

American Airlines earned an enemy - dsr12
http://david.heinemeierhansson.com/2013/american-airlines-earned-an-enemy.html

======
sjtgraham
The thing I hate most American is they decline all non-US issued cards or non-
US PayPal accounts for ticketing, but do so silently in the background while
appearing to have gone through. When you get to the airport you find your
booking wasn't ticketed, the flight has gone up _and_ have to pay a fee for
paying at the airport. To get around this I try to book AA tickets with
another OneWorld carrier.

To their credit I took SFO->JFK->LHR this summer. The first flight was
insanely delayed (in my experience many AA flights out of SFO are ridiculously
delayed), and I had to sprint through JFK to make the connection. I knew my
checked bag wouldn't have made it, so I didn't waste time waiting for it. I
went straight to the counter and asked them if my bag was in London, it
wasn't, it was still at JFK. They apologised profusely and a courier delivered
it to my apartment the next day.

If you're wondering why I tolerate AA, it's because I have frequent flier
status on BA, and get insane air miles (base plus 100% bonus, minimum) for
flying on OneWorld carriers.

~~~
crazytony
ah crap totally forgot about that: I spent a fair whack of points to send my
partner back to the US in style. My non-us credit card was declined and they
cancelled the booking only notifying us when we showed up at their airport and
they told us that there was no ticket and couldn't issue a boarding pass. But
then they took the points as a "penalty" for forfeiting the ticket because he
didn't fly....

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jrockway
The baggage policy you agree to and pay for is basically, "if we lose your bag
or smash it into very small pieces, we will pay you $20." Then when they lose
your bag or smash it into small pieces, people want more than $20, and write
angry blog posts when they don't get more than $20. I don't get it. Have these
people never heard of FedEx or UPS? They will transport your bag on an
aircraft _and_ sell you insurance against loss or damage. Why choose the
inferior product if you don't want inferior results? (I do know why: cost.
Everyone wants a free lunch.)

Ultimately, I have to say that I'm a fan of the brave new world of air travel.
I used to hate all the nickle-and-diming, but while doing all that hating, I
didn't realize how cheaply one can move around the country. JFK-SFO is like
$300 round-trip now. 5000 miles in a FLYING MACHINE for $300! But instead,
people complain that their bags are not insured for $10,000 each, or that they
have to pay $100 for more leg room. Well, yeah. If it was "free", then someone
else would book their ticket earlier than you and you wouldn't even have _the
option_ of getting more leg room.

(Also, am I the only person that likes American Airlines? 400,000 miles, and I
only have one experience that really made me mad.)

~~~
jmcmichael
Is it possible to ship stuff (laptops, cellphone maybe) via FedEX or UPS,
internationally, and have it arrive at or near the same time/place as your
destination w/o having to wait for it to clear customs?

I had considered this but eliminated it as a dependable method because I
assume that most countries have their own customs procedures for items shipped
via FedEx/UPS and in some cases items might be tied up for days or weeks.

~~~
_delirium
You're correct; to take advantage of the personal customs exemption for
travelers you must carry the items in your luggage with you, not ship them
separately. If you ship them, you might be deemed to be importing them,
depending on the country's customs procedures (and even if you qualify for
another exemption, they may be held in customs until you go fill out some
paperwork to claim them).

~~~
umami
I have been considering giving LuggageForward[1] a try. They seem to handle
the customs aspect in a way that works the same as if you carried the bag with
you. Their rates are quite attractive as well.

[1] [http://www.luggageforward.com/](http://www.luggageforward.com/)

Disclaimer: no affiliation at all with them. In the end I never tried them
because I now travel with carry-on only.

------
smoyer
I used to travel a lot and if you choose to make an enemy out of an airline
over a lost bag, it won't take long until all the airlines are your enemy ...
then you'll either quit flying or pay your enemy.

Here are a few tips:

\- Travel lighter! I was very careful to keep track of what I did and didn't
use on each trip. There were very few things that went back into the suitcase
if they weren't used (a brief-case umbrella and a tiny sewing kit are all I
can think of).

\- If you're traveling for several weeks, pack 5-7 days of clothes. Often they
can be worn more than once without washing, and most hotels have laundry
services.

