AA Debacle
American Airlines has been my preferred airline vendor for many years. I’ve flown literally hundreds of thousands of miles with them. I’m a Platinum member with them, and have been Gold or Platinum for about 4+ years.
After a recent debacle over the matter of a $50 fee that I shouldn’t have had to have paid, I decided to put American to the test. I’m giving them one chance to retain my business and my loyalty. I just emailed the letter below to them.
So what amI looking for? Well, at minimum a $50 refund (or credit). That’s a starting point…. beyond that, let’s see what they do to prove that I’m worth keeping as a customer. In case they visit, and in case they need some crib notes, here’s a few acceptable options (in level of desire):
- A phone call of apology
- A written letter of apology
- A comment on this blog that apologizes
- A surprise that blows me away
- Travel vouchers (of an amount that would actually cover a real ticket for me)
- Mileage credit
I’ve added a counter to the sidebar to the right to see how long it takes to get a response. Tick, tock, tick, tock. And to make this fun, I’m taking a page out of John’s book and offering a prize for the person that guesses the length of time it takes to resolve this. Closest guess will win a prize package of fun stuff. Details coming soon.
Here’s the letter I sent in via AA.com. It was actually much better written (and 2x or 3x as long, but the AA site only accepts messages of 1500 characters - problem number 325).
I’ve encourage many to fly AA, and skipped cheaper tickets. With my status, I believed that if I had problems AA would treat me right.
After a call to American to redeem miles for a ticket, I’ve decided that my loyalty has been clearly misplaced. The cause is outlined below:
I booked an award ticket, and was told by the rep that I could pay the fees up to the day of the flight without fees. I called in to settle the fees and was told there was an extra $50 charge becausee I was under 21 days. After talking to a supervisor (who knew my status), I was told the fee was required, regardless of what the orginal sales agent told me. The supervisor said that knowing my status, I should know the policies. I said "so basically you’re punishing me for having flown a lot with you", she said "If you’d like to think about it that way".
She made $50 off of me, she effectively lost tens of thousands of dollars. United Airlines has assured me that my status would transfer.
This letter is an offer to save my business. I will be blogging this experience at communityguy.com
Jake McKee
UPDATE: Issue has been resolved - more info here.



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