Flight SNAFU at BA and AA

[Koolau]

How is the fault of the AA customer service people that things are hosed up beyond belief.. Answer, it isn't. We should be grateful they actually show up at work knowing the crapshow that will have to endure.. I had major and I mean major issue when my Mother died and yes it was Delta's fault. I stood at the service counter after missing the last possible connection. I couldn't help myself and started crying trying to explain the circumstances. The gentleman helping me gave me a kleenex starting checking all adjacent airports and got me close enough to have a BIL come and pick us to attend family services. He handed me our tickets and said I am so sorry for your loss. That meant a lot.

Yeah, that's a pretty extreme example that allowed the agent to show some real compassion. So glad that he did.

DW was arriving from HNL into DEN (IIRC) but her connection to our home airport was cancelled. This was all in the middle of the night while I slept. She said "Get me to any place within 250 miles of my destination and Hubby will drive to get me." She called me at the last minute to keep me from going to the wrong airport as she'd gotten the last seat to a destination 100 miles away. Worked out great as the agent went to bat for her at the last moment. YES, it was the air line's "fault" but the agent can really make a difference. YMMV

 

[threeonesix]

How is the fault of the AA customer service people that things are hosed up beyond belief.. Answer, it isn't. We should be grateful they actually show up at work knowing the crapshow that will have to endure.. I had major and I mean major issue when my Mother died and yes it was Delta's fault. I stood at the service counter after missing the last possible connection. I couldn't help myself and started crying trying to explain the circumstances. The gentleman helping me gave me a kleenex starting checking all adjacent airports and got me close enough to have a BIL come and pick us to attend family services. He handed me our tickets and said I am so sorry for your loss. That meant a lot.

I didn't say it was their fault.

 

[ivinsfan]

I didn't say it was their fault.

Maybe I misunderstood your comment about not feeling sorry for the customer service people...I'm sorry if that's what happened .they customer service people have nothing to with airlines and airport snafus but have to try and resolve them. ..

To stay on topic here I'd say be it online or in person during a trip gone wrong..Best to treat airline agents like your best friend

 

[NW-Bound]

Maybe I misunderstood your comment about not feeling sorry for the customer service people .they customer service people have nothing to with airlines and airport snafus but have to try and resolve them. ..

I read it the other way, that threeonesix felt for the customer service employees who had to deal with the mess they did not create.

When talking to customer service people, we never take it out on the front-line people who are serving us. It's not their personal fault that mishaps happen. Take it to the corporate, write letters, etc... Don't yell at their employees.

 

[Happyras]

We have traveled quite a lot this past few years despite Covid. A lot on BA first and business, and some on AA. We had some horrible delays on AA with minimum compensation. We are leaving for Europe next Sunday. With all the issues, we chose Iceland Air this time. Not the best business class, but the opportunity to see Iceland for a stop over was compelling. We booked this last Sept and not a single flight has changed AND they still have space on all of our flights. They do not seem to have the issues with cancellations. The only issue for most would be which connecting airport to get to. With Alaska as their "associated" not partner, you get the Alaska miles and if need be you can book Alaska to get from PHX to Seattle or Boston etc. and get easy connections into Paris or other parts of Europe. For us, we are heading to AMS to catch a Baltic cruise. Something most folks do not consider is airlines like Iceland and Norwegian which seem to have good service still. Now with than said, the volcano is erupting in Iceland 15km from KEF, so this will be interesting to see if it impacts our travel through there.

 

[ivinsfan]

I read it the other way, that threeonesix felt for the customer service employees who had to deal with the mess they did not create.

When talking to customer service people, we never take it out on the front-line people who are serving us. It's not their personal fault that mishaps happen. Take it to the corporate, write letters, etc... Don't yell at their employees.

I read the comment again and have to admit I can see it the way you saw it too. ..my first impression was different..I'm still happy I got to tell my nice story about my Delta angel.


I edited my reply to apologize to threeonesix..

