American Airlines Attempts to Amend

In my six series post regarding my trip to LA with my husband I mentioned our disastrous flight and 7 hour delay in Dallas: American Airlines FAIL.  I mentioned that I do not recommend flying with American Airlines and that despite the weather delay my comment had to do with customer service and several gate changes that was not necessary.

I took my feelings a little further:

1. Posting on the American Airlines Facebook wall regarding my displeasure.  Mainly because those that were complaining about the situation in Dallas that day were being ridiculed for their uncaring nature regarding inspection of the planes for safety.  This was not mine nor most of the passengers complaints. I’m sure everyone was happy that American Airlines was bringing in planes to inspect for hail damage and making sure the weather was safe before flying. It was the customer service that was the problem. I’m not going to go into more you can read my original post (linked above).

2. I took it one step further and emailed through the American Airline website my complaint. Though I did commend them for their safety efforts I explained to them why I was dissatisfied.

I received the below response as well as a $100 voucher to American Airlines good for a year.

June 7, 2011

Dear Mrs. Shibley:

Thank you for contacting us. After reading your comments, it is clear that your experience with American did not go as smoothly as we would have both preferred and we are very sorry for not serving you better.

Unfortunately, for us and our customers, severe weather events were the norm throughout the month of May. Thunderstorms at one or more of our cornerstone cities seemed to be an almost daily occurrence — forcing us to delay and cancel literally thousands of flights, affecting hundreds of thousands of customers. The inclement weather put a severe strain on our system and we recognize that many of our customers encountered cascading difficulties as a result. From the inability to connect to our Reservations centers in a timely manner for rebooking, to the limited rebooking options due to the number of flights affected, to limited hotel options during overnight stays, to baggage claiming issues upon arrival — there is no question that our customers were inconvenienced and had difficulty getting the professional assistance that they should expect and deserve. We sympathize that your plans were impacted.

As a gesture of goodwill and to encourage your future business, we have sent you an eVoucher for you to use toward the purchase of a ticket to travel with us. You will receive the eVoucher via a separate email soon.

We would like to reassure you that your experience is not typical of our usual performance. Although we cannot change the circumstances that affected your travel with us on this occasion, we are confident we can do a better job in the future. Please give us another opportunity to serve you.

Sincerely,

Luke Homan
Customer Relations
American Airlines

I do appreciate the time and effort to respond to my complaint instead of just filing it away. I understand at this point that American Airlines can do nothing but offer apologizes and in this case was considerate enough to offer a voucher. I can’t say that this voucher will sway my decision to fly or not to fly with them in the future. I more then likely will not chose them as my first choice. However I felt since I blogged about them in a negative light that it is only fair to let my readers know that they responded to my complaint in a professional and kind manner, and have tried to make amends.

I also just wanted to note that you will find as much as I may complain to companies I’m dissatisfied with I also send the same about of emails and calls for excellent service as well. It is only fair.