Seat at the Table

Past readers of this blog will know I’ve had some pretty horrendous experiences on American Airlines in the last year that were compounded by a couldn’t-care-less attitude from staff.  I’ve always acknowledged that airlines have a risky, difficult to manage business (from what I understand) but they should at least focus on better communicating with customers when flights are canceled, changed or otherwise causing inconvenience.  Even people that understand cancellations don’t understand poor customer relations.

Yesterday I got a call from American Airlines noting that after flying with them fairly consistently for ten years I haven’t flown in a while.  I told some past stories, relayed my perception that staff couldn’t care less when they, oh, landed at the wrong airport and didn’t offer transportation to the right airport, and said I had given up.  I was at the point were I would take a connection rather than fly American.  The person apologized profusely, offered to upgrade my frequent flyer status and asked if I would just give American Airlines another chance.

This was a great move by American and one that I can’t consider common – I have dropped other brands after years due to lousy customer service with no response.  Perhaps they’ll look for a way to catch this when I’m standing at the counter of a canceled flight next time instead.  This would save them lost revenue and reputation as I do relay my stories and look to use other brands after consistently bad experiences.

But I will try American Airlines again.  If they have a system to notice when I stop flying and make any effort to apologize, then maybe their customer service is moving in the right direction.