By now, American Airlines should be handling it better

For the second time in as many weeks most of the American Airlines fleet is grounded, stranding thousands of passengers. If the people at the top care one whit about their passengers, there’s scant evidence of it.

Before anyone says "they’re doing the best they can," let me jump in and point out their "best" is quite an indictment of the airline and its crisis management planning--or lack thereof. As part of the booking process, American Airlines asks first for my cell phone number, then home, then work, AND my email address.

Riddle me this, Batman. Why do they request this information if they don’t plan to use it for notification of delays and cancellations? American Airlines should turn its booking agents into "cancellation" agents to notify people of the problems before they show up at the airport. Not workable? Well, FIND A WAY!

You may sense some antagonism from me here. We ll, you’re absolutely correct. I had the unenviable experience of traveling with a handicapped child from Anchorage to Austin, with a three-day layover to visit family in Seattle. We arrived at SEATAC several hours early to reduce any stress. My husband and I both carry Treos so we can receive email and phone calls. The plane was grounded in Houston for mechanical problems, not an act of God. Hence, the airline had to get us home on their nickel.

Long lines formed at the check-in. They were explaining, one-by-one as people got to the front of the line, that the plane was cancelled and they were trying to book us on another flight. Then they told the entire group to go to another airline where we would be given seats. We troupe en masse to the other airline, which did not win any Brownie points either. The second airline told us that AA didn’t notify them and that we had go back to the AA counter. So we all troupe back over there, only to discover the three service lines were now down to one.

In the meantime, I called Southwest Airlines and booked seats for the three of us. But American Airlines doesn’t have a contract with Southwest and refused to pay for the tickets. Instead, American wanted us to stay overnight and hope to get on a seat the next morning. We took the Southwest flight.
Months and months later, with communication by snail mail since they do not have a customer service phone line, American magnanimously sent us tickets for future flights on American Airlines. Like I’d ever fly AA again! But here’s the kicker--they totally botched my son’s name, so it would have been another go-round to get that fixed.

I opted out. And that’s what thousands of passengers are likely to do.

Whew! I feel better now. That’s a three-year-old tale, and I’m still angry. How does an airline reclaim customers after events like that and these plane groundings? Two weeks ago, the grounding was taken with a grai n of salt, although the airline screwed up by not contacting passengers. This time, the grounding was because the mechanics didn’t handle the first grounding successfully. Do you trust their air-worthiness now? Free advice: AA should invite some of the reporters who specialize in aviation to show them what the airline is doing to make their planes mechanically safe.

The only way American Airlines can reclaim passenger appreciation and confidence beyond mechanical issues is to totally retool their booking and cancellation process. How about having a back-up phone center on standby to call passengers and handle rebooking on the phone?

Why not call in off-duty staff to handle passengers who get stuck in the airport. To rent buses to take people to hotels? How about putting up big signs at entrances to airport terminals notifying passengers BEFORE they turn in rental cars or even get out of their cabs?

Oh, the infinite ways American Airlines, or any airl ine, could improve customer service!

As long as reporters can interview distressed mothers stuck in the airport without enough diapers, or even money, to take care of their children, the airlines will suffer continued passenger anger and rejection.

The airline that chooses to make some of these changes in how they handle cancellations and does a good job of publicizing the changes will be the last one left flying.