American Airlines earned an enemy • Hacker News Board

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#11

Post by bhaile » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:10 PM UTC

Luckily I've had bags "lost"/delayed and then appear..etc but not to your extent. That sucks what happened but the sad story is that it can happen on other airlines. US mainly from my experience. A friend of mine swore off Lufthansa after a pretty bad luggage experience. American/United/US Air.etc...there is something missing between customer experience and running a smooth operation. For airlines that spend so much on efforts to acquire users, their handling of customers is just bad.

There are some airlines that do better such as Singapore but they are in the minority. I don't even expect good customer service if I have to deal with an airline anymore.

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#12

Post by etvmueller » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:11 PM UTC

ch4ch4 wrote: post #5

anon987 wrote: post #2

Oh boy, rant against how bad the airlines are #832,291,845 made it to the front page! I can't wait for the circle jerk discussion about how bad they suck!

I stopped reading after the second typo. "...carry on is already packed to the tilt" "...have the bag recovered and delivered via currier"

Your catch of the second error has decided dinner for me tonight. Now I just need to find the local currier for a nice and spicy curry.

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#13

Post by alexose » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:11 PM UTC

There's a lesson here about not trusting mission-critical details (in this case, DHH's bag), to an unknown and frequently maligned system. Nothing irreplaceable should ever go into a checked bag.

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#14

Post by ScottWhigham » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:12 PM UTC

Reddit material - this doesn't belong here.

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#15

Post by somethingnew » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:12 PM UTC

Pick Two: Quality, Customer Service, and Price

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#16

Post by latj » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:14 PM UTC

IvyMike wrote: post #3

If there's one thing I know about other airlines, I know this story could not have happened there, because.... well, I'm having a little trouble here. I mean, losing your bag sucks, but it's a weird case: how many times a year do you think that someone takes the wrong bag, then takes the effort to call American and let them know, but then fails to actually return the bag? And it's hardly a case for interpol, either.…

If the company had to decide between loosing thousands of dollars every time this happens or have some process of tracking / taking notes / assuring quality of the process- believe me- the company would change their behavior. But in this case, there is no risk to the airline- they will just make the customer eat it.

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#17

Post by cmstoken » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:14 PM UTC

This post has definitely been getting flagged. It jumped from #3 to #25 in like 3 seconds. Some folks here don't seem to like DHH rants. (:

Edit: looks like it's back up now.

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#18

Post by etvmueller » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:14 PM UTC

bhaile wrote: post #11

Luckily I've had bags "lost"/delayed and then appear..etc but not to your extent. That sucks what happened but the sad story is that it can happen on other airlines. US mainly from my experience. A friend of mine swore off Lufthansa after a pretty bad luggage experience. American/United/US Air.etc...there is something missing between customer experience and running a smooth operation. For airlines that spend so much…

I recommend LAN if you do any traveling in South America, especially if you check baggage.

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#19

Post by jknightco » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:14 PM UTC

Oh man, just seeing the words "American Airlines" gets me all riled up.

About a year ago I was helping my fiancée move apartments in Dallas, and the move was taking a bit longer than we had hoped. We had time to finish it before my departure later that evening, but we would have had to run out the door as soon as the last box was put down to make it in time. I called American to see how hard it would be to move my flight to the next morning. "No problem!" I was told, "Just a small fee." I was then told to call back less than 12 hours before the flight I wanted to be moved to, because they couldn't reschedule me before then. Easy enough, right?

My 5PM flight departure comes and goes, and around 11PM (I've never in my life been so insulted. I've never had a customer service representative call me a liar before or again. At this point in my life I was flying at least monthly, and used American exclusively. Since then I haven't flown with them once.

Re: American Airlines earned an enemy

#20

Post by manishsharan » Thu, Apr 25, 2013, 8:17 PM UTC

I find it extremely annoying that most airlines and airports do not seek too ensure that passengers do not mistakenly pick up someone else's luggage. There have been several occasions when I had to chase after my very generic looking grey Samsonite that was picked up by other passengers. I do not recall a security agent at arrivals checking my luggage cart with my checked-in baggage barcodes .