by Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor.
There are times when you have to cut ties to a vendor when the arrangement no longer is suitable. Then, there are other times when the insolence and lack of respect is so great that if the internet was not available to vent such consternation we probably would boil over in frustration.
American Airlines won the latter approach by leaving my wife stranded–alone in an airport–lied about there being no accommodations to carry her through the night, and refused any form of compensation for their failure to schedule crew members for the flight, leading to this debacle.
Since it was not in American Airline’s interest to offer a hotel room or at least courtesy voucher for another flight here’s some negative publicity as a parting gift to you.
A close friend is a flight attendant with AA so it was with disappointment I write this, regarding his employer. But kinship has limits.
My wife attended a professional conference in the District of Columbia and afterward was scheduled the night before last to fly from Reagan International to Albany to visit family. I remained home during her travels.
She was to board an American Airlines direct-flight to Albany at 7:30 PM. Just before then, the desk announced a delay, which then turned to a cancellation. It seems the flight was short a crewperson who allegedly was to travel from Charlotte. The airline then announced the flight would be delayed until 11:30 but changed this to a cancellation. Several of the original passengers were allowed to rebook on another flight but by the time my wife arrived at the counter there were no seats available. The next flight would be in the morning.
Essentially, they told my wife she was on her own. This was after she informed them she did not live in DC.
When she telephoned me and asked what to do, I explained that AA should offer her a voucher for a hotel room to billet her for the night since it was American Airline’s fault the flight was cancelled. She then returned to the counter and requested an accommodation but to her dismay she was told there were no hotels available and that they would offer no compensation to my wife. No compensation? They drop the ball and my wife was expected to pick up the pieces.
I then went online and discovered that there were ten hotels in the vicinity having vacancies. My wife and I do not use smartphones so I had to do the research for the American Airlines’ employees who just rolled over and pretended that no vacancies existed. Oh, maybe it was because no “cheaper” hotels were available or that it involved too much work to help out a customer. Unfortunately, when I tried to reach my wife the cellphone went to voicemail. The reception there was poor during our previous conversation. I left messages with information on which hotels to call but she didn’t receive the voice mail notification until the next morning.
Thus then began the ordeal for my wife, courtesy of American Airlines.
I expressed to her my reservations with staying alone in the airport at night, Thus, the airline needed to find her a room. My concern was that she might fall asleep and some misanthrope would steal her luggage. She found a lounge of some form that was behind glass where she felt more comfortable. It would not last long. At 1:00 AM a security guard directed her to leave since the concourse was closing. My wife then had to manage somehow in the main terminal, making all attempts at rest a fool’s errand.
In total American Airlines awarded my wife one hour’s sleep.
Fortunately she managed to depart for Albany in the morning. Still, there was nothing to be offered by American Airlines for all the discomfort their scheduling error and lack of accommodation caused.
The airline prides itself with the motto “The World’s Greatest Flyers Fly American” yet it treated one of these “greatest flyers” as if they were baggage that can simply bet left to sit on a bench without any respect.
No, if we were to fly American Airlines after this incident we would be one of the World’s Greatest Chumps to fall for that promise again. Our days of flying AA are over.
I hope saving a couple hundred dollars for a hotel voucher or courtesy ticket was worthwhile for American Airlines. AA, you bought for yourselves a great deal of negative publicity via direct advertisement to a market segment that flies frequently.
To others out there, I ask that when you fly think of how American Airlines valued my wife’s business by abandoning her in a terminal. I recommend selecting another carrier, at the very least to show support for my wife and make their lack sensitivity cost them many times over in lost revenue. Because judging by their actions, money what that matters to American Airlines.
By Darren Smith
The views expressed in this posting are the author’s alone and not those of the blog, the host, or other weekend bloggers. As an open forum, weekend bloggers post independently without pre-approval or review. Content and any displays or art are solely their decision and responsibility.
Not being mean….but you have seen the tons of hotel phones you can just pick up….or call her husband….how stupid is she….attending a
Management meeting….ha !!!
hahahahhahaha good point. hahaha a “management” meeting. So important… hahahahahahahahahaha. This place is trying to mimic the Daily show or something.
