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AA pilot to pax: "You can't see the stripes"?

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AA pilot to pax: "You can't see the stripes"?

Old 1st May 2015, 14:16
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Pilots and Flight Attendants get blamed for a lot of things out of their control because we are the most visible link to the company when passengers board the aircraft. We share the frustration because most of us want to do a good job and get you to your destination on time.

I have had my plane taken many times to cover another flight and waited also seeing our intended aircraft taxiing out and we have a two hour delay for the rescheduled aircraft. As the pilot I complained to the Chief Pilot that this happened often enough for our lower priority destination which I normally flew that I felt like we were flying a standby aircraft we could use if no one else needed it.

He appologized but said dispatch has to reschedule aircraft to keep things flowing as smoothly as possible.

Always leave time when flying for these kind of delays.
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Old 1st May 2015, 21:43
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if AA is too slow to deal with you and credit you what they owe you, and it is their fault, call your credit card company hotline to ask for a refund, be ready to back it up with evidence, and in my experience credit card companies are lightning quick to give a refund, it costs them nothing, they'll do a clawback from the merchant and AA will comply, with a small penalty for AA, credit card companies have them by the balls with their solid T&C's, and you might even do AA a favor by not exhausting their capacities to deal with pax

your situation sounds horrible...all that being said, I've personally seen some horror stories...like stranded passengers waiting for their connecting flight in a foreign country after a flag carrier went bankrupt, including many first class passengers (real first class, not what US airlines refer to as first) with a 10'000 USD fully flexible old fashioned IATA ticket that supposedly could easily get rebooked even with other carriers, asking "partner" airlines in the same "alliance" if they would honor it...uhm no sorry. So for those who are blaming cheap fares, in the worst case, having thrown money at an airline won't help. Compassionate former employees who had just lost their job, and others too, at least tried their best to bring blankets and water bottles for the most needy who slept over at the airport, in the general confusion of task saturation.

and sometimes, you can get treated like royalty. One time my incoming intercontinental flight was late, and I had mentally already given up arriving on time at my final destination, but cabin crew asked me to get ready to be the first at the door, where I was greeted by a friendly female driver who led me down to the apron, drove me in a nice BMW to a VIP passport control (the real deal, not gold/platinum/premium/funny frequent flyer line thing, the passport control with no line at all), and after that directly to my connecting flight, that had been waiting. I was a bit puzzled, and in my confusion about all this goodness I asked the cabin crew who welcomed me, "with this 10 minute transfer, for sure my luggage will be delayed". "Wait a moment, I'll ask the pilots, they know". "rest assured, it's on board". whoa, they had sent another car. I figure I was lucky they had the capacity to do all that, it seemed like they bent over backwards. It's not something you can expect, but it can happen, just like an unfortunate situation can happen. And as bubbers said, employees want to do a good job.

Last edited by deptrai; 1st May 2015 at 22:22.
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Old 2nd May 2015, 08:33
  #43 (permalink)  
 
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According to Flightstats, your flight was cancelled at 17:21 DFW time, 1:19 before the scheduled departure time of 18:40 DFW time.

From what I can see, Alaska and American each have one flight to SEA after that time at 19:55 and 21:45, respectively. There are some connecting flights, but all that I saw (two) had travel times greater than 13 hours. Not many alternative for that route at that hour.
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Old 3rd May 2015, 16:54
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planckepoch,

Let me guess, you booked AA through Orbitz because AA was the cheapest flight?
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Old 3rd May 2015, 18:16
  #45 (permalink)  
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Dunno about US rules but if the ticket is booked through a 3rd party (Orbitz in this case) surly any refund is due from them and not the airline.

Certainly is over here
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Old 4th May 2015, 03:39
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I ask again that the original poster inform us if he has received a refund. If he does not indicate anything soon, I will guess he got his money back and has left the building.
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Old 4th May 2015, 06:12
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@halfnut
Let me guess, you booked AA through Orbitz because AA was the cheapest flight?
And there is something wrong with that?
In a commodity market with no or few differentiating factors ( = US domestic market), people go with price.
Or do you pay 30c a gallon more for gas just because you like the logo...?
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Old 4th May 2015, 12:52
  #48 (permalink)  
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I was in Oslo last week getting breakfast at the hotel with my crew, had my uniform on and was asked by one of the patrons if there were any more eggs were coming as the current batch had run out, I replied that sorry I didn't work there but I'm sure the eggs would be there soon, the expression on his face was priceless when he realized he was asking an airline pilot.

