Why we have a hard time loving American Airlines

I'll be up front. Because of prior experiences, I'm not a big fan of American Airlines. I travel pretty much every week and my assistant knows to avoid AA when booking my travel. Occasionally I visit a client in a location that leaves me no choice but to fly AA. I'm on one of those trips right now.

The trip out was great. In fact I had one of the best pilots I've ever had from COS to DFW yesterday. He was fun, taking the time mid-flight to share a bunch of info about the airplane just in case there were any plane buffs on board (which I am). At the end of the flight he took the time to cheerfully thank every single passenger for their business as they deplaned. My connecting flight from DFW to XNA was equally enjoyable. Perhaps this is a new AA I thought.

However, I just had an experience that reminded me why I avoid AA. I arrived at the Northwest Arkansas Region Airport a little over an hour before my scheduled flight. As I was going through security I heard a final boarding announcement for an earlier AA flight to DFW. Since I'd prefer to wait at DFW to XNA (nothing against Arkansas @shannonodell) I rushed over and asked if I could take the earlier flight.

A really friendly representative named Bobby asked for my ticket and then told me that unfortunately he'd have to charge me a $50 standby fee. I asked if he could check with a manager to see if they could waive the fee? He told me he was the manager and he couldn't do it because he'd get "called" on it? I asked if that was a big deal and he said it was. I then asked how many seats they had open on the plane and he told me 65! He said he thought it was ridiculous as well but there was nothing he could do about the policy.

I didn't feel like paying $50 so I decided to take my extra hour in Arkansas and write this post :-).

AA, if you're reading this, please understand. It's things like this that make your customers frustrated. If you've got great managers like Bobby who live in fear of making common sense decisions to help a customer you're going to have a really tough time existing in the new economy. I'll continue to avoid flying with you whenever possible. If you decide that you're interested in happy customers let me know. I'd be happy to give you another chance. In the meantime I'll continue to fly Frontier, JetBlue and Virgin American whenever I can.

P.S. I do love your inflight WiFi service. It pretty much rocks.

Comments

[Andy Traub]

Very well said jon. Not an unreasonable request. It seems to me that Southwest has a policy of common sense throughout their company. Maybe AA will figure it out someday before they go belly up.

[Web Agent]

I totally agree with you. They should know how to take care of their customers, starting from changing the policies that they have. That additional charge for standby fee is just ridiculous!

[LatishaWELCH24]

If you are willing to buy real estate, you would have to get the loans. Furthermore, my mother usually takes a bank loan, which seems to be really rapid.

[loan]

One acknowledges that life seems to be expensive, however some people need money for various things and not every man earns enough cash. So to receive some loans and just student loan will be a right way out.

[inheritance loan]

I agree with you. AA have bad customer service and they have a bed reputation in the airline community because of delayed flights.