Wino has given the ansswer to one problem. Mgmt see all those terminals notbeing used all the time and think, "Oooo, we don't have to have a separate room for flight crew, they can use those terminals." Bad idea.

I can understand that, in emergency, you should be able to log on via ANY terminal but you need a private room for that process.

Agree that you can use your own cell and internet but try the Boingo Mobile plan for $7.95/month which gives you access at more places than coffee shops in many countries. It's monthly so cancellable

"Can I help you?" It goes a loooooonnn n g way.

And without a hat a pilot behind a counter is just a guy in a dark suit. Sort of like what an agent looks like behind a counter.

Passengers are willing to fork over four dollars for a bottle of water at a sports venue to see their favorite team play and they are willing to pay five dollars for a cup of coffee but when it comes to an airline ticket they won't pay an extra five buck for the ticket.

That extra five dollars used to pay for increased airport staffing, extra parts to fix planes, crew members sitting reserve, mechanics to fix planes, etc, etc, etc.

The continued spiral towards service quality equal to Aeroflot can be laid directly at the passengers feet in their constant quest to achieve the lowest ticket price possible.

@Wino

It's all about customer service attitude - would YOU accept it if you were in Macys/Avis and a clerk ignored you while doing something behind a counter?

"Be with you in a minute" solves the problem.

And the argument is specious beyond words

Halfnut

When I get sub 100 €/$ for a three and a half hour flight I am willing to pay those additional 5 currency units (€/$ ) to provide better working conditions for the crew and slightly better services for me. The problem is that I don't have the option.


@Wino,

I believe that interruptions are parts of everyones job. You work in an office completing a report and a call comes and you have to take it. A doctor examines a patient and the nurse walks in with an emergency request. I would be very concerned for a pilot that he can't cope with some interruptions during his flight planning. Although I agree that once he spends a moment with a pax a line will be formed.

For the above reasons, and years of personal experience I'll never voluntarily set foot on a US plane again.
In contrast, 6 family members and I have booked a flight OSL-MNL with BA/CX/KA/QA for a June/July vacation. Cheap as dirt at GBP 410/head.
Two persons are gluten intolerant, one a child and I wanted to request meals accordingly. No problem on QX website, problem with QA.
Email to QA customer service in the evening, very polite reply next morning, all fixed. :ok:
From a pax view, nothing but good experience with the Gulf Carriers, the less said about the US ones the better.

Mariner, I know that by and large you are not a fan of things American. But in this case you are correct in your loathing.

The US airline industry is now where the automobile industry was several decades ago. Providing an abominable product/service, complacent in their lack of service -- "customer be damned".

The auto companies were brought up short when the Japanese and then Korean companies learned quality control, produced a superior and more reliable vehicle and even spent some effort on customer satisfaction. Eventually they got the message, but by then a large percentage of the customer base was lost to the foreign companies.

The same thing must happen in the airline business in order for US "legacy carriers" to either wake up, or go out of business.

Obgraham, by and large I'm a fan of most things American. Cars from the '50ies and '60'ies in particular. I've visited more times than I can remember since '69 to date, by car from Vancouver to San Diego on vacation in '90, but even then I did not enjoy our flights Newark-Seattle, San Diego-Miami, Orlando-Newark. Delta, if memory serves.
And yes, even spent a week in Disney World on that occasion. ;)

Unfortunate but interesting.

American Airlines planes grounded by iPad app error - BBC News

so this happened to you a few days ago and you have not yet been able to talk to anyone at American Airlines?

Have you called your credit card company for redress?


Do you think you would have a better experience by booking through the airline's site instead of orbitz?

Pilots do not book people on planes. And while it is sort of tacky to point to stripes , it sort of reminds me of a waitress pointing to a statement on a menu like: NO SUBSTITUTIONS.

You planned a flight. It didn't work out quite right. OK. Are you saying you will not possibly get your money back, ever, even in the next billing cycle?


Did you purchase trip insurance?


Did you ask Orbitz for the phone number they used as they seemed to at least get the promise of human contact in an hour?


One time I was flying (as one of those guys with 4 stripes on his sleeve) from New York to Ft Lauderdale . We were delayed due to wx (that's weather) and ATC coping with weather.

A passenger came up to me and said: Are we going to be late? I am catching a cruise and if we are even two hours late I will miss it. What will YOU do if I miss it?

I said: If you really had to be in Fort Lauderdale, I would have left yesterday and spent the night in a hotel in Fort Lauderdale. NOTHING in aviation is guaranteed.

He then went on to say that the cruise would not make sense if he had to leave the day before. Economics would not make sense if he had to buy a hotel room.

I felt sorry for him. I feel sorry for you. But you seem to be blowing your stack to people who don't know you.

Maybe next time you will fly another airline. But you might just find a worse experience.

Weather, mechanical issues, dozens of things. You could have taken off on time for your trip and an engine failure might have left you in some airport you have never heard of. You would have been taken care of but your trip might have not been a success.


Now, I hope you have the chance to talk to an agent at American that will go through your options. And remember, you booked with orbits and they wouldn't stay on the line to help you.

BUT when I travel, I leave plenty of time to have options on other flights.

I hope you post when you finally talk to someone who helps you. At some point you can even grieve the credit card charge if the service was not rendered.

