Bye American

We used to fly American Airlines everywhere, exclusively. Not anymore. I'll skip the long boring details, but basically here's what happened...

November 7th - We look online to find a flight from LA to Florida at the end of the month and decide to use our miles for the trip. I have enough miles but Caryn doesn't have enough miles to make the reservation online so we call up to see if we can buy some miles or something to fill in the gap. The person we talk to gives us a hand full of options (we can buy miles, transfer from a different account, etc..) and tells us she's putting the flight on hold for us and anytime between then and the 16th we can decide which option to make and still have those flights reserved. Cool.

I specifically ask her this "Since we're flying at the end of the month, do we need to call back before a certain day to pay for these to get this rate or are we set until the 16th" and she responds "as long as you call back before the 16th this is the fare you will get and there's no extra fees.

Great.

Caryn and I go over the options and decide to buy the miles for her account.

November 12 - I call back and say I'd like to buy the miles for the trip. I'm told that can't be done over the phone and the only way to do it is online. I tell the lady I'm speaking to that someone I spoke to the other day told me I could just call back and buy them. She says she's never heard of that but can have a manager call me back. OK.

A few hours later the manager calls, his name is Kevin Crooms. He confirms that miles have to be bought online, and tells me they take 3 days to be added to the account, so if I don't get them today I'll miss the 16th deadline, oh, and by the way there's now an additional charge because I'm within 21 days of travel.

What?

I told him I asked the first person I spoke to about that and she said that there were no fees until after the 16th, and that if she had told me there were I would have just bought the tickets then. He says that while that would have saved the fee on my account, Caryn would have still had to wait 3 days for the miles which would have put her past the 21 day mark. I'm still not sure about this because while that might be the policy, the lady I spoke to first definitely told me that I could just buy miles through her right then and that would be it.

Kevin tells me he's going to see about getting the fees on my ticket removed but they would stand on Caryns. OK, whatever, I just need the tickets so fine. He puts me on hold. I hold. I hold some more. 5 minutes later he comes back and asks me to keep holding. 5 more minutes. Finally he comes back and says this - "I can't cancel these fees because you didn't talk to anyone about this flight you booked it yourself online."

huh?

This goes back and forth but in the course of the conversation he tells me that I've been lying to him, that I've never talked to anyone at American about this and that he honestly doesn't care if they lose us as customers over this situation. I ask for his supervisor, and he says he doesn't have one that if I feel like complaining I can call customer service and then hangs up on me.

I was pissed. Real pissed.

I call customer service and hold, and wait, and hold, and 19 minutes later I give up.

I talk to a few friends who fly American and they all tell me to try the customer service e-mail as that has worked for them in the past.

So I write a letter and send it in.

This morning I get an e-mail back that says

Dear Mr. Bonner:

Thank you for contacting us. We consider feedback from our customers to be very
important. We are currently experiencing higher than normal email communications from
our customers and our response to you may be delayed. We'll reply as soon as possible
and we appreciate your patience in the meantime. Just a reminder, if your inquiry
involves an upcoming trip or imminent travel arrangements, please telephone our
specialists at 1-800-433-7300. They will be able to assist you. (If calling from
outside the United States or Canada, please refer to Worldwide Reservations Phone
Numbers listed on AA.com.)

This is a "post-only" email response. Please do not reply to this message.

Sincerely,

Greg Clark
Customer Relations
American Airlines

So the e-mail is backed up and I should call since the clock is ticking and the flight I want is 2 weeks away now.

So I call.

And I wait.

And someone finally answers, and she already sounds pissed, so I figure we're off to good start. I tell her that I want to file a complaint. She asks my name, I tell her.

She tells me to hold my horses.

Not really, but you know what I mean. She asks if I called in about this already. Nope. Send an e-mail? Yep. So then why am I calling? I tell her about the e-mail I got this morning that says they are backlogged and my reply might be delayed and that if it's about an upcoming trip I should call.

She says no they didn't.

I say yes they did.

She says they don't send e-mails that say to call in.

I ask if she wants me to read it to her. He does. I do.

She says "oh."

Then she asks what I want? Do I want to file a complaint or book a flight? What?? I tell her I'm calling in to file a complaint. She says I should probably talk to someone else and puts me on hold.

5 minutes later I give up.

Forget it. It's not worth the time at this point.

*click*

Bye Bye American. I'm never flying with your sorry asses again.

And to make it better, since they wasted so much of my time I'm within 2 weeks to when I need to fly so no matter what airline I choose I'm going to get raped with extra charges. Super cool.

---

This isn't the first crap American has put me though either. Part 1 and Part 2