Knowingly assigned an "inoperative" seat on Long Haul Flight

[Ling Li]

AA Ref#1-23467232186:

I embarked on a series of AA flight on Friday, Nov 18 (AA2374, AA6006, AA193) and was seated in 5J on AA 193. However, when we were airborne, I noted that my seat did not recline, which is clearly not optimal given a flight time of 15 hours. My points are the following:

• It appears that it was known to AA that there was a problem with the seat PRIOR to departure. However, I was not informed and hence did not have the option to make alternative arrangements. Response from your Customer Relations Officer highlighted below and photo I took on the aircraft.

• To avoid any misunderstanding, because of the different seat configurations of our various aircraft along with the restriction to allow a seat to recline as part of the design to accommodate qualified disability passengers (in the front and/or back row of the seat that doesn't recline), there is no guarantee that a provided seat will recline.

• While we make every effort to complete all repairs promptly, realistically we cannot always be completely successful. Occasionally, there is insufficient time for our maintenance crews to ensure all customer service items, like the recline feature on a seat, to be operational and still dispatch the aircraft on time. In such instances we may defer repairs in the interest of an on-time flight departure. Let me assure you, however, that the repair of safety related items is never postponed.

• From what I can gather from your response, does this mean that in future, when I travel on business class, there is no way that I will know prior to boarding whether my seat will recline (reason given by airline was to accommodate disabled passengers)? In addition, whilst there is NO guarantee that a seat will recline (which I appreciate as it could well break down without any notification), does this also mean that there is no obligation for AA to inform the passenger even when they know? Not once have I come across this in my many years of international travel.
  
  
• It has been stressed several times in the earlier exchanges that the gesture of 10,000 miles is offered and intended as ‘goodwill’. I am not sure how to take this as I find the reasons offered thus far somewhat unacceptable. When we enter into agreements, surely there are some expectations in terms of service levels. I have been in the service industry for many years and struggle to understand what has been communicated to me. I am also a frequent traveler of the ‘One World Alliance’. Hence, I believe I have some idea on what “good” service looks like.
  

 

[Living in Reality]

If you can find a mech that "knows" seats they can show you the mechanical release for those type seats. the standard coach seats do not have them as they are total mechanical. The aircraft is also supposed to have a "paper manual" on addressing these seats but, beware, these seats using the mechanical levers move suddenly so whatever action you want to move, hold onto it good!

 

[Rogallo]

Welcome aboard America West!

 

[IORFA]

Welcome aboard America West!

dba American Airlines!

 

[bob@las-AA]

AA Ref#1-23467232186:

I embarked on a series of AA flight on Friday, Nov 18 (AA2374, AA6006, AA193) and was seated in 5J on AA 193. However, when we were airborne, I noted that my seat did not recline, which is clearly not optimal given a flight time of 15 hours. My points are the following:

• It appears that it was known to AA that there was a problem with the seat PRIOR to departure. However, I was not informed and hence did not have the option to make alternative arrangements. Response from your Customer Relations Officer highlighted below and photo I took on the aircraft.

• To avoid any misunderstanding, because of the different seat configurations of our various aircraft along with the restriction to allow a seat to recline as part of the design to accommodate qualified disability passengers (in the front and/or back row of the seat that doesn't recline), there is no guarantee that a provided seat will recline.

View attachment 11396

• While we make every effort to complete all repairs promptly, realistically we cannot always be completely successful. Occasionally, there is insufficient time for our maintenance crews to ensure all customer service items, like the recline feature on a seat, to be operational and still dispatch the aircraft on time. In such instances we may defer repairs in the interest of an on-time flight departure. Let me assure you, however, that the repair of safety related items is never postponed.

• From what I can gather from your response, does this mean that in future, when I travel on business class, there is no way that I will know prior to boarding whether my seat will recline (reason given by airline was to accommodate disabled passengers)? In addition, whilst there is NO guarantee that a seat will recline (which I appreciate as it could well break down without any notification), does this also mean that there is no obligation for AA to inform the passenger even when they know? Not once have I come across this in my many years of international travel.
  