There is a great movie, the original (jack lemmon) version , of "The Out of Towners". I suggest you watch it, and learn from it.

We don't control the weather. At any moment another 9-11 attack could happen and all civilian flights in the country could be grounded for days.

DO you want great service? Pay for first class. Pay for a class of ticket that can be used anytime.


The passengers in America wanted cheap flights. you got em. But don't expect the service of 20 or 30 or 40 years ago.

Pilots, flight attendants, hordes of workers have taken pay cuts, lost their pensions, and other terrible things and you expect to be treated like you are a king?

HAVE you called back today for help? Have you gotten on the phone to your credit card company and ask what they can do?

You seem "tech savy" go to Twitter, post a short version of what happened on the American Airlines twitter site and they will get back to you.

And a word to the wise. Next time you have a problem, go up to an agent, say "HI, my flight was cancelled, what can we do ?". Nothing more, nothing less. they will ask you for your ticket or flight number and work.

Let us all know.

dear original poster:

you said "THEY NEVER EVEN SENT THE PLANE". And you speak of the time of the flight between DFW and SEA.

Do you know where the plane was coming from? Do you know if there was a last minute substitution?

There are simply so many things that make an airline work and I'll wager you only think you know how an airline works.

AGAIN, report back when things have calmed down and you call again

That was a very nice rant, Fallguy, and I hope you feel better for it.

But all the excuses in the world, even the ones you list, don't justify the attitude with which service is provided to US airline customers these days. Other industries have learned how to manage customer service -- airlines are late to the dance.

That said, I have to admit that I have seldom encountered surly, arrogant, or noncaring attitudes from flight crews, who in my opinion work very hard to do the professional job they are trained for in a work environment that must be very difficult for them.

But gate agents and cabin crew these days: not so much.

skyhighfallguy and others
 

I love to hear the explanation about how special aviation industry is and why its customers must suffer in silence because airlines don't have serious back up plans and crews are overworked.

Just a question if you had ordered let's say a computer, car or any other good that seriously fail the specifications promised. Would you cut the manufacturer and or the reseller the same slack you are asking paying public to cut to the airline industry?

Having said that, I do understand thinks go wrong but as an aviation magazine said in early 90's it is the way an airline handles disruptions that put it apart. Otherwise much of a muchness.

Not like for like. You are not buying goods, but transport on public transport . So it would be more like comparing it to take the bus/coach or the tube/subway

Polite, decent, service
 

Polite, decent, service

Is it too much to ask for polite, decent service out of airlines?

OK, many are not as well paid as they used to be. But millions of people around the world on poor salaries manage to give service with a smile.

The blame, though, lies clearly with the management of the Companies.

Try the "Pronoun" test on airlines. (I do it every time I fly).

If the person you are talking to says "we/us" about their employer, they are connected to their employer. If they say "they/them", then they are disconnected.

Even with awful salaries, and awful terms and benefits, many employers manage to get their staff on-board.

The USA based airlines have terrible problems with this.

That bad culture problem starts at the top.

highflyer40,

Thanks. I feel the arguments still stands if one wants to compare waiting for the A5 bus that never comes and the PR person in the bus company says so it is so hard to run a bus company so please leave us alone.

Would the pilot still say it is ok?

rwy in sight

the airline industry has more back up plans than any civilian industry I can think of, except perhaps the electrical generation by nuclear power folks.

Overworked crews? Believe it or not crew duty times have been reduced by federal regulation. And most major airlines are hiring new pilots for a variety of reasons.

The question about the pilot and his response made me think. Perhaps he was pointing to his stripes so that he wouldn't have to yell across 30 feet HEY DUMMY I AM A PILOT AN DON"T KNOW HOW TO REBOOK YOU>

I would like to think even the most casual of travelers can tell the difference between a pilot and a ticket agent.


In all seriousness, would you ask a ticket agent who was on the plane, to land the plane if the pilots got sick? You could ask, but would you really think that they were trained to land the plane. Well, pilots are not trained to rebook. And pilots often use non verbal language like POINTING. Sometimes we do it in the cockpit for various things.


The main problem is the original poster expected everything to go perfectly. Most often planes do run on time and things go well. And you will almost always be treated the way you treat an airline worker.


IF the original poster had been given another flight 24 hours later it would not have worked for him.


To the poster who spoke of my reaction to getting served a bad product in some other industry, unless my life depended on it, I would be mildly inconvenienced . And I would get redress from the company in due time.

But come on. IF he had to get to Seattle, he could have driven to LUV field and tried to get there somehow via another airline. Things didn't work out and even ORBITs wouldn't go the extra mile for him.

Hey, even former president clinton just had an engine problem and things didn't go right.

Still waiting to hear from OP about a call today to get a refund.

I'm slightly patronised when people think that cabin crew (and even pilots ) are poorly paid. Even with reduced salaries, pilots are still pretty well paid and as a CC (albeit with a senior position) in the UK, I earn 30K (GBP) a year. Far from being low paid. Average UK pay being 26k.

The AA pilot clearly had attitude, he was probably horrified at being mistaken for a gate agent, such is the job snobbery in the US.

Re the attitude of the AA pilot, I reckon easyflyer83 hit the nail on the head.


Question: "Don't you know who I am?"
Response: "Erm... No, I'm sorry, I don't..... but, I do know WHAT you are!" :E