Not all of us are arrogant self centered individuals like some of you infer, we may be tired getting into the hotel or on the back side of the clock or both, we can simply be irritated at people asking questions that with a little thought can be resolved.

I thought the op was just a rant at the airline and the bit about the pilot was a tasty tidbit at the end.

Rant away its your right, but as you as a population you have demanded the lowest fares possible,you get what you pay for but that won't stop any professional pilot from making sure that we will do our jobs to get you where you want to go in the safest possible manner at the same time trying to make sure the company that employs us remains an ongoing concern.

Last edited by FLCH; 4th May 2015 at 14:31.
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Old 2nd Jun 2015, 12:07
  #49 (permalink)  
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The pilot is an and could use some social skills training. Other than that, what you describe does not strike me as unusual for U.S. travel on the major airlines, in my same unfortunate experience.
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Old 3rd Jun 2015, 10:10
  #50 (permalink)  
 
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"the expression on his face was priceless when he realized he was asking an airline pilot."


I think that's quite a revealing observation FLCH - perhaps the expression on his face was because he realised he'd mistaken you for hotel staff and clearly you wouldn't be expected to know the status of the eggs, rather than he was addressing a member of the winged master-race . I see North American flight and cabin crew in hotels all over the world (as well as airports) and to be honest, few ever strike me as being particularly approachable or likely to want to answer a query...and that's usually before I've noticed they are airline personnel.


But..as someone who is frequently asked where the toilets are...which bus goes to the Holiday Inn...where can I claim back my VAT...where's the gate for "British Air" etc...I find you have to take it in your stride, regardless of how pushed for time you may be or focussed in the interest of 'your customers' safety and security'; members of the public, by and large find airports somewhat stressful environments and will ask questions of anyone they manage to identify in a uniform, and as a uniform wearing ambassador for your company, I would expect that. I will absolutely always attempt to answer a question to the best of my ability even if that is only so far as to direct someone to a more competent person who might know the answer (particularly in supermarkets and public lavatories), rather in the same way FLCH did at the breakfast buffet. Aircrew, and pilot's in particular are considered to be customer facing, intelligent and responsible individuals who should surely recognise the adoration laid onto them by their fare-paying public who, have strayed into their environment - even if it is only shown by the asking of an occasional question (albeit erroneously) .


I have also experienced a similar high standard of customer service as experienced by deptrai at both IAD and ORD with UAL in recent years following tight connections off of long-haul sectors. Couldn't have done more for me and left me both a little surprised but also delighted - they went out of their way when they didn't have to and that made a big difference to me.
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Old 6th Jun 2015, 02:24
  #51 (permalink)  
 
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But..as someone who is frequently asked where the toilets are...which bus goes to the Holiday Inn...where can I claim back my VAT...where's the gate for "British Air" etc...I find you have to take it in your stride, regardless of how pushed for time you may be or focussed in the interest of 'your customers' safety and security'; members of the public, by and large find airports somewhat stressful environments and will ask questions of anyone they manage to identify in a uniform, and as a uniform wearing ambassador for your company, I would expect that.
I had an FR pax ask how to use the check-in machine at STN the other morning (I work for another airline), had 2 minutes spare so showed them.

A little politeness goes a long way sometimes, and if I have time I'll always try to make 2 minutes to answer a question properly if I know the answer.

I have also experienced a similar high standard of customer service as experienced by deptrai at both IAD and ORD with UAL in recent years following tight connections off of long-haul sectors. Couldn't have done more for me and left me both a little surprised but also delighted - they went out of their way when they didn't have to and that made a big difference to me.
Would it make you use UAL again?

This is why the above applies for me, for the airline I work for. It pays the bills after all.
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