American Airlines flight 2558 from Fort Lauderdale to Dallas took an hour-long mechanical delay on Thursday morning. On Facebook, a flight attendant shared that “naturally everyone has a connection in Dallas.” However one lady in particular approached for help, looking “very distraught.”
Apparently her whole family was traveling on to Guadalajara, Mexico for a funeral and it wasn’t looking like they were going to make their scheduled 61 minute connection in Dallas.
The flight attendant did the best they could to offer consolation, keeping the woman up to date with gate changes, where they’d be landing, and describing how to get to their next gate. However, this crewmember “knew they weren’t going to make the flight” which appeared to be departing on time.
So they “took a shot in the dark and called the Captain to explain the situation, and requested if he could message dispatch.”
American Airlines responded by giving the Fort Lauderdale flight the closest runway – that sped up the flight’s arrival so it only wound up 20 minutes late. They also changed the arrival gate over to D14, so it would be on the same side of the international terminal that the family’s Guadalajara flight would be leaving from. And they sent a golf cart to pick them up.
With the expedited arrival into Dallas, and no need to even run from one end of the international terminal to the other, the family easily made their connection to Guadalajara for the funeral. They even arrived at their destination a few minutes early.
I often my share of criticisms of American Airlines management, but this – along with this story I recently covered – really represent the ideal American talks about in ‘caring for people on life’s journey.’
Nice to see a little good news for a change. Bravo to AA!
Nicely done by the AA crew.
Love it!
If there’s a golf cart, no need to change to another gate.
Be nice to people now because if you wait until the funeral, the other person will be as dead as a piece of furniture. In some cases, the casket is even closed so it is like a piece of furniture.
All airlines need agents who will work to make things happen, instead of just saying sorry (basically nicely saying tough but oh well). Imagine the happy passengers they would have if they worked to solve problems more often. Kudos to the flight attendant and to all who worked together to make that happen.
We have the best team ever!
Nice to read about excellent American Airlines customer service. American is something special both on the ground and in the air.
Wow! Kudos to American Airlines and especially the flight crew and dispatch!
Air Traffic Control assigns the arrival runway, not AA.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Gary, It’s always pleasing to see crew going out of their way to help especially in situations such as this. We should all strive for excellence and go above and beyond like this crew did.
Based on my 30 years of flying on AA, I call shenanigans on this story.
Weddings, funerals, dying family and friends, graduations, first Communion, etc….this is always so worth the effort by everyone involved!! Kudos!! Keep it up airlines!!!
I was in Mexico earlier this year when I got a call from my Mom that my Dad passed suddenly. Tears flying down my face, I called AA as we were trying to quickly pack up to get our return that was 2 weeks away moved up to the next flight. I think I explained that “My Dad died, I need to get home”, fully expecting to pay $1000/ticket for the last minute difference. The agent put me on hold for almost 20 minutes (never had it happen for that long for a simple reprice on a North American nonstop), periodically checking in with me, and then comes back on to say they can do an even exchange for me and my fiance. We did that and made it to the airport just in time to make the last nonstop home that day. Even my family was shocked at how quickly I got home.
I have a lot of gripes with AA and was considering switching my loyalties to another carrier post-COVID, but the fact they were able to do that (even if it was 20 minutes of time to get someone to approve the ability to do A Nice Thing) really won me back.
It really depends on who you get. There are a few agents who really care. I redeemed Avios from DCA to LGA today. Upon check-in, agent A couldn’t check my bags because their systems couldn’t “recognize” my ticket but managed to print my boarding pass. After 10 mins on the phone wth “help desk”, his colleague agent B decided to manually check my bags and agent A personally hand-delivered my checked bag to the gate to be loaded onto aircraft. Upon boarding, scanner didn’t recognize my boarding pass and agent C rudely demanded I see a representative at the help desk to sort the issue. His colleague agent D intervened and personally escorted me to the help desk and re-issued the ticket. I am Executive Platinum. It is times like this when the “thank you” Starbucks giftcards Gary proposed giving as a token of appreciation comes in handy. When I got to my seat, I politely asked if I could return to the jet-bridge to give agent D something, to which agent C (the rude rep) said I could hand it to him. I flatly refused and insisted I see agent D personally. FA was stunned when pilot said ok. I know I made 3 agents day (even if it was a measly $20 Starbucks giftcard) and put one in his place.
A very heAArtwarming story. Kudos to every team member who helped this family during their most difficult time. And condolences to the family.
Something positive sure is refreshing!!!!
AA still has some peeps that really do care. I often use the AA Twitter team to transact and typically walk away satisfied. Empowerment starts at the top, it’s cultural, and often you see shortcomings from those with the ability to lead by example.
@Dom they can ask for a runway
THANK YOU. I am glad to see you do something other then pound on AA. I had similar experiences this past year, traveling while my Mom was dying and eventually passed on due to natural causes (she was 92). Helping my Dad adjust to life without her; and eventually him being able to travel with me from PHL to PHX this spring.
AA help rebook, redirect, provided assistance when and where needed just by asking and sometime, without even having to ask. THANK YOU AA for your help and support this past year and for the years to come and Gary, I hope you continue to balance your reporting (and look at DL’s flub ups too :))
Happy Memeorial Weekend Everyone!
A good story, but I can’t help but wonder:
What if there was someone else on the flight with a family funeral in Des Moines, and this change in gate affected their layover? Wouldn’t that be a funny little add-on to the story?