Test Drive: American Airlines Shanghai to Chicago direct

Airline Travel in the United States

My wife and I recently returned from a week’s vacation in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. It could have been a perfect week in paradise had it not been for the shameful performance of American Airlines. As I recount the events of our trip home, I want to emphasize that none of the delays / mistakes had anything to do with Homeland Security or potential terrorist threats. It had everything to do with poor communication, lack of urgency, and reactive vs. proactive decision-making. If many people perceive that the airline industry doesn’t care, it is situations like this, that give merit to those perceptions.

Sunday, August 13th was a clear, hot, humid day in Tortola. My wife and I had flight reservations on American Eagle Flight AA5071; departure time 3:35 pm for San Juan, Puerto Rico. Unless Puerto Rico was home, you had a connecting flight out of San Juan to your final destination. In our case, we had the 5:53 American Flight AA0792 to Baltimore BWI. We felt comfortable that the 1 ½ hour lay-over in San Juan was sufficient to make our connecting flight.

We were aware that there was increased security at the airports following the August 10th arrest in England of terrorists plotting to bomb airplanes bound for the United States. With that in mind, we arrived at the Tortola Airport three hours before scheduled lift-off. We immediately saw that the airport was very busy. American Airlines had huge, long lines. We were not aware at the time, but they had cancelled their 1:00 flight, and two other flights were delayed (including ours.)
The line moved very slowly. There were only two employees working behind the counter and there was nothing in their actions or body language to indicate urgency. No quick movement; 3rd parties would come to the counter and the employees would have short conversations, smile and get back to their customers. It was easy for us to observe, we had three hours before our plane was scheduled to take-off. As we stood in line, we became aware that others were not as fortunate. It is troubling, the lack of empathy / sensitivity, the airlines show toward their customers. Regardless of the problem, “Get back in line, and we will deal with it when you get to the counter,” is the standard answer. Problem is, when you finally get to the counter, there is no willingness to deal with the problem.

After an hour and a half in line, we were able to check-in our luggage and get our boarding passes. As we were stepping away from the counter, my wife asked if the flight was on time and we were told that it was running 20 minutes late. The counter employee never thought it important to tell us that our flight was running late – knowing we had a connecting flight in San Juan! Still, that left a one-hour layover and we would probably be OK. Next, we moved to the security checkpoint and on to the waiting area for boarding. There, we found out that our flight had been delayed one hour. Time was now critical, most flights board approximately 30 minutes prior to take-off; our safety margin was gone. We also found out that we would have to collect our luggage and go through customs; then re-check our luggage with American prior to boarding the plane. Many of the passengers began cueing up at the check-in desk to get assurances that American was working on alternate plans, holding connecting flights, making arrangements to ensure passengers would not be stranded. The employee behind the counter was clearly overwhelmed. She announced the crowd in line that American Airlines was aware of the situation, and making adjustments for all connecting flights to ensure we would reach our final destinations. Some passengers wanted to believe that this was the case and sat down, others persisted to no avail.

American Flight AA5071 landed in Tortola at 4 pm and began boarding ten minutes later. Passengers hurried out to the plane in an attempt to speed the turn-around time; hoping to get the plane off the ground earlier rather than later. But it was not to be; we watched the baggage handler slowly load one bag at a time – walking back and forth to the baggage mover carrying one bag instead of two. We sat and watched, and when he was done, we sat and waited. We asked the stewards on-board what the hold-up was; explained the need to get to San Juan for our connecting flights. But Flight AA5071 was being held to see if there were any passengers to fill vacant seats. So we waited, and at 4:45 we began take-off for San Juan, Puerto Rico.
During the flight, many passengers tired to get updated information about connecting flights and gate number for flights, but the flight crew was unable to get any information. All passengers had to go through customs, pick up their luggage, take their luggage through customs, then recheck their luggage with their connecting flights before boarding. Given the time remaining, I would have to accomplish this in thirty minutes or less.

When the plane landed, we raced through the airport to customs, completed the necessary paperwork and moved through to baggage claim. My wife tried to leave the area to speak to an American Airlines representative; to see if flights were being held or alternative arrangements made. None of the passengers could do this until they had picked up all of their luggage; so again we waited on American Airlines. It was thirty minutes before the first bags showed on the revolving carousel. There was no-one from American Airlines in the area, passengers could only wait and hope that something was being done behind the scenes. After we got our bags, we were able to get through customs quickly to cue up in a line at the American Airlines service desk. It quickly became clear, that no advance preparation had been done. There were three employees working the desk, every passenger had to explain their circumstances before possible solutions could begin. In our case, the employee was happy to book us on a flight to BWI leaving Monday at noon – arriving approximately 4 p.m. at BWI. We explained that we had to get back Sunday night; both of us had to be at work Monday morning. No flights were available. We had to suggest checking flights to other airports with connecting flights to BWI – any method possible that would get us back to the area in time. We were willing to fly all night if there was a way to achieve this goal. Nothing was available. After repeated attempts to find combinations that would get us home – the employee offers that there is a flight leaving San Juan in 1 ½ hours for Miami that she could get us on. She cut us a ticket (no seat numbers), and we were on our way.

