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AA Completely Mishandles an Equipment Swap
Scheduled to depart on AA’s 763 (30 NGBC / 189 whY) today from ORD back to California, I was greeted by my first equipment swap LESS THAN ONE HOUR BEFORE DEPARTURE due to not having enough people to fill the plane. They downgauged us to a 757-200 (22 crappy, but wider F / 166 whY) effectively eliminating 8 seats in F and 23 seats in whY for a total of -31.
The numbers are important to note as when I checked in 15 hours before the flight, there were still 15 seats for sale in F.
45 minutes from departure, they made an announcement for everyone to approach the counter for reassignment. When my turn came, they informed me that there was absolutely no seat on the plane for me.
Keeping my cool, but sternly showing how pissed I was, I asked how in the world I was not protected as I had made the booking over a month ago and upgraded it with miles at that time (I know, I know…HUGE AL almost never plans anything in advance and rarely flies AA anymore, but I do use them when flying to ORD for their NGBC seats – although, I really hate their 18.5” width) and that 15 hours before the flight, they were showing the F cabin only at 15 seats. Perhaps some people paid for F at the last second, but I highly doubt it was 7 more. Somebody in DFW had screwed up the proper order – which I assume (paging KeithMEL) is:
Full Paid F
Discounted F
Full Y Upgraded with Miles
Discounted Y Upgraded with Miles (me)
EXP Upgrades
Plat Certificate Upgrades
Gold Certificate Upgrades
I was told to wait to see if they could assign me a whY seat. The agent assisting me, then proceeded to yell at a gentleman in line that she would not talk to him any more regarding his ticket as he had to wait just like me. Obviously, there were many many passengers who were pissed – not only people who had been in F, but others who had reserved the exit row or bulkhead and were now stuck someplace else.
I decided to go to the gate across from mine where I had spotted some friendly agents earlier. They kindly looked into the situation (even joking about it). They told me that I wasn’t the only person getting royally screwed. There was a family of four who had also upgraded with miles long ago (therefore, also part of the original 15 passengers). The agents advised me to call AA while I waited. I did, but really didn’t get very far (was put on hold and hung up when I was paged back to my gate). In addition, I got on the phone with a FT buddy of mine, who kindly looked up the rules and was trying to find out compensation guidelines.
When I finally was able to talk to the gate agent (a much better one than before), I was told that the best they could do was assign me a window seat and block the middle seat next to me. While he was printing out my boarding pass and getting my miles and fees credited back to my account, he was interrupted twice by another agent. I heard my name mentioned both times, and was hopeful, but in the end, had to board with what I got.
On the jetbridge almost at the plane, the agent called me back to the desk. The family of four were standing in front of him. Looking at their bags, I could see that the father was an EXP. He was pissed. His wife, even more so as they explained that they were returning from a family vacation. And they had every right. The son even turned to his father and asked, “Dad, if you pay for a product, shouldn’t you get that product and not something inferior?” To their credit, they kept their cool.
I soon found out that they were only getting one F seat and the family decided to downgrade to whY in order to be together. I ended up with a crappy F seat and we got underway a half hour delayed.
Onboard, I indeed confirmed that many of the F passengers were either EXP upgrades or Plat/Gold certificate upgrades.
I’m not saying AA owes me anything, as they did satisfy their Right of Carriage agreement in getting me from point A to point B – and even in the class of service I had originally booked. But the entire thing was handled extremely poorly – something zander told me AA is famous for…
I can't wait for VX to get the route so I can be done with AA & UA.
Tired now, I will contemplate writing in to AA regarding the incident tomorrow morning.
The numbers are important to note as when I checked in 15 hours before the flight, there were still 15 seats for sale in F.
45 minutes from departure, they made an announcement for everyone to approach the counter for reassignment. When my turn came, they informed me that there was absolutely no seat on the plane for me.
Keeping my cool, but sternly showing how pissed I was, I asked how in the world I was not protected as I had made the booking over a month ago and upgraded it with miles at that time (I know, I know…HUGE AL almost never plans anything in advance and rarely flies AA anymore, but I do use them when flying to ORD for their NGBC seats – although, I really hate their 18.5” width) and that 15 hours before the flight, they were showing the F cabin only at 15 seats. Perhaps some people paid for F at the last second, but I highly doubt it was 7 more. Somebody in DFW had screwed up the proper order – which I assume (paging KeithMEL) is:
Full Paid F
Discounted F
Full Y Upgraded with Miles
Discounted Y Upgraded with Miles (me)
EXP Upgrades
Plat Certificate Upgrades
Gold Certificate Upgrades
I was told to wait to see if they could assign me a whY seat. The agent assisting me, then proceeded to yell at a gentleman in line that she would not talk to him any more regarding his ticket as he had to wait just like me. Obviously, there were many many passengers who were pissed – not only people who had been in F, but others who had reserved the exit row or bulkhead and were now stuck someplace else.
I decided to go to the gate across from mine where I had spotted some friendly agents earlier. They kindly looked into the situation (even joking about it). They told me that I wasn’t the only person getting royally screwed. There was a family of four who had also upgraded with miles long ago (therefore, also part of the original 15 passengers). The agents advised me to call AA while I waited. I did, but really didn’t get very far (was put on hold and hung up when I was paged back to my gate). In addition, I got on the phone with a FT buddy of mine, who kindly looked up the rules and was trying to find out compensation guidelines.
When I finally was able to talk to the gate agent (a much better one than before), I was told that the best they could do was assign me a window seat and block the middle seat next to me. While he was printing out my boarding pass and getting my miles and fees credited back to my account, he was interrupted twice by another agent. I heard my name mentioned both times, and was hopeful, but in the end, had to board with what I got.
On the jetbridge almost at the plane, the agent called me back to the desk. The family of four were standing in front of him. Looking at their bags, I could see that the father was an EXP. He was pissed. His wife, even more so as they explained that they were returning from a family vacation. And they had every right. The son even turned to his father and asked, “Dad, if you pay for a product, shouldn’t you get that product and not something inferior?” To their credit, they kept their cool.
I soon found out that they were only getting one F seat and the family decided to downgrade to whY in order to be together. I ended up with a crappy F seat and we got underway a half hour delayed.
Onboard, I indeed confirmed that many of the F passengers were either EXP upgrades or Plat/Gold certificate upgrades.
I’m not saying AA owes me anything, as they did satisfy their Right of Carriage agreement in getting me from point A to point B – and even in the class of service I had originally booked. But the entire thing was handled extremely poorly – something zander told me AA is famous for…
I can't wait for VX to get the route so I can be done with AA & UA.
Tired now, I will contemplate writing in to AA regarding the incident tomorrow morning.
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!
) Since they did satisfy getting me from point A to point B in the class of service I booked (though not the aircraft with the better seats), I'm not expecting anything. However, chaos did ensue at the gate and the gate agents were very sympathetic to the situation that DFW put us in...so I'll see what happens. Not to mention that I still haven't decided whether writing in is worth my effort or not.
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