22 2010
I’m suing American Airlines in the amount of $977.25 for failure to provide services. That includes the $427.25 cost of my round-trip ticket plus ten hours of my time wasted at my average consulting rate of $55.00 / hour. Logistically this involves a forthcoming small claims suit in the City of New York listing their office at 100 E 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017. The $35.00 fee (that I’ve paid before) is a small price to pay for the satisfaction of holding accountable a company that embodies everything that, in my opinion, is leading to the collapse of the American economy.. Why do you ask? It will become apparent through a series of incompetent events that mostly transpired in a couple of hours. Let us start at the beginning though.
This past fall my friend suggested that she, some mutual friends, and I make our way to Austin, TX for SXSW, an incredible indie music, film and interaction festival celebrating its 23rd year in operation. It was pretty much a no-brainer decision for me and I almost immediately booked a round-trip from New York, NY to Austin, TX on American Airline on Travelocity.
Fast forward to 3/1/2010 when my phone records indicate I made a call to American Airlines customer service at (800)433-7300. I called American Airlines to change my round-trip from New York, NY –> Austin, TX to a one-way from Austin, TX –> New York, NY. You see, in the interim my company had asked me to represent them at a large industry conference in Las Vegas, NV. The dates of this conference happened to overlap with my flight to SXSW. So instead of going New York, NY –> Austin, TX I was now going New York, NY –> Las Vegas, NY –> Austin, TX –> New York, NY. The woman I spoke with about this issue told me that this wouldn’t be a problem and that I was all set for my 3/21/2010 flight from Austin, TX –> New York, NY. GREAT!!! … so I thought.
Given this back story you can understand my shock and appall when I arrived at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport this afternoon to learn that my ticket was canceled and had no monetary value. At this point I think it’s important to point out that most of the American Airlines staff I interacted with during this debacle were very friendly and amenable. At the same time, however, they were also incredibly incompetent and obtuse. Lets go into the play-by-play.
Apparently whomever I spoke with on 3/1/2010 simply didn’t do their job and no changes were made to my AA reservation. So when I never showed up to my flight (which I called and made clear was the case) from New York, NY –> Austin, TX on 3/17/2010 my entire reservation was canceled. This cancellation happened with no notice to me what-so-ever, either by email, phone, or text message. When I was told this by Joy, the woman working the American Airlines counter at Austin, she told me I would have to call (800)433-7300 to determine what my next steps were. The fact that Joy was unable to completely service my request is grossly inefficient and just plain incompetent. Why have a computer system at the airport if it can’t service your customers?
When I called into (800)433-7300 I eventually made it up to Kelly Moore, Bureaucrat Grade 28. Kelly told me that no changes to my record had been made since my reservation had been made with Travelocity. She was absolutely convinced in the infallibility of the computer system that had been presented in front of her. I indicated to her that I make computer systems like that for a living and it was entirely possible that an error had been made. This was shocking new information to Kelly and it was only after I threatened to file an appeal by fax at (817)967-4162 that she even considered trying to help me. After this bullying, she convinced me that the only flight (including flights from neighboring cities like San Antonio, TX) I could possibly exchange my reservation for was an Austin, TX –> New York, NY flight on TUESDAY. Begrudgingly, I accepted her offer assuming that my case was simply hopeless beyond that point.
In my pit of despair I remembered the great equalizer: the Internet. So after leaving the American Airlines counter, I got online and started looking for flights on Bing Travel. To my surprise, there were a number of American Airlines flights to New York, NY leaving San Antonio, TX on MONDAY for LESS THAN THE FLIGHT THEY HAD BOOKED FOR ME. You can see the Bing screenshot here and the AA.com screenshot here. Feeling the rush of success I quickly called American Airlines where I spoke with Dana Owen who indicated to me that she could not find this flight in their computer system. Let me repeat that so it can settle in for you: my laptop and free wifi connection was able to find a better flight than the (presumably) more sophisticated, specialized multi-million dollar computer system used by American Airlines. If that is not failure to provide services than I simply do not know what is.
At this point, I threw up my hands and politely informed Dana that I would be filing suit and writing this statement. I then booked a similar $155 Delta flight from San Antonio, TX –> New York, NY along with a Greyhound bus ticket from Austin TX, to San Antonio, TX. It’s now 9:42 PM CDT and I’ve got to get to sleep so that I can get to the Greyhound bus station tomorrow morning and get home. Take this for what you will, but if I were you I would think twice about ever flying American Airlines ever again.
