ANGER at AMERICAN AIRLINES (American Airlines)

Member Name: punkypickle

Product:	American Airlines
Date:	01/09/08 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The food was nice

Disadvantages: Everything else, particularly customer service in ALL areas

I have recently flown trans-atlantic with American Airlines, and it was the worst flying experience I have ever had.

I should have known as soon as I got to Heathrow! We had E-tickets so we could save time by doing a self-check-in. When we got there, all the self check in machines were cordoned off. I asked an AA member of staff whether we could use them (the check in queue was pretty big otherwise) and she said yes, so there I was scanning the passports minding my own business and another staff member ran up to me and told me I couldn't use the machine!?! Anyway he relented and I nervously checked in my baggage at an empty counter, hoping that it made it onto the plane!

Once on the plane, we realised how we should have spent the extra money to go with Virgin! The entertainment system was old and flickery, and in some cases not working at all!

The flight staff also seemed quite rude. I had 3 things spilt on me on the way out to the states and not one apology. First thing was a pot of maple syrup so my clothes were sticky for the whole day, no apology, no napkin to wipe it off, no nothing!

They also didn't give us enough to drink. We had to go and ask for some water as it was such a long flight and we had only one drink! They weren't very obliging, but gave us a tiny carton of water each in the end.

Anyway, that's nothing compared to the trip on the way home! We were flying from Baltimore to Chicago and catching a plane from there to London. Whilst at Baltimore we were told that bad storms in Chicago meant our fight would be delayed by half an hour...no worries, fine by us. They put us on the plane, and low and behold we miss 3 flight slots, and are waiting on the tarmac for over an hour.

By now we're pretty panicky thinking we'll miss our next flight. The steward told us not to worry, everything was delayed so we'd have no problem catching our flight.....WRONG!!!

We run to our gate in Chicago and there's a counter with 3 members of staff chatting on it. Finally one of them senses our urgency...."Oh no, that flight left some time ago, go down the hall and use the red phones..." she went back to chatting....

what red phones? What now? what do we do? Why aren't you helping us? We use the red phones....they book us on the next flight in 12 hours time...the person on the phone said "Go to the exit, you'll see a AA counter, explain your situation, they'll give you a hotel voucher". We go to the exit....there is a counter, only there's noone on it, it's closed. In the meantime we've passed the baggage hall and can't go back in...so we're stranded in the check in hall, no food places open, noone to ask for help, nowhere to sleep, no nothing, they gave us the wrong information and ruined what was a great holiday.

We had to stay in a Hilton (the only airport hotel) as there was nowhere else to go and we didn't know Chicago at all.

Back home, I emailed them straight away, the only way, through a comments box on their website, two weeks later I'd had no reply so I messaged them again. I got a weak response to my problem saying they couldn't reimburse because of bad weather...that wasn't the problem! They really couldn't care less that they left us stranded in Chicago and £200 out of pocket, because they gave us the wrong advice.....

I will NEVER use them again

Summary: Avoid like the plague