The tone of many of the comments shows an impressive lack of civility and an impressive lack of understanding (not too surprising considering the nature of the internet).
The point is that the event is a data point, and one that increases the probability of an unsatisfactory experience Bayes theorem for the techies).
Why does the airline industry have this expectation while other travel industries dont? Someone please help me!
Banks of free hotel phones at bag claim….the’s people are dumb.
They both sound quite unsophisticated…quite stupid really.
If you had a travel agent..one call would have gotten you rebooked while other people were getting in line….revalidated or rebooked while you had a latte.
So you expect a airline to give you a hotel for the night if you don’t get to your destination? No where in the world does this happen or does this expectation exist. It doesn’t happen on a train, bus, boat! So why should it happen on a plane?
There is nothing wrong with sleeping in the airport overnight, stop complaining about!
It’s not the airlines job to solve all of your problems!
“It’s not the airlines job to solve all of your problems!”
Darren wasn’t asking for all of his wife’s problems to be solved, only the problem that AA created by not appropriately staffing the flight.
“Nowhere in the world does this happen or does this expectation exist.”
Not true. Check out the air passenger rights page at europa dot eu (not linking because I’m visiting this site from Simple Justice, where links aren’t allowed… when in Rome, blah blah blah).
TL;DR version: in Europe, it is a legal requirement for an airline to look after its passengers, and there are consequences for such an airline not looking after its passengers.
I was referring to other methods of travel! If you ride a bus, train, boat, ship none of these things are given to you. As well.as they shouldn’t be, companies should not be forced to take care of you. It’s time we all grow up and take care of ourselves not rely on a company to put us up for the night.
A airline should have one responsablity, fly you to your destination on time safely. Period!
Now the idea of spending the night at a airport is no big deal, I’ve done it many times. You find a bench, make a pillow and lay down for the night. Nobody is going to bother you or take your stuff (cameras are everywhere)
Are people really this scared of life? They need other people/companies to solve their problems?
Darren,
Let me see if I can get you some relief from them. Let me know.
What an ordeal! How infuriating not to be there. Sorry your wife had to go through it. The airlines often have us by the scruff of the neck. Some call it monopoly capitalism, or globalism, or crapification or all three, but what ever it is, it results in increasingly poor products and services. American Airlines really pushed it to the next level, however.
WTF? Why so tough on Darren and his wife?
I was shocked by the venom displayed by some of our esteemed fellow readers.
I suspect that there is more to it than this article – some people might not agree with Darren and are taking the opportunity to get a couple of licks in.
Darren puts a lot of effort into these columns; lots of people enjoy them – I certainly do.
Seems that the art of disagreeing politely is a dying skill in this country – lots of meanness, little wit displayed in these attacks.
Being polite has it’s place and this is not it!
I KNOW! I’m shocked at the anger and vitriol at a man showing protective instincts for his wife, or blaming a lady for not realizing the airline was lying to her.
Husbands should stick up for their wives, (and vice versa) and certainly complain when they are treated badly by any company.
Those that criticize should come work for the airline. Everyone feels entitled to everything these days. That’s the way people feel. Airlines have contracts with hotels. You cant send someone to a hotel if they don’t take vouchers. so quick to complain but how many write compliments every time something goes well. They don’t write it because they get nothing out of it. You spoke your complaint on social media to make sure the airline will send you something.
Next trip if AA is $1 cheaper he will book it!
I fly almost every week and never had problems with US Air before the destruction of it by AA. It’s rare AA doesn’t screw up something when I have to fly them. Like many other frequent flyers I hate AA and hope they go under.
AA was so much better before US Air. Now the new AA sucks. I hope they do not go under because they have a lot of employees.
America airlines has not even finished combining both american airlines and us airways.
Why don’t you give the company a chance to operate as a combined airlines before killing them
So sorry this happened to your wife, but glad she was not robbed while at the airport.
