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The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

dustincurtis.com

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Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#51

Post by Vivtek »

butterfi wrote: post #15
jasonlbaptiste wrote: post #3

I hope Virgin hires this guy and makes a media event out of it. I will now never fly American Airlines ever again in my life. This sincerely pissed me off.

Clearly AA prioritizes the wrong things. I'm betting the guy broke some policy, but is it really a firing offense? Are they going to sack the middle-management bonehead who blew this up into a much more embarrassing spectacle? Like I really needed another reason not to fly AA. These days, its Jet Blue or Virgin America if at all possible.

On the other hand, when I flew from Puerto Rico to Florida with my dog this spring, JetBlue not only didn't have facilities to fly my dog, they had no answer to my dilemma at all. And instead of refunding my ticket, they gave me credit, with JetBlue, who ... can't fly my dog. And then they said, "Well, have a nice day." No help, no money back, no nothing. It took them fifteen minutes even to tell me that they couldn't do it because they didn't have cargo facilities that could handle dogs.

I have a year to fly anywhere I need to, with JetBlue, except I needed to fly from Puerto Rico to Florida.

American flew me, and my dog, to Florida, no difficulties at all, on the spot. So maybe their corporate culture is screwed up, like many companies in this world, and maybe they're so big that there are a whole lot of people to screw up their Web design.

But when it comes to actually flying somebody somewhere with a dog, well, they appear to be an airline. Between AA, whose staff knew what they were doing, and JetBlue, whose staff came off as clueless, I'll continue to take AA.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#52

Post by enneff »

Vivtek wrote: post #51
butterfi wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly AA prioritizes the wrong things. I'm betting the guy broke some policy, but is it really a firing offense? Are they going to sack the middle-management bonehead who blew this up into a much more embarrassing spectacle? Like I really needed another reason not to fly AA. These days, its Jet Blue or Virgin America if at all possible.

On the other hand, when I flew from Puerto Rico to Florida with my dog this spring, JetBlue not only didn't have facilities to fly my dog, they had no answer to my dilemma at all. And instead of refunding my ticket, they gave me credit, with JetBlue, who ... can't fly my dog. And then they said, "Well, have a nice day." No help, no money back, no nothing. It took them fifteen minutes even to tell me that they couldn'…

Good idea. Let's consign everyone who flies with a dog to a particular airline, so the rest of us can avoid them.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#53

Post by danek »

kolya3 wrote: post #6
adw wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also a good argument for never putting someone's email up directly on the Web - you've got to paraphrase if you think anyone might ever object to it. And, yes, that's depressing.

Also a good argument against using company email for personal correspondence. "AA searched their exchange database for the text I posted, found the guy, and fired Mr. X on the spot."

And try not to use a company computer for anything except work. Big corps usually have spyware installed on their computers so they can track everything you do.

The last place I worked had software that took a screenshot of your desktop every so often, and the boss could remote into your machine to see what you were up to. I didn't find out till my last day, it explained why he was so good at busting us when we were on facebook

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#54

Post by mwexler »

davi wrote: post #2

More interesting to me, the email that got the guy fired: http://dustincurtis.com/dear_dustin_curtis.html An articulate explanation of how good intentions at big companies can often be implemented only slowly.

While poor intentions appear to be able to be enacted very swiftly.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#55

Post by pxlpshr »

jrockway wrote: post #41
wakeless wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is less about AA being crap and more about you being a frequent flyer with ANY full service airline.

Agreed. Although I do think AA beats the other US airlines on paper, which is why I haven't tried any others. (I have flown on Southwest. Once. I got to the airport two hours early for a domestic flight. Waited in line for an hour and 45 minutes to check my bag and get a boarding pass. The boarding pass was "the wrong one" and security wouldn't let me through. Ticket agent didn't care. Gate agent didn't care. I then…

I've never had that type of experience at Southwest. Ever. It's my choice airline for domestic but I can see how it's not for everyone. I like the early-bird-gets-the-worm approach to their seating, and I print my ticket before I leave because.......

And you checked "a" bag in? On a domestic flight? If I can't carry-on on a domestic flight, then I cut down my packing so I don't look like a woman taking my closet.

When the two are combined, you only need to show up ~:30 minutes before a domestic flight assuming security isn't a mess.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#56

Post by Vivtek »

enneff wrote: post #52
Vivtek wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, when I flew from Puerto Rico to Florida with my dog this spring, JetBlue not only didn't have facilities to fly my dog, they had no answer to my dilemma at all. And instead of refunding my ticket, they gave me credit, with JetBlue, who ... can't fly my dog. And then they said, "Well, have a nice day." No help, no money back, no nothing. It took them fifteen minutes even to tell me that they couldn'…

Good idea. Let's consign everyone who flies with a dog to a particular airline, so the rest of us can avoid them.

I'm sure my dog down in the baggage area was a terrible trial for everyone exposed.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#59

Post by Imprecate »

jrockway wrote: post #16

Ouch. I have top-tier status on AA, and they will be getting a note from me about this. Not cool. That said, I am still confused as to why Dustin thinks AA's website is so relevant to its business model. Their website is not very Web 2.0, it's true. But, they make up for that... I can fly non-stop from Chicago (my home airport) to thousands of cities around the world on AA quite cheaply. They have three-class interna…

Agreed. Dustin just comes off as whiny and self-important, though I don't think the employee should have been fired considering the content of his email.

Also, booking flights is very straightforward on aa.com. Dustin could have provided some substantive comments on usability, but instead simply called it ugly and slapped together a minimalist southwest.com knock-off. The only thing that really annoys me about the site is how confusing it is to get a list of your current reservations.

A majority of the public only shops based on price and availability. Unless the website is so bad that they can't figure out where to put their credit card number, it doesn't matter.

Re: The Incompetence of American Airlines and the Fate of Mr. X

#60

Post by marknutter »

drusenko wrote: post #9

A bit off-topic, but Dustin Curtis' site really hurts my eyes reading on my MacBook pro... I have a really hard time reading his text, and when I look away, I have very pronounced stripe patterns in my vision.

cmd+opt+ctr+8 unless you're not on a Mac in which case too bad for you.
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