Frank Austin

American Airlines Travel Trouble

In November 2015, I had a very disappointing trip on American Airlines.

The trip was a roundtrip Pittsburgh-Dallas/Fort Worth November 4 to November 7, 2015. Because both my wife and I have disabling medical conditions, mine a need to use a wheelchair after 30 years of progressive multiple sclerosis and hers two knee replacements and arthritis, I requested wheelchair assistance for both of us at the time I booked the reservation.

On our outbound trip we were seated in row 29, seats A and C. Not hardly the easiest and most convenient seats to access. The couple in front of us didn’t fare much better. They were both around 90. Oh, I tried to change the seats, nothing available I was told. So we struggled to get to the seats in the rear of an MD-80. Flight attendants on the flight told us to check with the Gate Agent when we got to DFW to make sure our return seats were located in the front of the cabin.

The flight to DFW was excellent! On arriving at the gate I waited patiently while all the other passengers deplaned. I’m used to the wait needed to get my personal wheelchair out of the baggage compartment. I waited long enough for the crew to depart, for the replacement crew to board and finally for a Gate Agent to make his way out to the cargo bay and find that the only item still on the aircraft was my personal wheelchair. It took long enough that the only remaining bag at baggage claim was our bag, and it had been removed from the carousel for safe keeping.

As we had passed the counter at the arrival gate I asked the gate attendant to change our return seat assignments. His abrupt and curt response was that those seats are for sale at an additional charge! I chose not to pursue the issue at that time!

On arrival at our hotel I called American Airlines reservations and after a lengthy period on hold was once again told that those seats were available at an additional charge. That pushed me over the edge! I advised the representative that I was disabled and they couldn’t do that to a person with disabilities. The rep responded by saying that if I had made my disability known when the reservation was booked it wouldn’t have happened! I then said, “Check the reservation.” The rep acknowledged that I had done so and put me on hold for over 10 minutes; frustrated and angered; I hung up.

I immediately called back and after explaining the situation to that representative was told our seats had been changed from row 28 to row 9. Finally, an acceptable level of customer service!

American Airlines response letter:

December 18, 2015

Dear Mr. Austin:

We received your email about the difficulties you and your wife encountered while traveling from Pittsburgh on November 4. We have reviewed the problems you reported, and appreciate this opportunity to respond.

Seat assignment is such an important part of any flight, and we try our best to accommodate individual preferences. Regrettably, this is simply not possible in every case. For example, by the time you requested seats on flight 1252 to Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), other customers had already secured more desirable seats.

To avoid this problem in the future, may we suggest you reserve your seats when making your reservations. Specific seats may be reserved up to 330 days prior to your travel date. Your reserved seats will be held until 30 minutes before the scheduled departure time, at which point they may be reassigned to other customers if you have not yet checked in.

Furthermore, per 14 CFR Part 382, carriers must provide seating accommodations to a passenger who self-identifies as having a disability and needing a seat assignment accommodation in order to readily access and use the carrier’s air transportation services. If seats are not requested at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure of the flight or available on the date of travel, carriers will honor the request to the extent practicable; however, are not required to reassign a seat assigned to another passenger or offer a seat in a class of service not purchased to do so.
Since we have no record of your and your wife’s request or need for special seating, a violation of Part 382 has not occurred. Still, we apologize for any misunderstanding and have forwarded your comments to the appropriate management personnel for internal review. Please know you have the right to contact the U.S. Department of Transportation, Aviation Consumer Protection Division about the difficulties you experienced.

Additionally, we are sorry your gate checked wheelchair was not made available in a more timely manner upon your arrival at DFW. As noted in Part 382, we are required to provide for the checking and timely return of passengers’ wheelchairs, mobility aids and assistive devices.

According to the report received, flight 1252 arrived during a shift change and the crew was late going out to unload the flight. Regrettably, our personnel was unable to provide the time your wheelchair was offloaded. As a result, it appears a violation occurred since we are unable to determine if your wheelchair was returned in a timely manner. Please accept our sincere apology for our service failure and for any inconvenience this may have caused.

We can understand that your frustration with your experience was only made worse when our personnel at DFW and in Reservations were indifferent to your request for alternate seating on your return flight; every effort should have been made to accommodate you. We are glad to learn your seats were ultimately changed.

Let me assure you that your feedback is very important since it provides us with a measuring tool for customer satisfaction. Your comments have been documented and forwarded to the appropriate management personnel at DFW and Reservations for an internal review. The intent is to address the issues you reported so we may serve you and your wife better in the future.

We want you to know that we care about the negative impact these issues had on your and your wife’s trip. Therefore, we’ve credited each of your AAdvantage® accounts with 10,000 bonus miles. This adjustment should be reflected in your accounts very soon. We hope you will accept our gesture of goodwill.

Finally, all of us here at American Airlines are committed to ensuring that our customers with special needs have pleasant and trouble-free flights when traveling with us. Accordingly, we make every effort to provide information and assistance to our customers with special needs. Our reservations personnel are trained to answer questions and make routine arrangements for our customers requiring a certain degree of assistance when traveling. We also have an exclusive team of specially trained reservations agents (Special Assistance Coordinators) who make the necessary arrangements to ensure that travel is comfortable and safe for our customers with special needs. The next time you and your wife travel it may be helpful to speak with one of our Special Assistance Coordinators. They can be reached via our toll-free number at 1-800-433-7300.

Mr. Austin, despite what happened on this occasion, we hope you and your wife will continue to select American Airlines for your travel needs. We will work hard to ensure that you receive the service you expect and deserve.