Her experience reminded me of that scene in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles where Steve Martin tries to get his rental car, the company sent him to an empty space, but since he’d lost his agreement they callously refused to help him.
Airlines are getting an infamous reputation for callous disregard for their customers. The journey is no longer part of the adventure, but rather an aspect to be endured. Remember the glamour of air travel from old movies? It’s more of a cattle car now. I fondly remember when the seats actually reclined more than 1 inch.
And of course Darren’s wife would not aimlessly travel DC to visit hundreds of hotels, walk inside, and inquire in each and every one if they had a vacancy. That would cost a fortune in taxi fair, and the airline had already told her there were no vacancies. She had no cause not to believe them because she did not receive Darren’s subsequent call due to poor reception.
There seems to be some ad hominem politically driven attacks, all because the blog has dared to criticize Liberals as well as conservatives equally. There are plenty of other blogs that may be better suited out there if you are disappointed in this venue.
Karen S
While the cell phone reception may have been spotty, what prevented this grown woman from picking up a pay phone–yes, they are scattered throughout the airports–and telephoning her husband? Nothing. What prevented her from asking any security officer or any person still left behind a ticket counter for the names of a few close hotels in the area–using her cell phone or a pay phone to contact them and arrange accommodations? Again, nothing. What prevented her from approaching the taxi stand and inquiring of the starter or any taxi driver, of the nearest and most reasonable place to stay? Yep. Nothing. Don’t be surprised that many on here find it odd that a mature woman would opt to ride out an overnight stay, alone, in an abandoned airport, just so that she could avoid shelling out a few bucks. The bad behavior, on the part of AA, gets lost when one reads the even more questionable and surprising behavior that followed AA’s refusal to supply a voucher. Darren posts this story, expecting those reading it to be incensed. Yes, the airlines need to be held accountable. No doubt about it. The response, though, to the misdeeds of an airline, where one’s personal safety and security was compromised out of some inexplicable need to save a few bucks, is even more worrisome.
She was told there were no vacancies in any nearby hotels.
Why would she not believe them, take a taxi, and drive aimlessly around DC, inquiring at hundreds of hotels in person because she had a 6th sense the airline lied? The employee checked the computer right in front of her. DC has some really bad neighborhoods, so wandering around in the middle of the night when you were told there were no vacancies doesn’t seem like a great idea.
If your flight’s been cancelled, the next flight is in the morning, and you’re told no hotels have any vacancies, then you spend the night in a plastic chair at the airport. I’ve spent many hours in those horrible plastic seats, even trying to lie down on a row of them. She was handling it like a responsible adult by spending the night at the airport and then pressing on to her destination.
The entire premise that she should have taken a taxi depends upon her realizing the airline outright lied to her. I did not think that saving money was the motivation for any of her actions. I said why waste the money on a taxi because taxis are atrocious. The comment about cost came from me, not Darren.
The main complaint is that the airline lied to her about accommodations, and made no effort to make her comfortable when their own mistake caused the entire problem. That’s not good customer service.
Karen S
Usually, your comments are spot on, but in this particular situation, not so much. I’m sure that you realize, along with the majority of the travelling public, that the airlines only have contracts with very specific hotels–not ALL hotels in the vicinity. Most people, especially someone either going to or returning from a management conference, would have enough common sense and worldly experience, be familiar with that simple concept. Perhaps the counter person was correct in that no hotels, with whom the airline SPECIFICALLY contracts, had any vacancies. Who knows? Given the fact that she was not being provided with the expected voucher, which her husband had instructed her to demand, my first instinct–and the instinct of any reasonably prudent person–would have been to pay a visit to the bank of phones, readily available and prominent in all airports, which directly connect one, free of charge, to a wide variety of accommodations. She, quite obviously, failed to do that simplest of tasks. Note, however, that her failure doesn’t excuse or justify AA’s refusal to provide her with a voucher, and, for the record, I don’t recall reading anyone mention anything about taking a joyride through the streets of Washington, DC, to find a vacancy. A slight amount of effort, on her part, could have resolved this situation in minutes. Literally, minutes. There were, in fact, vacancies in the area. All of us encounter, on a daily basis, a wide variety of obstacles and challenges. This was not a particularly difficult one, in my opinion. Stating that doesn’t relieve AA of any legal responsibility that it may have had–two very distinct and separate issues.