 

[threeonesix]

No apology necessary @ivinsfan, I'm often misunderstood. lol

 

[NW-Bound]

We have traveled quite a lot this past few years despite Covid...

In 2020 and 2021, we did not go anywhere. Too afraid of getting stuck outside the country with no way back. Even inside the US, getting sick and being treated in an out-of-state hospital while the spouse is hanging loose in a nearby hotel is no fun.

So, it came to our surprise when we learned some of the relatives and friends took the opportunity to travel, even out of the country, when every place was deserted. I wonder if the attractions were open for you to see anything.

A lot on BA first and business, and some on AA. We had some horrible delays on AA with minimum compensation. We are leaving for Europe next Sunday. With all the issues, we chose Iceland Air this time. Not the best business class, but the opportunity to see Iceland for a stop over was compelling. We booked this last Sept and not a single flight has changed AND they still have space on all of our flights. They do not seem to have the issues with cancellations. The only issue for most would be which connecting airport to get to. With Alaska as their "associated" not partner, you get the Alaska miles and if need be you can book Alaska to get from PHX to Seattle or Boston etc. and get easy connections into Paris or other parts of Europe. For us, we are heading to AMS to catch a Baltic cruise. Something most folks do not consider is airlines like Iceland and Norwegian which seem to have good service still. Now with than said, the volcano is erupting in Iceland 15km from KEF, so this will be interesting to see if it impacts our travel through there.

I envy people on the West Coast near large airports. They have more options available. We do not have many flights going non-stop PHX to European cities.

If I pay for biz class seats, it's OK to go from PHX to an east coast airport, because the domestic leg does have better seats than coach. But for premium economy class, the domestic leg will be coach seat. The flight from Phoenix to the east coast is just as long as east coast to Europe. The domestic coach seat is painful for 6 hours.

I used to fly Southwest to LAX. Then, take a long non-stop to Europe. On twin-aisle international planes, the coach seat is more bearable for a 10-hr flight. But I am getting older and crankier.

From now on, I will not put myself through the pain. I have too much unspent money. Premium economy or biz class only.


PS. As people talk about on other threads, there are not many airlines with first-class seats anymore. Out of curiosity, I looked, and if I insisted on flying first-class to Europe, I would have to fly to LAX to catch one of those few planes.

 

[meridiver]

What a great trip! I hope it all works out. The Dolomites are startlingly beautiful and quite different from the rest of the Alps. We spent two weeks there in 2018 and are hoping to go back. Since you are going near the end of the season, make sure to check the summer ending dates for any chairlifts you want to take as some stop as soon as late September. Also, we got snow (up to 1 ft on the higher peaks) on September 1, so be prepared for cold weather (at least bring gloves, a hat, scarf and one of those lightweight puffy jackets). If you plan on doing some hiking, bring hiking poles. The trails in the valleys are well kept, but higher up in the mountains they are often rocky and steep.

 

[Souschef]

I don’t know what you enjoy, but beyond the famous Lyon gastronomy, there are lots of Roman ruins around. Some in the city near the old cathedral on the hill, and some very nice ones scattered around Vienne 34km south of Lyon, which also has a large Roman museum. I think we enjoyed the downtown Vienne Roman temple the most.

A boat trip on the Saône is very nice and easy to do.

It’s a pretty cool funicular ride up to the highest part overlooking the river and city of Lyon. Nice overlook next to the old cathedral. And an old Roman amphitheater is nearby.

Lyon became wealthy as a silk manufacturing city plus other textiles, so there is a cool textiles museum, plus another artisan shop where we watched someone silkscreening silk scarves.

We did one and enjoyed it. I have attached the story. I had to do it in 2 parts because of size limitations in the upload.

 

[audreyh1]

We did one and enjoyed it. I have attached the story. I had to do it in 2 parts because of size limitations in the upload.

Our boat tour/ride on the Saône was just a couple of hours and easy to get to from the central peninsula area.

Thanks for your trip report. I’ve been south of Lyon but have yet to visit Dijon, home of the escargot! And Burgundy of course.

