Oh boy howdy, do I have some things to say to American
Airlines....Beware: long rant coming.
Flight 748 to Madrid was probably the most mishandled flight
that I have ever been on. I kept saying, "Well this isn't the worse
transit experience that I've ever had." But, i feel like now...it has
been! In addition to the flight ultimately being cancelled, there are
additional factors that made last night’s experience from 3PM-4AM hellish.
1. Boarding and deplaning 3 times! First when the power failed,
second when the power failed again, and third when we taxied out from the gate
and returned. This is no 20-person puddle jumper…it was a 747(?) with 200+
people on it: kids, babies, elderly – all going overseas with all their stuff. I mean, yes, I want to be on a safe and
comfortable plane but if you think it’s unsafe, don’t let us board in the first
place!
2. Staff unfriendliness – Yes, I get it…people are being
irate and your bosses are probably not telling you everything, but at least you
can be personable and friendly! You can take the initiative to ask if anyone
needs water or a snack since we WERE expecting dinner on the plane. You don’t have to yell at every patron who
complains or asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to.
3. Lying to us about everything. Here are some of the lies
the told:
- When the power went
out the first time, “Oh. We are on the airport’s power now and the guys below
just unplugged us.”
- When the power went out a second time, “We don’t know
anything.”
- When we were boarded the last time and were delayed, “One
of the passengers had an emergency and can’t take the flight so we are just
waiting for their bags to be unloaded because for security reasons we can’t
take them with us.” And then, “Now we are just waiting for air traffic control
to clear our route.” And then, “So, we are being rerouted because our emergency
airport has such bad weather that we can’t land there. So we are going back to
the gate to get more fuel.” And then, “You can choose to get off and try and
get a flight for tomorrow but they are all oversold.” And finally, “We have
been told that this plane is not the one we’ll be taking, but there’s another
one at the gate next door with a new crew that you’ll be on.”
- When we were waiting for the “new” plane (at 11PM): “We found a captain, just have to wait for
him to arrive. It’ll just be a little while.” Then, the AA app told us our
flight was leaving @ 1AM.
- When some of the crew arrived, we then got a notification
that the flight had been cancelled, “Folks, we have heard that some of you got
an electronic notification that the flight has been cancelled. It has
definitely not been…we are going!” Followed by, “We were just told that the
flight was cancelled.”
- When we heard officially that the flight was cancelled,
“Sorry folks all the hotels in this area are sold out. We are trying to find
more.” And then,”Actually all the hotels that we can give vouchers for are sold
out. We are trying to get you cots.” And then, “sorry we can’t get any cots, but
we have blankets and pillows.” NOTE: the hotels were NOT sold out, and when we
finally got one @ the Clarion Ramada, the lady at the desk told us that they
take airline vouchers all the time.
Conclusion: American Airlines and the staff DID NOT do all
they could to ensure that the delay was as painless as possible. They DID
NOT do all they could to reroute people
until they started getting angry and pushy.
And they DEFINITELY DID NOT do anything to make me want to fly them ever
again (if at all possible).
