As a ticket agent I am faced with some really unhappy customers who are not pleased with the way AA is handling their cancelled flights. Today, a very dissatisfied customer who by the way was travelling with us for the first time was upset that her bags did not come off the airplane with her. She was supposed to have been booked on the Jfk nonstop to BGI but that was cancelled and she was rerouted via SJU. American has only 2 weekly 757 flights to BGI at the moment down from the daily flights that we had for the summer. Naturally the ATR planes cannot carry as many passengers nor cargo when compared to an A300 nor a 757 so consequently their would be a problem in weight and as a result bags may have to be left behind. I usually have to call pasengers to inform them of flight scheldue changes due to flight reductions and most of them are rerouted through SJU or MIA and most of the time customers are quite upset since they had orginally booked a nonstop flight and do not want be rerouted especially through our hubs which increases their chances of bags being mishandled and at times I think such customers should be given some sort of voucher or extra miles for this type of arrangement since it is not their fault. But would you be happy if that were you and you have orginally gone out of your way to book your self a nonstop and then be told to go around the world to get to your final destinations?. I believe that AA cancelled the flights too early since they are quite a few passengers that had to be rebooked even if they had to cancell some of them I think they should have have kept the minimum number of flights from JFK to 3.
Due to hurricane Ivan's impact on flight sheldues to BGI passengers who were orginally booked to travel on thoes days were rebooked and placed on flights leaving the next day or the earliest available flight but the problem is that the flights on the other days had decent loads (not yet full) and naturally everyone will not be able to get on. Naturally as a huge airline like American I thought we would put on an extra flight similar to what BA did or switch the aircraft to an Airbus to ensure that everyone or most of the passengers will be accomadated. Would it cost the company that much to do so?
On another note I overheard a customer telling another agent about her experience on an AA flight and she was annoyed that when she wanted some help 2 flight attendants that where there having their own conversations stared at her and refused to respond and she said that on an America West flight she recently took the flight attendants went out of their way to assist her. I don't want to say the all AA flight attendants are bad but these flight attendants need to understand that our customers have a lot of choices in travel and everyday the competition is becoming very intense and we need to step up and go out of our way to ensure that we do not lose our customers.
Due to hurricane Ivan's impact on flight sheldues to BGI passengers who were orginally booked to travel on thoes days were rebooked and placed on flights leaving the next day or the earliest available flight but the problem is that the flights on the other days had decent loads (not yet full) and naturally everyone will not be able to get on. Naturally as a huge airline like American I thought we would put on an extra flight similar to what BA did or switch the aircraft to an Airbus to ensure that everyone or most of the passengers will be accomadated. Would it cost the company that much to do so?
On another note I overheard a customer telling another agent about her experience on an AA flight and she was annoyed that when she wanted some help 2 flight attendants that where there having their own conversations stared at her and refused to respond and she said that on an America West flight she recently took the flight attendants went out of their way to assist her. I don't want to say the all AA flight attendants are bad but these flight attendants need to understand that our customers have a lot of choices in travel and everyday the competition is becoming very intense and we need to step up and go out of our way to ensure that we do not lose our customers.
