A few of you may have noticed I have been tweeting some not so happy message about and to American Airlines. Below I'm going to detail this fiasco in full chronological order. Also keep in mind I probably should have recorded times better and times are approximate.
Monday 12:00pm: We arrive at Little Rock Airport. We already know our flight is delayed, but are only told our flight is delayed two hours. We check in and find out our connection in Dallas has been moved back already for us to a later flight.
Monday about 1 to 4: Our flight is continually moved back (they claim due to weather). We are told that there is a gate change and everybody needs to move from gate 1 to 9. Then we are sent back to gate 1. There are long stretches where there is no one from American Airlines to get any assistance from. I start racking up a bill buying hummus sandwiches (the only vegan option I could find in the airport other than snack food).
Monday about 4: Flight is delayed to the point we won't make our connection. I stand in line with other customers waiting for someone to show up. Eventually someone shows ups. I find out that our connecting flight unknown to us had been canceled anyways. We are booked on a flight that will have us returning home at the lovely hour of 12:30am. Meanwhile another traveler tells me that they called and the rep said our flight delay wasn't weather related it was mechanical.
Monday around 5 or 6pm: All of a sudden the flight status says canceled. I get in line yet again at the gate, but no one is there. After some time, some people decide to leave the line and go to the ticketing area. I decide to stay; not a good move. Someone finally arrives, but only to tell us they won't be assisting us at the gate. They tell us we have to exit the secure area and go back to the ticketing area. They claim that we will get quicker assistance at the ticketing area (hahaha).
Monday 6pm to 8pm: I stand in line for two hours waiting for assistance from the four people rebooking flights. Many passengers just leave, go home, and try to contact customer service. My husband tries calling customer service but he keeps getting disconnected. At one point the customer service line won't even take phone calls. I make friends in line. People are very nice in the line..having experienced airports where people aren't nice this is at least something good. We watch each others stuff and even when people need to leave the line we honor each others places in the line. Information quickly spreads that even many of the people at the front of the line are told they can't get a flight until Wednesday, even Thursday. I feel bad for the woman in front of me, as her father is dying, and the airline doesn't even seem to care. The woman recommends a hotel for us to stay at (Holiday Inn Express near the airport). I tell my husband to go ahead and book the hotel for the night. Not surprisingly booking the hotel is a good move.
Around 8pm: I finally get to the front of the line. Keep in mind this wasn't a particularly long line, it was just a very slow line. I'm offered tickets for a 5:30pm flight that connects through Detroit and gets us home quite late. The flight actually turns out to be through Delta. I ask if there is anything better, but when they say no I take the flight quickly as it sounds better or just as good as what others seem to be getting. I asked if they would pay for the hotel. They refused. I asked for a meal voucher-the cheap @#$%^ at American Airlines even refused that.
But here was the real shocker when I got to the front desk. When I was up there they were trying to get in contact with another employee because a flight was coming in and with the line they couldn't leave. The ticket agents were saying she's (the employee) just standing out there smoking (and I could see her doing this too). The ticket agents tried to reach her again and they were saying she was just ignoring them. I commented on their difficult co-worker. I was told "She's not our co-worker, she is our supervisor". Yup that is right the whole time the supervisor did not show up one time to help out during the whole 2 hours I was in line... at least I never saw her. Meanwhile she hung out, outside smoking.
Around 8:30pm: The girlfriend of another customer kindly drives us to our hotel. They were so nice to do that!!! Exhausted we check into the hotel (Holiday Inn Express in Little Rock).
Day 2: I get up early and start taking advantage of the luxuries one has at a hotel that don't exist in airports. Good wifi. A shower. Clean sink. Space to exercise, etc.
About 8:30am: We go down to the breakfast area for the free breakfast. By the way the breakfast is great and I'm pleasantly surprised by the number of vegan options. I enjoy fruit, two bowls of oatmeal with walnuts and raisins, and a bagel with peanut butter (the only thing I would have wished for is soy or other non-dairy milk). As I complain about American Airlines to my husband, I quickly find I'm not the only disgruntled American Airlines customer around, as we meet someone else from our flight. I tell her we are not even going to bother going to the airport early because it seems like an exercise in futility and I'd rather exercise in the workout room. The director of sales comes by at breakfast and she is nice to us and even gives us a card with a cellphone number so the shuttle can get us in case we get stranded at the airport and says that this isn't uncommon with the airport in Little Rock.
About Noon: We take the shuttle back to the airport. We aren't even sure who to speak to as American Airlines has booked us on Delta. The delta agent can't get us on an earlier flight or even stand-by. American Airlines has basically screwed over almost every airline at the airport with their canceling and overbooking.
Afternoon: We find out our Delta flight is delayed. Some of the people who work at the airport are like "weren't you here yesterday". I incur more expenses buying hummus sandwiches at the airport. Luckily the delay on the Delta flight is consistent and not pushed back further.
6pm: I finally get a flight out of Little Rock. I'm excited to find out Delta still gives out snacks on the plane (granted they are rather small, but still).
9 something pm: We land in Detroit. The connection is tight and we find out Detroit is a very big/long airport. We are walking fast, when there is an announcement that gates may close 20 minutes prior to departure time (something I have never heard before). So we take off running. We make it to find out the 20 minute thing is most likely a lie to get people at the gate 10 minutes early. Then the lights go off in a disco pattern on the plane. I've never seen this; we are sitting next to a pilot and even he has never seen this. Our flight gets delayed a few minutes because of this, but we are soon on our way.
11:30 something pm: We make our final run of the day catching the second to the last train home.
And by the way as of today, all I've gotten from American Airlines is a lesson about the high cost of flying on a cheap airline.
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