Kicking off Labor Day weekend didn’t go well for passengers booked on American Airlines 1831, the morning flight from Chicago O’Hare to West Palm Beach. By the time travelers showed up around 7 a.m., the aircraft was already out of service for mechanical issues.
- Passengers say that updates were almost nonexistent.
- Gate agents eventually told people to try customer service, but when they got there no one was staffing that desk – there were just rows of empty podiums.
- As I revealed in the spring, American was cutting airport customer service hours with shifts before 2 p.m. at O’Hare eliminated.
American Airlines Customer Service Counter (Phoenix)
One passenger decided to handle things directly — grabbing the PA mic and making an announcement across Terminal K.
“Attention Terminal K. American Airlines, this is the third time requesting somebody here for customer assistance. We have people going to West Palm Beach. We’ve been here since 6:30 this morning for an 8:30 flight that continues to get delayed and nobody’s giving us answers as to when we’re going to be leaving. Please send somebody here. You can’t be that inept.”
@johnnyjet Frustrated ORD Passenger Takes Over PA.
Fellow passengers cheered, and the stunt actually worked: airline staff materialized soon after, and more agents followed.
The solutions they offered, though, weren’t very good. It was a peak of peak travel day and flights were full. One agent suggested rerouting people through Phoenix to get to Florida. Passengers were headed to West Palm Beach and nothing was avialable there or into Fort Lauderdale or Miami either.
American, meanwhile, tried to soften the blow with $12 meal vouchers. At O’Hare, that doesn’t even get you a Tortas Frontera sandwich.
A cuban sandwich, chicken milanesa, or choriqueso sandwich at Tortas Frontera each runs over $16, plus tax. Even the kids chicken and cheese is $12.50 plus tax. And don’t even think about adding chips and guac – the $12 voucher wouldn’t even cover that as a standalone.
My suggestion for those $12 meal vouchers, then, is to just add them to your Starbucks card.
Proving…once again…that even though it looks like to us FFs…most people DON’T have lounge access.
I don’t understand why at AA gate agents seem to think telling passengers what’s going on is forbidden and is a deep dark secret that only airline employees should know. Also, if you’re at the gate and not sure if boarding is getting ready to commence you likely don’t want to leave the gate, go to the lounge, where you may or MAY NOT get any better information, including your flight is now boarding. So, you stay at the gate frustrated by lack of information.
This something that AA management should know about and either they don’t know or they don’t care, both of which spells a management team more concerned about how AA can be more like Frontier Airlines.
“go to the lounge” = “let them eat cake.
Id say that American hasn’t quite arrived at the more premium level they claim to aspire to. Perhaps hiring a competent leader as CEO would help.
I was on my way to requalifying for Executive Platinum status in late July when my CLT-TPA flight was delayed. As I waited for my flight to board, and the monitors showed boarding would start in three minutes, I heard an AA employee tell another passenger, “This flight’s probably not going to go.” He advised her to get rebooked on the next flight, which was the last flight of the day. I asked the employee to repeat what he said. When he did, I asked why this wasn’t being announced, and he didn’t reply.
This is way too common on AA, and it’s the reason I am not going out of my way to earn Executive Platinum for next year. Since this occurred, I’ve spent a few thousand dollars on tickets on Delta, United, and Southwest, but I don’t plan to fly AA again until after March 1 when the clock resets.
Had the same experience with AA at ORD, COU, and STL recently. All in one trip. They managed to have a problem with every flight I was ticked for and were borderline incapable of providing solutions. No meal ticket for me, and no reimbursement for not being able to get me to my destination either. They *are* truly that inept. Between all the plane problems and the agents it’s miraculous they manage to get anything in the air.
They materialized….lol loved it
Happy Weekend everyone from Recife, Brazil
People….if you are flying Domestic within the US, or International on a US carrier, forget about receiving anything more than simply arriving alive and maybe with your checked luggage. Anything else is a bonus.
Oh, look! Yet another example of why the USA needs actual air passenger rights protections like EU261 or Canada’s APPR, which would have compensated these poor souls several hundred dollars for the inconvenience (as mechanical issues are clearly under the airline’s control), in addition to either rebooking or refunds, meals, and if overnight, accommodations as well. Just $12 is offensive.
To those of you who keep shilling for the ultra-rich and large corporations… they aren’t paying you enough to ‘carry water’ for them. It isn’t ‘rugged individualism’ or ‘self-reliance,’ no, you’re getting screwed and celebrating others getting screwed. Wake up.