 

[skyking1]

flying a BA flight booked through AA tomorrow. We have a connection at Heathrow with BA, hopefully we get through OK.

 

[SecondAttempt]

DW was arriving from HNL into DEN (IIRC) but her connection to our home airport was cancelled. This was all in the middle of the night while I slept. She said "Get me to any place within 250 miles of my destination and Hubby will drive to get me." She called me at the last minute to keep me from going to the wrong airport as she'd gotten the last seat to a destination 100 miles away. Worked out great as the agent went to bat for her at the last moment. YES, it was the air line's "fault" but the agent can really make a difference. YMMV

One clear advantage of lounge access is access to the agents inside the lounge, at least with United. They are always helpful. I don't know if they have any official special super powers but they seem to be able to fix things faster than the phone agents and there is rarely much wait.

(HNL-DEN almost had to be United)

 

[athena53]

One clear advantage of lounge access is access to the agents inside the lounge, at least with United. They are always helpful. I don't know if they have any official special super powers but they seem to be able to fix things faster than the phone agents and there is rarely much wait.

Yes- they can work magic. DH and I once had our seat assignments trashed when we were flying to Edinburgh- put on a different flight to JFK from our home airport so it dropped our seat assignments on the transatlantic. DH had a creaky back and I told the lounge agent that I didn't care where they put me but he had to have an aisle seat. She got us both in an exit row I still feel guilty about whoever got booted out of those seats to accommodate us. It was also a miracle when DH and I had a missed connection in LHR and kept getting ping-ponged from the BA desk to the AA desk when we tried to get re-accommodation. The lounge agent (not sure if it was BA or AA) fixed it immediately.

As I said in another thread it's a crapshoot but so far so good on my BA/AA trip. I was able to stand by for an earlier flight out of MCI, which gave me plenty of time to enjoy the Flagship Lounge at DFW. We left MCI 30 minutes late and DFW about 45 minutes late. At DFW they called the first boarding group and then they all stood together in a mob for about 15 minutes waiting for Someone Important to start actually boarding the plane.

My BA flight to Tirana is at 3:30 this afternoon. I discovered yesterday that I have Fast Track access (probably because I got Business Class)- when I went over to Heathrow to buy a few supplies yesterday the regular queues were crazy so I'm relieved.

All travel is overland after this till I fly home.

 

[Koolau]

One clear advantage of lounge access is access to the agents inside the lounge, at least with United. They are always helpful. I don't know if they have any official special super powers but they seem to be able to fix things faster than the phone agents and there is rarely much wait.

(HNL-DEN almost had to be United)

Definitely, United. More or less by default (price and schedule) we've been mostly flying United the past several years, though we've flown them all at one time or another (some no longer in business.)

 

[NW-Bound]

What a great trip! I hope it all works out. The Dolomites are startlingly beautiful and quite different from the rest of the Alps. We spent two weeks there in 2018 and are hoping to go back. Since you are going near the end of the season, make sure to check the summer ending dates for any chairlifts you want to take as some stop as soon as late September. Also, we got snow (up to 1 ft on the higher peaks) on September 1, so be prepared for cold weather (at least bring gloves, a hat, scarf and one of those lightweight puffy jackets). If you plan on doing some hiking, bring hiking poles. The trails in the valleys are well kept, but higher up in the mountains they are often rocky and steep.

Thanks. I hope there will be no mishap with air travel, and I get to go.

About traveling out of season, there's a price to pay for that, with some amenities getting shut down. On the other hand, it's less crowded, and hotels are less expensive.

We will be traveling light with only carry-ons. So, cannot bring our hiking poles. My wife reminded me that I would have problems with packing hiking boots. So, we may go on only easy hikes.

A couple of weeks ago, some hiking tourists got killed by an avalanche, one man just minutes after sending out a selfie to friends/family. How awful!

 

[skyking1]

Our flight is an hour late, which may turn a 1 hour between flights to a 7 hour layover at LHR.
Yikes!