I would like to make a couple of observations at this point. Clearly, American Airlines was dealing with a difficult situation, but they did nothing to minimize the impact on their passengers. They had at least three hours to plan and react to everything that was happening. They had the ability to see how many passengers would be impacted by these delays. They could have looked for / booked connections where available to get passengers on their way. They could have had representatives in customs talking to passengers – letting some know that while they may be getting home later than planned – they would be getting home that night. They could have prioritized passengers; those that had a chance to move on could have been called aside and expedited on. A representative could have met with us and explained that there was no way to get us home tonight and explained what they were prepared to do and options available. Passengers may have been upset, but would have seen that they were trying to help. The employees behind the counters were not empowered; they had long-since run out of compassion. While I think the quality of their service personnel needs improving; I place the blame on the leadership at American Airlines.

The flight to Miami was uneventful. I had hoped that when we landed at 10:30 p.m. we would have a chance of booking a flight on to BWI. I wasn’t sure if American Airlines had checked other available airlines – and frankly, counter assistance at AA failed to convince us that they were trying everything possible. Upon landing, we were directed to a carousel for baggage claim. Sadly, as bad as things were, they were about to get worse. Miami has many luggage carousels but on August 13th, they chose to load 4 flights onto the same carousel. Assuming the average plane holds 50 passengers – you have 200 people trying to get luggage from one single carousel!
The American Airlines representative was overwhelmed. The luggage carousel was full of luggage that continued to go around and around; because passengers couldn’t get to their luggage, the carousel wasn’t emptying so no more luggage was being placed on the carousel. Wouldn’t it have made more sense to place one flights luggage on the carousel at a time; or better yet USE ALL OF THE CAROUSELS THAT WERE AVAILABLE!! The AA representative, unable to deal with the mess; simply walked away. In his absence, passengers moved into the roped off area attempting to find their bags. At one point, the desk phone rang and my wife answered. She told the caller that it was chaos and AA needed to get some people down here to organize and assist. The caller hung up. After 40 minutes the representative returned and announced that our flights luggage was being sent to another carousel. We were directed to the other side of the terminal. At first I was happy until I realized that the carousel we were directed to already had five flights queued up on it. More chaos. The American representatives, there were two, stood behind their podium and stared at their computer monitor – desperately trying to be invisible. They were no use to the passengers at all. The passengers however, began working together –pulling luggage off the carousel and passing it over the crowd to owner. As the belt emptied, I had to go to the two representatives and ask them to call someone and let them know to put something on the carousel. Over the course of 15 minutes, the carousel jammed and stopped five times – the representatives never looked up / never reacted. Useless. It took us 1 ½ hours to claim our luggage and there was a lot of people there when we left. It was well after mid-night; we were exhausted. We never checked on other flights, we got AA to give us complementary hotel reservations and called it a day. At 1 a.m. we were calling business associates to make alternative arrangements for work on Monday.

Our flight on Monday had some minor irritations – more indications of an Airline industry with unprofessional, poorly trained personnel. By 2 p.m. we were on the ground at BWI heading for our car. The nightmare was finally over

I’m not writing this seeking an apology from American Airlines. I will tell you that I will never fly American Airlines again. If they are the only airlines servicing my destination, I will either drive, boat, walk or swim before considering American Airlines. There is a huge disconnect between the company perception / advertising and the real-world experience that passengers endure every day. Mine was not an isolated occurrence; in the weeks since my flight I have heard numerous stories of shameful service by the airlines – many involving American. If a restaurant, retailer, business or politician performed as poorly – they would be out of business inside of a year. Airlines are convenient, a necessary evil, to get from point A to point B in a short amount of time. I’ve lost all sympathy for American Airlines and the airline industry in general. They buy, pay for, slick commercials promising service, timeliness and safety – they should invest that money in their people. Teach, train, empower, lead and innovate – let their passengers be their advertisement. Until then, they should be honest. They should tell you that if you expect anything more than arriving alive then you’re setting the bar too high.

Wayne Fish
August 2006