I started flying American Airlines when the company I was working for acquired a company in Dallas. I live in Chicago and AA made the most sense. And, for many years, i was a dedicated, loyal customer. I achieved Executive Platinum status a few times, maintained platinum for many years and, until now, was at least gold. I am less then 10k miles away from 1 million. I used to take pride in my status. Making sure I used AA or a OneWorld alliance member at every turn. After this last flight, I am pretty much done with American Airlines. I will look to reach that million mark, but only if it is convenient. Despite having over 50 upgrade credits, they are pretty much useless. Even on domestic flights. This last flight was a long haul, ORD-LHR. No matter what I tried to do I could not get even the slightest upgrade. And I was not even looking for business or first. Without my permission, they changed my seat. A few rows up, opposite side of the plane. Still aisle. Ok, no biggie. I had pre-ordered my meal and was assured it would follow me.
After boarding, the row in front of me had one person and three seats. It was an exit row with the bulkhead in front. It is now a lost revenue set of seats. So, after the door was closed I asked if I could move to the window seat. The flight attendant berated me in-front of everyone. Calling me a thief. Saying if I sat there it was like I was stealing from the airline. Her argument was rubbish, of course. But she made sure to make her point and stormed away in a snit. The passengers around me were mortified and one commented on how rude she was. All I did was ask a question.
Before the flight left, the purser came by and asked if I had an issue with a flight attendant. I explained what happened and what she said. He defended her and attempted to make the same argument. Including how unfair it would be to the one person in-front of me who “paid extra” for his seat. I challenged him again to provide if he paid extra or that merely a polite gate agent changed his seat. Case closed. He stormed away mumbling…”have a nice flight.”
After we took off, in order to accommodate a family with a young child, the asked a person in another seat to move to the seat I wanted. He did not pay extra for that seat. he was just moved. Hmmmm……double standard for sure.
Come meal time, they claimed I did not have a special request meal and I was stuck with what was available. Strike one. Two. Three.
Something so simple became such a disaster. They could have been brand ambassadors. The new AA safety video is all about “Great is what we do.” Yes, great at being horrible at customer service.