No cat photos today, I'm afraid. I haven't been around too much and haven't taken any cat photos in quite a while. I did change the quotation of the week though.
I think I'm finally ready to tell my airline story, after getting some inspiration from this USA Today article about travellers up in arms from delays. My experience wasn't quite as bad as some of those in the story, but it was certainly irritating to me.
I originally planned to leave Denver on December 20, the day of the big blizzard. When my ride and I left Laramie, the weather was a bit snowy, but not too bad. We had driven through worse.
But it did start to get worse. The snow was blowing, lowering visibility. It was also beginning to stick to the interstate. Finally, about 2/3 of the way to Cheyenne, I got an automatic message that my flight had been cancelled.
When we got to Cheyenne, I immediately started calling to find a replacement flight. I'm convinced my early response is the only reason I managed to get out before Christmas. I managed to secure a replacement seat on American Airllines, who all my flights were through, on December 23. I'd like to make clear that this was an existing flight. It was not one originally scheduled for the time when the airport was closed—those were all cancelled rather than rescheduled.
On the 23rd, a Saturday, I got to the airport well ahead of when I needed to be there. I was happy to learn that my replacement seats were first class. This made it possible for me to speed through security quite nicely. At this point, I was happy to be flying American Airlines—it had treated me well.
Then, the plane was late. By about an hour.
While the delay was unfortunate, it wasn't a deal-breaker at the time. I understand that planes are late from time to time. I'm not the most seasoned traveller, but it does happen. The problem was that when my plane got to Houston, there were no more flights to New Orleans. (There actually was one, but there were many, many people on the standby list—I was 27th.)
Here's where the problem comes up. The Airline, in its infinite wisdom, decided that it would not pay for the hotel cost. It did get me a "distressed traveller" rate, but I suspect that didn't cost the airline anything. It probably had a deal with the hotel to send people its way. It cost me $50 for a night in a hotel, which doesn't seem like that much of a deal.
Here's my problem: American Airlines should have paid for my hotel. First, remember that this flight was a regularly scheduled flight, not one that was pushed back because of the blizzard. While security may have been a nightmare at the Denver airport and the flights were more full, I don't believe American Airlines added more flights to compensate. Second, I don't care much why I didn't get to New Orleans on time. The deal is that I give money and they get me there on schedule. Things happen to delay flights, and I understand that. But there's no reason I should have to bear the harm. This brings me to my third point, that the airline is better able to spread the cost than I am. To me, $50 is a pretty high amount. To an airline, a thirty-four-cent increase on each ticket on a packed Boeing 737-700 flight would have been enough to recoup the hotel cost. There were other passengers in my position, but it doesn't add to the cost that drastically.
Finally, there's the biggest reason American Airlines should have paid for my hotel: it's just good business practice. I had a very negative experience, and I now will avoid American Airlines. The company has made a business decision that it will refuse to pay costs like my hotel room. I'm sure whoever developed that policy believes it will make money in the long run. I disagree. At this point, the company has lost someone who could have been a good customer. If I had been treated well, I might prefer to give it my business over other companies. How many tickets did it lose from me? And how much profit does that amount to? I suspect it wouldn't take much to recoup the $50 expense I was asking for. The company has the right to make that business decision, but as a consumer, I have the right to vote with my wallet. I don't personally dislike the company, but I'd rather throw my business toward someone who might treat me better.
By way of an epilogue, American Airlines' customer service eventually called me. The agent refused to give me any concessions, as company policy required, I'm sure. I was firm in explaining my position and told her several times that I wasn't mad at her, personally, but that the company had made a poor choice that was going to lose a customer. I don't think she was satisfied with this position, but it really didn't leave much to discuss. We agreed to disagree.
So that's my little holiday drama. And that's why I will avoid flying American Airlines from this point on. It may be that other airlines have similar policies around payment. I hope I never find out.
