[Zara]

Worst Airline Experience EVER.

So, the plane from Jacksonville to Charlotte was delayed 2 hours, but we only found out that all traffic in and out of Charlotte was grounded (due to bad weather) once we were already on the run way. So I sat on a runway, going no where, next to a hyperactive 12 year old named Breazi (short for Breanna) who was traveling alone (she spent the last two weeks with dad and was now going back to mom and stepdad) and wanted to tell me everything about her family and show me all the games on her iPad. For 2 hours. On a runway. Going nowhere. She also used my cell phone to call both parents multiple times to let them know what the pilot was saying about the delay. The pilot updated us every 20 minutes or so to reassure us it would probably only be about 20 more minutes before we could leave. Bad weather isn't the airlines fault, but if all traffic is grounded and you've been sitting for an hour, either go back to the airport or give us a real estimate of how much longer it's going to be.

Once we actually made it to Charlotte, I had to run to make my connecting flight, which was in a different terminal. When I arrived at the gate, just in time, I found out the plane was delayed due to missing crew. So I sat at the gate for an hour and a half because we had no flight crew and no pilots. Then the ticketing agent at the gate, Massa (I remember her name because she made me stand there for 15 minutes) told me that she was going to put me on a different plane because I'd never make the connection from Las Vegas to Los Angeles due to the now 4 hour delay. So she printed me a new boarding pass and told me to run back to the terminal where I'd landed originally.

So I ran. And then found out that they couldn't allow me to board because I had checked a bag and it wasn't moved to their plane. So I had to go back to the Las Vegas gate and see Massa again. She booked me for a different flight directly to Los Angeles but leaving in 2 hours. So I sat at the gate for another hour before they announced a gate change and sent me to yet another terminal. Half an hour later, they changed their minds and sent me back to the original gate. By the time I landed in Los Angeles, it was 1am local time, 3am body clock time. Then there are mysteriously no gates open. So we sat on the runway, going no where, for an hour. We were in the air for 4 hours. You would think that was enough time for LAX to figure out where to put us. It's not they didn't know we were coming. At this point I'm pretty convinced that this is the most incompetent airline ever. The whole trip has been a comedy of errors, one after another.

Then we went to baggage claim.

We, the friend I flew out to visit and I, waited at the luggage carousel for half an hour but my luggage never showed. So we go to the baggage claim desk and they look up my claim receipt and my luggage is in Las Vegas. Because Massa only rerouted me. She didn't reroute my luggage. The baggage claim agent assured me it would be on the first plane from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and they would call me to arrange delivery of my luggage. No worries. There are 6 flights from Las Vegas to Los Angeles on Sunday. By the time I actually get to lay down to sleep my body thinks it's 5:00 in the morning. I haven't been so exhausted since final exam week in grad school. But no worries, they said they'd call me in the morning and I'll get my luggage back.

So I wait all day Sunday and no one calls, so I call them and ask about it. "Oops, it looks like your bag is still in Las Vegas. Or at least it still is according to the scans. Sorry. Someone will call you tomorrow when we have it."

So I call Monday afternoon because no one has called me. "You know, it's possible that it made it to LAX, but no one scanned it. Let me check." So I'm on hold for half an hour. "Oh yeah, it looks like someone in Las Vegas put it on an American Airlines flight. They just didn't bother to scan it. Call American and see if they have it." Are you serious? You dropped the ball, but it's suddenly my responsibility to figure it out? Really?

So I call American Airlines. "Did you fly on American from Charlotte to Los Angeles? No? Oh, well then you need to get US Airways to figure it out. They have your case file. You would need to correspond with them." (The guy who answered this phone call sounded like a robot reading a script and just repeating that I would need to correspond with US Airways over and over and over like he thought I was an idiot who didn't speak English. I wanted to put my phone down, pick up the nearest heavy object and hurl it at the wall in frustration.)

So I call back to US Airways. "No one has scanned your bag at LAX, so we can't confirm that it's actually here. Oh, you want me to walk over to the American Airlines baggage counter and see? Sorry, I'm not actually at the airport. I'll try to call over there and see if they can bring it over. Looks like no one is picking up the phone. Why don't you go to the airport and look yourself? In the mean time I'll send them an email and they should call you within 2 hours." Yes, why don't I just do your job for you because clearly, you can't handle anything more complicated than sending emails.

So I call American Airlines again. "Oh you want me to just look around the baggage claim office and see if I have it before you drive all the way out here? Sorry, I'm not actually at the airport, but I can call them and see if they can confirm for you. Oh it looks like no one is picking up. I can give you their phone number if you want to try yourself."

So I call the phone number they gave me. "You have reached Airport Parking Services. Baggage? I don't have anything to do with that, call someone else." Which means that when they said they were going to call the actual baggage claim desk at LAX, they were lying. Flat out lying to me and with obvious relish.

2 hours pass, no one calls me.

So I call US Airways again. "Oh that part of your baggage claim receipt that says if you don't get your luggage back within 24 hours a dedicated team of specialists will take over and send you regular updates? That's only for bags we actually lost. We know where yours is, it's in Las Vegas. You don't get a team or regular updates. How do you get us to move your bag from Las Vegas to Los Angeles? Oh I'm sure someone will notice that it was supposed to go to LAX eventually." It's like they're proud of how poorly they can get away with treating people.

