Are we still taking care of our elite members ?

[dfw gen]

It is very unfortunate to hear these stories and I wish they weren't true. However, full throttle to the bottle Doug and Hector Adler are clueless to what they are doing when it comes to customer/onboard service. The maintenance issues with the 767 is out of control. Their fix is to delay the retirement of 2 planes and use them as spares until the head honchos in MTX can figure out a solution. At this point all they do is blame it on past management not doing the best they could have done. Regarding elite members leaving and/or lowering their travel on AA, that is why these programs exist. To one, reward the loyalty and two, use their travel and buying habits to maximize profits for the company. If they notice high value customers are changing their habits, they should be inquiring as to why and that should be an easy set of information to harvest.

Maintenance can be fixed they just have to treat us fairly and honestly, some thing that has not been done in the last 15 years. They blew a chance at good faith by excluding maintenance from the 4% raise almost everyone received. The excuse was that it is an enticement to negotiate a jcba. Once the "association" gets off its ass and stops dragging its feet we can see how serious the company is. Record profits and still working under a bankruptcy contract. The new boss is a lot like the old boss.....

 

[Life_Platinum]

Maintenance can be fixed they just have to treat us fairly and honestly, some thing that has not been done in the last 15 years. They blew a chance at good faith by excluding maintenance from the 4% raise almost everyone received. The excuse was that it is an enticement to negotiate a jcba. Once the "association" gets off its ass and stops dragging its feet we can see how serious the company is. Record profits and still working under a bankruptcy contract. The new boss is a lot like the old boss.....

 
Although maintenance is one of the problems, allocation of personnel, training, problem solving are not AA's song suits in my view.  For example, a good example of AA's problems reside in the DFW-HKG cancellation I mentioned above.  Let me explain what happened in my view.
 THE BOOKING PROBLEM. When we heard that AA was applying for service to Hong Kong, we were thrilled as we were planning to go to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.  Our family has been a strong supporter of AA and the 12 years of EXP flying taught us a lot about AA.  We always plan our own trips and this one was no different--we put together what we wanted to do, the flights we were to take and then called the EXP desk to book.  AA was able to book us from LGA through DFW and on to Hong Kong on the new HKG flight, and then on to Saigon on CX, but when we then told them of the 8 additional flights we wanted to take within Vietnam and to Cambodia and Laos, they told us they were unable to book these because they did not have a ticketing agreement with Vietnam Air and suggested that we book the Vietnam-Cambodia-Laos flights with a travel agent which we did.  Instead of the booking fees going to AA, they went to a travel agent, and we then ended up with a problem downstream as we had two tickets-the AA ticket from LGA to DFW to HKG and on to SGN as well as the travel agents booked tickets for the 8 additional flights.  Why didn't AA have a ticketing agreement with VN at the time we booked?
THE CANCELLED DFW-HKG FLIGHT:  We left LGA on the first flight of the AM with plenty of time to connect to the DFW-HKG flight and the LGA flight was on time.  Upon arriving in DFW at about 9 AM we were told that the late AM HKG flight was delayed and would be going out in early afternoon (I think it was 2:30 PM).  I used the computer in the Club in the D terminal to determine on flightradar24 that the plane was to be N729AM, one of the newest 777-323, and then looked up the history of the aircraft on the same website.  I found the aircraft was in MIA for the past 5 days and that AM was being flown to DFW and would arrive shortly after noon.  Well we continued to wait for the aircraft so I checked and found it had arrived and must have been the 777-323 that was outside the hangar.  As the delay stretched on around 5 PM we were told that the plane was waiting for the ground crew to pull the aircraft from the hangar to the D gate.  After waiting for about an hour, I asked what the problem was and was told by a couple of AA personnel that there was only 1 crew available to ferry planes from the hangar to the terminal and that I needed to be patient.  Finally after another hour we were told to hurry to the gate as the aircraft needed to leave the terminal by 8:15 PM, as the delayed arrival of the aircraft at the gate allowed only 50 minutes to board.  Well, the ground personnel and the crew was able to get us ready to go with about 5 minutes to spare, but when they fired up the aircraft, the Captain told us there was a mechanical.  A couple of the crew were in tears, as they now had timed out after waiting for the flight since 2:30PM, the initial delayed takeoff time.  We all trudged back to the club, but with about 50 passengers in line, it was a nightmare, so I headed to the Club in the A terminal where one of the AAngels was able to book us into NRT two days later in F, and then on to HKG with CX in Y.  She also made arrangements for us to stay at the Sheraton in Fort Worth and gave us a two taxi vouchers, one for each of the trips.  When we went outside, we and other AA passengers found that the taxi drivers would not take the vouchers as they wanted more $$$ for the trip, but then agreed to take 3 passengers with vouchers. Hence we saw much of  Dallas and Fort Worth as we went to the hotels where these passengers were staying.  Our main question was why AA did not have more crews to pull planes from the hangar to the gate, and why the flight was continued to be delayed as it took about 3 hours to move the plane.
CONSEQUENCES OF THE CANCELLATION:  When we booked, we had planned to spend a night at the Marriott at the HKG airport and then go out the next day with CX into SGN where we would use the ticket the travel agent had provided us.  However like the issue of a hidden destination that results in the cancellation of the flight if one of the legs is not used, there is a rule that for International flights, the flight will be cancelled if the first and succeeding legs are not flown.  In our case, all our VN flights were then cancelled as we were arriving in SGN 2 days late because of the cancellation.  Fortunately for us I new of the potential cancellation and immediately upon landing in SGN spent the afternoon in the VN office so that they were able to write me a new ticket that only had 6 legs (we omitted the first 2 legs).  The agent also told me they understood our problem and that they would refund our original ticket through our travel agent when we returned back home. What great customer service by VN!!!!  We again wondered why AA did not have a ticketing arrangement with VN when we booked as it cost us an afternoon in the VN office, and vowed never again to have 2 tickets for a trip.  
Lots of other glitches on this trip including weather related issue which we understand can occur to any airline, and AA did handle this well for us.  
We have had concerns about AA's record for lost baggage, and this issue occurred to our daughter and her family upon returning to Washington thru Phl on AA's 330-300.  We will be traveling on AA to ABQ within the next few weeks and will need to check a bag.  I have concerns that the bag has a high probability of getting lost.
Hope that some of you can fix these issues that I described above for other AA passengers.  I appear to be one of the few AA elite customers that reads the posts on this board, so I thought the AA folk needed to hear the problems I faced on one recent flight.  It is issues like this that have resulted in me flying AA less than in the past.   

