Something Special In The Air

The part of this that upsets me the most, is the way the airlines look at customers. Airline ticketing policies and contracts are one-sided, and often arbitrary and unreasonable (like one way fares often costing more than roundtrip). Their advertising does its best to hide full disclosure.

“We’re American Airlines, something special in the air.”

For years, that jingle played incessantly on radio and TV. No more.

If American has a slogan now, I don’t know it. There’s none on their website’s homepage. They surely don’t have the balls to dust off ‘something special’ right now.

Aircraft Inspections Affect Some AA Travel

We are very sorry for inconveniencing you with the cancellation of a portion of American Airlines’ flights which started on April 8. Additional inspections of our MD-80 fleet are being conducted to ensure precise and complete compliance with the FAA’s directive related to wiring in the aircraft’s wheel wells. For more information about the progress of the inspections, please check our Press Releases. Please be assured that safety of our customers is, and always will be, American’s first priority.

You know how companies that put you on hold often say, “Your call is important to us,” even when you know it’s not? I feel the same way&#185 about, “Please be assured that safety of our customers is, and always will be, American’s first priority.”

Do they really think I’m buying into that gratuitous throwaway?

My friend Farrell’s relatives, visiting from Israel, were scheduled to fly AA from New York to Palm Springs. They got as far as Dallas… took a long pregnant pause at DFW… then continued to LAX (a few hours drive from Palm Springs).

Their bags? Right. This isn’t a fair tale. They followed two days later.

When I last left them, my sister-in-law and her friend were arguing with the AA clerk because AA promised $100 p/day p/person for clothing or necessities. AA since retracted that. In the meantime, Vered (Farrell’s wife) had taken the four of them to shop yesterday since they only had carry-on (my advice was to pack as much as possible in their carry-on’s).

I think we’re in the process of watching a meltdown of the so-called “legacy” airlines. With Frontier going bust, since its creditor would not support the majority of their cash, and the merger chatter going on, it’s a matter of time before prices continue to rise and consolidation becomes an actuality.

Please don’t think it’s only American I’m upset with. I’m still smarting from Southwest’s cavalier attitude toward safety inspections, and they’ve been my airline of choice for years.

The part of this that upsets me the most, is the way the airlines look at customers. Airline ticketing policies and contracts are one-sided, and often arbitrary and unreasonable (like one way fares often costing more than roundtrip). Their advertising does its best to hide full disclosure.

Why would they expect us to respect them or have brand loyalty when they so obviously dislike us?

&#185 – “I take full responsibility” goes on that list as well, especially when said by a CEO taking non responsibility.

2 thoughts on “Something Special In The Air”

  1. If American Airlines was truly concerned about safety, they would have complied with the FAA directive weeks ago like they were instructed to (and like they incorrectly claimed to have done).

    A few years ago, when Delta decided to fold their “Song” spinoff, we decided to stay loyal to them by booking our annual FL Keys trip with Delta. Well the flights were the same route, same in-flight amenities (none), the same gate at BDL, even the same plane-exterior paint scheme (as Delta awaited new paint jobs to remove the “Song” logos). The only difference at all was the price–triple what it was before. We’ve since found great service with Southwest (a luggage mix-up on our part on the Monday after Thanksgiving that Southwest hustled out to the parking lot to fix for us. Our letter of extreme gratitude to the CEO resulted in company-wide recognition for the 3 gate agents), but as you have noted a few times, even Southwest has let their customers down lately.

  2. I was very grateful none of the flights I took this week were on American … though the other airlines I flew messed me up in different ways.

    On Tuesday it was Alaska, which made us sit in Burbank for 3 solid hours before finally flying us up to Seattle. The official reason was “mechanical”, but it was crystal clear that they were just combining our undersold earlier flight with the next one. Claiming it was a mechanical problem let them get around owing any of us anything for the massive inconvenience.

    Yesterday it was Frontier “Chapter 11” Airlines, Portland –> Denver –> LGA. Flight to Denver was on time, no problem. Flight to LGA was delayed an hour due to ATC in NY (we landed in fog so thick that we had no clue how close to the ground we were until we actually hit it, that was interesting to say the least), ok, fine. But we got none of our luggage or gear. Initially I blamed Denver, where the baggage problems have been the stuff of legend for years, but turns out our stuff was never put onto the plane at PDX! We checked in two hours before our departure time, so that one’s all on them. I figure a bunch of baggage handlers never bothered to show up for work yesterday … if they’re smart, they were all off looking for new jobs in light of Frontier’s bankruptcy.

    The truth is, air travel is all bad, all the time. None of the airlines really give a damn about the people who fly them. It comes down to which airline sucks less today. If you’re lucky, back when you booked your ticket you happened to hit the one that’s least likely to mess you up on that given day.

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