The part about bad reception, at the airport, which, allegedly prevented her from speaking directly with her husband, is failure number two. Again, there are ample payphones, strewn throughout all major airports, which would have easily and instantaneously connected her with her husband. Again, no mention that was ever attempted. He could have, then, obviously informed her of the various vacancies.
Choosing to rough it, alone, as a female, in a deserted airport, is foolishness. Plain and simple. This wasn’t a case of an entire airport being stranded or snowed in, where there is, to a degree, a certain amount of safety in numbers. There are problems in life that are often, seemingly, insurmountable. This wasn’t even close. A tiny bit of commonsense, coupled with an ounce of effort, would’ve turned this horrible situation into a mere inconvenience. Instead, it was amplified by the manner in which it was addressed by the victim.
This post is reveals a first world issue. Hahaha privileged and petulant is an apt term to describe this piece. how did this post not get scrubbed? It’s personal and mostly irrelevant.
Why would I care about d smiths wife? I don’t!
The civility “code” (hahahaha this place) needs to be updated. This is a personal blog post.
Just say no to drugs.
Umm, I don’t want to be presumptuous here, but JT teaches in DC and lives in Northern VA, and you are a very frequent guest blogger, and he has always appeared to me to be a nice guy. A possible solution does seem to present itself.
lol JT collects a rather large paycheck from a university that needs a food bank because the cost of attendance is so high that many have problems getting fed.
That’s a nice guy?
More a shyster.
Yes. That’s right. Blame JT. Because, as anyone can see, it’s all his fault that Darren’s wife didn’t have an ounce of common sense to simply get a taxi to take her to the nearest hotel for the night. Yes. Don’t ya see–it’s the university’s fault. If only JT didn’t teach at a university that demanded such high tuition, the voucher, for transportation and accommodations, would have been readily available to Darren’s wife. The food bank, in no way connected to AA, is proof of that.
Wow. So many disjointed thoughts, so early in the morning. That’s some thought pattern chip. Just as jumbled and confused as your jumbled and incomprehensible moniker.
I was responding to a particular post.
Your post is fitting as a regular of this blog though. Truth is of no concern.
Sane, rational and relevant thoughts are, quite obviously, of no concern for you. Must suck to be you.
Wow, I am really sorry to have even brought this subject up.
For flights to/from Europe, try Icelandair. Very clean, modern aircraft, lovely & professional staff. Greetings from Rekjavik!
A post about homeless people right before a post about your personal issues with American Airlines. Hahaha if Diogenes of Sinope were still around he wouldn’t need a lantern to view this blogs faux principles and watch the cesspool continue… it’s in plain view.
Sorry about your wife’s experience. But you are so concerned about her that instead of having her stay overnight at one of the many nearby hotels you found, you write it up here???? Seriously???? Wow man…wow. You kinda suck.
Haha..my thoughts exactly!!
Read the article again. He clearly states she didn’t get the voicemails until the next morning due to poor signal and not having smart phones. Blaming the husband for not putting his wife up in a hotel for the airlines failures – mean spirited people.
She probably was using your friends flying pass. And there for she was standby and the airlines doesn’t make accommodations for standby passangers. Yall bad for not fully understanding how it works.
That’s not what happened. Neither of them have Smartphones, which means she could not search the Net herself for a nearby hotel. AA would not help her find a hotel. Darren found hotels on their computer, but could not reach his wife with the information due to the poor reception.
I used to do a lot of flying. I’m sure there were instances of discomfort, including spending the night at the airport, but I’m so glad I no longer fly. Instead I have driven many thousands of miles taking days to get where I’m going. I won’t pass TSA so I don’t get the problems with the airlines. I really want to go back to Europe so I’m looking at cruises. It’s not the cheap way to go but it has a better chance of being pleasant. The journey is part of adventure.