American Airlines knows how to contact Mary Ann Hall. And it does. Often. She gets fare sale notices and credit card pitches from the airline regularly, which doesn’t surprise her — she’s been an AAdvantage member since almost the very beginning.
AMERICAN AIRLINES
After my recent luggage standoff with an American Airlines gate agent in Orlando, which ended with her threatening to charge me $100 to check my regulation-size bags on my return flight, a lot of you have asked me how the journey home went.
I never meant to openly challenge American Airlines’ indefensible policy of charging those who can least afford it – budget-conscious leisure travelers – for the first checked bag. I had no intention of making a scene when I boarded a flight to Dallas with my family this morning.
When your airline cancels a flight because of weather, are you entitled to a full refund? Elizabeth Hearn wanted to know after she booked a flight from Norfolk, Va., to Shreveport, La. — a flight that was canceled because of a Nor’easter late last year. Neither her carrier, American Airlines, nor her online travel agency, Priceline, would give her back the $400 she had spent.
Looks like British Airways may be shut down by a strike — just in time for the holidays. I’ll let the beat reporters dissect this story, but there’s one angle that appears to be getting overlooked: What’s going to happen to passengers with “codeshare” reservations?
When Reese Alutto booked a flight from an American Airlines ticket counter a few days ago, she expected the price she was quoted would be the price she paid.
When Sarah Paynter’s honeymoon flight is delayed by two days, she buys a ticket on another carrier with the promise of a refund from her first airline. But now that the honeymoon is over, there’s no sign of the money. What now?
So you think that after criticizing the tarmac troopers recently, I’ll lay off my monthly series on the tarmac delay hall of shame.
When American Airlines stripped 43,000 miles from Peter DeForest’s frequent flier account because of “inactivity” it offered to return them if he signed up for one of its email offers.
Tom Brollini had to cancel a recent American Airlines flight because of health problems. He was left with the impression that he had until mid-October to rebook the flight — a common misunderstanding, as I’ve noted in the past. In fact, Brollini’s ticket credit had expired. Was he out of luck? If I had to [...]
Has the airline industry won the luggage fee war? Consider the following facts.
When I arrived at Gate K9 at O’Hare yesterday, it wasn’t a pretty picture. American Airlines flight 1400, delayed by an hour, looked completely full. A long line stretched from the gate to the McDonald’s across the hall. Even if they could squeeze one more passenger on the plane, they’d probably charge me.
Warning: Wireless Internet connections are coming to a plane near you. I ought to know. I just boarded one.
Glen Segal didn’t make it to Reykjavik. He’d paid $2,628 for a one-week vacation package to through Icelandair that included accommodations at the Hilton Nordica. He’d even shelled out an extra $200 for Access America trip cancellation insurance. But in the end, none of that mattered.
Call it the “missed flight” penalty. Katerina Naumenko, a medical student in Grenada, had to shell out an extra $742 when she missed a connecting flight in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
For years, we’ve been told that names on airline tickets can’t be changed. Never, ever. Wouldn’t be safe. Usually, our only option was to buy a completely new ticket, even if the name was a small mismatch, like an obvious typographical error. Well, it turns out that isn’t our only choice.
Mark Mitchell, American Airlines’ managing director of customer experience, is the point man for customer service at the airline. With the summer travel season now underway, I asked him how air travelers could have the best possible experience, and what airlines like American are doing to make it better.
It’s no secret that fare rules — the all-uppercase gibberish you often see on the bottom of your computer screen when buying your ticket — are designed to make your airline a few extra bucks. Some of so-called tariff rules require a Saturday night stay. Others insist you use both halves of the ticket.
After reading Robin Preston’s letter to American Airlines this weekend, I realized there was only one reasonable explanation for what happened: They’ve discovered time travel in Fort Worth. Preston, a frequent flier on her way from Miami to Dallas in economy class, had such a positive experience — that’s right, positive — that she not only wrote a letter praising her flight attendant, but she also copied me on it.