  
• It has been stressed several times in the earlier exchanges that the gesture of 10,000 miles is offered and intended as ‘goodwill’. I am not sure how to take this as I find the reasons offered thus far somewhat unacceptable. When we enter into agreements, surely there are some expectations in terms of service levels. I have been in the service industry for many years and struggle to understand what has been communicated to me. I am also a frequent traveler of the ‘One World Alliance’. Hence, I believe I have some idea on what “good” service looks like.

This is not the correct arena for resolving this claim. Resolution can only come from AA.com

 

[1AA]

If you can find a mech that "knows" seats they can show you the mechanical release for those type seats. the standard coach seats do not have them as they are total mechanical. The aircraft is also supposed to have a "paper manual" on addressing these seats but, beware, these seats using the mechanical levers move suddenly so whatever action you want to move, hold onto it good!

The flight attendant's are suppose to know how to use the manual functions of the seats. Then they can pass it on to the customer to use. An inconvenience but it is better than nothing.

 

[eolesen]

10,000 miles on a broken seat isn't good enough as compensation here.

I've had this happen in the past on Iberia, and was given a refund between the cost of the business class fare and their premium economy. No questions asked.

 

[DallasConehead]

I guess the company not only screws its employees but its customers to.

 

[john john]

10,000 miles on a broken seat isn't good enough as compensation here.

I've had this happen in the past on Iberia, and was given a refund between the cost of the business class fare and their premium economy. No questions asked.

And how exactly was this done? specific...These tools are not available for the front line workers at the NEW American Airlines. The agent can queue the PNR with remarks but no guarantee who are what will be done

 

[eolesen]

And how exactly was this done? specific...These tools are not available for the front line workers at the NEW American Airlines. The agent can queue the PNR with remarks but no guarantee who are what will be done

Let's see... the flight attendant found out the seat was broken, wrote down my seat number on a sheet of paper, and probably filed a paper report on landing. Either way, I got my compensation and an email a week later.

Hardly rocket science. Even a luddite like you could have managed that.

Last I checked, doesn't AA equip its FA's with tablets or smartphones?

Presumably there's a way to do an irregularity report on those. Or maybe someone figured out how to load the Cosmo app...

Either way, Iberia is one of the industry's worst carriers for service, and they managed to get it right. AA could do it if they actually were customer focused, but I'm still not seeing evidence of that.

 

[wcs]

I'm not a customer service employee but I have to take john john at his word that there is no procedure
for frontline AA employees to address such problems with any guarantee of resolution. At least the frontline employee is unlikely to get feedback on their request to address these problems.
Either way you didn't answer john john's question."Probably" and "presumably" are not necessarily what Iberia actually did to reach the results that you received.
You've had experience as a member of management and should understand the frustrations frontline employees can experience without adequate pathways to be able to resolve customer service problems.
Your name calling and looking down on the frontline employee illustrates the problem with management that perpetuates lack of improvement in customer service.

 

[IORFA]

Purser's have a specific email to send issues to. It is reported to us that a response is generated to the customer within 24hours. Since we send the issue and all available info to them, they usually are more than generous in their response.

 

[wcs]

Thanks IORFA, but according to john john's post agents have limited capability in this area. Their ability to queue a PNR provides for zero feedback to the agent and no real guarantee of real passenger satisfaction. I'm glad Pursers have been given an more streamlined avenue to resolution.
I was disappointed with eolesen's response to john john. After complaining about AA's response to the OP eolesen belittles john john for asking a legitimate question; how can AA agents adequatley address a passenger's reasonable complaint. eolesen has portrayed himself to be someone with a significant amount of experience within the AA structure. The name calling wasn't called for. The inadequate answer as to how Iberia resolved the problem wasn't helpful. If you don't know, it's ok to answer a question with "I don't know".

 

[DallasConehead]

Well, it sounds like maintenance did their job and placarded the seat. The agent did their job and assigned the seat. The FA failed to report the passengers frustration with the inoperative seat. Case closed.

 

[IORFA]

Maybe. If a non purser was on the flight working the purser position, then they wouldn't know the email.