 

[dfw gen]

Unfortunately aa has been brow beaten their employees and cutting benefits at every opportunity. Moral is non existent. It is a shame its not the same airline it used to be.

 

[LDVAviation]

What's interesting and a bit disappointing is that after I stopped flying, not once did AA reach out to find out why someone went from six years of Exec Platinum to not even flying AA anymore. For a company who relies on repeat business, you'd think they'd pay better attention to retention. Other companies (Avis, IHG) noticed, and followed up. AA didn't.

 
When my partner does not fly for 4 months, he gets a call from AA.  (He has a very high annual total spend and Helix/Eagle rating.)

 

[freedom]

Thank you for your comment life platinum. ..I'm sorry to hear that the tax drivers in DFW, our largest hub, will not accept the taxi vouchers ...

That strikes me as an easily correctable problem that hopefully SOMEONE will look into ....but (sigh) proabaly no one will.

 

[jimntx]

Thank you for your comment life platinum. ..I'm sorry to hear that the tax drivers in DFW, our largest hub, will not accept the taxi vouchers ...

That strikes me as an easily correctable problem that hopefully SOMEONE will look into ....but (sigh) proabaly no one will.

Not necessarily.  The voucher agreements are formed between AA and the taxi company.  It's the individual drivers who refuse the vouchers-particularly late at night when there's no one at the taxi offices other than a dispatcher.  Then if confronted, the drivers simply deny that they were even asked to take a voucher.
(Happened to a friend of mine when he arrived at DFW too late (due to a mechanical) to make his connection.  He had the cab number and license plate number.  Driver simply denied everything, and neither AA nor the taxi company could do anything about it.)

 

[freedom]

If that's the case I'm sure our company could start sending our employees in street clothes to monitor this behavior ....

If we have an agreement with a partner than they should be fulfilling their end of the commitment, especially as it involves customer service ...

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

If that's the case I'm sure our company could start sending our employees in street clothes to monitor this behavior ....

If we have an agreement with a partner than they should be fulfilling their end of the commitment, especially as it involves customer service ...

That would imply they care. They would not want to send the wrong message to all the bricks in the backpack after all.

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

 
 We again wondered why AA did not have a ticketing arrangement with VN when we booked as it cost us an afternoon in the VN office, and vowed never again to have 2 tickets for a trip.  ................................
 
  It is issues like this that have resulted in me flying AA less than in the past.   

 
I don't mean to belittle your unpleasant experience described above, but seriously, a lack of a ticketing agreement between AA-VN surely can't be the reason you've so peeved off at AA.  Or was that the final straw? 

 

[eolesen]

Heh. I finally saw a note from AA about my status dropping. They offered to let me pay $1200 to keep Platinum status (I have lifetime Gold).

Thanks, but no thanks.

 

[dfw gen]

Heh. I finally saw a note from AA about my status dropping. They offered to let me pay $1200 to keep Platinum status (I have lifetime Gold).

Thanks, but no thanks.

that is the new AA!

 

[Black Magic]

When the airline CEO primary background is accounting this is what you end up with. DUI's focus is to get the operation done with the least amount of expense possible. Don't expect the new AA to be a leader in any category of the major airlines.

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

When the airline CEO primary background is accounting this is what you end up with. DUI's focus is to get the operation done with the least amount of expense possible. Don't expect the new AA to be a leader in any category of the major airlines.

Black Magic isn't the goal of most business to offer goods at an acceptable level for the least amount of cost?
 
If the public considers it acceptable and keeps coming back Doug Parker has succeeded in his job.
 
You are talking about a business that offers a common service to average Joe consumer that will usually take the cheapest price, not a business with a select clientele that demands excellence.
 
Airlines may have been that at one time (and the prices reflected that) but these days airline travel is a price competitive service provided to the masses and the level of service reflects that.