\- Traveling with kids is hard (I have four) ... especially infants. If you
paid for a ticket for your child, they get a carry-on and a personal item too
- even if they can't carry it.

\- Rollie's are great but you can make them better. You can strap the handles
together so that a whole set of rollies can be pulled via one handle. Some
matching sets of luggage include these straps.

\- If you do check a bag, make sure you can afford to lose what's in the bag.
You will NEVER get the value of that bags contents back from the airline, so
keep the value low.

\- Keep your toothbrush, deodorant and at least a set of underwear in your
laptop/personal bag (unless you also carry on your allowed piece of baggage.

Finally, the whole travel process can be irritating. Ticketing can earn an
enemy quickly if they can't deal with missed flights, delays and cancellations
in a reasonable way. So the real tip here is to not stress about it too much
(hard for type A personalities). If you let a poor travel experience ruin your
trip, you've lost more than a bag.

~~~
pytrin
I think you missed the point of the post - it's not about losing a bag, it's
about the customer service failure that ensued. I had bags lost on a couple of
occasions, and usually they are delivered on the same day or the next to the
address I stay at. If I'd had such an experience, I wouldn't be flying the
same airline either.

~~~
smoyer
Nope ... when I read the post, I read that he'd declared himself to be an
enemy of a large group of minimum-wage, overworked employees of a company
who's executives are simply maximizing profit. I'd be willing to bet they
calculate how many people will be angry enough to quit flying and account for
this churn in their projections.

These people have a high turn-over rate and absolutely no incentive to go
beyond the company policy. My point was that "the best way to win is to not
play the game".

EDIT: As I thought about this, I realized we're a bit insulated from the
problem, but consider this scenario:

"I tried to call SnapChat the other day to have them delete an embarrassing
photo before it got to the recipient - Can you believe there's a company
without a phone number? THEY'RE MY NUMBER ONE ENEMY!"

~~~
tehwebguy
Airlines depend on loyalty, that's why they have significant loyalty programs.

Also that is a crazy comparison, an airline is responsible for getting you to
your destination alive and with your bags, it's not acceptable for them to
have ineffective customer service. Even if what they offered wasn't so
important the fact is you pay money for their services, the deal has to be two
sided.

~~~
smoyer
I agree that it's a crazy comparison ... but I've heard non-technical people
say very similar things. I was trying to point out that our perception of our
industry's practices may not be the way others perceive us. Other
misunderstandings are:

"I can't believe they just shut down my favorite application for doing X" \-
spoken by people without paid accounts.

"That company has so much money you think they'd do X" \- (most commonly this
one is "add my requested but obscure feature) - spoken by someone who doesn't
realize that a company can be well-funded but "burning through cash"
unprofitable.

------
faster
American lost my bag on the way back from Italy a few years back, wouldn't
answer the phone, called security when I went back to the baggage claim at the
airport to ask them what was going on, and when they found the bag, they sent
it to San Jose Costa Rica on a boat, instead of San Jose California. Of course
I never saw that bag again.

I learned that baggage losses are balanced against the cost of paying for more
reliable and trustworthy baggage handlers, and customer service is subject to
a similar balancing act.

I also started travelling lighter, and keeping an extra day's clothing in my
carry-on bag. It's much more difficult to be prepared for baggage loss with a
kid, but it was worth it. Try running out of diapers because planes are
delayed. When was the last time you saw diapers for sale in an airport?

~~~
kelnos
My solution: I never check a bag. I started this practice 6 or 7 years ago,
and it's great. I have a fantastic carry-on bag that fits everything I need,
plus usually a small laptop bag, and I never let them out of my sight. I've
gone on trips 2 weeks long with no trouble, and could easily go longer. The
one possible annoyance is staying below the carry-on liquid requirements, but
I haven't had a problem with that yet. (You can always purchase things like
toothpaste and shampoo at your destination if the travel-size containers
aren't enough.)

Fringe benefits: since I'm not checking a bag, I can get to the airport a
little later. And I also get to leave the airport earlier at my destination
since I don't have to wait at baggage claim.

Of course, those of you traveling with kids have it a bit harder, but given
the passenger mix on most planes I've flown on, most people could likely
follow this advice.

