Just launched an EECB at AA for the worst. flight. ever.

Thought you’d all enjoy reading it:

From: Matthew Tarpy
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 9:27 PM
To: ‘gerard.arpey@aa.com’; ‘ralph.richardi@aa.com’; ‘rob.friedman@aa.com’; ’sean.bentel@aa.com’
Cc: ‘Customer.Relations@aa.com’
Subject: American Airlines Flight 380, March 8, 2008/ PNR: XXXXXX

Gerard J. Arpey
President and Chief Executive Officer

Ralph Richardi
Senior Vice President, Customer Services

Rob Friedman
President, AAdvantage Marketing Programs

Sean Bentel
Manager, Customer Relations

Re: American Airlines Flight 380, March 8, 2008

Matthew PNR: XXXXXX
Robbyn PNR: XXXXXX

Dear Sirs–

I write today to inform you of the disreputable service my wife and I received from your airline on Saturday, March 8, 2008 on AA 380 from Chicago O’Hare to LaGuardia. Upon arrival at the departure gate, my wife and I found one agent working the gate, with a line of over 10 passengers deep. At the counter’s other terminal was a first-officer (a 3-striper), looking extraordinarily bored, lazily typing at the terminal. The gate agent was confrontational, aggressive, and hostile towards the passenger. In point of fact, the lady who was in line in front of me, fled the line, and called your 800 number from her mobile phone rather than having to deal with “that devil lady.” Once I reached the counter, I asked to have my wife added to the companion upgrade standby list; a request which further outraged the gate agent. She snapped at me as she asked me questions, took a personal call on her cell phone while dealing with my request, and then threw my wife’s boarding pass back at me when she was finished with the record update. In the more than 20 minutes I was in line, and at the counter, not once did another agent come help relieve the gate agent, who, obviously, needed additional help; nor did the F/O assist passengers.

Once on-board, we were met by Stephen, the first-class F/A. Stephen’s service, while en route to LGA was mostly courteous, albeit curt. However, once we were diverted to Dulles due to weather at LGA, he became sullen, refused to provide service, and sat in his seat until we landed. It is worth noting that the captain had not asked the F/As to be seated, as the main cabin F/As came through the F/C cabin repeatedly to talk and gather service items.

Once we were on the ground at IAD to refuel, it did not occur to anyone in the ground grew or flight crew to perform a lavatory service, even though almost all passengers had been using the lavatory while we were waiting at the gate, and once we became airborne, every time we came out of a strong banking movement, the unmistakable odor of an overly full lavatory wafted through the cabin. Many of us in the first class cabin became nauseated at the smell.

Additionally, while both being held on the ground at IAD, and in the holding pattern en route from IAD to LGA, the captain repeatedly provided erroneous information or stopped providing any information. The most egregious example is that while on the ground at IAD holding short of the runway, the pilot told us that we would be underway shortly repeatedly, while overhead thunderclouds had gathered, and lightening was striking the field. I have flown enough to know that lightening on the field does not mean “we will be departing shortly.” We left IAD almost an hour later. All that the Captain needed to say was, “folks, as you can see, there’s some weather, we’ll try to take off as soon as possible, but it may be some time.” Instead he repeatedly assured us that we were just “five minutes” from take-off. Finally, my wife asked one of the main cabin F/As if she believed that, and she just shrugged her shoulders…at least one crew member was honest!

Once en route to LGA the captain didn’t bother to inform us that we were in a holding pattern until we had been circling for over 45 minutes, and by that time it was obvious to all on board, including the 6 month old infant two rows behind me that we were being held. All the while, the Captain told us that we’d be cleared to approach “momentarily,” and then, just finally stopped providing updates to the cabin, and just flew us in circles in silence.

It bears mentioning that during the almost 2 hours on board from IAD to LGA, not once did Stephen get up, offer any service to the cabin, or even bother to make sure we were OK. When I checked out what he was doing, he was up front doing a book of Sudoku, sipping a soda.

While the weather most certainly delayed us to New York, words cannot describe how disgusted I am with the lack of service and professionalism shown throughout the process by every employee of American Airlines we interacted with that day. As a recent million-miler AAdvantage Platinum member, I have done a great deal of business with AA over the last 10 years. I have been quite the evangelist of your airline, your in-flight service, and the many benefits that AAdvantage elite status conveys. However, this experience has made me rethink my loyalty to “my” airline. I’ve always believed that AA was different from other airlines in its service, but this experience was so awful, so unacceptable, that perhaps UAL would be worth checking out.

I am requesting that you “refund” the 4 500-mile upgrades used for this flight, as we most certainly did not experience a “first-class” experience. As for making this situation right, I’m open to hearing how you plan on fixing our relationship.

Cordially,

Matthew Tarpy
AAdvantage (Platinum) XXXXXXX

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