September 18, 2005 American Airlines Customer Relations P.O. Box 619612 MD 2400 DFW Airport, TX 75261-2603 RE: AA reservation number AAAAAA Dear American Airlines Representative: I am writing to complain about the utter failure of American Airlines to deliver my family to our ticketed destination within a reasonable time of our scheduled arrival. In route to Bonaire, our group of 4 left Atlanta for Miami on AA 2005 on Friday 8/5/05. In Miami, the flight attendants for the Miami-San Juan flight (AA 1700) didn't arrive at the gate until over an hour after our scheduled departure. By the time they had serviced the cabin and boarded the passengers, a thunderstorm shut down the ramp, so we sat for another hour before departing. Due to our 2 hour late arrival, we just missed the American Eagle San Juan - Bonaire flight (AA 5054). There were at least 16 passengers on our flight from Miami who were trying to make the Bonaire flight. I cannot understand why American Eagle did not hold the Bonaire flight for a few minutes for us, because it soon became very clear that AA/E had absolutely no alternative plan for getting us to Bonaire. We were directed to the AA service center to find out what our options were. The first thing the agent told us was that all AE flights to Bonaire were totally booked for the next few days, but AA had reserved seats for us on the Wednesday 8/10/05 flight – FIVE DAYS LATER! We were told that stand-by space might open up on earlier flights, but that there were already several names on the stand-by list ahead of us. The AA supervisor had the nerve to tell me what a wonderful city San Juan was and how much we would enjoy visiting! As I had pre-paid, non-refundable reservations at a rate of $414.00/night in Bonaire, I had no interest in waiting in Puerto Rico. I rejected the suggestion that we wait for five days in San Juan and asked for a better option. The next agent suggested that we fly to Aruba and then take the ferry to Bonaire. I told him that it would be a fine idea, but there is no ferry from Aruba to Bonaire! Then they suggested that we fly to Aruba and take BonairExpress to Bonaire. Unfortunately, AA/AE has no agreement or working relationship with BonairExpress at all. The AA agents in SJU couldn't make reservations and, indeed, could not even come up with a telephone number for BonairExpress. The choices we were offered were: a). stay in San Juan for five days (or hope to get four stand-by seats earlier); or b). go to Aruba and hope to get on a BonairExpress flight. I had no idea which was the right choice and the AA agents were certainly not providing any useful advice. So (for lack of a better suggestion) we agreed to fly AA to Aruba on Saturday 8/6/05 and AA agreed to put us up in the airport Best Western in San Juan for the night. I specifically asked for and was promised two rooms for the four of us (all adults), but when we finally dragged our luggage to the hotel, we learned that AA had only authorized one room. Going back to the AA service counter was not an option (I would have had to clear security and I had no boarding pass), so I had to pay for second hotel room ($151.20). We were back at the AA ticket counter early the next morning (Saturday 8/6/05). AA originally planned to fly us back to Miami en route to Aruba, but a very helpful AA agent named E. Torres found seats for us on a direct flight (AA 891) to Aruba. We flew to Aruba without incident and immediately went to the BonairExpress counter to buy tickets for the flight to Bonaire, but learned that all flights were completely booked for the rest of the week. The BE agent sold us tickets ($100 each, one way, cash only) that allowed us to stand-by. Three BE flights departed for Bonaire over the course of the day, but there was never any seats for us, even though I made it clear that we didn't all have to fly together. Seeking assistance from AA agent in Aruba for assistance yielded no results. She was very annoyed - not at us, but at the AA personnel in San Juan. She couldn't understand why the AA agents in San Juan kept sending stranded Bonaire-bound passengers to her in Aruba, where she was powerless to help. Some other Bonaire-bound passengers who had also been stranded by AA in Aruba actually elected to fly back to San Juan, where they hoped their stand-by chances might be better on American Eagle. Finally one seat was available on the last BE flight out, and I sent my oldest son to Bonaire. The rest of us spent the night at the Talk of the Town Hotel in Aruba ($145.08) then returned to the airport very early the next morning (Sunday 8/7/05). The BE agent told us that our names had been deleted from the stand-by list, and that there would not be seats for us to Bonaire on the morning flights, but agreed to route us to Curacao instead. In Curacao, we bought stand-by tickets on Divi Divi Air ($40.00 each) and eventually arrived in Bonaire on Sunday afternoon, two days after our scheduled arrival. I incurred substantial out-of-pocket expenses as a result of the failure of AA/AE to deliver us to our destination in a timely manner. When I requested compensation in San Juan, the AA agent insisted that our missed connection was “weather-related” and that AA bore no further responsibility beyond the $100 vouchers for future travel that we received. However, the true reason for the delayed arrival of AA 1700 in SJU was the failure of AA to provide a cabin crew, as confirmed in the attached document. My direct travel-related expenses are attached, with supporting receipts. I expect to receive a check for $ZZZ.ZZ before 11/1/05. You should note that this reimbursement does not begin to cover all of my expenses, including two days of non-refundable apartment rental and diving fees ($414 per day).. The problems with air travel to Bonaire relate to lack of redundancy and reserve capacity. A traveler who has the misfortune of missing a connection will likely have a long wait for an available seat. For that reason, I cannot understand why American Eagle was unwilling to hold that SJU-BON flight to allow the 16 passengers arriving on AA 1700 to make our connection. Both AA and AE personnel in San Juan knew with certainty that if we didn’t make that flight, that was no viable alternative plan for delivering us to Bonaire. When I raised this question in San Juan, the AA agent shrugged and said, “We have no control over American Eagle.” However, your promotional materials portray AA and AE as a seamless web. Perhaps AA needs to exert a little more influence over American Eagle. This sort of incident leaves AA looking very customer-unfriendly indeed. I have described our problems with AA and travel to Bonaire on several scuba diving and Caribbean travel web sites. In the interest of fairness, I will also post your response to this letter on those sites. Sincerely,
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