~~~
tadfisher
I learned this mantra from a jet-setting lawyer:

"Checked luggage is lost luggage."

I survived a month in Europe shortly after with carry-ons. It was doable,
pleasant even, but I had to make some sacrifices: one pair of shoes, no
laptop, no heavy jacket. It's obviously not ideal and possibly not feasible
for someone traveling with a non-ticketed baby to travel this way.

~~~
eitally
It depends on a lot of things (climate, specific personal requirements, etc).
My wife & I took our two young children -- 2 and 4 -- to California & Hawaii
this summer without checking any bags. It was a 17 day trip. This is way more
challenging on business trips when you usually need to pack nicer clothing.

------
keithpeter
"First, trying to find out what actually happened since London won't call us
back (no doubt ashamed of their gross negligence not recording any information
on the passenger who called and their following inability to recover the now-
considered stolen bag)."

Nope, just minimum wage and very busy people. The 'miracle' the OA refers to
is based on 'driving out cost' at every possible point in the chain.

------
cm277
Erm, I think it's more likely that the laptop showed up in X-ray scan and a
baggage handler availed themselves of the contents. I had the same thing
happen to me at Heathrow; I spent about 5 minutes to locate it in Lost & Found
a few days later, stripped of any identifying information and of course the
laptop.

American Airlines sucks, but I don't see their fault here.

~~~
chrismcb
The customer left their bag with AA. AA was now responsible for the bag, until
they gave it back to the customer. The fact that TSA or similar people are
thieves, or there are thieves at the carousel does not remove responsibility
from AA.

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United857
In a lot of countries (but oddly not the US), there are people at the baggage
claim exits checking claim tags with bags to prevent precisely this scenario
of bags taken by mistake.

~~~
johansch
Where have you seen this?

~~~
erre
There used to be those people in Brazil up until about 10 years ago. I haven't
seen them in any airports there since.

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autodidakto
I was young and naive, and I thought that giving hundreds of dollars to an
airline meant that they hold up their end of the bargain (deliver your bag). I
lost my wife's 18 year old teddy bear. They stalled and stalled and 2 months
later finally reimbursed us for clothes (but as the fine print says: "no
electronics or jewelry or anything valuable! What kind of idiot trusts us with
that anyway?"). It was AA too, but they're all the same. I've distrusted
airlines since and go to extreme lengths to deny them my money or at least
never check in anything.

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rickyc091
The sad and unfortunate thing is that this doesn't only occur with American
Airlines. It's basically the same with most airlines. I've had a similar issue
with the customer service with Delta airlines. I know a co-worker that
struggled to find a lost bag from US Airways. If you search "baggage lost" on
twitter, you'll see plenty of people in the same boat. I'm surprised no one
has attempted to fix this problem... huge market opportunity right here...

~~~
umami
I have recently researched this field out of a personal need and there is a
few companies that do fast, inexpensive and insured luggage transport. They
even do it door to door, picking up at your home and delivering at your hotel
(before you arrive if you send the bags early). They might just need to do
more advertising.

In the end I did not try any of them but was pleasantly surprised that there
are people working on fixing this.

------
deanWombourne
Have you considered that the person who mistakenly took your bag _did_ return
it as promised and AA have, once again, made a mistake?

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memracom
What if this is not just an American Airlines problem?

What if it is a general problem with society as people become more and more
absorbed in their virtual Internet lives and no longer care to do a good job
at whatever company they work for?

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allard
American used to send people to the wrong terminal at LGA. Do they still?

They use concourse D at terminal B but called (or call) it terminal D. No
amount of any communication on this would register.

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markrickert
AA won't ever go out of business... they're "too big to fail." I'm sure
they'll just be absorbed into "US Government Airlines" when that time comes.

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amerika_blog
I can't wait for robots to replace baggage handlers, who seem to be the weak
link in the chain. You put a laptop in your bag, and it vanished?
Statistically that's most likely. It doesn't take a smart criminal to invent
the "other tourist" who "accidentally" took the bag, called a week later, and
no one managed to write down their name and phone number.

