American Complaint
Submitted by: Anonymous | Post a complaint | Back to Complaints Forum
On May 26, I bought 2 tickets (for myself and son) to Rio de Janeiro. The trip was scheduled for 7/15/19, departing from EWR to MIA (AA1506) and from there to GIG and I paid US$1,292.93 per ticket (total of US$2,585.86).
On our way to the airport, I received 2 messages from American communicating a first and then a second delay. The second delay would make us miss our connecting flight to GIG, so I immediately called American and the best solution offered was to postpone my trip to the following day, keeping the same itinerary.
The following day on my way to EWR (1.5 hour away from home), I got a text message communicating a delay on the first flight and then a second delay. I called American again and this time I was able to secure 2 seats on a flight leaving from PHL to MIA (AA1595).
That flight from PHL to MIA got delayed twice and we missed our connecting flight to GIG. The first delay was due to a mechanical issue and all passengers changed plane. When we were ready to depart, we were ordered (all passengers) to deplane due to an alleged security threat. After boarding for the third time, we finally left for Miami.
In MIA, I went to retrieve our vouchers for overnight stay and meal. Before checking the situation at hand, the employee at the counter said we were most likely not eligible for vouchers. (I had casually mentioned the first cancellation and the following deplaning due to a security threat, to what she immediately interrupted me saying that in those cases the airline does not provide vouchers. As I tried to explain the situation better, stressing that the first cancellation was the reason for my overnight stay in Miami, she told me to let her check and would not even listen to what I was saying.) In the end, we got the vouchers.
I waited 30 minutes for the hotel shuttle, by the curb, at midnight with my teenage son. No one at the hotel would pick up the phone as I called to find out when someone would pick us up. Upon finally arriving at the Clarion Inn & Suites – Miami Airport hotel, manned by only one person, we were placed in a room that smelled like mold. Clarion Inn (at least that unit) is a run-down hotel with subpar accommodations.
The next day we flew to Guarulhos with LATAM and their service was impeccable.
When we got to Guarulhos, however, 1 of our suitcases was missing. I filed a claim and we almost missed our flight to Rio, after waiting for our suitcases, filing the claim and going through security again. We were later informed that someone from American failed to place the right tag in one of the luggage.
On our way back home to the US, we faced yet another problem during check-in in GIG, as the person who made a change in my reservation during the first trip chaos failed to issue my ticket as well as my son’s. We almost missed the flight since the check-in attendant in Rio couldn’t figure out how to fix the problem and, in the end, someone else came and solved it.
American offered 10,000 miles or a $200 e-voucher to each of us to compensate for all the delays, car trip expenses to the airport (husband working hours, gas, toll) on the scheduled trip day, aggravation after aggravation due to flight cancellations, bad customer service, loss of sleep, bad hotel, baggage loss (delivered a day later), and the exhaustion after taking almost 2 entire days to get to our destination. The offer isn’t proportional to all loss and grief your company caused me and my son.
When shopping for our tickets, we chose one of the shortest flights offered to Rio (in hours). Instead we took longer than the trip offered at the lowest fare.
What would you like the company to do to fix the problem? (optional)
A full refund of ticket fare.