At this point, I have been wearing the same outfit three days in a row, I have had to borrow pajamas, a toothbrush, a hairbrush, contact solution, shampoo, and a razor. I feel absolutely wretched to be imposing on my friend like this. It's embarrassing for me to show up with basically nothing and have to ask for basic necessities because I stupidly trusted that the airline would actually follow through on what they promised me. I was under the impression that getting your luggage to your final destination was part of the service that you pay for, but I guess it's really something you only get if they feel like it.

I had to go out an buy a second set of clothes so that I could wash my first set. I have been so stressed out over the whole situation that I have actually cried. My vacation is pretty much ruined.

The sheer incompetence of both American Airlines and U.S. Airways is so appallingly ridiculous that I will never fly either of them again. In fact, I'm determined to let everyone I know about how atrocious this entire experience has been in the hopes that they will never have to deal with this kind of treatment. I have been constantly lied to, jerked around and been treated with apathy and discourtesy. No one is willing to step up and fix this, it always someone else's problem. No one is capable of delivering on an any expectation they've set and no one cares to even try. No one is willing to own up to the fact that they seriously ****ed up and I am the one suffering for it. I have never been so callously inconvenienced in my life. I am fed up with insincere platitudes and empty promises. I am so stressed out that I am actually physically sick to my stomach.

It is now Tuesday, four days later, and I still have no luggage, no phone call, and no expectation of when I will get my suitcase. I really don't want to have to call these people again and be told that no one knows how to do their job, or get in contact with anyone else who works with them. I don't want to hear that no one knows where my luggage is or when I'll get it back. If I have to hear that I need to call someone else one more time I'm going to just start screaming.

If I don't get my luggage today, I'm going to post this to every social media and consumer review website I can think of. I will do my absolute best to protect other people from the train wreck of horrible experiences that await them if the fly on American Airlines or US Airways. I even sent a formal complaint in through their website.

So I ended up driving out to LAX myself and actually going to get my luggage because apparently working for American Airlines or US Airways drains all the ****s right out of people and encourages them to be as inefficient and unenthusiastic as humanly possible. I watched the clerk at the baggage counter actually drag her feet. It was like watching an actor on stage trying to convey a profound sense of unwillingness with their whole body. Unbelievable.

Then when I was sitting at the gate, waiting to board the plane home, the agent at the gate for American Airlines calls me up to the desk. She then hands me a new boarding pass and says:

"I moved your seat. Didn't want to split up a family."

Which sounds so nice, really, but my new seat was all the way in the back corner of the plane. Because they couldn't just leave well enough alone. It was like they were actively looking for new and creative ways to screw me over. Aren't they supped to, I don't know, ask permission before they just move you. It was incredibly rude and the agent who did it was also incredibly rude in the way she spoke to me. Because after all that they still felt the need to twist the knife a little more. What's one more thing, right?

When I finally did make it home, I just burst into tears. I was standing in the airport, hugging my roommate and just crying. I didn't even feel embarrassed. I was just so relieved that it was finally over and I'd never have to deal with American Airlines or US Airways ever again that crying in public felt like a reasonable and appropriate response.

A week later I got an email from US Airways about how sorry they were about it all. It was a canned auto response that felt more like a slap in the face than an apology. Like now they just want to rub it in that they really don't care at all.

I sincerely hope they both go out of business. Oh wait, aren't they one company now? Pretty sure American Airlines bought US Airways over a year ago. Huh. You'd think they would be able to work together instead of pointing fingers at each other.

So don't fly American Airlines or US Airways. It's not worth this. It's really not.

[Burgers]

It may compel people to read and take your complaint seriously if you kept the extraneous out of complaint. Your first paragraph alone was irrelevant to the complaint, it didn't improve much from there.

[Zara]

This is mostly about catharsis for me. I wanted to purge all the negativity out of me. Writing it all down and sharing it with someone else helps me do that. I'm sorry if you didn't like it, but I didn't write it for you.

[Sidewaysrob]

Nice response Zara, I have though Burgers really doesn't understand why people post here.

[A320FAN]

Originally Posted by Sidewaysrob

Nice response Zara, I have though Burgers really doesn't understand why people post here.

We all understand why you post here. However 98-99.95% of the stuff seems a bit over blown and not necessary.

[AA=AbsoluteAnus]

Perhaps overblown is a good term and I understand the catharsis aspect. One thing I don't fond overblown and is a compete injustice is the predatory tactics used by AA to charge $200 for a "change fee" and smile while doing it. As though they are happy to hold you hostage. Not only that but with a smiling face charge DOUBLE the fare on a flight that is not anywhere near full. I call for immediate action on all airlines practices of GOUGING the public with these practices.

How are we supposed to feel anything but abused by them? I fear that if this is what is happening on the surface of the company I can't imagine how they are cutting corners and abusing the employees and equipment to extract maximum profit. No thanks. Id rather feel safe and pay a little more for a company that values the customers safety and satisfaction.