[Graham NZ]

I would like to relate my experience with American Airlines for the world to hear.

On a recent holiday I made 4 flights with this airline and only one of these was on time. That was the one I missed when the previous flight was late. All of these flights were late due to mechanical breakdowns and in fact twice we were held up for over 25 minutes while the plane was started manually. All this meant that we were 1 day late getting to our destination and 1 day late getting back including missing my International connection, and having to rebook at my expense to get another flight.

When I returned to New Zealand I contacted the Customer Service department twice via the web page and twice I faxed my complaint to the address on their web page. From this I received one automated reply saying that a customer services representative would contact me in the near future.

I am totally convinced that American Airlines has no customer service department personnel and that it is run by automated computers.

My advice to anyone who wants to travel and be on time, is to steer well clear of these people. Also if you expect any type of service at all don’t deal with this airline.

If my experience is anything to go by how long is going to be before one of their planes falls out of the sky through shoddy maintenance. You may be on that flight.

It is far better to pay another $200 for your flights and get there without hassles. After all I am over $500 out of pocket because of their failures and they don’t want to know or even acknowledge my letters. If everyone gives them a wide berth maybe they might get the message.

[Brenda Frazier]

You are correct in saying that about AA Customer Service Department! I was told by some lady that they have NO telephone number? OMG Do you think i'm nuts?!? Then I do find one and of course no human is on the other end. And it tells you to email them and by the way ONLY 1500 words! Or, by fax or snail mail. Then it tells you "good bye" and hangs up on you! ITS BS! I had a lady that was going to call me on Friday and settle up with me on my money that they owe me (my whole baggage was destroyed) its Monday and I havent heard one word from her. I was giving her the benefit of the doubt, maybe she was sick or a family emergency??? Nope, called the airport and she has been there all weekend. They don't care about what happens to our things. If today I do not hear from them, i'm calling a lawyer....I wonder if it will do any good????? Has anyone ever tried getting a lawyer involved?

Brenda Frazier

[Graham NZ]

I wish you luck with your endeavours.
For me they are completely arrogant and this may be because I am on the other side of the world. I don't hold out much hope especially as they can't even acknowledge any of my communications. But I will tell the world to avoid them.
As I said I don't think they have any customer service personnel and if they do they are certainly in the wrong job. Maybe all of this is being happening because of pitiful management practices led from the top.
Graham

[Brenda Frazier]

They have a TERRIBLE Customer Relations Department. I get a call finally yesterday saying she was going to the man above her to get this all completeled with me. My damages were over $1500.00. Remember, I only got back 3 items. And, one was a can of hair spray and a pair of shorts! lol They will repay me for the items I turned in with receipts and then give me a voucher for the rest of my things lost that will be good for a year for airline tickets. Like I want to travel with them again?!? But, I still havent heard back so I figure they are going to come back and still say they won't give me what I turned in to them. Hang in there!!!!

[Graham NZ]

Well surprise surprise!!! I received a reply from a human being in the customer Relations Dept. Apart from the usual comments that you would expect about how sorry they are that we had many problems with our flights, they say they have sent to me Transportation vouchers as a token of their concern. the value of these vouchers is not mentioned so may only be a token offering. I will keep you posted. These have to be used within one year so if I have no plans to travel overseas during that time are worthless to me. I do plan to travel to the USA to visit my family but not for 15 months plus. They don't allow you to send a reply to them direct as the email is from an "outgoing only" email address. Scared of the response I bet.
Anyway would I consider travelling with AA again after this. Not likely!!
I believe that the reason for their response was not because of my direct complaints to them but because they have read my complaints about them on this and other sites. Maybe they take more notice of these sites. Keep up the good work guys.

[Brenda Frazier]

You are right! I do not want the voucher. Frankly I don't want to fly American Airlines again. I will have to dig into my own pockets to replace everything that was lost. Actually, I have already had to. I could fight with them more over this but I'm so ready for this to be over with. So, in all actuality, they won!

[AirlineComplaints.org]

[Off-topic Discussion moved here.]