 

[NW-Bound]

Our flight is an hour late, which may turn a 1 hour between flights to a 7 hour layover at LHR.
Yikes!

Aye, aye, aye... Does it mean the connecting flight changes from morning flight to evening flight? The consolation is that you still have not lost a day.

 

[Scrapr]

I just cut our emergency lifeline. We have an SAS flight PDX-CDG. SAS had a pilot strike & Chapter 13 bankruptcy a few weeks after we gave them money. So I bookeda Delta flight out of SEA that was refundable. $$$$ In case SAS has a bunch of cancellations. They have been flying our route (LAX-CDG) every day for weeks. So I cancelled our Delta flight before our CC is due. Delta says 7 days for refund to show up.

Crossing our fingers now. Flying without a net....

Have about 3 weeks to go

 

[skyking1]

They held the connecting flight at the gate for us, which was great. The bad was we were making our way from one terminal to another inside the secured part of Heathrow, and a helpful person opened up a rope and directed us to a bonus security walk through!! This led up an escalator to a substantial queue and we thought for sure we were sunk.
I ran ahead of DW carrying all the carry on luggage, and they greeted her by name when she got there so they knew we were coming.
Our check bags did not make it and are being delivered this afternoon.

 

[gayl]

Our check bags did not make it and are being delivered this afternoon.

Discovered if I roll everything I can fit 3 weeks into a 17" bag. Leaves my purse for just headphones (the bose kind), passport, and charging cable. Hate a full purse

 

[skyking1]

We're just not that skilled.

 

[Koolau]

Discovered if I roll everything I can fit 3 weeks into a 17" bag. Leaves my purse for just headphones (the bose kind), passport, and charging cable. Hate a full purse

Wow. That is impressive. We do the "roll" thing and it is very effective. Upon arrival, hanging in the bathroom during a shower takes out the wrinkles. You should consider a YouTube demonstration. I predict a million views! YMMV

 

[NW-Bound]

I am glad to report that I got to Europe without hassles.

The flight from Phoenix to Heathrow completed without drama. The flight from LHR to Lyon was delayed 2 hours for weather reasons (heavy rain somewhere?).

No mention of Covid vaccination records. Nobody cares. On the flight from the US, about 1 in 100 wore masks, ourselves included. After take-off, I had to take it off for comfort, and have not put it back since. At Heathrow, again about 1 in 100 wore masks. I am now in France, and I have not seen a mask after landing in Lyon.

Heathrow Terminal 3 was nearly deserted. Perhaps the peak summer travel rush has already petered out. On the display of flights departing from LHR Terminal 3, I counted about 1/3 being to US destinations. Obviously, US travelers are a big percentage of the travel business in Europe.

I am now in Annecy and will be driving to Italy soon. I enjoy the trip so far. Food is good, people are nice. Life is pretty darn good.


PS. It's 2 AM local time. I can never sleep through the night even when at home, so this is nothing unusual.

 

[Koolau]

I am glad to report that I got to Europe without hassles.

The flight from Phoenix to Heathrow completed without drama. The flight from LHR to Lyon was delayed 2 hours for weather reasons (heavy rain somewhere?).

No mention of Covid vaccination records. Nobody cares. On the flight from the US, about 1 in 100 wore masks, ourselves included. After take-off, I had to take it off for comfort, and have not put it back since. At Heathrow, again about 1 in 100 wore masks. I am now in France, and I have not seen a mask after landing in Lyon.

Heathrow Terminal 3 was nearly deserted. Perhaps the peak summer travel rush has already petered out. On the display of flights departing from LHR Terminal 3, I counted about 1/3 being to US destinations. Obviously, US travelers are a big percentage of the travel business in Europe.

I am now in Annecy and will be driving to Italy soon. I enjoy the trip so far. Food is good, people are nice. Life is pretty darn good.


PS. It's 2 AM local time. I can never sleep through the night even when at home, so this is nothing unusual.

Thanks for sharing with us and letting us know what's going on. Check in when you can.