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scottmintred.com

I am very pleased with the customer service at American Airlines
Monday, March 19, 2007 by scott

 
I am a crank.

I'm the first one to rant angrily and write letters when I believe I've been treated unfairly by a company. I've sent a full 2-pager (single spaced) to both DirecTV and my apartment complex's management detailing various dissatisfactions. I'll tell everyone who'll give me the time of day when a corporation acts unscrupulously or unreasonably towards me.

Consider this the Yin to my cranky Yang.

My fiancee and I booked passage on American Airlines from New York to Barbados in December, 2006 for travel at the end of October, 2007. That's way in advance. But you see, We're getting married there so We need to make sure everything's planned as early as possible.

Recently, in March, AA changed Our flight from a non-stop with a 2:00 PM arrival to a stopping-flight with an 8:30 PM arrival. That's probably fine for most people, but We were planning on doing wedding crap the day we got in. Now, I can't blame the airline too much for the change; they gave us enough notice and they gotta keep their flights profitable and cheap. That's generally good for all of us.

So We said, "hey, why don't we just fly down the day before and have even more time to take care of our shit".

At this point, We had visions of arguments with airline customer service personnel and change fees dancing in our heads. I finally hunkered down, got out my frequent flier card, and dialed their 800-number.

I got a recording that asked me for my AAdvantage code. Now, my code is something like "JG8R5BB" (but not that, exactly). I figure that this stupid voice recognition software is going to hear me say "S-H-I-T-A-S-S". But no! I think I even mumbled a little (remember that I was on my cell phone to boot), yet their computer got it right the first time. It asked a couple of other questions and then put me on hold. I steeled myself for an eternity of holding and began a doodle.

... 10 seconds later: "Hello, this is so-and-so, how can I help you today?"

"What the fuck?" I thought. I was sure I misheard and she was a recording that said, "Please hold, you are number 58 in the queue".

So I introduced myself and briefly explained that because they switched flights on me, I would have to make a change to the previous day's flight.

Of course, this is where I thought I'd get some push-back.

"Ok sir, I'm checking that flight right now... No problem, I can get you on the same flight, JFK to BGI, one day earlier on October 30th".

"Uh, really?" I asked.

"Yes, no problem."

"Uh, will there be any change fees or anything?" There's gotta be a catch.

"No, would you like me to make the change?"

"Please."

So I heard her keyboard click away, then get this:

"Scott, I've got you on flight 123, JFK to BGI and I saw that you had 2 seats together at the window near the front of the plane. I've gone ahead and given you 2 seats together in row 9 on the first leg and row 3 on the second leg, and your return flight will remain the same. Is that OK?"

Yeah, that was great. She told me she'd made the change and I should receive an email confirmation shortly. I thanked her sincerely, and she asked me if I needed anything else. No.

The first thing I thought was "that was way too easy and she was way too polite". I logged into AA.com immediately after hanging up, and the flights were showing up, changed correctly! The email confirmation followed a few minutes later.

Now, I know that the AA rep did exactly what she should have done, in a perfect world. But we all know that the airlines are far from perfect. Non-refundable tickets with exorbitant change fees are commonplace (which is the ticket I held... We're not fancy). So are surly and unhelpful customer service reps. Unfortunately, many of us have become accustomed (and rightfully so!) to being treated like second-class citizens.

This is my homage to some of the good that's left in the customer service world. Thanks for listening, and I hope if you fly AA you have as good an experience as I.

I only wish I remember the name of that rep so I could write her supervisor a letter. I'd not use the word "fuck" either.

     
Rating
-22
(13 to 35)
 
  Do you guys know what a vagina looks like, 'cause I dont.
  Tuesday, September 28, 2010 by Fake Scott Mintred #447



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