[I am writing this because I am passionate about customer experience and believe all companies must care about customer satisfaction or they will fail. It is simple really. I try to avoid the "fail" use of twitter, but I am going to make an exception here. Oh, and there maybe just a hint of spite here... I am human after all.]
I will spare you the blow by blow of my travel experience with Flt 2033 on 4/29 from Dallas to Seattle. If you travel enough, stuff happens. I do not blame AA for thunderstorms and for in-bound flights being deferred to other airports. That is not under their control.
What is under their control is communicating clearly, effectively, and sensitively with their passengers. I was able to track the in-bound flight on Flight-Stats, and observe the reschedules as well. The gate staff repeatedly gave the passengers misinformation (maybe they were given that, I have no idea). When I asked the gate crew to announce to the passengers the likely outcome since they had no crew and the in-bound crew was clearly over their service-allotment (and to advise how they might complain to AA to receive compensation for the situation) they told me "we can not do that, we will not do that." When I asked why, and where this policy came from, I was literally yelled at and asked to step away from the counter. Wow.
I stuck around, since I had no other great options, but many passengers were from Dallas. They kept the passengers at the gate until 1:30am (scheduled 7:30pm departure!), and would not rebook anyone until they officially canceled the flight at 1:30am. And for those who took AA up on the hotel accommodations they did not get to a room until minimum 2:30am, and then needed to be back at the airport at 6:00am for their re-booked flight. We are talking families with infants and toddlers in addition to the grizzled travel veterans. That was the nature of my complaint - lies, insensitivity, and poor communication. I did request compensation for the inconvenience, which is common in these situations, and frankly - expected.
Below is the completely canned response I got from AA. Note that the reply is not relevant to my complaint at all, and one I can not reply to. No dialogue. But it was marked urgent, which is odd since it offers no resolution. So, this tells me:
1) AA does not care about their passengers, or they would be honest with them and sensitive to them as people
2) They do not read their customer complaints, though they say they do
3) They do not offer tools to retain disappointed customers, even those who travel a tremendous amount or have spent a lot with them - as in the frequent flyer or the low-income family of four
4) They do not want a relationship or dialogue with their customers. This was evident in every interaction with them.
Not a good sign, and quite disappointing. If I were a shareholder I would be quite concerned. I expect better from the companies I do business with, and I know my customers expect much better from me.
If anyone at AA wishes to contact me concerning this matter, or to learn more about your companies challenges in this situation, please DM me.
Thanks for listening, Brian
[Sorry for the personal nature of this post, this is completely independent of my role at Forrester Research and does not reflect the policies or opinions of Forrester in any way. That said, I get to choose who I fly with.]
May 15, 2009
Dear Mr. Walker:
There's nothing more frustrating than when the activity of controlling the flow of air traffic impacts the scheduled operation of airline flights. I'm very sorry to learn about the interruption of your travel plans and the numerous inconveniences you endured.
While we wish we could get all our customers to their destinations on time, and operate each and every flight as scheduled, we just can't do so. There are too many uncontrollable factors -- like air traffic congestion -- that can affect our flights. Controlling the flow of airplanes is about the safe and effective coordination of flight arrivals and departures. Sometimes, this activity can result in delays or cancellations. Again, we regret that your trip was disrupted on April 9.
While we can appreciate your request, it is not our policy to reimburse our customers' out-of-pocket expenses or provide compensation when we don't operate our flights as planned. I'm sorry to disappoint you.
You have my assurance that we will continue to focus on the on-time departure of our flights and do all we can to get you to your destination on time. I hope you will give us another chance to do so.
Sincerely,
Kristine M. Darmody
Customer Relations
American Airlines
This is an "outgoing only" email address. If you 'reply' to this message by simply selecting the reply button, we will not receive your additional comments. Please assist us in providing you with a timely response to any feedback you have for us by always sending us your email messages via AA.com.
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